Site Visitors Over Three and a Half Years
We started this blog in December, 2004, so our first full month was January 05. The Montgomery County Public Schools were just coming under attack for trying to implement a sex-ed curriculum that talked about gay people and how to use a condom -- the US had just elected George W. Bush to a second term and the so-called "religious right" felt they had a mandate to make America a Christian country. There were a few of that type in our county, and they joined together shortly after the election with the stated intention of recalling the entire county school board. Teach the Facts got together a week or two after that, somebody volunteered to do this and somebody volunteered to do that, we had bases covered, and away we went, supporting the school board as they came under attack.
Here is a graph of "unique visitors" to this web site from January 2005 through July 2008.
You can see in those first few months we had a steady but modest stream of visitors, mostly people who were involved in the controversy. There is a spike in May 05, when the school board voted to throw out the original "old new" curriculum and disband the citizens committee, after the school district lost a scuffle in court, and then after that, you notice, readership maintained a higher level.
I think that spike in December 2006 came when several major blogs linked to us. I had noticed James Dobson plagiarizing from one of his own writers in Time magazine, and several people used that and gave us credit for it. There is a spike of one-click visitors, but not everybody is really that fascinated with the goings-on in our little county, so they never came back.
But -- a lot did. After that spike there was a plateau where readership remained significantly higher throughout 2007 than it was in 2006. During this time, the controversy was boiling along. The school district was developing a curriculum, the CRC was threatening and lying and filing motions with the state and with the courts and everything else they could think of, and were being rejected left and right. Meanwhile, the schools got the curricula for eighth and tenth grades in place, pilot tested them, and everything was fine.
Late in 2007, the gender-identity nondiscrimination bill got the CRC's attention, as they realized they were losing in the schools, so the focus of the posts here shifted as the exact same people began to bad-mouth transgender people instead of gay people, who had held their attention during the curriculum battle.
There's another spike through Febrary and March of 2008, as the shower-nuts turned in their petitions and the pro-LGBT groups filed to challenge them, and interest has not dropped substantially since then. February, March, and April of this year had approximately six times as many unique visitors as we had in our first three months online, about three times as many as we had in 2006, and about twice as many as a typical month in 2007.
Just thought you'd like to know.
Here is a graph of "unique visitors" to this web site from January 2005 through July 2008.
You can see in those first few months we had a steady but modest stream of visitors, mostly people who were involved in the controversy. There is a spike in May 05, when the school board voted to throw out the original "old new" curriculum and disband the citizens committee, after the school district lost a scuffle in court, and then after that, you notice, readership maintained a higher level.
I think that spike in December 2006 came when several major blogs linked to us. I had noticed James Dobson plagiarizing from one of his own writers in Time magazine, and several people used that and gave us credit for it. There is a spike of one-click visitors, but not everybody is really that fascinated with the goings-on in our little county, so they never came back.
But -- a lot did. After that spike there was a plateau where readership remained significantly higher throughout 2007 than it was in 2006. During this time, the controversy was boiling along. The school district was developing a curriculum, the CRC was threatening and lying and filing motions with the state and with the courts and everything else they could think of, and were being rejected left and right. Meanwhile, the schools got the curricula for eighth and tenth grades in place, pilot tested them, and everything was fine.
Late in 2007, the gender-identity nondiscrimination bill got the CRC's attention, as they realized they were losing in the schools, so the focus of the posts here shifted as the exact same people began to bad-mouth transgender people instead of gay people, who had held their attention during the curriculum battle.
There's another spike through Febrary and March of 2008, as the shower-nuts turned in their petitions and the pro-LGBT groups filed to challenge them, and interest has not dropped substantially since then. February, March, and April of this year had approximately six times as many unique visitors as we had in our first three months online, about three times as many as we had in 2006, and about twice as many as a typical month in 2007.
Just thought you'd like to know.
posted by JimK at 1:54 PM
16 Comments:
"the US had just elected George W. Bush to a second term and the so-called "religious right" felt they had a mandate to make America a Christian country"
Jim has been saying this from the beginning. Was TTF formed as a result of a paranoid delusion?
Hardly.
This is propagandistic rhetoric.
America is, and always will be, a country with a Christian heritage. That's the basis of our government and values- even the ones Jim cherishes the most.
