META: Bolivia - A Brief Analysis

Submitted by LSAClassOf2000 on

BOLIVIA STATISTICS  - CURRENT AS OF AUGUST 6th, 2012

INTRODUCTION:

A few comments in the MGoPoint  summary for July asked about the possibility of providing a summary of those who have chosen another path, that of MGoInfamy. This is the land of flameouts and meltdowns, of comments devoid of thought and arguments that ended in catastrophe. These MGoBloggers lurk in the shadows, many of them a footnote in history, though a few among the “Low 300” have content enshrined in the Hall Of Fame.  Still others actually post on occasion, some on the path to redemption, others stumbling, and of course, some tempting the banhammer.

 

A NOTE OF ADMISSION / METHOD:

First and foremost, I will point out that when I collected this data initially yesterday afternoon, it did not immediately dawn on me that the final page of users actually was only 21 rows, so the sample size here is really n=291. Since adding another nine in Bolivia does not greatly affect the statistics, I chose to keep it this way – after all, the difference it makes is as significant as the difference these users apparently made in the annals of MGoBlog.

Essentially everything else mirrors what I do for the summaries for the Top 300 MGoBloggers, except in this case I did not break up the group to measure productivity among “tiers”, if you will. Indeed, I stopped at “The Worst 50” as this small subset of Bolivia contributes nearly all the points available there.

 

SUMMARY:

 

ENTIRE POPULATION - "The Low 300"

TOTAL

-3060419760

AVERAGE

-10516906.39

MEDIAN

-71

MODE

-14

STD DEVIATION

101030744.3

VARIANCE

1.02072E+16

     

THE WORST 50

TOTAL

-3060396810

AVERAGE

-61207936.2

MEDIAN

-976.5

MODE

-651

STD DEVIATION

237283124.7

VARIANCE

5.63033E+16

     

THE WORST 50

% OF TOTAL BOLIVIA

99.99925%

 

DISCUSSION:

No, the scientific notation is not a miscalculation. I actually rechecked the dispersion of points in Bolivia and it far exceeds that of the more conventional MGoBlog community, so we can perhaps say that among those who dwell in this suburb of La Paz, the punishments have been widely varied (perhaps even for the same basic offense, depending on the circumstances) and typically severe, something which helps ensure the safety of the remainder of the MGoCommunity.

In keeping with the standards set by this elite group of MGoBloggers, the threshold for first quartile performance in Bolivia is not terribly high. Indeed, if you have less than -24 points, you are indeed a top performer among the trolls. The totals vary from a maximum of -12 to a minimum of Q in the sample group, and as any Star Trek fan knows, Q was perhaps one of the best trolls in science fiction.

It would be interesting to get some of the stories behind “The Worst 50”, for as was mentioned, they account for nearly 100% of Bolivia essentially. The minor infractions of literally a few hundred wayward bloggers hardly stacks up to the crimes of these fifty. This might be an unwarranted extrapolation, but I suspect that Bolivia is an oligarchy, ruled by this select group. There is not a whole lot to go on in order to do a deeper dive here – all the users I checked have had their posts hidden, so it is not currently possible to analyze the blowups that led to their virtual banishment.

 

CONCLUSION:

This was an interesting exercise, and if I may call out a few folks, thanks to MadMonkey, Baldbill and BlueDragon for giving me the inspiration to extend this idea some. I may very well also do some work with the MGoMiddleClass as another part of this series.

Comments

emmekel

August 7th, 2012 at 7:30 PM ^

I have been placed there permanently for no reason at all. At first I thought it was an error but I have emailed Brian a couple of times and never got a response. Can any of the mods out there let me know what happened?

Seth

August 7th, 2012 at 9:59 PM ^

No idea. Someone took away the maximum twice within two weeks in late October 2010. Did you invest in Ann Arbor Torch & Pitchfork near the tail end of the RR era or something?

EDIT: Well you did say this:

Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time before the game starts.

Hope Depot?!? A Michigan Man only goes to ACE!

Wolverine Devotee

August 7th, 2012 at 10:14 PM ^

I had a one week all-expenses paid trip to bolivia back when I compared meyer to sandusky. 

It was scary. And I got a sunburn.

smwilliams

August 7th, 2012 at 11:55 PM ^

This was a recent one if I recall. He posted a thread titled "Treadwill Commits". The actual post, "LaQuon Treadwell commits to saving money on his insurance by switching to Geico".

Needless to say, he was run out of town rather swiftly and exiled to a deep, dank cave in Bolivia to live amongst the Troll People.

ChopBlock

August 7th, 2012 at 11:11 PM ^

Since everyone else is violating the FRoMGP in this thread, I figured I might as well join in.

Hooray, it's my 500th post! I'm now entrusted with the mystical ability to HoF apropos board posts! I'm hoping to get a super-secret MGoDecoder Ring and a good 'ol fashioned posbang. 

LSA2, I'm definitely in favor of the MGoMiddleClass idea.

MadMonkey

August 8th, 2012 at 11:31 AM ^

 that the n'er do wells are reformed ala Morgan Freeman in Shawshank?  Corundum is still trying to defend his behavior (See:  Corundum comment above).  

I think Bolivia is perceived as an mgosociopath resort & spa and not a meaningful deterrent to BiSB's litany of unacceptable behavior.  

The mods do a great job of keeping the marginal content to a minimum, but what happens if the bottom-300 bum-rush the threads?   Anarchy, bloody anarchy!

/s

 

PS - Nice job, LSAClassof2000.    /not s

 

 

ken725

August 8th, 2012 at 7:29 PM ^

I think there are a select few of us who were actually sent to Bolivia, but chipped away at the negative point totals to become trusted members again. 

I never want to go through the process of entering CAPTCHAs every time I post.  NEVER AGAIN.

ND Sux

August 12th, 2012 at 10:14 PM ^

I've never actually seen anyone post nekked "bewbs" on the site, and of course that would be bolivian-able, however are we frowning on bikini-clad avatars (which I personally like/prefer)?  A legitimate question...it would be good to know where the line is drawn. 

I haven't been able to post an avatar for about a year, maybe because my last one was a bikini-clad lady with a gun.  I understand if that was too political, but it would have been nice to know if that was the case.  I asked Seth about this at the HTTV party, but he wasn't sure. 

I got an email warning a couple weeks ago about a comment that i made, and that's very fair.  Better a warning than be banned or neg-million'd. 

Otherwise I agree that the mods do a great job overall.