Saturday, June 29, 2013

Sweeps Week?

This is very unscientific but, I've never seen the numbers so high for the "now viewing" accounting of the Offbeat Forum.

It's usually a fairly consistent five hundred some very odd people. This would mean a dozen or so regular posters and their socks and four or five people just passing by.

Lately though you could double that number! In the mornings I have seen the count as high as 1200. I check in at lunch and it would be 600 to 700. Perhaps a hundred more at dinner. The odd thing though is there seems to be no corresponding increase in posting. Granted, it is not broken down that way but, there are no hot, fast moving threads creating interest in the forum. There is nothing new or exciting that would attract more posters now than in weeks, months or years past. So, why all the new viewers and why are they lurking instead of posting?

Were they waiting for Ferrerman to leave? I can't help but notice that the count increased when I left...

I'd be lying if I said that hurt. It doesn't make any sense either. You don't drive away one brilliant, provocative poster and double your readership the next day.

Well, maybe in Topixtown you do...

Most of life these days is the business of quantity instead of quality. Topix butters its stale buns with that quantity via nasty little forums all over the world. Click...click...clique...it all adds up. People tuning in each day to post stupid things to Ferrerman in hopes that he'll respond was one way of drumming up business. But, with Ferrer no longer posting and people long-since tired of the non-existent Clique and their bullshit and there being no way on God's green earth to improve Offbeat...you might as well fudge the numbers a bit. Why the hell not? Makes far more sense than the old business plan of letting *Sam* run it further into the ground.

Can you insure a message board and then have it accidentally catch fire?

19 comments:

AKA Hegel said...

I'd say the elevated numbers on Offbeat have nothing to do with actual people viewing. Generally summers (and weekends especially) are much slower, so it's pretty easy to figure out that they're lying. Wow, Topix lying.... Who'da thunk it?

It's a shit-hole of a place and the people who run it couldn't be more proud of that fact. Hell, we've caught TM8 lying how many times now? Too many to count.

If anyone doubts that they're hoping to make the place as shitty as it possibly can be, just look at who the mods spend most of their time protecting. Pure class;)

ex-ferrer said...

Exactly! Look what happened to the Main Forum when you left! It is down to dozens of people- and that might be inflated numbers! It might really be two...

AKA Hegel said...

The main forum can supposedly have over 80 viewers (way lower than a year ago) but no one posting for up to 45 minutes at times. I'm sure there are some who leave Topix open on a tab or whatever but that many? LOL It's a joke.

I had a look today and saw nothing has changed. Sam was making polls and threads about you apropos of nothing except to say you won't leave him alone (and you weren't posting). Kevin is flaming BRG after trolling there first and then denying it. Wouldn't be a Saturday without that happening! He must be someone's special, special boy;)


ex-ferrer said...

LOL! Well, it got them all that far! Nothing succeeds like excess!

Barbi said...


Well, it appears your blog is being subjected to a good, old fashioned book burning courtesy Topix!
(for the dullards reading, a book burning is historically considered the most extreme form of censorship)
Ferrerman, you have been censored! May I present you a badge of honor?
If they can't ban 'em, censor 'em. Right?
Yes, I tried to post a link to your blog this morning on the main forum. It was only to warn other posters to beware of the SNS moderator. What caught my eye is no meanie judgeits attacked my post. My post showed up on my profile list, and was numbered, too. But it never appeared on the thread.
So, I reposted, being careful to leave out the link to your blog. The post then appeared.
So, we now we have a new clause in TOS: It's OK for Kevin to troll the BRG thread if we discuss DUIs, but it's NOT OK to post a link to Ferrerman's blog.
Speaking of trolls, a gray box popped up claiming I'm a drunk driver and scum. As I write this at 5:30 p.m., the post is still there. I guess the Saturday moderator thought that was appropriate punishment for me not posting for a week?
Again, Ferrerman - great job!

ex-ferrer said...

Well, let me say this about that:

Then it don't matter. I'll be all around in the dark - I'll be everywhere. Wherever you can look - wherever there's a fight, so good people can post, I'll be there. Wherever there's a 'tard beatin' up a guy, I'll be there. I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad. I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry and they know supper's ready, and when the people are postin' the stuff they write and postin' in the threads they build - I'll be there, too.

AKA Hegel said...

And THAT is why your blog frustrates certain people so much: they can't control it. Here, anyway. (winkyface)

But if they whine about it enough, even though they've never read it or have any desire to read it ...... to a *cough*moderator*cough* who also claims it's never read it or has any desire to read it (WOW...coinkydink!).....then somehow it will become verboten to mention it on Topix. It's like.....MAGIC!

I don't know guys; it's pretty tough to figure out how that all works, don't you think? What would happen if they actually read the blog and cared?


