2021 Blog Year in Review: Wordiest DFP Commenters!

1. larry kurtz 2022-01-01 11:59

   Cool. Does WordPress have that feature or is it on your Mac or third party app?
2. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2022-01-01 12:05

   Larry, I’m using a plugin called “Database Browser” that my web host found and installed for me. It lets me run SQL queries to pll data straight from my WordPress tables. If you like, I can share the SQL scripts that produce the above numbers. The plugin displays the results on the screen for easy copying and pasting; it also exports results in HTML and CSV, so you can paste the results into blog posts or into Excel to make charts.
3. larry kurtz 2022-01-01 12:21

   I am probably too lazy for chart making but have been searching for a reliable word counter. Have you tried the one in Google Docs?
4. Porter Lansing 2022-01-01 12:37

   The Dakota Free Press comment section saw a decline in activity this year.”
   Do you think this is because the arguments have declined, now that we don’t get other people’s comments in our email?
   It matters very little what I think but this change was a good thing.
   It’s known knowledge that the human brain is never more engaged than when it’s racing to compose the next expression in an argument.
   But a mind engaged in argument is time wasted, within the pursuit of new things and new ideas.
   You know, innovation skills.
   A piece of what leaves South Dakota with the “brain drain”, as you rank in the bottom ten states for innovation skills.
5. Porter Lansing 2022-01-01 12:40

   PS … grudznick talks more than me, however he used fewer intelligent words. :)
6. Donald Pay 2022-01-01 13:19

   Pretty depressing that I regurgitated so many words here, when I have my novel to finish. If I don’t finish it before I die, Cory is to blame.
7. mike from iowa 2022-01-01 13:25

   Less is more.

   ps I caught inaugural New Year’s mouse overnight. From the condition this olde house is in, I could conceivably catch one mouse for each comment in 2022.
8. mike from iowa 2022-01-01 13:29

   Porter, you had to sign up for the comments in your email. The box used to be under “save my name and email” displayed with every comment. You could also unsubscribe to them, as well. Even I figured it out after awhile.
9. buckobear 2022-01-01 14:07

   … and I didn’t even make the list !
10. Nix 2022-01-01 15:18

    Porter,
    Thanks for “It’s known knowledge that the human brain is never more engaged than when it’s racing to compose the next expression in an argument. “

    I need to look in the mirror and pump the brakes.
    Thanks again.
11. grudznick 2022-01-01 15:31

    Do you have reports on goats gotten? I’d like to validate my tally.
12. Bob Newland 2022-01-01 15:45

    Grudznutz, don’t you mean goats sucked off? Your tally is roughly two a day, I think.
13. Eve Fisher 2022-01-01 17:22

    It was a busy year for me; I’ll try to do better commenting in 2022.
14. Arlo Blundt 2022-01-01 18:03

    Well….I resolve to be brief and to the point in 2022.
15. V 2022-01-02 07:08

    Buckobear, you and I tied with 111 comments but it’s obvious that I use more words, 100 per comment on the average. More words does not necessarily translate to more content, however.

    Thank you, Cory, for a forum to comment and to read those of others.
16. John Dale 2022-01-02 07:50

    Thanks for letting me post.
17. Laurie 2022-01-02 08:24

    Agree with mike from Iowa. Less is more.
18. mike from iowa 2022-01-02 09:02

    Grudzilla has validated his dire need for a white coat intervention. Shoot, I had thought 5G ate John Dale. Must have hidden deep in his conspiracy theory rabbit hole(s).
19. RST Tribal Member 2022-01-02 09:48

    2022 will be shaping up to be a made or break year for the 45 declared SD RINO, grabbed by the you know where America’s governor, the sparrow gerrymandering and a host of goofiness from the inept inbred Republicans in SD.

    Will the happy weed be on the campaign stump in 2022 or go up in smoke again?. Will the COVID virus and its mutations continue to clear out the genetic pool of fools in US and SD along with innocent bystanders? Will there be an Indian upraising during the replacement of a termed out representative? What about SD’s poster gimmick of hiding dirty money for bad actors throughout the world?

    Where is SD headed in 2022 and beyond? If the past is the future then oh oh. Will critical race theory become common educational practice? Many families in Gregory, Lyman, Bennett, Mellette and Tripp counties would not want their current generation to learn how their fore parents screwed the Indians and US Gov’t out of the land in those counties that is held dearly today. Especially the “Brandon” screaming ass wipe families in Todd and Tripp counties. Surely SD Republican leadership don’t want young Indian people to learn about any questionable behaviors of the past, as they will do something about it.

    Day 2 of 2022, more to come from DFP and it’s commenters.
20. Mark Anderson 2022-01-02 10:45

    Thanks, I can use this info to get a raise. Soros you know.
21. Vi Kingman 2022-01-02 10:58

    I will strive to do better Cory
22. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2022-01-02 12:44

    Do better? Vi Kingman, I’m just glad you and everyone else are here. Keep those comments coming!
23. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2022-01-02 12:44

    Mark, yeah, mention DFP to Soros as well. He is seriously underpaying all of us.
24. Porter Lansing 2022-01-02 12:57

    My hero Russell Means would’ve been proud of this sentiment.
    “Surely SD Republican leadership don’t want young Indian people to learn about any questionable behaviors of the past, as they will do something about it.”
    Remember when AIM was scaring the bejezus out of whitey?
    I was living on the REZ in Eagle Butte and have never felt safer among a dominant culture.
    It’s time for some Critical Race Theory to be put into Critical Race Action.
25. mike from iowa 2022-01-02 12:58

    RST Tribal Member…. Excerpt from South DaCola post 1/1/22…

    Often, when lawmakers want to make it safe for the rest of us to go to the bathroom or make abortions impossible to get or guns easier to get, they are getting their marching orders from outside the state.

