With the Doomsday Clock at two minutes to midnight, the closest to the final bell since 1953, when the Soviets lit their first fusion-based bomb‚ we could say the biggest news story is Trump hasn’t killed us all yet! The mere continuing existence of Dakota Free Press could be another banner story for 2018: despite the fact that Der Führer came to my beloved home state and repeated his threat to take the First Amendment away from anyone who says “bad stuff”, my fearless critique of Republican (and occasional Democratic) foolishness keeps coming!
But to make a “Top Stories of 2018” list that reflects more than my own read, I like to count which stories got us talking the most.
Thus, here’s the list that you created, dear readers: the 2018 Dakota Free Press posts that elicited the most comments. 32 stories racked up 100 or more comments:
Some statistics:
- Total DFP posts in 2018 (not counting this one!): 1,545.
- Total comments on 2018 posts: 28,854.
- Average number of comments per post: 18.7.
- Median number of comments per post: 10.
- Posts with 0 comments: 87 (5.6%).
- Posts with 1 to 9 comments: 642 (41.6%).
- Posts with 10 to 49 comments: 692 (44.8%).
- Posts with 50 to 99 comments: 92 (6.0%).
- Posts with 100 or more comments (listed above): 32 (2.1%).
A good two thirds of these hot conversation starters tied directly to South Dakota. Seven of those 3-figure comment magnets dealt directly with the mid-term election, mostly with the race for Governor. Five of these top talking points dealt primarily with agriculture—the Trump tariffs and, finally, the Farm Bill.
Thank you, readers, for contributing so many thoughts to our discussion of these topics and how they affect South Dakota and the rest of our world. For thirteen years, your comments have challenged me, educated me, and motivated me to write more. Let’s do another thirteen!
Stay tuned: I’ll fire up the database and create a list of the top 2018 stories by views in a little bit!
Bonus Stats: Against my expectations, months with the least comments were January, February, and March, the months in which the Legislature was in Session and when I like to think I do some of my best original and detailed reporting. The hottest months for comments were September and July:
| month | comments |
| Jan | 1,521 |
| Feb | 1,383 |
| Mar | 2,129 |
| Apr | 2,683 |
| May | 2,383 |
| Jun | 2,287 |
| Jul | 2,835 |
| Aug | 2,570 |
| Sep | 2,999 |
| Oct | 2,788 |
| Nov | 2,549 |
| Dec | 2,727 |
Do we get a list of the people who commented the most, again. I was first last year and have been embarrassed all year. Tried to cut it in half but you know how addicting DFP is. :)
Thank you Cory. You are one of the top, if not The Top, political reporters in SD. Seriously. Your in depth analysis, solid sourcing and willingness to engage with your readers is really outstanding. I admire your ability to discuss with folks from all parts of the political spectrum.
Kudos to you and thank you for keeping this SD lover/hater abreast of what’s going on in the Land of Infinite Variety. 😁
Happy 2019!
Yes he/they (trump/GOP) killed us all. Climate change is of course the top story asWoods Hole/NASA/JPL/Denmark Univ report EAST Antarctica ice sheetsa are melting. 4Xs the size of Greenland ice cap. 28 meter sea level rise potential.
Of course if N. Korea doesn’t kill us all 1st🌎🌏 Hippy new year DFP liberals!
Most of your commenters, Mr, H, are either out-of-staters who really don’t grasp things here in South Dakota, or people in the legislatures who are busy eating free shrimp and drinking free bud light beers and having libbie finger foods in the bowels of the Capitol building. That explains your shortages. When you, too, are in the legislatures, I expect these statistics will change. Happy new year, Mr. H, and don’t stop slapping people with wet towels.
You, Bob, Bill and I shall have to break fast together in this new year. It is Bob’s turn to buy, so he can pick the locale. Not aberdeen, it has to be in Rapid.
New year. New start. Grudzilla, what is your master plan to deal with us out of staters? If you spent a quarter of your time looking for solutions to one party wingnut rule in Northern Mississippi that you spend whining to Cory about us, you might get something done. Happy New Year. Don’t let me spoil it.
Cory you do amazing work covering so many issues regardless of whether we agree with you. It is a service to the state. Of course I’m hopeful in 2019 you’ll come around and champion a consistent ethic on life and wake up to the plight of the unborn.
