What is the trend on liberal sites? Is it the same?
See posts and
299 and
314. The Liberal sites have had worse losses in the percentage of total Internet users who visit their sites (also called "reach") during the past 3 Months. And the big conservative Blogs' (other than Red State) reach is down about the same as DU or Daily Kos, but more than Moveon.org and Huffington Post.
Moreover, ALL major U.S. news sites appear to be down in the last 3 months. Free Republic's reach losses are almost identical to the New York Times, CNN, the Houston Chronicle, and Fark. On the other hand, YouTube and the social networking sites' reach is up, and major foreign news sources are down a less than their U.S. counterparts. The U.S. elections and their aftermath probably drove a little more traffic to the U.S. sites three months ago.
There does need to be caution when using these Alexa numbers, in part because they only measure those who download the Alexa toolbar, and in part because reach can fall while the number of visitors increases as more people surf the web. Also, Alexa measures worldwide users. While the U.S. Internet market is fairly mature, as more foreigners get on the web, reach for U.S. sites might fall.
That is why, like Kristinn, I'm skeptical of Bob J's premise. Whatever is happening to conservative websites appears to be happening to liberal ones as well. The recent fall might just be due to election fatigue and the availability of newer websites like YouTube and Facebook that vie for people's limited Internet surfing time.
I do agree with other posters that the dialog level here needs to be picked up a bit. But it doesn't seem to be driving any more users away than it does at similar sites.
Also, it would be nice to have thumbs up/thumbs down/laugh/rolleyes buttons on comments to cut down on contentless "I agree"/"You're stupid"/"LOL" posts.
I absolutely can't stand those things (and things like avatars). Can you imagine the number of useless no text, thumbs up or roll eye comments we'd end up with were that to be added? This site would look as unprofessional as DU.
>>Also, it would be nice to have thumbs up/thumbs down/laugh/rolleyes buttons on comments to cut down on contentless "I agree"/"You're stupid"/"LOL" posts.
>I absolutely can't stand those things (and things like avatars). Can you imagine the number of useless no text, thumbs up or roll eye comments we'd end up with were that to be added? This site would look as unprofessional as DU.
You must have misunderstood. I'm not talking about adding them into the body of the comment, but as a way to "rate" each comment. So instead of typing a new comment saying "LOL!" You can hit the "rate as funny" button.
Worth repeating!!
See posts and 299 and 314. The Liberal sites have had worse losses in the percentage of total Internet users who visit their sites (also called "reach") during the past 3 Months. And the big conservative Blogs' (other than Red State) reach is down about the same as DU or Daily Kos, but more than Moveon.org and Huffington Post.
Moreover, ALL major U.S. news sites appear to be down in the last 3 months. Free Republic's reach losses are almost identical to the New York Times, CNN, the Houston Chronicle, and Fark. On the other hand, YouTube and the social networking sites' reach is up, and major foreign news sources are down a less than their U.S. counterparts. The U.S. elections and their aftermath probably drove a little more traffic to the U.S. sites three months ago.
There does need to be caution when using these Alexa numbers, in part because they only measure those who download the Alexa toolbar, and in part because reach can fall while the number of visitors increases as more people surf the web. Also, Alexa measures worldwide users. While the U.S. Internet market is fairly mature, as more foreigners get on the web, reach for U.S. sites might fall.