Business Model

Let's face it: conflict sells. You don't watch the local news to hear and see how wonderful things are in your city. They'll do stories about that but, if it bleeds it leads is the local affiliate mantra.

It's the same with Topix, whose business model I recently pointed out is assholes. They're in the asshole business. They are all about assholes, specifically the care and feeding of assholes. THEY LOVE ASSHOLES!

That's not really a secret. Though there is a social aspect to the threads on Topix where people spend an inordinate amount of time exchanging pleasantries, even those threads are doing it as a formality. They give niceness a perfunctory ol' college try to get it out of the way so they can get to fighting. It's human nature, I guess and, it's what pays the bills at Topix.

Though I wouldn't be too surprised to learn that Topix employs paid posters, I doubt they need to. There are billions of people in the world and maybe half have internet access? Conservatively, how  many millions are assholes? You don't have to pay people to be assholes. They'll generally do it for free. On Topix or similar chat rooms/message boards that don't screen people, one finds out pretty quick that assholes are welcome. The more the merrier. When you post on Topix you might quickly notice the abundance of assholes. This could be a turn-off or it could feel like a huge, family reunion.

Elsewhere on the internet, I'm sure there are paid posters drumming up conversation for political parties or other agenda-driven political entities. Duh! Rush Limbaugh and shows like his have fake callers with prepared questions phoning in. Rush doesn't want anyone mucking up his agenda. In a way, aside from control it's,  well, control. I kinda understand that. Idiots love to grieve the president about reading prepared speeches off the teleprompter but, the reason he does this is so he doesn't sound like GW Bush. Thus, when a politician is doing a *town hall* type presentation, s/he's winging it with screened questions from pre-chosen people. Again- so they don't sound like Bush. So-called *reality TV* is scripted as much as possible too because, it makes people more interesting than they really are, or at least more articulate. Control.

So, no one is being paid to post on Topix. The lifers like Kevin, Sam, A770 and others just do it because, well, that's what assholes do. Topix loves them because they are good for business. And, since they work for free, the price is right! Individually they each make several hundred posts every day, most of the provocative variety. They literally provoke people by...wait for it...being assholes! Other assholes see them posting and feel a kindred soul attraction. It's like they belong to a fraternity or, a clique... Most any of the Forums are like asshole conventions these days, particularly the political ones. For advertising purposes, a post saying: "Obummer sux!" counts just as much as a finely crafted Ferrerman-type post that is actually about politics. Topix doesn't care a bit about quality- just quantity. Quantity pays the bills.

To that end, they do coddle the assholes because the assholes bring quantity. They give the assholes a lot of rope, moreso than they give folks like me. For example, Sam has a history of frequently posting my real life name whenever I've so out-witted him that he gets mad. That happens a lot. I complain and, using every minute of three business days, Topix very often sometimes removes the posts, long after the damage has been done. Sometimes, it's very easy to track someone when they are following you. It helps if, like Sam, they aren't very smart. While it's offensive to me that Topix would protect an asshole like Sam, I do get the part where they have to look after each other. There is safety in numbers in the asshole community and, a vested interest in combating non-assholes.  Especially the assholes like me who don't post enough to keep Topix in the lifestyle they've become accustomed to...

We're out-numbered folks. It's us against them. At least Topix keeps them in one convenient location where they can be ignored as necessary. Some of you folks now know exactly what you're missing. You're welcome!