I hope you’ll expand coverage of native issues in our state. The state’s greatest challenge are third world conditions within our border—— it’s a tired excuse that the fix is Federal or financial. I forecast Noem will face a standoff in her term/s and the natives still don’t have a Gandhi in their midst and the unChristlike state will stifle the tension with militarized police tactics. The suspicions and accusations between Red and White in the state are mutual and we need a peacemaker and active reconciliation. Maybe ill take up blogging again and focus on this matter. I thought to share my growing list of little things that would mean a lot to SD natives with Noem. My SD T.R.A.D.E. suggestion of strategic land swaps and industry centers continues to take shape on my end and I’m also working on a massive passenger rail system -maybe Rapid Rail- that is native owned and not only connects east and west but brings the reservations together.
I took a look at the post with the most comments. I note that I started out the commenting with a very moderate take on the matter. I’m a pretty progressive guy, but I thought I provided some good points that recognized reality. I followed that up a few comments later with another perceptive post. After a few reasonable comments Jason got involved, and the discussion devolved into a ridiculous thread of people chasing Jason’s nuttiness. Having an absolute nut as a commenter appears to be the route to a long thread.
I try my best NOT to respond to Jason, The Troll, When he becomes involved I tend to wander away from the discussion, or ignore his inanity and contribute without answering him. He’s not here to have a real conversation.
I value conservatives who you can have a conversation with. I even like Grudz, who provides some caustic comments with a pinch of a chuckle. I still think Grudz is really from Wyoming, just across the border, but pretends to be from South Dakota, which is why he is so intent on pointing out that I don’t live in South Dakota anymore. Until Grudz provides proof of his residency, I have resolved to call him an out-of-stater, too.
Cory, Happy New Year to you and yours! Really I appreciate your blog because you can devote so much attention to so may aspects of life in our state and draw people into the conversation. I’m sorry for all of us that we have to put up with someone like Jason who apparently was “cross-wired” at birth thru no fault of his parents. Like flies and mosquitoes-he may be something we have to put up with. Thanks again for all your work!
Cory, thank you for the privilege of posting on your blog. The information that is available to all of us about our state is fantastic. In particular, the information about voting and about those who would love to take that away from us as they have shown. The very best to you and your family for the past year and for the year to come.
Can’t wait for the first post on guns in schools.Now that a judge has weighed in on constitutional requirements of thse sworn to protect the innocent.
I too appreciate your efforts Cory. Thanks for the forum and opportinity for us regular folks to interact with you and each other, sharing viewpoints and ideas.
As for Jason, OldSarg and many other Trumpists, I appreciate their willingness to express the beliefs of the new Trumpublicans. Their posts offer an opportunity to see which Trump lies have been swallowed by Trumpists and a forum for readers to respond with evidence of the truth for anyone still wanting to connect with reality.
BCB – Fully agree with your first paragraph and marvel at your insight in the second.
PP at DCW sells his blog as the most popular and influential SD political blog. Wish he would release his stats as you have so we can know for sure. No free speech over there. I’ve been blocked all year and I’ve never been rude. He just doesn’t like what I say.
Mr. Hickey, you are a swell enough fellow and contribute interesting thoughts. It is a damned shame you are banished from Mr. PP’s bloggings.
I, for one, look forward to how your idea about building a train line across the state will work. It will be nice to ride the train from Rapid to Sioux Falls to go to a better mall for the afternoon or perhaps attend the theatre, and I’m sure having people be able to ride from Pine Ridge to St. Francis and back for a day outing will be a fine thing. Will tickets be under 6 figures?
I look forward to grudznick’s decrials of every out-of-state lobbyist whom Matt McCaulley shepherds to the mic during Session to promote his and Kristi’s brand of corporate fascism.
Thank you, Steve, for the compliment and the advice. I’ve already come around to a consistent ethic on life (my respect for the dignity of life leads to respect for adult autonomy which leads to my refusal to use the state to force women who don’t want to be pregnant to remain pregnant), so we’ll likely continue through 2019 to disagree on that issue.
