Data, data, lots of data (about this board)

[SummerLightning]

I posted this on the Westministenders thread, but thought I would add a new thread for it.

There was some discussion about getting some stats about posting times and what/who people posted about at one point a while back.

So I ran some basic analysis on threads and posts on here. You can see a nice graph of it here

public.tableau.com/shared/B6QDZQKDH?:display_count=yes

It looks better on a desktop rather than a phone, though I think it will work on a phone.

Select a date or a group of dates at the top and you can see the top posters for that date or set of dates.

Select a poster and you can see the dates they posted.

I have made a basic stab at colouring some of the more prolific posters blue (remain) or red (leave) according to their persuasions.

Here are some facts I put together:

There have been over 127,000 posts on the board since it started

Over 5000 of these are from one user alone. I will leave you to look at the stats to see who that is

Of the top 10 posters only one is pro-leave

There have been 36 Westministenders threads. So that’s over 35000 posts.

There have been 11 Brexit arms threads.

There are several peaks of posting:
The referendum date (over 5000 posts on 26th June)
Around 3rd November (probably the Tory party conference?)
Around 17th Jan (when it became apparent that yes we were leaving the single market)
Around 17th Feb (not sure? Tony Blair throwing in his tuppence perhaps?)
29th March (Article 50)

Enjoy. If you want to, I think you can download the actual data I used from this link too.

(I did it to learn some new skills rather than to prove any political point, btw. Oh and Tableau is awesome)

PS There is nothing "dodgy" or "hacky" about this, it is very basic taking data from the internet where you all put it . I know nothing about you posters except your usernames (no Cambridge Analytica cleverness from me!).

Ok stainless you tell me what it has showed you that you didn't already know if you'd been on this section of MN for a while which you haven't

From that article:
Israelis are convinced that media around the world is one-sided, anti-Israeli, and heavily biased towards the Palestinian cause. Yet few come out against their own clearly biased, heavily concentrated and privately owned media (see: Mozes family , Sheldon Adelson)

Probably because the media round the world in anti Israel.
Just to check, try being an armed woman or armed BME citizen. It really annoys them.

Alternatively, on the other side we encounter the “pro-Israeli” groups, including media outlets, Israeli public personas, and various American zionists (light blue), as well as American conservatives and Tea Party members (dark blue)

Israel and alt right in cahoots. I think I have heard that somewhere else?

We need to be more thoughtful about adding and maintaining bridges across information silos online

For sure, on both sides.

A few thoughts here:

How was news reported in Britain during the Irish civil war or 'troubles'?

And most interestingly,

How was news reported before during and after this 'referendum' and 'Brexit'.

It's interesting research summerlightning and I pay tribute to your data skills.

Ha aretz is gorgeous. But Israel is a country the size of Wales with a population of 8million, maybe proof of media bubbles could be proved more with a US or EU sample?

Why did you choose that article to post?

woman it was the first article of its type I saw and I liked the visualizations. And bear was asking for my motivations and I was trying to explain my interest in such things.

I did not intend to make a comment on the political aspects of that article, in fact it seems a bit awful to like visualizations of data about such important conflicts.

I do think there is a problem with media "bubbles" and I think this shows it. And social media is changing the way news is distributed, and fast, it's just hard to know exactly what the effects are.

After all, are we any more in a "bubble" than pre internet when someone probably bought one newspaper religiously and talked to the same people down the pub?

I try to follow people I disagree with on twitter/read differing news sources, but it rarely makes me change my opinion drastically.

Similar visualization for the EU ref on twitter would be fascinating, I wonder if anyone has done it. I haven't read any of that guys more recent posts as I hadn't thought to follow him long term.

Fair enough summerlightning interesting concepts, the media bubble idea.

Not new, though, just that the lazier people are about learning, the less they will learn. Twas ever thus. , But, I've changed my mind loads about Brexit on these threads.