    Which also baffles me. If you do google searches on these three issues, while the poll numbers fluctuate, none drop below 50% (These are nationwide averages based on several polls);

    • Support keeping Abortion Legal and Safe: 60% Support

    • Federal legalization of Adult use recreational cannabis: 60% Support

    • Stricter gun laws and other gun control measures: 53% Support

    I kind of scratch my head when the peeps in Pierre act like South Dakota is some island when it comes to how the rest of the country thinks (even though over HALF of our funding comes from Federal taxpayers), I would remind you that when it comes to legal abortion and Rec MJ, voters have supported it in this state.
26. mike from iowa 2022-01-02 13:00

    Is South Duhkota burning while Noem fiddles around?
27. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2022-01-02 13:17

    Larry< i haven't tried the word counter in Google Docs. The trick for stats like this is that I have to run character counts on 18K+ distinct comments by author. If the counter in Google Docs is just like the counter in Word or Notepad++ (if you’re running Windows, you should get this program now and never bother with MS Notepad again) or TextMate (the Mac next-best alternative to Notepad++ that I’ve found), you get word count for an entire chunk of text, but you can’t get separate counts for each comment that you could sum by author… at least not without several days worth of individual clicks and data entry.

    Creating the list and chart above, which requires grouping total words and comments by author, works far more easily, efficiently, and automatically with a SQL query on the database. For those of you eager to nerd out, here’s the code, which anyone with WordPress blog and access to their database can run:

    SELECT comment_author, comment_author_email
, FORMAT(SUM(LENGTH(comment_content))/5.1,1) Words
, FORMAT(SUM(LENGTH(comment_content))/5.1/64531,1) Novels
, COUNT(comment_content) Comments
FROM wp_comments
WHERE comment_date BETWEEN '2021-01-01 00:00:00' AND '2021-12-31 23:59:59'
AND comment_approved=1
GROUP BY comment_author
ORDER BY SUM(LENGTH(comment_content)) DESC
LIMIT 101

    • SELECT tells which fields I want to pull from the table.
    • LENGTH returns the number of characters in the comment content.
    • SUM() adds up all of those lengths.
    • FORMAT(…,1) turns the results of the division into a number with a single decimal place. If you wanted no decimal place, you’d just change the at the end of the express to 0.
    • COUNT() counts the number of comments.
    • FROM tells which table to pull the data from.
    • The compound WHERE clause limits the query to (1) comments posted between the given dates AND (2) comments that have been approved (deleted comments still hang around in the database, cluttering up the works!)
    • GROUP BY tells the query to make separate counts for each comment author
    • ORDER BY lists the results in DESCending order by each author’s total character count. (If you want to list authors by most comments instead of total comment length, replace “SUM(LENGTH(comment_content))” with “COUNT(comment_content)” or “Comments”.
    • LIMIT 100 tells the query to list just the first 101 results (set to 101 to get 100 commenters other than myself!).

    The code may look like gobbledygook, but I paste that code into my SQL plugin and get the top 101 results in less than 3 seconds. Whee!
28. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2022-01-02 13:20

    Critical Race Theory into Critical Race Action? Now there’s a topic worth some commentary. Crank out those book-equivalents!
29. larry kurtz 2022-01-02 13:33

    Thanks, Cory. Will give it a whirl!
30. Guy 2022-01-02 16:27

    Thank God I did NOT make the top of the list ! (((SIGH)))…but, I’m even surprised I made it to the middle of the list? I didn’t think I replied that much?!?
31. DaveFN 2022-01-02 17:07

    “More people are reading Dakota Free Press, but fewer people are responding in the comment section. I invite your speculation on the reasons for these cross-trends.”

    Venturing to guess that DFP pulls in readers who are not particularly “progressive,” and don’t want to post but do find what Cory writes is compelling enough to read. Good job, Cory.
32. DaveFN 2022-01-02 21:29

    …and the number of less-than-“liberal” readers turning to DFP is increasing, aka lurkers who want an intelligent venuenfor a change. One can but hope.

    Alternatively, an increasingly “liberal” cohort of new readers are intimidated into not posting amongst the rather closed group of those who do post over and over again, as it takes some time before they start posting and feel accepted.

    No stone unturned when it comes to postulating reasons. Gedanken experiments, or at least, gedanken hypotheses with no empirical support as of yet.
33. leslie 2022-01-03 10:11

    Trumpist Grdz’s DFP. Sigh. The right wins again.
34. Bonnie B Fairbank 2022-01-03 19:06

    I wish I’d said “Non-disparagement” = “Truthiness” for Ms. Bren. I’ve been hung out to dry, and so has she.

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