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

mGrowOld

August 8th, 2012 at 1:56 PM ^

And you need the old point system in place.  The MGoCommunity used to be able to police our own pretty damn effectively without as much active mod intervention.  

Bad posts got users slammed

Good posts got users rewarded

And when good, god-fearing folk like FMB here, found themselves in Bolivia, we were able to rescue them on our own.  Kinda like the Dirty Dozen and we didnt need no stinkin Mods to make things right.  We took care of own.  OUR way.

Them were the days.........

BiSB

August 7th, 2012 at 10:03 PM ^

I wish I had kept track of the reasons for caving people, but off the top of my head:

  • Physically threatening other posters
  • Being a dick
  • Posting personal information about other posters (including, in one instance, PGB's name, address, employer, and phone number)
  • Being a douche
  • Posting naked pictures
  • Being em0
  • Being a Sparty troll
  • Being a Buckeye troll
  • Being an ND troll
  • Being an Iowa troll (seriously)
  • Repeatedly posting political stuff (NO POLITICS!!!)
  • Being an argumentative twit

I'm sure there were others. But yeah. Good times.

M-Wolverine

August 7th, 2012 at 2:24 PM ^

For all the ones who made the trip, then came back under a different name? 

A few are pretty easy to figure out...

Seth

August 7th, 2012 at 2:44 PM ^

Nowadays instead of sending people to points Bolivia, we almost always cave them. Looking at the Bolivians here is pretty much pointless since various mods have given out arbitrary and temporary mega-minuses to people so they won't be able to climb out of their holes until they've learned their lessons, and we don't have to cave. You're looking at the 0.1% of moderated accounts who weren't caved but whose negative point totals are still on the books--like doing a statistical analysis on the thickness of human bones when all you have is a few pieces of wrist.

LSAClassOf2000

August 7th, 2012 at 3:02 PM ^

I assumed that the caved accounts would not be listed, but I didn't know that it was the prevailing policy now (to the extent that I was dealing with a very small sample, so my test for significance took a hit there, eh?), which of course is good to know for everyone here. One of the reasons I thought about doing this was so someone in the know would ring in on the rationale, so thanks for doing so.

BlueDragon

August 7th, 2012 at 3:58 PM ^

Can you give us an approximate cave rate, i.e. how many accounts are collapsed in an average week on the site?

Do the moderators have special search tools to help them find caveable content--taboo pictures, inappropriate politics, and the like? Or are they dependent on feedback from users?

How many accounts have been caved since you became a moderator?

How many posts does the average caved account post before the hammer falls?

What can the non-moderator users of the site do to help maintain civil discourse?

I understand if some of this information cannot be released to the public but I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity. Thanks.

BiSB

August 7th, 2012 at 5:30 PM ^

Not all caves are equal. Every week I end up caving at least a couple spammers and a random Sparty troll or two. MLive-quality posters appear from time to time, and usually burn themselves out (and if they don't, we make them go bye-bye). Actual long-time users caves are a rarity, but they usually produce the best meltdowns because they get the most leeway.

we don't have a magic search tool; it's almost all either stuff we see or stuff that is reported in the Moderator Action Sticky. So if you notice any OMG BEWBZ pics, that's the place to tattle. If there's something time-sensitive, some people have sent me tweets, and that seems to work too.

I fear for football season. Traffic doubles when the season starts, and we're low on mods; PGB is busy with, you know, real life, and I'm working on my first kid and just bought a new house. We may not have much patience for people who can't figure shit out.

BiSB

August 7th, 2012 at 8:46 PM ^

I usually put an expiration date on the uber-neg, so the visitor will return in somewhere between a week (for mildly stupid or inadvertant stuff) to a couple of months (for almost-banhammerable stuff). I don't know if all the mods do the same thing though. We'll entertain appeals, though, if a resident demonstrates good behavior.

profitgoblue

August 8th, 2012 at 9:53 AM ^

Never fear, my friend.  I plan to be back in action for football season to make up for lost time.  The move will be final at the end of the month and I'll step it up so you can focus on family as well.

I do the same as you - I rarely send people to Bolivian permanently.  Mostly its paid round-trip ticket for a week or two (sometimes a month) as a spanking for being an idiot.  I mostly leave the caving up to the MGoSeniorManagement - I make recommendations but that's all except for the obvious spammers and Sparty trolls.  I try to be as even-handed as possible but its inevitable that people get pissed off, some of whom go so far as to post all of my personal information on the Board and force me to seek police protection (joking??).

mgobleu

August 7th, 2012 at 9:34 PM ^

"OMG BEWBZ pics"? I trust the participants of the occaisional, obligatory Kate Upton slideshow thread will enjoy diplomatic immunity. Bolivian irregular rendition is certainly excessive considering the vast proletariat roundly praises such a blessing.

BlueDragon

August 7th, 2012 at 3:51 PM ^

I'm glad you made hay out of our offhand comments on your last diary. It's a pity we rarely permanently send anyone to our Bolivian compound anymore according to Seth above. A few of the names on the list I recognize from famous busts in the past. My fire has cooled with age and maturity.

Nice work! I look forward to next month's analysis of August production. I must make quota again!

MaizeNBlueTexan

August 7th, 2012 at 4:08 PM ^

For the worst 50 you should do a documentary and call it...oh i dont know..."50 for 50". This would probably be a bad idea because it will give trolls something to work for, but im still throwing it out there.

Red is Blue

August 8th, 2012 at 9:15 AM ^

I think 50 is casting too wide a net.  Given the median of the worst 50 was something like -976, this means that the 2nd worst 25 accounted for less than -24,400 points to the overall total of roughly -3,060,000,000.  In other words, the 2nd worst 25 are pretty insignificant contributors to the overall total.  Much the same as the "contributions" made by folks in places 51-291.