I don't understand twitter at all. It literally seems to be for twits. If something is worth thinking about, and the thinker is a human, it normally takes more than 140 characters to think it and say it. But it's instant and international as Trump knows. You've read 1984, I presume.
Fortunately Trump is going after accounts now, so it is a pretty academic concern.

But, please watch out for automatic anti Israel stuff. Like every nation surrounded by those who want to destroy it , it's a bit twitchy, but please do a double think, every time it's attacked. No Jew ever wanted to end up there.

I've never been on mums net and Facebook until the coup in England and Trump in America. I assume that most will be shut down soon, so I'm using them all while we can. I presume we won't be able to for long.

You assume mumsnet and facebook will be shut down?

I hope not!

Well maybe if D Trump/N Korea/Russia blow us all to smithereens, yes.

And yes, I have read 1984.

I think Trump has backed down on getting the identity of that one twitter account, I hadn't been following it.

I kind of agree about twitter. But for all its clunkiness and faults people seem to use it for news. People find ways around the 140 char limit by posting images of text or threads but it's clunky. I can't help thinking there is room for something better to take over the news distribution aspect of social media. I know facebook tries to do it but it just doesn't seem to take the same way.

I think social media will severely curtailed really soon. And I just discovered it! I am always so behind the times. Ah well. Hopefully there will still be books........
Your data, which I am completely illiterate about, shows how at times of peak political crisis, information and ideas are being exchanged. If you were POTUS or PM, would you really want that?

The problem with FB is that most people have actual friends and family on there so difficult to just post news without pissing some of them off. Twitter works better for that (for me).

I don't think it will woman much as in certain politicians might find it convenient to curtail free speech on social media, I think/hope free speech is so fundamental to US/UK culture that that won't happen. Who knows though I guess, the world does seem a bit batshit at the moment.

swedish I agree. I don't post news much on facebook for that reason, though I will comment on things other people share. I don't post much on twitter either as I don't have many followers!

And I still think you are being a bit precious

That's a bit rich coming from someone who admittedly regularly name changes

I've said before, I have nothing to hide. I just find it incredibly invasive that someone decided sharing this data was a good idea.

If I sat outside OPs house and reported on her every move it would prove / achieve absolutely nothing except that someone has their beady eye on her for no apparent reason,

You don't need to sit outside her house Bear.
If you really wanted to get a very good idea about the times she works/has lunch/commutes you could advance search her posts, look for patterns in the times she posts and the times she doesn't, the boards she posts on - so much info before you even get around to reading the content of the posts. Because all that information is freely available.
She is not revealing private data, or outing anyone. She is showing us the information we can all see already in a different way. Its more like a hairdresser holding up a mirror to show you the back of your head than a creepy neighbour with binoculars.

Its more like a hairdresser holding up a mirror to show you the back of your head than a creepy neighbour with binoculars.

No it's not at all.

If you've had your hair cut you 'need' to see the back of it before you pay for it.

There is no 'need' for the OP to have produced this data and then shared it, especially on a section of MN she doesn't even contribute to.

What does it prove?

Why does anyone need to see patterns in what time people post or how often they post?

Why pick this section of MN?

It is sinister and unnecessarily invasive.

I suppose it's like these people who claim to keep spreadsheets on posters so they can more easily spot the trolls.

There's a feeling of policing and implying that some posters aren't who they say they are so they shouldn't be here.

Of course, they're wasting their time. MN is full of trolls, journalists, political activists and sock puppets and most people know it.
The only person I know for sure isn't one of them is me - and one or two people I know in RL.

I agree its a very odd thing to do. Why? Are posters really now soooooooo bored, that posting isnt enough theyre wanting to analyse other posters? For what reason?

Plus, Id challenge how the datas been collated in the first place.

Its not only concerning and yes intrusive, but there are inaccurate assumptions already. November for example, was the great Trump era on here (I miss reading Claig), not the Tory party conference. I can assure you, the boards werent filled with tory conference musings.

