(From the diaries. The plan is to eventually create a jotter-riffic stats page to make this sort of data available to researchers and other curious people -- kos)
This is a summary of the diaries, recommendations, and comments of 2006, and the people who made them.
In many ways this is a repeat of the end of year analysis from a year ago, with the exception that on site data is used rather than page scraped data. With that change in data source it is now possible to add analysis of comments. I'll include some results from 2005 for comparison.
For a taste of the analysis, see the Venn diagram below, otherwise see you after the jump.
How many people participate at Daily Kos?
In the year just past (2006) 32379 people either wrote a diary, commented on a diary, or left a comment attached to a diary. The most frequent activity was commenting in which 30356 took part, followed by recommending with 17407 and finally writing with 12903. In the previous year (2005) 26523 people participated, including 25044 who commented, 13980 who recommended, and 10068 who wrote diaries.
This may be easier to see in a table.
People | 2005 | 2006 |
front pagers | 233 | 123 |
diarists | 10068 | 12903 |
recommenders | 13980 | 17407 |
commenters | 25044 | 30356 |
all | 26523 | 32379 |
Nearly 3000 more people wrote diaries in 2006 than in 2005. While 5628 wrote diaries in both years, 4440 diarists from 2005 disappeared and 7275 new diarists appeared in 2006. Of those who wrote in both years, 2868 wrote more diaries in 2005, 2018 wrote more diaries in 2006, and 742 wrote the same number both years (planning ahead, no doubt). Overall, 9301 participants from 2005 failed to participate in 2006 (drop out rate of 35%), while 15157 participants were new in 2006 (47% newcomers). These changes reflect the dynamic nature of the active population of daily kos.
In last years summary diary I surmised that failing to count commenters would underestimate participation by about 20%; the present numbers suggest that was a bit low. A full third of participants only comment, as shown for 2006 in the following venn diagram. The write, recommend, and comment groups are shown as circles colored red, green, and blue respectively with areas proportional to their relative size. I used an on line utility to construct the diagram. Update [2007-1-5 13:43:20 by jotter]: I mislabeled some areas of the diagram; this has been corrected.
The 2006 data used for the Venn diagram is shown in the table below along with similar data for 2005. The number of participants in disjoint groups is given, such that the sum of the groups should be 100%.
Group | 2005 (%) | 2006 (%) |
Write | 405 (1.5) | 581 (1.8) |
Recommend | 1026 (3.9) | 1371 (4.2) |
Comment | 9666 (36.4) | 10936 (33.8) |
Write and Recommend (no comments) | 48 (0.2) | 71 (0.2) |
Write and Comment (no recommends) | 2472 (9.3) | 3455 (10.7) |
Recommend and Comment, (no diaries) | 5763 (21.7) | 7169 (22.1) |
Write, Comment, and Recommend diaries | 7143 (26.9) | 8796 (27.2) |
Any of the above | 26523 (100) | 32379 (100) |
Moving on, what did people do during 2005 at Daily Kos that left a countable result?
Action | 2005 | 2006 | per day | per hour | per diary | per diarist |
fp story | 5095 | 5866 | 16.1 | 0.7 | 1 | 48 |
diary | 87282 | 100548 | 275.5 | 11.5 | 1 | 7.8 |
recommend | 1310424 | 2275867 | 6235.3 | 259.8 | 22.6 | 176 |
comments | 2932236 | 4705116 | 12890.7 | 537.1 | 46.8 | 365 |
Impact | 12942* | 27491 | 75.3 | 3.1 | 0.27 | 2.1 |
(I wonder if the Top comment crew realized the magnitude of their undertaking - over 6000 12000 Update [2007-1-5 13:43:20 by jotter]: {sheesh, you'd think I'd be able to read my own tables} comments per day. Shh! Nobody tell them!)
The averages above don't give a sense of the skewed distributions actually observed: everyone knows that relatively few diaries and diarists get a disproportionate number of recommendations and comments. Fewer realize that a few recommending readers bestow the bulk of the recommendations, and a few commenters account for the bulk of the comments.
The table of centiles below helps show the distributions that underly these impressions. For example 50% of total impact derives from 290 diarists, 50% of all diary impact derives from 4881 diaries, 50% of recommendations were distributed by 751 recommending readers, and 50% of comments were made by 865 commenters.