But to the extent I can bring more attention to indigenous issues, I will be glad to do so. If you take up blogging again and provide more insight on those issues, I’ll be happy give your thoughts more attention.
Steve, it would be interesting to get beyond the selling point, quantify the popularity and influence that DWC claims, and compare it with DFP’s. Both qualities are tough to measure.
Popularity might be signaled by number of commenters and comments, but we should remember that the number of comments may not reflect the number of readers. For every commenter, how many people are there who read silently, never join the conversation online, but tell their friends about what they’ve read?
Influence is even harder to measure. We could say DWC is more influential than DFP, because everyone who advertises on DWC gets elected. (Sorry, Tim, Tom, Aaron…!) But that’s post hoc ergo propter hoc: it’s far more likely than DWC advertisers win because they are Republicans, and DWC has the happy position of being the majority mouthpiece. It’s not influence when all you do is repeat what the boss tells you.
We could measure real influence with data that I’m betting we cannot get: how many legislators and executive branch employees read each blog? How much time do they spend reading each blog? How often do they mention things they read on each blog in conversations at work, in deliberations on bills and policies? How often do they make different decisions from what they would have made without reading each blog?
Like George Bailey, we don’t really know the influence we have unless an angel drops in and provides us with a sci-fi glimpse into an alternative universe where we do not exist. How different would the world be if I didn’t write 10.8 novels worth of posts (1,545 posts in 2018, average 450 words per post) and 4.7 novels worth of comments in 2018… and if I had instead written actual novels, or a doctoral dissertation and research papers?
Uff da—the New Year can bring up some good existential questions, can’t it?
Mr. H is mighty prolific. We can indeed measure how many advertisers were successful, but we cannot measure how often people talk about Mr. PP or Mr. H over lunches, be they free in the legislatures or be they bought in downtown Rapid City or at the Culvers in Aberdeen.
Donald does well to note how some long threads are the result not of sustained, focused analysis of an issue but of distraction wrought by just one bad actor who can’t stand the facts that undermine his failing worldview. Like Bearcreekbat, I enjoy the opportunity for honest conversation with Trump supporters who are willing to come talk with us and present their view of the world. I will continue to welcome Trump voters, conservatives, Libertarians, and other people not like myself to come offer their diverse perspectives. However, Trump and his supporters too often view language as a bludgeon to hurt their “enemies,” not as a tool to build common understanding. Sometimes—as when OldSarg wished Roger Cornelius an early death—their presence does nothing but harm.
We benefit from honest conversations with people with different opinions, experiences, and expertise. However, when Trumpists adopt the Trump approach, the “benefit” we get is like when a medical student gets to see a patient with a particular disease: we learn to diagnose and treat the disease. We don’t want more of the disease.
Jake, Jerry, BCB, all who appreciate the blog, thank you for your kind words! I’m happy to be able to enrich and inform my neighbors!
Grudz, I’m hoping lots of people got Amazon Dots and other such toys for Christmas. Then I can figure out how to hack into Amazon’s database and get a count of how many times the Dot hears “Dakota Free Press” during family conversations. ;-)
But seriously, I won’t spend a lot of time or money doing Nielsen-type market research to measure DFP’s popularity and influence or advertising to boost those factors. I’ll just keep doing what I did to get all you readers to have all these conversations: write what I love, write the truth, and write it well.
As one of your advisors, Mr. H, I urge you to focus your viability on influencing people at Talleys and various Culvers instead of at the dinner table in people’s homes. In the homes, you either own their minds or you do not, and papa ranting about various policies at the table tends to turn off the chillens, as opposed to people like I, delivering my breakfast rant to community leaders, where hearts and minds are influenced. And I know not what these Dot things are but we do not allow devices at our meetings, and that includes listening bugs too.
I would, however, enjoy introducing you as a guest speaker at breakfast, for while many might not agree with you they would respect your opinions and probably enjoy your deliveries.
Do people actually talk at Culver’s? I love their burgers, but it doesn’t seem like a great place for socializing, at least not here in Aberdeen’s mall/Walmart sprawl on the east side of town.
I think everybody’s too focused on wiping all that good burger grease off their fingers and scooping up those last plops of custard.
But wait: what focus does one need to influence others? Isn’t it enough just to explain the facts and not make stuff up?