Who reads FR? [FReepathon thread 9.6]

Conservapedia-An Illustrated Guide ^ | Jan 18, 2011

[bezelbub]

At www.freerepublic.com, we find the question Who reads FR? to be answered in the following way:

Over 300,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic since inception in 1996 and our forum is read daily by over one hundred thousand freedom loving citizens and patriots from all around the country, and all around the world. We're currently delivering over thirty million pageviews per month to over one million visitors.

This number of 300,000 users is sometimes quoted (i.e., "On one conservative Web site, Freerepublic.com, some of the site's 300,000 registered users have recently used discussion threads to encourage votes for Bristol." - www.people.com), and adorns the front page of freerepublic since Dec 2008 (waybackmachine.com).
But it was wrong then - and it is still wrong now.

So, why aren't there 300,000 freepers?

When registering for posting privileges, any user gets an identification number. The user normally doesn't see this ID, it is only used for internal purposes. Jim Robinson got the number 1, the number 100,000 is taken by The 100,000th FReeper! Unfortunately, these consecutive numbers seem to have been assigned at the beginning of the registration process, not after a successful creation of an account. So each failed try to register increased the used ids, but not the number of accounts. Both numbers diverged pretty fast, but the bug wasn't mended until Feb 2010, when the new mile-stone of 350,000 attempted registrations arrived. By then, the two numbers differed by roughly 100,000. In fact, when freerepublic announced to have 300,000 registered users for the first time ind Dec 2008, the number really was closer to 230,000 - and today, it is less than 270,000.

And what has been done about it?

The way the powers-to-be have chosen to get the numbers right is obvious: they wait for the reality to fit the stated fact. The number of created accounts wasn't updated for two years, and probably won't be changed for another two years, until the number of registered freepers meets the announcement on the front page.

Just for the record: I think that the number of pageviews and visitors are correct. And I doubt that the makers of the site willingly inflated the numbers of created accounts. It seems to be just an honest mistake, and an easy one to make. But when they found the bug, wouldn't it have been the right thing to change the number, as they knew that it was false?

[bezelbub]

That really is kind of a side diversion as the main problem I have with your analysis is how you came up with the 28% variance in registrations and membership.

1. Just by looking at the IDs and by counting valid accounts.
2. John Robinson should be able to check the numbers with ease. In fact, I'd rather appreciate if he takes his time for this task: it should be a simply query on Freerepublic's database.

[DJ MacWoW]

What’s your point? This is NOT something that’s important. It’s simply a nonsense point of contention.

[mnehring]

Just by looking at the IDs and by counting valid accounts.

Wow, how sad for you. I would suggest seeing someone for your OCD issues.

[mnehring]

I agree, and a major waste of time if they manually counted accounts as they claim. It would really suck for them if JR changed how the IDs populate somewhere mid stream, thus, making all that time spent even more of a waste.

[humblegunner]

The issue remains.. why is this number so important to you?

[DJ MacWoW]

This non-issue matters not a whit to FR’s popularity. Simply sounds like someone nattering for attention.

[Rightly Biased]

You are being very patient...

Like I said at the top of the thread

he is going to make the number drop to
299,999
And I don’t really care if he does.

[bezelbub]

The issue remains.. why is this number so important to you?

The number is important enough to be featured on the main page of freerepublic.com - shouldn't it be correct?

[mnehring]

Simply sounds like someone nattering for attention.

Yep.. there was a guy over at one of the anti-sites who had a similar obsession over fundraisers keeping charts and graphs for how much time each took and the donations day by day, jumping up and down if something took an hour or a day longer than before.. it was really sad to watch his obsession and how he kept posting it as though anyone cared beyond his little circle.

The numbers that really count in my opinion, are not number of Freepers but number of external views (that, according to all external analysis websites, reach into the millions per day). That shows influence.

[mnehring]

The number on the front page is just a nice round number and is close enough for marketing purposes. Technically, it is accurate even based on your own analysis because the only quantifible number one has to go on is member number. Everything else is assumptions. You really need a life.

[Jim Robinson]

Well, that’s all well and good, but I repeat, who cares? The inactive accounts are people who registered screen names but never activated their accounts. Don’t know if he still does it or not, but John used to purge the unactivated accounts after a month or so. We still have somewhere in the general neighborhood of 300,000 registered screen names. Whatever the number of registered screen names, it’s my guess that there has been considerable interest in what the FReepers have to say.

Freedom’s just another word for nothing’ left to lose:
Nothin’ left is all she left for me.
Feeling good was easy, Lord, when Bobby sang the blues.
Buddy, that was good enough for me;
Good enough for me and Bobby McGee.

La da da la la na na na
La da da na na.
La la la da, Me and Bobby McGee.
La la la la la da da da
La la la da da.
La la la da, Me and Bobby McGee.

La la la la la na na na
La la la da da.
La da da da, Me and Bobby McGee.
La la la la la da da da.................

[mnehring]

John used to purge the unactivated accounts after a month or so.

LOL, there is the big oops to all that time the OP put into counting accounts... I wonder how many wasted hours of counting that just shot down?

[humblegunner]

I’m not sure if Pablo is happy about being displaced.

Pablo is cool with it.

He is supportive as well as wily.

[caww]

lalalalala ...just donated....good enough for me!

[Jim Robinson]

Besides, we got more important things to worry about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45-6duFvfuI&NR=1

[wagglebee]

Nope, this is the worst:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd_Fdly3rX8

[Jim Robinson]

Thank you very much, caww!!

Woo hoo!!

And we have incoming:

$100.00 from Never Never Land
$20.00 from Pennsylvania
$10.00 from Never Never Land
$10.00 from Colorado
$50.00 from California

Thank you all very much!!

[dayglored]

> John Robinson should be able to check the numbers with ease. In fact, I'd rather appreciate if he takes his time for this task...

You've got to be kidding.

John maintains this site, keeping it running, improving it, dealing with issues around the clock...

I'm the director of system administration for a software company whose offices span the globe and operate 24/7, and I have some appreciation for what John is doing, in fairly decent detail.

I wouldn't want him spending even 3 milliseconds counting up numbers like that. Who bloody cares, except as an estimate? "About 300,000" is fine with me, and I suggest you re-arrange your priorities so that it's fine with you, too.

"Take his time for this task"... geez, you must be a riot at parties.

[BlueDragon]

ding ding ding,

we have a winner, uh, a loser, uh the champion(est) of lousyess

Sorry Mr. Jacks, if you're out there somewhere...

[Doogle]

"he's just one of those European types"...wait anybody feel that?"