Distribution of: centile boundaries; impact was used for diaries and writers, total number of comments or recommendations was used for recommenders and commenters.
Percentile | Diaries | Writers | Recommenders | Commenters |
90 | 450 | 13 | 45 | 57 |
80 | 1121 | 35 | 141 | 156 |
70 | 2013 | 75 | 281 | 312 |
60 | 3192 | 149 | 478 | 538 |
50 | 4881 | 290 | 751 | 865 |
40 | 8818 | 531 | 1142 | 1316 |
30 | 17026 | 914 | 1722 | 1979 |
20 | 29587 | 1568 | 2653 | 3086 |
10 | 49572 | 3050 | 4414 | 5416 |
0 | 103740 | 13283 | 17407 | 30356 |
Although not wishing to promote a contest like atmosphere, and recalling the many thousands who contributed to the "2nd" 50% of total impact, which required viewing and reading just as the first 50% did, it is in the nature of a statistical summary to highlight the upper extremes, and so I will. Tables of most prolific commenters and recommenders, and highest impact writers and diaries will be either shown below or added as comments if the main diary byte limit is exceeded.
Each list has only 117 items (that's how many I used last year) corresponding to diarists responsible for ~35% of total impact, recommending readers responsible for around ~18% of impact, commenters contributing 15% of comments, and diaries accounting for ~4% of total impact.
Writers
Diaries
n | impact | nrec | cnx | diary | author | date |
1 | 13.8 | 1283 | 1482 | Updated: Florida machines flipflopping votes to GOP already | Cream City | 10/30/06 |
2 | 12.0 | 1109 | 1305 | Thank-You Chairman Dean | bonddad | 11/08/06 |
3 | 10.0 | 940 | 1051 | My unreal night in Colorado - with radio link | Michael Schiavo | 10/26/06 |
4 | 10.0 | 894 | 1163 | Pre-1776 Mentality | Senator Russ Feingold | 02/02/06 |
5 | 9.7 | 917 | 1002 | Fighting RoboCalls. Expert advice. Updated Mon. 6 Nov. | G2geek | 11/05/06 |
6 | 9.5 | 893 | 1000 | Diebold consultant admits company altered software for '02 GA election (update II w/link) | clammyc | 09/21/06 |
7 | 9.3 | 820 | 1100 | Keith Olbermann In Trouble? | Six Degrees of Aaron | 08/31/06 |
8 | 9.2 | 876 | 937 | Emily Perez is dead... | 8ackgr0und N015e | 09/22/06 |
9 | 9.2 | 859 | 970 | Welcome NY Times and Newsweek readers | goldberry | 06/25/06 |
10 | 9.2 | 857 | 966 | Good Night, and Good Luck | dmsilev | 08/30/06 |
11 | 9.0 | 799 | 1063 | Bill Clinton Demands ABC Pull 9/11 Mockumentary! [MUST READ SECOND UPDATE!!!] | pontificator | 09/07/06 |
12 | 9.0 | 842 | 948 | The Foley case: I've seen this before... personally - ADDENDUM | Bob Johnson | 10/02/06 |
13 | 8.9 | 798 | 1019 | Privacy | kos | 10/11/06 |
14 | 8.8 | 820 | 936 | Truthout: Bush authorised illegal warrantless wiretaps BEFORE 9/11 | Pope Guilty | 01/13/06 |
15 | 8.8 | 816 | 932 | Nurse Threatened With Sedition For Criticizing Bush | Maccabee | 02/10/06 |
16 | 8.7 | 801 | 963 | [UPDATED AGAIN] *** Maryland Primary Election Diebold Disaster *** | Sharon in MD | 09/12/06 |
17 | 8.7 | 795 | 969 | John McCain... You Owe Me A Suicide | LieparDestin | 11/08/06 |
18 | 8.7 | 768 | 1015 | Impeachment: you think the world is not watching? | Jerome a Paris | 12/07/06 |
19 | 8.6 | 785 | 966 | ACTION ALERT: Blackwell purged Ohio Voter Rolls Oct 1st.- Vote Early. | KStreetProjector | 10/18/06 |
