There are about 5000 people here maximum in any given week.

[LoZoccolo]

Usually less than that. The idea that someone would get paid to write annoying and uncompelling posts to an audience of 5000 people who have largely made up their minds already is laughable.

[beachmom]

1. How did you get the number 5,000? n/t

[LoZoccolo]

2. I cannot say, and that will be the last I talk about it. n/t

[JeffR]

22. If you cannot say for the reason I think you can't

then I'm really fucking disappointed with you. I hope I'm wrong, but I doubt if I am.

[liberaldemocrat7]

25. 5,000 people. Well considering most posts have a 10 to 1 read to reply ratio

and if a lot of posts have 500 or more reads you have about 50 posts and a lot done by the same people as replies. I don't believe more than about 1,000 people appear active on this site.

[LoZoccolo]

29. If you are correct about how I know...

...and it's somehow a bad thing to know about it (it's not), then what would give you the right to be disappointed in me, and not yourself as well? Wouldn't it be hypocritical of you to castigate me for knowing where to get that information, when you know where to get it too?

[JeffR]

30. You're the one adducing the number as credible

I simply don't believe it is.

[tammywammy]

31. Why don't you think it's credible? n/t

[JeffR]

32. If the source is what I think it is,

the number has an agenda behind it. It's propaganda, not data.

I allow for the possibility that I might be mistaking the source, however. That's why I qualify this with "If".

[LoZoccolo]

34. You're free to come up with a better one. n/t

[JeffR]

37. I'll pass

;)

[Viva_La_Revolution]

10. Admins here are pleasantly transparent with information...

unlike the * administration. :)

[welshTerrier2]

3. you may be right

most of the paid staff have been deployed to suck up to the big money boys on K street. probably only the lowly volunteer dweebs are sent here.

[mainegreen]

4. Even assuming that # for -posters- is true, it most certainly is not true for # of readers.

# of readers is much, much higher.

[Orangepeel]

5. especially when there are plenty of people who would gladly do it for free.(n/t)

[deadmessengers]

6. What now? n/t

Hmmm... where's that bunny/pancake picture...

[snowbear]

17. Is this the one?

Edit: oops. I can't get it to show up on the forum for some reason ~~~

[smalll]

21. I think the Zockster is "spot on" here (to use the requisite but annoying Britishism) -

I think the pancake bunny is more rightfully deserved for those people here who imagine paid trolls on this site. Pshaw. It is to laugh. Someday, perhaps, spam technology will develop to such a high point that they'll be able to create troll-bots. I can see a few bucks being spent on that. But since as all they can do now is generate emails about viagra and/or penis enlargement with a lot of extraneous random wordage and letterage, we're still far distant from the era of the troll-bot. Please people, no-one is being paid to sit here and write stuff.

[wyldwolf]

7. I can't decide if it's naivety or arrogance that makes one think...

...that if someone holds a minority view on DU, they must be getting paid to express it.

Check out this conversation I had last week with another DUer:

DUer: Do you get paid to propagandize for Clinton and the DLC?
Me: Why would you think that? Because I seem to have facts right in front of me, and you don't?
Duer: Partly. Normal posters don't have all the facts at their disposition.

[deadmessengers]

11. The sad thing is...

...we ALL have the facts at our disposition. Clearly, each and every person posting here has access to an Internet-connected PC. Thus, they have access to the repository of all knowledge - teh Google.

I can't tell you how many times I've seen utterly uninformed posts here that 30 seconds of prophylactic Googling would have corrected.

[CreekDog]

23. Wyld: I saw that exchange, it was astounding

[freesqueeze]

8. I'm not buying your number...

I know it's much higher.

I'm not saying why I know it's wrong and that's the last I'm saying about it.

[LoZoccolo]

9. Convince me. n/t

[GreenTea]

13. So with over a 105K user names...Over 100,000 never show up in a week?

I guess that would explain the over 30 million posts...(Not to mention the many who don't have user names who each week just check and read the posts, as I know many who do).

[On the Road]

14. For the Time DU has been in Existence,

5,000 active users would appear to be a reasonable estimate.

    30M posts
÷ 5,000 Active users
÷     6 years
÷    52 weeks/yr
÷     7 days/wk
=   2.7 posts/day/active user

Seems about right. Especially since the 100k includes lurkers and I believe banned posters.

[DemBones DemBones]

20. And sock puppets! Some people have had

several personas here, all of them eventually banned. One bragged somewhere else about how s/he was going to get back on for the fourth time.

It's always been my understanding that the number registered includes all that have ever registered and that those who are banned are not subtracted from that number. (Why are they banned instead of tombstoned now? I didn't get the memo.)

[Bjornsdotter]

12. Nice comeback

...I hate those cryptic "I know and I'm not telling how I know" messages.

Usually those people know jack.

Cheers

[freesqueeze]

15. That was meant as satirical

But you're right...I don't know Jack.

And I'm not saying why I don't know Jack.

That's the last I'm saying about it.

Mum's the word.

Loose lips...

[snowbear]

18. LOL....

You're too funny Bjornsdotter!

[illinoisprogressive]

16. but, that is the fun part of being here.

[tkmorris]

19. You're wrong on two levels

First of all the "audience" here is a lot bigger than merely the number of posters. A lot of people use this site as essentially read-only, and do not contribute to threads.

Furthermore paid forum posters do in fact post to sites with readership that small. When they do it's usually a cut and paste job thus they can put the same bullshit up in literally dozens of places at once. The best of em change the verbiage slightly from board to board to make it appear original.

[LoZoccolo]

28. The accusations I've seen of people being paid usually involve...

...long-term commitment to this board, with frequent and elaborate interaction.

At best, accusing someone like that of being paid is an excuse to not deal with what they say.

[CreekDog]

24. Hard to know if someone is paid or disrupting

They could just be expressing their own opinion.

However, on rare occasions (usually people about to get banned), you will see them bad mouthing a candidate in the primary and saying they will support a particular opponent. But then you find them trashing the opponent they were supporting in another thread without mention that they are supporting that candidate.

Then the tombstone happens.

I guess that's DU duplicity and it's fatal --in the DU sense.

[Totally Committed]

26. Maybe posting... but there are a hell of a lot more READING here...

and those are the ones the operatives are here to impress. And, they ARE here.

Just my opinion.

TC

[BootinUp]

27. You might be on to something

I have had similar thoughts myself. On the other hand during certain periods the number of lurkers probably goes much higher. I think a lot of people read without being registered or without posting.

[The Magistrate]

33. For The Record, Mr. LoZoccolo

Accusations that a member is a paid operative violate the rules of the forum, being a species of troll accusation. When alerted on, they will be removed.

[LoZoccolo]

35. Sure, and that's good.

But as you know, people will do all sorts of things to get around the rules. I'm just pointing out that it's silly to even think that. Especially since a lot of the one-shot smears and snarky comments against candidates wouldn't compel someone who was very set on that candidate to begin with.

[w4rma]

36. I won't say anything about the number 5,000, but the group of people that visit and read DU changes

constantly so it's not the same group, except for a percentage, who read DU each day. Most people aren't political junkies, but want to know enough about politics to understand what they can do to help their own agendas within their interest, time and abilities.

[Atmosphere]

38. ????

[stevedeshazer]

39. You make me laugh

Pay me.