All our values derive from our Christian heritage. TTF wouldn't do away with most of them. The ones TTF doesn't like, however, they will attack as an infringement of church on state. Actually, all our values have roots in the same Judeo-Christian system.
Always remember: In the curriculum controversy as in the genderless bathroom proposal, TTF is the radical element. They want to impose their values and are supporting new laws to do so.
CRC/CRG simply advocated maintaining the status quo, not some new infringment of church on state.
TTF has attacked the freedom of citizens to petition the government for redress of grievances and supported an infringement on our freedom to associate with whom we choose.
They are on the fringe of acceptable society.
Jim
What's the scale of the 'y' coordinate in the graph?
rrjr
Robert, I decided not to label that. Email me if you have a question.
JimK
Will do.
rrjr
I note that (yet again) Joe Anonymous has called TTF "radical," "fringe", and "unacceptable."
As a bit of reality check, I myself consider TTF as kind of stodgy, staid and white-bread; really very Leave It to Beaver.
rrjr
"As a bit of reality check, I myself consider TTF as kind of stodgy, staid and white-bread; really very Leave It to Beaver."
Well, that's a fantasy, Robert.
They don't like the way things are concerning society's idea of gender and they want to make big changes.
A lot of TTFers seem to have trouble distingushing fantasy from reality.
Maybe you could get a group rate on some therapy.
Sybil doesn't like the fact that society's views are changing and Americans are becoming more and more tolerant year after year of openly gay people, for example, serving in the military. Even a half of American veterans say "don't ask, don't tell" should be rescinded. These facts are reality.
Poor Sybil. It must be lonely seeking the "status quo" in your shrinking pool of CRWeirdos.
you really are a moron, Bea
What a cogent rebuttal to the fact that polls indicate each year more Americans' attitudes toward openly gay people are becoming accepting, Sybil. Fewer people each year are interesting in "maintaining the status quo" like you are.
No, Bea-idiot, it was a reaction to your change of subject.
Robert and I were discussing whether or not TTF is a radical force not whether more Americans are tolerant of gays than used to be.
Truth is, Americans have been tolerant of gays before. It's not new. Go back to the 70s. Elton John, a gay singer was the biggest selling musician of the decade. Billy Crystal portrayed a gay figure in a show that was rated no. 1 by Nielsen for a couple of years. Midnight Cowboy, a movie about a gay hooker, won the Oscar for best picture. David Bowie and the Rolling Stones were dressing up like girls. Gay politicians were being elected.
What happened?
The reality of the embrace of the gay lifestyle resulted in the AIDS crisis.
The thing that is new now is that lunatics aren't content with homosexuality being tolerated. They are trying to make laws that force people to associate with gays and accept a new definition of gender. Force schools to teach a value judgment that homosexuality is normal. Trying to change the definition of marriage.
That's the radical agenda that TTF advances.
It has nothing to do with tolerance and everything to do with imposing a political correctness on our society.
"Anonymous" As usual you are pitifully out-of-touch with reality: "The thing that is new now is that lunatics aren't content with homosexuality being tolerated. They are trying to make laws that force people to associate with gays and accept a new definition of gender. Force schools to teach a value judgment that homosexuality is normal. Trying to change the definition of marriage."
If I weren't so sure that you are a M.C. resident (on the other hand, I really don't know that - you might be one of the PFOX, or American Family Association, Concerned Women for America, or one of the other lunatic right-wing organization's paid staffers from some other state) I would swear you were a resident of Outer Space. Your bigotry and ignorance are always so transparent...you would think that your professing to be a religious human being with even just a shred of human dignity you would be embarassed to expose your evilness by saying the things you say. How sad to go through life with such anger and hatred. We will pray for you.
“America is, and always will be, a country with a Christian heritage. That's the basis of our government and values- even the ones Jim cherishes the most.
All our values derive from our Christian heritage. TTF wouldn't do away with most of them. The ones TTF doesn't like, however, they will attack as an infringement of church on state. Actually, all our values have roots in the same Judeo-Christian system.”
Actually, they don’t. Because you’re not talking about the “Christian” ethic that cherishes “do unto others as you would have done unto you.” You’re talking about he “Christian heritage” that says “I’m going to heaven and you’re not, and therefore I’m better than you.” -- which is the antithesis of Christianity. No one had to teach you your ego.