20 | 8.6 | 804 | 901 | Rove's Unexplained Personal Wealth | citizendc | 05/02/06 |
21 | 8.5 | 783 | 924 | Walk out of the Capitol | Bob Johnson | 09/22/06 |
22 | 8.5 | 791 | 901 | This Is How We Roll | Devilstower | 11/10/06 |
23 | 8.5 | 781 | 915 | Christian YWAM $$$ behind PT911 (UPDATED) | bewert | 09/08/06 |
24 | 8.4 | 784 | 898 | Pressuring ABC: What You Should Know About the TV Biz | Rippe | 09/08/06 |
25 | 8.4 | 751 | 973 | Jack Carter - A return to America's Values | Jimmy Carter | 03/23/06 |
26 | 8.4 | 763 | 935 | BREAKING: Bush Made Secret Deal With Bin Laden: No Retaliation for Cole Bombing | Hunter | 09/10/06 |
27 | 8.4 | 781 | 888 | Beautiful Dead Girls | hrh | 08/21/06 |
28 | 8.3 | 756 | 929 | Keith Steps onto the Mound and Hurls an I-ball...(update III) | kredwyn | 09/11/06 |
29 | 8.3 | 779 | 870 | Sen Allen, Welcome to America | RamR | 08/29/06 |
30 | 8.3 | 653 | 1136 | Real Hardball | John Kerry | 01/20/06 |
31 | 8.3 | 742 | 955 | A Shameful Political Ploy | Senator Russ Feingold | 06/06/06 |
32 | 8.3 | 772 | 878 | "NO." | occams hatchet | 11/09/06 |
33 | 8.3 | 765 | 891 | The Diebold Bombshell | Vyan | 07/24/06 |
34 | 8.2 | 741 | 916 | Bush just did WHAT? You won't believe this.... | topicalstorm | 10/05/06 |
35 | 8.1 | 697 | 994 | How Old Are You? Age of Kos Community (Poll-please vote if you have not) | DrSteveB | 11/21/06 |
36 | 8.1 | 711 | 956 | Censuring the President | Senator Russ Feingold | 03/13/06 |
37 | 8.1 | 747 | 864 | I've had enough. | PsiFighter37 | 05/11/06 |
38 | 8.0 | 752 | 848 | HUGE! Bush Guts Posse Comitatus, Grabs National Guard! [ACTION UPDATE] | Major Danby | 10/18/06 |
39 | 8.0 | 747 | 857 | Wolf Blitzer's career epitaph. | HollywoodOz | 10/30/06 |
40 | 8.0 | 765 | 808 | UPDATE II: VIDEO OF BOXER: FCC ordered media ownership study destroyed | SanJoseLady | 09/14/06 |
41 | 8.0 | 688 | 991 | Is DailyKos a rightwing website? | Jerome a Paris | 10/28/06 |
42 | 8.0 | 765 | 798 | I Apologize - Morning Update - $3800! | Sarah R Carter | 06/22/06 |
43 | 8.0 | 741 | 849 | CONDI LIES to Rebut Clinton | maha | 09/26/06 |
44 | 8.0 | 736 | 861 | LGF Beats Daily Kos? Are you kidding? | bradnickel | 12/14/06 |
45 | 7.9 | 734 | 851 | Taking the President to Court | Congressman John Conyers | 04/27/06 |
46 | 7.9 | 743 | 824 | Excuse me, Mr. Lieberman? | Michael Schiavo | 07/30/06 |
47 | 7.9 | 727 | 859 | dKos blows doors off right wing noise machine | jwb | 05/09/06 |
48 | 7.9 | 746 | 802 | VA-Sen - Webb Responds to Allen Theft - Updated | Granny Doc | 09/06/06 |
49 | 7.9 | 729 | 841 | RW columnist says 'Enough is enough,' quits GOP | quaoar | 11/02/06 |
50 | 7.9 | 725 | 851 | Princeton scientists create vote-stealing program for Diebold AccuVote-TS | Jules Siegel | 09/13/06 |
51 | 7.8 | 423 | 1325 | Daily Kos Roll Call (Do I Hear 2000?) | Delaware Dem | 03/22/06 |
52 | 7.8 | 715 | 853 | A Pledge from Michael Moore | Granny Doc | 11/14/06 |
53 | 7.8 | 734 | 802 | Mystery Solved: Alyssa Killed Self Rather than Be a Torturer | Erin in Flagstaff | 11/01/06 |
54 | 7.8 | 731 | 810 | Justice Kennedy Warns: "Turning Point in History". | raindrew | 08/09/06 |
