Does the FreeRepublic freep itself?

[Old and In the Way]

According to Alexa, they are ranked around 1850, we're in at 4650. I doubt sincerely that they have anywhere near that level of hits. I don't think there are nearly as many threads there as we have posted here for one thing. And when I do click on the occaisional link from here, I see the same people posting there.

Granted, it could be just a lot of readers, but how many interesting threads are started there? Surely, people don't click on there to read the redundant one-line comments that are posted.....so,

I wonder if FreeRepublic freeps itself?

[oasis]

1. Nimrob has his whole family posting just to keep funds coming in from

ads and the few dunces that do contribute. It caused Granny Nimrob to her job as Walmart greeter due to lack of sleep.

[Lefty48197]

10. What? You say there's a job opening at Walmart? Gotta run...

.

[Hugin]

2. Interesting postulation...

Hmm...

They fixed three elections... Check.
They constantly rig online polls... Check.
They had Jeff "The Fake" Gannon as a poster... Check.
and so on and on.

I'm guessing... HECK YEAH THEY DO!

How's about them apples.

[Hugin]

5. As an aside...

I'm constantly amazed noone at DU has ever
mentioned software to ping links.

I know it exists...

Does anyone here use it?

Do the freepers use it? (I'm betting so.)

[Old and In the Way]

12. What's the purpose of pinging links?

So you can direct your buddies to a certain thread? I do get a kick out of the pinging they do at FR....it's like a firebell going off when someone posts the truth.

I just don't see how they can be this popular as the stat's indicate. If the public is generally 50/50 on politics, there's no way they can be 3X more popular than DU. Granted, posters here are probably helping their hit #s by linking to their threads. It would be interesting to see how much of their traffic is generated by posters here. Maybe we should have a moratorium on FR thread links here and see how that affects their ratings.

[Hugin]

14. What I mean by pinging...

I'm sure there's a word out there for what I'm
talking about.

What I mean is to set up outside computers to automatically
and repeatedly request a certain link or vote a
certain way on a poll unsupervised.

Like a DOS attack except with the purpose of
influencing information gathering.

I'm certain there is some amount of this
going on.

It's an extension of what Eric Alterman calls,
"Working the refs."

[Old and In the Way]

16. OK, that's what I think to.

I'm sure that it would be an automated process.

Love to see an analysis on their hits.....

[Hugin]

18. I've often contemplated...

Making up a program to do these things.

But, unfortunately, I have ethics and
moral values.

That's what stops me. If I stoop to
their methods. I've become one of them.

I'm more interested in the truth.

I have nothing to sell and because I
have a clear conscience. What I say is
supported by the facts and not propaganda.

[Lisabtrucking]

6. lol, good one. n/t

[Hissyspit]

3. I hope so. It would make sense that they would have to f**k themselves...

Poetic Justice.

[alittlelark]

4. Perhaps they are 'Frucking' themselves.

[tcfrogs]

7. Hee hee!

That's a good one! :bounce:

[paineinthearse]

8. I'm no geek but...

If e-voting machines can be hacked, why not the website hit counters?

Alternatively, I bet it's possible to create some bot to "hit" certain sites to increase the count.

It ain't the number of hits, it's the quality of the information therein.

[jdj]

20. this site says it's "fairly easy" to boost the Alexa rank

http://www.internet-search-engines-faq.com/alexa.shtml

What is an Alexa Traffic Rank?


Alexa is a subsidiary of Amazon.com which ranks web sites based upon actual user traffic to those sites.

User traffic is monitored using the The Alexa Toolbar.

Users voluntarily download and install the Alex Toolbar because includes a Popup Manager and Google Search, and also displays Site Info, Alexa Traffic Rank, and Related Links.

Hudson Scripting provides an Alexa Ranking tool which will display the Alexa Traffic Rank of many web sites simultaneously.

Understanding Alexa Traffic Ranks
In Alexa Traffic Ranks, a lower number is better. The number 1 site receives more Alexa-monitored traffic than any other web site on the Internet. The number 50,000 site receives more traffic than the number 75,000 site.

The #1 position in Alexa is currently held by Yahoo.com.

Boosting your Alexa Traffic Rank
It is fairly easy to artificially boost your Alexa Traffic Rank by installing the Alex Toolbar and browsing your site extensively. Doing this on a regular basis can get your web site an Alexa Traffic Rank near 100,000.