Anoncompoop --
I didn't change the subject. I was responding to your assertions:
TTF is the radical element. They want to impose their values and are supporting new laws to do so.
CRC/CRG simply advocated maintaining the status quo
The data I cited shows that the number of status quo seekers is shrinking while the number of people who understand, like TTFers do, that LGBT people are still people with certain unalienable rights is increasing.
Well, it seems things have gotten even nastier than usual this past week. I started a response to two particular misconceptions yesterday morning, but when I got to the bottom of page 5, I decided I should find a less verbose response.
I hope everyone had as wonderful a weekend as I have. Last Sunday, one of the gals at church invited me to their annual summer picnic and pool party. I went yesterday and had a blast. I ended up being the unofficial photographer, taking pictures of all the guests as they ate and chatted, or as the kids squirted each other with gigantic squirt guns in the pool. I burned CDs with the pictures and gave them to those that attended church this morning.
I didn’t get to hang around church as long as I normally do though, as I was meeting one of my co-workers and his family to go to a craft festival. The four of us had a fun time looking at all the neat crafts, foods, tractors, animals, and other stuff there. When we came back to my house, their 7-year old daughter saw all of my beading supplies and tools on my coffee table and asked if we could make something. She picked out the beads, and I helped her arrange them. While her dad took her out to play in my yard, I chatted with his wife and strung her new necklace. (I took pictures of that as well… my mom loves it when I do “art-sy fart-sy” things and go outside my usual “engineer” space.)
The gentlemen leading the discussion at church today had an interesting talk that covered a lot of ground, but it centered on “ego” and thought, identity, and mastering ourselves, our reactions and our emotions. I’d love to reproduce the whole thing here, but it’s 17 double-spaced pages, and it’s not my work. There are LOTS of things that I found pertinent to our discussion here. I know a lot of people complain about copied postings from a certain guy who apparently makes a living arguing about the existence of God, put perhaps folks will indulge another relatively short snippet:
_*_*_*_*_
“Your thinking, the content of your mind, is of course conditioned by the past: your upbringing, culture, family background, and so on. The central core of all your mind activity, consists of certain repetitive thoughts, emotions, and reactive patterns that you identify with. This identity is the ego.
In most cases when you say “I” it is the ego speaking, not you. It consists of thoughts and emotion. A bundle of memories you identify with as “me and my story.”
The content of the ego varies from person to person, but in every ego, the same structures operate, deep down they are the same. How are they the same? They live on identification and separation. Every ego is struggling for survival, trying to protect and enlarge itself.
To uphold the “I” thought, there must be the opposite thought of “the other.” The conceptual “I” could not survive without the conceptual “other.’ The others are most other, when I see them as my enemies.
At one end of the scale of this unconscious egoic pattern lies the egoic compulsive habit of fault finding and complaining about others.
Jesus referred to this when he said, “Why do you see the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”
At the other end of this spectrum of egoic patterns is the physical violence between individuals and warfare between nations. In the bible, Jesus’ question remains unanswered, but the answer is of course: Because when I criticize or condemn another, it makes me feel bigger, or superior.
The ego is not only the unobserved mind, the voice in the head that pretends to be you, but also the unobserved _emotions_ that are the body’s reaction to what the voice in the head is saying. The voice in the head tells a story that the body believes in and reacts to. Those reactions are emotions. The emotions, in turn, feed energy back into thoughts that created the emotions in the first place. This is the vicious cycle between the unexamined thoughts and emotions, giving rise to emotional thinking and emotional story-making.”
_*_*_*_*_
According to the speaker at today’s service, most of the concepts associated with his topic can be found in “A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose” by Eckhart Tolle.
If nothing else, I hope you found the last post a nice change of pace.
Peace,
Cynthia
“If nothing else, I hope you found the last post a nice change of pace.”
And here I was all set for my usual linguistic blood feast. But boy howdy, talk about a wet blanket of lucidity to throw a damper on that one!
Now if you’ll excuse me, apparently I have some introspection to attend to…
Nice post Cynthia; interesting.
I may agree with the anonymous poster from 1:29 on 8/10, that our Anonymous Troll may well be a paid staffer of an anti-lgbt organization, or at least a volunteer, whose major purpose is to goad people who post here honestly into saying things that can be misquoted later to the detriment of lgbt rights in our area.
rrjr
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