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!).

I'm sorry Caroline, I really am if you felt that it was a personal attack.

But bare with me.

I was pointing out that lots of reasons were given, here, and everywhere else by posters saying it wasn't about immigration but about democracy. But then when they High court case was won, and even prior to it, there were massive outcries and much vitriol brought down on others who supported it. In many cases by people who had said they campaigned against the EU because it was undemocratic, but then were advocating the bypassing of parliament and not following UK constitutional law. Which as you can see means that there is a total difference between what they were saying at first, and then later on.

There are lots of examples. People who claimed that leaving the EU would get us out of TTIP and who are now really looking forward to a deal of a similar nature, with similar ISDS courts, with the US.

As I said lots of examples.

I don't believe all leavers are racists, but I do believe lots of the leave vote was driven by blaming immigration for many of the UK's own problems, this was evident in talk shows, Question Times, interviews, documentaries, on here, on reddit, BTL in the Mail, the Guardian etc. It can't be possible that in so many places and in forms of media that the blame for many of the nations ills has been placed at the door of immigration. From the NHS woes, to benefits, to low wage growth and high unemployment in areas. It in the vast majority of areas that have high EU immigration the remain vote was high, and correspondingly the leave vote was high in areas with low immigration.

When you are blaming one section of society for the ills of a nation, and making them a scapegoat, against the factually available information then yes , prejudice does come into it.

All of these things combined suggest that immigration, and incorrectly blaming immigration for issues, was a massively significant factor. I'm also convinced that there was such desperation to drive the conversation away from immigration, that other factors like D and S ( which we never lost), Greece ( which is an incredibly complex situation), TTIP and others were brought up in order to show how bad the EU was and that we must leave immediately. As I have shown above there are many ( not all) on the leave side who have happily abandoned their principles on these things once the vote was secured, and that makes me extremely suspicious of the true motivation for their vote, and why they campaigned for it.

I'm happy that many leave voters weren't racist, or prejudiced, but in order to win the leave vote, the prejudices of those that were, were cynically exploited, and with such a small margin of victory, this was a massively crucial element.

......and summer, apols if I was a little harsh re your data (of course I went to have a nosy LOL) Im ending the nite with a smile, as its nice to see Garden Geek here. Thats really cheered me up. Wont it be nice when all of us wont have to start from a position of defence. Cant we just all agree to pick on the numpties/idiots/fucking apathetic morons, who couldnt be bothered voting in the first place? I'll slope off on that thought.

That's ok, i expected to get a certain amount of shit to be honest.

oh and I have not forgotten about the time of day thing. I have half done it. I have noticed that roughly even amounts of posts throughout the day from about 8am - 11pm, only going down in the night!

I need to make it work on a per poster basis though so it's easy to see the trends for a paritcular poster.

FFS- stop being such a curtain twitching, nosey bastard unless you can explain why that information is relevant.

🐻, your posts on here are making me actual lol 😂

GardenGeek, if you're who I think you are you were very missed by many (kisses, hugs etc ☺️)

summerlightning does your data skill set stretch to royal spotting? Allegedly, Kate's a mn lurker.
www.newstatesman.com/2017/04/if-kate-middleton-secretly-using-mumsnet-she-one-us

Haha, I bet she just lurks and never posts anything.

Is there a user with

Baby names - Charlotte for a girl with an older brother called George?
General health - How to cope with morning sickness when you have lots of public engagements?
Relationships - I'm jealous of my sister's bottom - advice?

in their started threads?

summer a lot of pro Brexit and Trump action on the threads, and social media last night, any theories about why that might have been?
Are there trigger topics which engage certain posters, on threads they don't normally contribute to, or FB accounts that they don't normally post on?

Hi woman! Honestly I am no sort of expert, I hadn't noticed any pro Trump action on here? I did notice an argument on the westminstenders thread about the Swedish attack, but I think a couple of regular leave posters that don't normally post on that thread, that's all?

There definitely seem to be stages that, say, there suddenly seems to be a bunfight about things, but I suspect more normally that is just something sets it off and people who are normally lurking or quieter pile on? Or the thread shows up in active?

I do agree that there have been the odd totally troll type poster (I remember one that came in the night posting youtube conspiracy videos about Sweden, they got deleted, I only saw them as I was browsing in what is UK night time). I doubt they are paid trolls, surely if you're going to pay someone, you'd expect them to do a better job?

If there is an argument for there being paid trolls on here, it would be before the referendum. That's my opinion anyway.

Otherwise, troll is kind of subjective? Just because you don't agree with someone and you think their arguments don't make sense, doesn't make them a troll.

Personally I think the discussions on here are some of the most balanced and informative out there, and it's good that people from both sides post. Most discussions I see on facebook, for example, are much more bunfighty and have a much higher number of absolutely meaningless and aggressive comments made.

Thanks summer suddenly the news has moved on again, and yes,
I think the discussions on here are some of the most balanced and informative out there long may it continue!

Summer Probably worth trotting this out again, no reason why paid UK and US trolls would not be as sophisticated as Chinese trolls. www.newstatesman.com/politics/politics/2012/10/china’s-paid-trolls-meet-50-cent-party

I gather that many of the more obvious paid trolls, the ones clearly working from a script, on here seem to have clocked off out of working hours. I think you should give people the benefit of the doubt and many people you might suspect of being trolls are just people who are driven by frustration, chippiness or simply an appetite for goading, or of course actual convictions.

Are we allowed to name those that people think are paid?