First, I have a confession: after looking over the front page on DailyKos, I immediately check out the Hidden Comments. Why would I subject myself to items that trusted users have voted down? Well, for one thing, I see it as a sign of community moderation done right. The rules for HRing are well understood by the community, and abuse of HR privileges don't go unchallenged. The hidden comments list can also demonstrate some "hot and controversial" topics, based on what subject areas bring out a little too much vitriol for the users.
Finally, I've always been intrigued by troll-rated diaries. Sometimes they're infuriating, sometimes they're to be laughed at, sometimes they're good only for the recipes people share in the comments. They seem to be a constant (and somewhat predictable) around here...but are they as constant and predictable as we think?
Many comments in troll-rated diaries comment specifically about Thursday and the "Worst Diary Contest." This isn't an actual contest, as far as I can tell (if it is, can I be a judge?), but was born out of a realization that more diaries appeared to have been posted on Thursday than any other day of the week. Was this accurate at one time? I can't say; sadly anything longer than 3 months gives me missing files on the search function...anyone else have this issue?
What I was able to do, though, is look at all the hide-rated Tip Jars from the past 3 months (those Tip Jars where there are at least 2 more hide-rates than recommends). I grouped the results by day of the week through consultation of a calendar.
The result?
In the past three months, the most hide-rated diaries were posted on a Wednesday (37). Second place was Thursday with 25, followed by Saturday with 23. Friday saw the fewest hide-rated diaries (18, half as many as Wednesday).
Wednesday saw the most hide-rated diaries from one to three months ago, as well as in the period of two to four weeks ago. In the past two weeks, there's been little difference; interestingly, there have been almost half as many hide-rated diaries in the past two weeks (12) than the previous two weeks (23).
So what does this mean? I'm not sure, to be honest. Part of me thinks Wednesday, being in the center of the traditional M-F work week, may bring out the worst in many people; it's been two full days since a day off, and two more full days of work are looming. The classic internet troll stuck behind a computer all day would be more likely to seek enjoyment in ridiculous diaries on more serious boards such as this one. In other situations, long-time members of DKos may be more prone to anger, leading to both ill-considered diaries being posted and more irritated readers happy to hide-rate.
Of course this could be nothing more than meta. I just found the pattern interesting enough to share with the DKos community. Perhaps the Worst Diary Contest should be moved to Wednesdays instead of Thursdays?