Please excuse the complete and utter technological failure which is bringing you the Saturday Evening Post on the completely wrong day of the week. Normally, posts which are scheduled to go live do so without any overt intervention. This one is just special. It decided to stay in the scheduler and go stinking nowhere.
This has been a hectic and enlightening week. We traveled from A to G without much turbulence. I learned a few things from and about you. Some of you got through this week with a few laughs (with the help of Wile E. Coyote). A few people rediscovered M3, while a few found it for the first time. Grab a cuppa and settle into a rocker. The fire is stoked.
Speed Bumps
This week M3 tested the limits of software. One post (now two) was delivered far behind schedule. On Tuesday (now last Tuesday), Around The Block, the wind up of the time management series, decided it was not ready to hit the spotlight. How ironic?
Fortunately, instead of being far removed from the screen, I was able to get it to out before the time I believed the Once Daily Digest was set to appear in subscribers’ inboxes.
In another nauseating turn of events, said digest was missing in action, and had been missing since Saturday last. Barring another catastrophe (read upgrade), the digests should be delivered on time. We shall see. I have a horrid feeling I know what the malfunction truly was, but can neither confirm nor deny until a little more data are in to examine.
Almost Wins
M3 broke a WP previous record for most follows in one day. Unfortunately, the only way those people will be able to follow is on the Blogs I Follow screen which is now named something entirely different. Which, in the most Red fashion, leads to a question: How many of you read M3 through that screen? Since I cannot see my own posts there, I have no idea if they even come up in the stream.
Have you noticed the little red people counter in the right side bar? It is on the way out. Judging from the consensus of all the stats counters, it is only marginally accurate. Google and WordPress say M3 got between 7,000 and 7,500 hits in the last month. One of the more popular plugins, which touts excellent accuracy from users, claims 19,500. My offsite counter claims just over 8,000.
So, why is it the popular, guaranteed accurate one says more than…
60,000?
Yes, I am looking for something else.
M3 has reached a terrific milestone on the way to being someplace where you can say I remember when M3 was just a baby blog… M3’s Alexa rating has jumped 1,000,000 points in the last month and finally been ranked for the United States. It is a lowly 650,000 website for the time being. Want to help with that?
M3 loves being on blog rolls, Looney Bins and Green Rooms around the blogosphere. For those who have already, thank you. For those who have not, could you please update M3’s address on your blog roll? Many, many thanks!
Complete Successes
We have had some fantastic, brain bending, highly intelligent, print-worthy discussions. We have reminisced about the past, pondered the future and questioned the present. YOU are the reason M3 stays around. In only 30 days, we have passed more than 1,400 comments!
This is excellent news. At the halfway point, we are 500 ahead of the curve for the 15,000 comments M3 is shooting for by the end of the year. At the rate we are going, we will be well over 20,000 comments!
No, these wonderful numbers in no way, shape or form include the spam bots. There were nearly 1,000 of those this month. (Idly wonders how long that would feed wombies.)
Right Turn, Clyde!
Since this post is being delivered on what is normally Talk Tuesday, we are going to split the difference and expand the topic from the usual Saturday Evening Post question to what is in your brain which is able to be picked.)
If you were here for F is for Framing, you know the example at the end post was a classic psychology exam question. The point of the exercise was to see how you would react to the semantics of the solutions. Of course, it was a trick question.
Shy executing the people, there is no way to determine with finite numbers how many would die. All three plans had the same results. Knowing concretely about the death rate, the choice of B is triggered by the “chance” to save more.
To all of my politicos in the M3 Readers, you missed your chance at a political free-for-all in the comments. Politicians and their speech writers are masters of framing. Given the negative connotation of the slang term for setting someone up to be a scapegoat, which is another definition of framing, the politically correct term for framing is spin.
Since the spin cycle is over, let’s look at a few other ways framing plays into your life on a daily basis.
- Advertising
- News
- Charities
So, what are the burning questions tonight?
- Do you think others framing you gives you enough intellectual credit?
- Does the news insult your intelligence?
- Are advertisers doing you or the client the better service when they target you for ads?
- Is the psychology behind framing sound?
I hope you have had a wonderful weekend. See you in the comments.
Red.
John McDevitt
/ April 11, 2012Intelligence and news don’t belong in the same sentence. Journalism is dead, replaced by editorials and propaganda. Fortunately, I don’t watch TV and read the local paper for the fun stuff.
Red
/ April 11, 2012I laughed out loud….literally! Thank you for your drill down truisms, John.
valentinelogar
/ April 12, 2012No, No and NO.
I have to go with John on this one there should never be News and Intelligence in the same sentence, unless there is also included “a complete lack thereof”.
Red
/ April 12, 2012I have the most enlightened audience!
El Guapo
/ April 22, 2012Later to the party than I’d like to be, but the way a question is framed is definitely significant.
As are the statistics derived from different framings of the same question.
Almost any question can be manipulated to evoke any response.
El Guapo recently posted..Friday Foolishness – Meta Edition
Red
/ April 22, 2012Spin. The bane of the post game commentary…despite the game.