viscousmemories

Well okay, I know I said I'd shut up but you keep talking to me! What am I supposed to do, ignore you? How rude is that? (Sorry Kiwi)

Okay so anyway, where were we? Oh yeah. Well, see, that's the problem. As Kiwi pointed out early on, the success of a 'meme' is determined by the quantity of its usage, not the quality. Therefore talking about the Brights at all promotes thier cause. That's why they haven't had me killed yet, see? 'Cause I'm about the most vociferous anti-Bright on the scene, man, which means I'm personally bolstering usage of the term ten-fold. If I were actually hurting their cause, I'd have been capped after the first few thousand words I've written against this idea.

You, me, and about 90% of the naturalists I've interacted with, and thank the almighty god in heaven for that.

vm

Okay Kiwi. You can have it back now. Unless you talk to me. Or someone else does. Or I get really bored. Sorry.

Vibr8gKiwi

Yes, it's Vibrating Kiwi, and thanks. You don't have to shut up, let's just not make this into yet another thread on the Bright debate. We've got enough of those already

ex-xian

Well, I did just get the symbol for "pi" tattooed on my arm.

Vibr8gKiwi

This is probably gonna be way far off, but...

I took the first 3 values (and added fake data for the weekend days that I missed). From Excel trendlines I have:

- A linear trendline has pages at around 5500 in 30 days.
- An exponential trendline has pages at around 6200 in 30 days.

Anything less and we're dropping off of even a linear trend. Though at this early stage things probably grow in sporatic spurts depending on events that draw attention (like articles published from big outlets).

ex-xian

I looked at mine at 30 days and I have 6151. I only used the three data points, but the parabolic graph that I have looks to be a very slow growth exponential. I would be surprised if it stayed very linear for very long.

Secular Pinoy

I'd like you to meet Volker Doorman, our resident astrologer. You two seem to have similar thoughts.

Vibr8gKiwi

That's quite offensive. Please don't draw more than you should about my not wanting to go off topic about the science (or lack of) behind memes. Thanks.

Secular Pinoy

Fine, I find brights evangelization offensive as well. Had your method used astrology instead, would you be justified in "not wanting to go off topic about the science (or lack of) behind [astrology]", especially in a forum populated by skeptics?

viscousmemories

I CALL BULLSHIT!

GOD it pisses me off to be made a fool of!

Thank you Secular Pinoy! Your use of the word 'evangelization' for some reason inspired me to look at this thread a little differently, which made me wonder again exactly why someone would knowingly waste their time using fudged data to promote an idea, and so I had a look at some of Vibr8gKiwi's other posts here and lo and behold, we have us a real down-to-Earth evangelist of the Brights here in our midst.

Remind me to subscribe to that damn "Dennett - Brights and Politics" thread. It figures it's the only one I haven't been active in and happens to also be the one where in this post, our Kiwi tells us that his primary reason for returning to the Infidels site is to "see what's the thinking here" about the Brights movement. Adding, "However regardless of the bitching on here, this is going to be big and it's going to be positive." I particularly like the part about how all resistance to this movement is "bitching" and how without the Bright label we are "freak(s) in the corner" and "powerless invisible loser(s)".

It is astonishingly disingenuous to use bogus data to zealously promote an idea, and when challenged on the validity of the data model to say, "To me this is just amusing--it's not my life or some big research project." when in fact it is a big research project for you. Well, that's what happens when you try to give people the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes you get screwed. I just wish I had known yesterday what I know now.

Vibr8gKiwi, what say you to the charge that you are using a blatantly false data model to zealously promote the idea that the Brights movement you so cherish is far more successful than more accurate current measures indicate? And hint: "Hahahaha--holy cow dude, you might consider taking a deep breath and relaxing." isn't going to work this time.

vm

Vibr8gKiwi

Please read the thread. We've already got past both the bitching-about-the-brights and the memes-aren't-science issues.