Alexa Traffic Ranks above 100,000 are not considered reliable because of this fact

[Hugin]

21. Interesting!

Jeff "The Faker" Gannon was claiming an Alexa score
of somewhere in the 700,000... Way below the 100,000
achievable by "browsing your (own) site extensively."

He needs to read his own crap more.

[EST]

22. From my reading of news and things, internet,

This is a very common practice. There are a number of crooked "geeks" doing time right now for setting up false thumpers to increase hit numbers on their sites, and, generally, the site sponsors pay based on the hit ratio.
For a lot of weevil brains, this seems to be a fool proof, win-win set up for themselves, but that dodge has been used so many times that any sort of sophisticated sponsor has the tools to detect such fraud. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch(TANSTAAFL)

[theorist]

9. I remember the DU admins addressing this question.

If I'm not mistaken, it has to do with the sloppy ways they archive their "threads" (and I'm using that term liberally). :evilgrin:

[Eric J in MN]

11. Their threads show up in search enginges more because

they don't archive them, was my understanding.

[CatholicEdHead]

19. That's about the only way

to find them with relevent topics you are looking for. The interface is HORRIBLE.

[mattclearing]

13. It's possible, but I think they are a bigger site.

After all, Republicans are a more tight-knit group than Democrats. They feel left out of the process. They've only really had the majority sewn up for the last few years.

That's why Rush and his ilk still try to paint them as outsiders, which is kinda ludicrous, but there is a dearth of conservative points of view on mainstream TV outside of the news, mainly because it is boring.

Conservative art is an oxy moron. For the same reason that Christian Rock sucks, so would conservative television and movies. It fails to provoke, only to re-inforce pre-existing beliefs and the status quo.

Even Mel Gibson had to make his ultra-stupid Passion of the Christ ultra-violent and somewhat insulting to Jewish people to get any attention for what, by all critical merits except the box office (of course, the only one that counts), was a terrible movie.

For that reason, conservatives have been forced into building their own institutions, and are a bit ahead of us on it. After all, we did use to have a pretty decent lock on the media, the courts and the Capitol, if not the White House.

Now that we find ourselves locked out of power, we see that we are behind on a few things. DU is growing accordingly. I think once challenged, we will rise and destroy them. They are kinda dumb and slow, and suffer from an imagination, idealism, and general intelligence deficit.

If they were truly smart, they'd be fighting for renewable energy and not squabbling over the last few drops of oil left in the planet.

At any rate, now that the sleeping giant has been awoken to some extent, I expect there will be some serious shit thrown about in the next few years.

DU likely will continue to get bigger and draw greater attention as a bulwark of opposition to the direction this country's leadership is taking accordingly.

[Hugin]

15. Stuff is sinking this morning..

before I can even reply to a post.

Kick.

[EST]

23. Our numbers have risen astonishingly.

Almost everyone, with a few posts under his belt, has the burning desire to post his unique thinking and remarkable point of view by starting a thread. No harm in it, and something new and original may well show up, but, for the most part, with all the new participants, those postings just drop toward the bottom under the weight of all the other new and wonderful ideas.

Sounds like a teriffic way to run a railroad. I love it.

[Hugin]

24. For sure!

I wasn't complaining... I was observing. :)

[EST]

25. Yeah, I know.

I am too predictable at pointing out the obvious.

[RPM]

17. half their hits are DUers

wondering what the poopsniffers :freak: are up to....

[LibertyorDeath]

26. Constantly no doubt. It's just one big circle jerk over there

An echo chambers of regurgitated RNC rightarded talking points devoid
of critical thought or judgment in favour of my Government right or wrong.

They represent everything just this side of retarded in American Political thinking.

[Old and In the Way]

27. Are there any sites devoted to analyzing the traffic of websites

on the political landscape? I'd like to see how the Left is doing in terms of hit activity vs. the Right. I think that would be quite illuminating, particularly how the trends are over time. My hunch is we are gaining much more eyeshare as more people search out the truth and people who have been long term readers of the RW blogs become disillusioned with the designs of the current administration.

Apparently, FR is purging critical thinkers there...that's indicative of the fact that it's becoming more and more difficult to defend this administration's actions in terms of conventional conservative values. I suspect this is becoming more and more the case.

It's the cult of Bush against the rest of America.

[oasis]

28. Yes. Freepers are desparately defending the indefensible Bush admin.

and the morale factor is beginning to take its toll.