55 | 7.8 | 726 | 816 | US Citizens denied re-entry to US, by fiat. No hearing. No charges. Just not let back in. | orthogonal | 08/28/06 |
56 | 7.8 | 732 | 799 | Suicide bomber strikes Davenport - Media silent | winstnsmth | 12/03/06 |
57 | 7.7 | 705 | 856 | From now on, I refuse to deny my gut instinct | JuliaAnn | 09/30/06 |
58 | 7.7 | 709 | 843 | A Leash That Slowly Tightens | Maccabee | 09/20/06 |
59 | 7.7 | 714 | 830 | Police attack Portland anti-Bush protest | varro | 10/06/06 |
60 | 7.6 | 709 | 820 | Restore The Fairness Doctrine! | davej | 11/09/06 |
61 | 7.6 | 668 | 904 | You got us here | Harry Reid | 11/07/06 |
62 | 7.5 | 699 | 810 | It all started with the Patriot Act and one lone senator, or 99 to 1. Updated. | petercjack | 11/09/06 |
63 | 7.5 | 704 | 781 | Important - if Ned Lamont wins tonight | Friar | 08/08/06 |
64 | 7.4 | 707 | 755 | Robocalled?Reporters waiting.Email me | debcoop | 11/06/06 |
65 | 7.3 | 669 | 798 | Madison Ave. Ad Exec Reveals How GOP Wins Elections | Mr Populist | 09/09/06 |
66 | 7.3 | 659 | 817 | OMG. Olbermann Editorializes Again. | RenaRF | 09/05/06 |
67 | 7.3 | 671 | 787 | Ashcroft chartered plane after same warning Condi ignored | blue meme | 10/04/06 |
68 | 7.3 | 672 | 782 | Election Results Live Blogging | 2006 Election Results | 11/07/06 |
69 | 7.3 | 668 | 792 | The People Have Spoken | Congressman John Conyers | 08/09/06 |
70 | 7.3 | 693 | 724 | Tears | Carnacki | 01/12/06 |
71 | 7.2 | 661 | 794 | Listen to the outrage on the Christian Right web: <chirp, chirp...> | jjhalpin | 10/01/06 |
72 | 7.2 | 610 | 905 | Kerry Smacks Down Snow, "Right Wing Nut-jobs" | salvador | 10/31/06 |
73 | 7.2 | 681 | 733 | Nuremberg Prosecutor says Bush should stand trial for war crimes | The Termite | 08/28/06 |
74 | 7.2 | 659 | 785 | How Wronger Can You Idiots Be??? | Bill in Portland Maine | 06/15/06 |
75 | 7.1 | 657 | 776 | Paul Krugman on Why Bush Wants to Torture | schuylkill | 09/24/06 |
76 | 7.1 | 648 | 786 | Questions and Answers | Jimmy Carter | 03/27/06 |
77 | 7.1 | 423 | 1155 | The Undeletable Daily Kos Roll Call | Delaware Dem | 11/24/06 |
78 | 7.1 | 624 | 836 | TN-Sen: Heartbreaking | R o o k | 10/25/06 |
79 | 7.1 | 617 | 848 | Clinton Smacks Down Chris Wallace -- HARD (Updates Galore) | MLDB | 09/22/06 |
80 | 7.0 | 655 | 749 | "I'm the Decider" | Roddy McCorley | 04/18/06 |
81 | 7.0 | 646 | 765 | Most powerful political cartoon ever? | Team Slacker | 08/21/06 |
82 | 7.0 | 668 | 699 | 1999 Teen Sex Scandal: Hastert & the GOP vs. ABC News & Brian Ross. UPDATE | dengre | 10/06/06 |
83 | 7.0 | 628 | 799 | Let's Get One Thing Straight: They Are Entitled to No Respect. | Delaware Dem | 11/30/06 |
84 | 7.0 | 649 | 737 | America Before Pearl Harbor - Early Kodachrome Images | johnnygunn | 12/07/06 |
85 | 6.9 | 641 | 755 | Mr. President, are you THREATENING me? | occams hatchet | 09/19/06 |
86 | 6.9 | 662 | 698 | Robocall smoking gun found: your help needed... | G2geek | 11/07/06 |
87 | 6.9 | 639 | 756 | Harry Reid's Brilliant Plan Kills Recess Appointments | trifecta | 12/04/06 |
88 | 6.9 | 650 | 724 | The Democrats' October Surprise | Devilstower | 09/27/06 |
