We celebrate ourselves!

     Last Thursday, we marveled at Dissent the Blog's (DtB's) apparent "influence"—as measured by Blognetnews (BNN) and its complex and super-secret, proprietary "Influence Index."

     I was glad to learn that we were the 17th most influential political blog in California (by BNN's reckoning), but I knew that summer had arrived and thus we would begin to suck. That's because this blog tends to focus on our benighted district (SOCCCD), and information pretty much dries up in the district during the summer months.

     So, after commencement, DtB just started sucking, as usual. Hell, I started writing about wandering cows and their curt cowboys!

     But guess what? As of yesterday, post-cow, we're the ninth most influential political blog in the state (again, by BNN's reckoning)!
     WTF!

     Above is BNN's graph displaying Dissent the Blog's influence over the last ten weeks. We climbed out of oblivion on March 28, but then we tanked on May 9. Since then, we've climbed precipitously to our current lofty perch.

     Below is BNN's graph for Red County/OC. Once again, at least recently, we've kicked their rosy red bloggular butt.

     But how can this be? Red County has a stable of twenty or thirty "staunch" scribblers while DtB has only one or two, depending on the Reb's mood.
     And we're never staunch (I assume staunchitude has to do with the making of haughty and appalling grimaces).
     I don't believe our curiously elevated standing will last, but, for now, following time-honored American tradition, we celebrate ourselves and our astounding and epoch-shattering influence across the great state of California.
     Hail Dissent!

WHENCE INFLUENCE?

     On March 28, we experienced the beginning of a great spike in “influence” that lasted until April 4 (see graph above).
     What did we post? Well, on April 29th, we posted about curious discrepancies between County Public Administrator John Williams’ timesheets and the SOCCCD’s records of his junketeering. Could it be that this caught people’s attention? Who knows.
     Starting on the 30th, we had some fun, sometimes at Don Wagner's expense, with the Repubs brought to kinky nightclub story, and that produced another sustained spike. We posted about that here and here. I whipped up some flashy graphics. (See.)
     After a brief decline, we experienced another spike, starting on April 11, when I posted something with an arguably sexy/intriguing title: "Stop having sex" suggests typical OC Reg reader. My guess: people click on posts with such titles no matter how vacuous they are.
     Then, after a brief decline, we experienced another spike starting on April 25. That day, we posted about Tom Fuentes: Satan Boy is coming to frown. It sported a photo of Tom. You'd think that would repel readers!
     After five or so days, we experienced a steep decline in “influence” that lasted until May 9. Starting on May 9, we experienced a great and sustained spike that has persisted to the present (that's three weeks).
     So, what caused this spike? On the 9th, we posted about Don Wagner’s connections to the Tea Party movement: Just how strong is Don Wagner’s tea? Could it be that there’s wide interest (in some circles) in Wagner’s career? That's hard to believe. But maybe.
     Soon after, we posted something about the amazingly corrupt Congressman Gary Miller that had a snazzy title. In the subsequent weeks, we did post a lot about politics and pols that may be well known beyond South County.

     Naturally, identifying causes is a very tricky business. So I’m not sure these “correlations” tell us much.