Official Drudge Report Boycott Thread

[Sybeck1]

Due to bias shown by Matt Drudge I pledge to boycott the Drudge Report. Please pledge the same if you feel so inclined.

[lonestar]

I think the debate was more intelligent back then. Today there is less debate and more name calling...when people have different opinions.

There were some who everybody ganged up on back then. Ash comes to mind. LOL!

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

Mitt Romney is gay???

He's dating Drudge... Who's dating Coulter... Who's dating Bill Maher.

And they're all born-again Mormons.

[TigersEye]

No. But Drudge is a flaming liberal.

[true believer forever]

OH, THUHank You.

[TigersEye]

Way to go dumbasses!!!!!

The link to Free Republic is on his page and he never took it off, dumbass.
Gullible fool.

[lonestar]

OH, THUHank You.

When I finally figured out what this was about....

I literally LOL!

And still am!

[Fresh Wind]

It’s an oversimplification to use vague terms like “web page hits” (and I’m certainly guilty of that).

The business of measuring website activity and effectiveness has become very sophisticated, as you might find by browsing around on sites like www.quantcast.com, www.alexa.com, and others.

It is the metrics provided by services like these that Drudge uses to market his website’s services to advertisers.

The question is whether Drudge’s auto-refresh impacts the statistics provided by these services. From what I read here:

http://www.quantcast.com/learning-center/guides/how-to-read-our-reports

And here:

http://www.quantcast.com/learning-center/glossary

“Pageview – An instance of a page being loaded by browser.”

“Page visits – The total number of times a single web browser views a page.”

“Traffic - Quantcast can account for the following traffic statistics: People, Visits and Page-Views.”

So, yes, according to this, the auto-refresh will indeed pump up the statistics offered by Quantcast.

It’s no surprise that Drudge uses the website ranking provided by Quantcast (and others) on its marketing page:

http://www.intermarkets.net/advertisers/portfolio/news/drudgeReportAdvertising.html

So, even though implementing the auto-refresh is simple from the HTML standpoint, the overall picture is far more complex.

It this tactic “sneaky”? Yes, in my opinion. Is it unethical? Quite likely.

[giotto]

Yeah. FR is not the place it used to be.

[kgrif_Salinas]

Ditto. I think both Drudge and Coulter have lost it in their zeal for McRomney.

[M. Thatcher]

I think the debate was more intelligent back then.

Nah. Same mix of brilliance and lame as now.

[lonestar]

The brilliance was more brilliant...the lame was about the same. :)

[Theophilus]

I guess I stand corrected then. 2 points then:

1. Advertisers are too sophisticated to be fooled by refreshed views.
2. The refreshed view may still be valuable because it means that a Drudge user has left the browser on Drudge's page, implying that it continues to be periodically viewed in addition to new advertisements that load when the page reloads.

I disagree that there could be any sneaky or unethical about it. If everybody knows that the page auto refreshes and the truth speaks for itself, how can we say that Drudge is trying to deceive anyone about how popular his site is?

[Theophilus]

is it script set up such a way, so as not to cause problems in a browser which is not enabled for script?

I think that's right.

[Theophilus]

would still do better than McGovern in '72 and McMondale in '84.

The whole thing breaks by heart because I think Rush was wrong about the his idea that conservatism is winning. If Romney is nominated then the sum of his and Obama's votes indicate the strength of liberalism in America today.

[Fresh Wind]

1. Advertisers are too sophisticated to be fooled by refreshed views.

Some, certainly. Others not so much.

Maybe I don't visit the right sites, but Drudge's is the ONLY one where I have observed an automatic refresh of the entire page. If asked, Drudge would probably point out that because the content of the site is updated frequently, the refresh ensures that the site visitor sees the latest version.

Have newspapers ever overstated their circulation figures to entice advertisers? Of course they have. Have broadcasters ever packed their best offerings into "sweeps weeks"? Absolutely.

I suppose it's really not sneaky if everyone does stuff like that. Maybe "slimy" is a better term!

[jersey117]

Ironically, I was a crucified Perry/Newt supporter BEFORE it was popular to support either on FR. Then Perry quit and endorsed Newt. Now Newt is the favored candidate.

Same here. They all jumped on Perry AND Newt for their stance on immigration. Perry is everyone's hero now that he dropped out and supported Newt - yet no one would support PErry when he first entered the race leading the pack. I find it hard to whole heartedly support Newt now because of the unfairness shown to Perry on this site. I knew that bashing and eliminating Perry would lead to romney. And sure enough.... I wish Perry would unsuspend and take his millions and jump back in. That's how I feel and I don't care how unpopular it may be.

[lonestar]

I stick with my opinion that Perry is the most conservative of the lot!

I also think is was unfair how Perry's stance on immigration was misinterpreted.

The "heartless" people are going to love having Romney...then four more years of Obama!

We get what we deserve.

[Sybeck1]

Day 4

[ROCKLOBSTER]

Drudge Report Boycott

Instead of doing that, you should go to the comments sections of the articles he posts and enter disparaging remarks, er, I mean voice your opinions about Drudge there.