I'll bet they'd get in their little gray box and really let you have it, Ferrerman!

LOLOLOLOL

Topix@wikileaks said...

To add to Barbies comment... concerning the BRG thread, I've also witnessed the 'lack of' inspired deleting when it comes to weekends. And like Barbi, I've also run into censorship.


My post contained a link to the Ferrerman blog too. I could see it on the thread (you know, when it's in the Que, before they give it a number)...Then I return a little later to find these other posts - but mine isn't among them. Thats when I discovered that it wasn't even on my 'unseen' profile. Never have I posted where it showed up ON the thread, but NOT on the profile. Even on a deleted comment. Or one that was swallowed. I went back, and unlike Barbi's comment, there was no missing number. Deleted before it ever was registered as a comment.

Obviously this one had mod intervention written all over it. And if it's mod-8, I have to say I'm very disappointed in her. She'd been fair in the past; ridding our thread of the obvious sycophant and his minions.

^ ^ ^

Despite his insistance to the contrary, we all know Kevin Knopp takes topix very seriously. Near 90,000 comments on one account? Whose kidding who. And IRL, he's only got 7 followers on Twitter. Tears of a clown?? Go ahead, check it out for yourself before he pulls the account. Or ask me, I have screen shots. No wonder he takes Topix so seriously. Only friends he's got...and how small is that list now? Poor Half Pint. Just doesn't know how to play well with others

Pop corn anyone?

ex-ferrer said...

Twitter? Really? Kevin really puts the twit in twitter!

Yep, I tried to post a link too- strictly to test the waters. My post with blog link never had a chance...

Anonymous said...

It's the new inflation. It must be quite a multiplication factor for each viewer (let alone the multiple accounts and the methods that evidently can be used to have more than one active at a time).

Of course someone could have been blowing smoke, but over a year ago I did read some theory about the high viewer numbers and the way Topix has their servers connected. << shrug >>

Two or three Fridays ago, I replied to Rubygoober and that reply got deleted. I *think* she posted a story about a suicide after social media interaction. I had in mind the Offbeat lynch mob(s) as I replied:

Copied from the 10 most recent posts on my profile page:

I skimmed that story earlier. Sad indeed. That's the tragic worse of it. Yup, all sorts of nefarious stuff can happen on social networks; especially when juvenile-minded folk mob up covertly for monitoring, scheming, coordinating, etc., etc. I suppose it is the only method of thriving in the medium for them. (Friday | post #15048)

Certainly is conjecture on which tribe of Flying Monkeys was responsible for the deletion.

Deer Whisperer/Luke

ex-ferrer said...

Excellent comment, DW. I don't know what's so wrong with a level playing field.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Topix@wikileaks said...
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Anonymous said...

It looks like the comment I left this morning about being able to post in here without being judged, deleted or trolled got deleted!
*shakes head*
:(

ex-ferrer said...

Yep. I hit the wrong button, Anonymous. Sorry. You can make it again. ;)

Anonymous said...


Very interesting - you've hit a soar spot with the Mods. They're shadow banning accounts that mention your blog. Maybe it's time to start thinking about getting a photo account that permanently leaves up screen shots.

I suppose it's 'allegedly' a mod's duty, first and foremost, to protect Chris Tolles CEO of Topix.com. But one has to wonder why he's 'allegedly' instructing those under him to cook the books to began with. Could Topix.com be an 'allegedly' troubled company in search of advertising revenue by any means necessary? Hell, even Chris Tolles 'allegedly' can't stand his company if his lack of personal comments account for anything; not to mention the deleted posts they appear in - free speech ????

Hmmmm, the very actions he condones and encourages by allowing mass trolling on Topix.com, seems to suggest otherwise

http://www.topix.com/member/profile/tolles

Don't worry Chris, we've 'allegedly' got screen shots. And that oh so scruffy just rolled out of bed look your sporting? It's to aging hipsters what pony tails are to aging boomers. Dated and sad. Ask Kevin Knopp. He may be 'allegedly' short on ambition, outside of the 90 thousand plus topix comments - not to mention socks and proxies.... but 'allegedly' tall enough to be able to pass height restrictions for the big kid rides at Disneyland.

Anonymous said...

*waves to Persephones 'friend'*
( the one who reads this blog for her) heehee

Give her a message for me.

Tell that alcoholic, with 3 DUIs, to stay off the roads before she kills someone.

Anonymous said...

OMG.The numbers in the Offbeat forum are total bullshit.

When I first went there this morning--235
Fourty five minutes later--1,738

Who the fuck are they kidding?!

ex-ferrer said...

I took a look. Golly- me not posting was the best thing to ever happen to them! Now that Offbeat is Ferrerman Free, throngs of people are flocking to lurk! People aren't leaving- they are coming all over the place in excitement!