89 | 6.9 | 619 | 800 | Why Bush Can't Talk: It's not the drugs, and it's not senility. | Inland | 08/24/06 |
90 | 6.9 | 625 | 779 | Mike Stark responds to Allen videotaped thuggery! | phriendlyjaime | 10/31/06 |
91 | 6.9 | 622 | 784 | Verb my fucking noun, Kos | Zaphod Beeblebrox | 08/19/06 |
92 | 6.9 | 616 | 790 | Keith Olbermann is my f*cking hero | TheClevelandSteamer | 10/05/06 |
93 | 6.9 | 583 | 857 | Hello DailyKos! | John Edwards | 10/11/06 |
94 | 6.9 | 629 | 752 | Bush has lost the world | NBBooks | 05/23/06 |
95 | 6.8 | 615 | 783 | CT-Sen: So You Wanna Know What Really Happened? | ttagaris | 11/14/06 |
96 | 6.8 | 632 | 733 | H.R. 2679, The "Christian Supremacy Act", To Hit House Floor | Troutfishing | 09/14/06 |
97 | 6.8 | 637 | 712 | Bush ends rule of law; Americans continue to shop, enjoy TV. | Kagro X | 04/30/06 |
98 | 6.8 | 609 | 779 | I Will NOT Calm the Fuck Down (3rd Minor Update). | RenaRF | 09/28/06 |
99 | 6.8 | 630 | 716 | To the Lurking Sean Hannity: I have some words for you | adigal | 01/27/06 |
100 | 6.8 | 547 | 896 | DEAN RESPONDS!: Carville calls for Dean to be Replaced by Ford | Steven R | 11/10/06 |
101 | 6.7 | 635 | 700 | Major Alarm Sounded on Signing Statements | Leaves on the Current | 10/05/06 |
102 | 6.7 | 633 | 705 | This is what domestic partnership gets you. | dmuir | 07/17/06 |
103 | 6.7 | 628 | 713 | Kerry Showdown with Reporter, Hits Raw Nerve with Reporter | kerrygoddess | 08/22/06 |
104 | 6.7 | 591 | 795 | Vote Your Sex/Gender & Sexual Orientation-Poll-Can We Break 10,000?(Demographic Tuesdays) | DrSteveB | 11/28/06 |
105 | 6.7 | 627 | 707 | Have We All Become Such Cowards? - Or What Is In Washington DC Is Not What This Soldier Fought For. | SGT MAJOR MYERS | 09/21/06 |
106 | 6.7 | 553 | 872 | Filibuster Alito | John Kerry | 01/26/06 |
107 | 6.7 | 556 | 853 | Thank You | Chuck Schumer | 11/15/06 |
108 | 6.7 | 602 | 753 | NEW UPDATE: Really Stand with Ned | John Kerry | 08/17/06 |
109 | 6.6 | 618 | 709 | Updated! Ken Blackwell's Blog Caught Scrubbing Super Secret Post | progressivearlingtonian | 03/08/06 |
110 | 6.6 | 616 | 710 | Election Official Confidential: a scoop from Ohio | histopresto | 10/16/06 |
111 | 6.6 | 610 | 722 | There is now only ONE political issue | teacherken | 09/28/06 |
112 | 6.6 | 574 | 804 | Democrats are in Trouble: A report from the field | Mikesco | 08/18/06 |
113 | 6.6 | 616 | 703 | You people PISS ME OFF (UPDATED) | Richard Cranium | 08/23/06 |
114 | 6.6 | 612 | 709 | So you want to take the gloves off? | Carnacki | 04/05/06 |
115 | 6.6 | 615 | 694 | A more important topic: Bush abandoned a U.S. soldier behind enemy lines | VirginiaDem | 11/01/06 |
116 | 6.6 | 605 | 716 | Breaking: Jim Webb Campaign files complaint with DOJ | AHiddenSaint | 11/06/06 |
117 | 6.6 | 625 | 657 | [update] BREAKING: Bogus VA voter calls point to Allen campaign | Todd Johnston | 11/07/06 |
Commenters - see comments
Recommenders - see comments
My continued congratulations to kos for originating this site, and to all Kossacks, Kosmopolitans, Kosmopotamians, Kossites, and Kogs of all stripes for their ongoing participation. The impact output equivalent to 3.0 Cheers and Jeers per hour, sustained over an entire year, continues to amaze.