If you want to give achievement badges out to posters, then fine. Publish it monthly and you can have a 'leader' board who we can all bow down to their greater......posting ability? 🤔
Quite often, posters like to point out that theyve been here since 1908, as though its some validation that their view/knowledge is superior to a newbie poster. This is surely simply an extension of that?

But personally, I think the datas not only inaccurate to start with, but your assumptions are really quite offensive. If youre analysing posts, to the level that youve already identified them as leave/remain supporters, what other inaccurate conclusions are you jumping to? You clearly didnt want to simply collate prolificacy? Youve immediate driven your data by political badge. Of course its skewed.

Quite often posters suddenly become prolific, then slope off again. Some explain why, home on sick, children away with school/relatives, between jobs etc.

If you really want to know, and you want accurate stats, ask MN. Be interested to hear their response.

I think you are accusing OP of a lot of things she hasn't done, and conclusions she hasn't drawn, beanies.

Fwiw, I remember a lot of posts about the Tory conference. Some about Trump, yes, but plenty about the conference on WM.

Do you not find it quite easy to identify whether most posters are leave or remain? Not all, obvs, but OP hasn't assigned all. With most I think it's blindingly obvious. "As a leaver" or "You remainers" is often a giveaway.

It's just data. Almost no conclusions have been drawn. I finds it strange that some people are so concerned about it.

What do you think the February peak was, beanies?

I finds it strange that some people are so concerned about it.

I'll ignore the typo that made that sound like it came from Gavin and Stacey!

I'm not 'concerned' about the information.

I'm extremely suspicious of the motives of someone who's not sufficiently interested in this board to actually post but finds the time to produce this stuff.

Really, why would you do that?

I think it's fairly uncontroversial to point out that Spinflight and Leavetheroundabout were quite definitely paid pro-Leave.

I'm extremely suspicious of the motives of someone who's not sufficiently interested in this board to actually post but finds the time to produce this stuff

I've always assumed that there are lots of lurkers on the referendum board and I think that is just as valid a way of using the board as posting.

Really, why would you do that?

I think OP explained this in a kind of "Because it's there" kind of way. If you think there might be more sinister motives, could you suggest what these might be? Other than a bit of shill spotting (which is aimed at the leave campaign), what do you think these motives are?

The latest Ashcroft poll has been published. It has some beautiful graphical representation of data (esp the general elections / EU referendum voting graphic) for those who like that sort of thing.

lordashcroftpolls.com/2017/04/more-from-my-brexit-research/

Those are some pretty graphs, WrongTrouser!
On the subject of lurkers who rarely post on certain boards - they definitely exist, because I am one. I find the Westministenders boards incredibly informative, but never really have anything to add there because everything I might say has already been said more articulately, iyswim. There's nothing inherently sinister in lurking, I don't think.

I was a lurker, who was only spurred into action by the same false information getting repeated over and over after months of lurking.

Which false information was that, Danny? Referendum stuff or general politics?

They are pretty wrong
I found the ones with the circles pretty but hard to understand and a bit misleading with the circles - the circle for "UKIP remain" or "Libdem Leave" is as big as "Con Remain" or "Con leave" and the first set of voters tiny in respect to the second set!

The flowy ones are lovely though.

squishy I recognise your name, that's how much I lurk.

My motives basically went as follows:
People on mumsnet board talking about the data of influx of posters at particular points and how to preserve info for posterity.
Me thinking - ooh I could try and graph that with the tableau stuff I am learning, I am not sure that it would show anything exciting but why not?

I didn't post anything at the time as I often get these ideas and rarely get the time to do them.

I was surprised how easy it was to do and that my graphs looked nice. I wondered about posting as I knew it would piss some people off, but thought on balance, what the hell.

I also agree that my labelling of people leave/remain is not controversial. Most people would not come on this board without a leaning one way or the other, and they make it obvious.

That Ashcroft poll - 4.8% of Labour Remain voters and 4.3% of Lib Dem Remain voters intend to vote UKIP.