Welcome to the second edition of "Zero Impact Posts" (ZIPs). If you missed the first edition, you may want to read it in order to learn about the many positive aspects of ZIPs and thus the raison d'etre for the ZIPs series.
According to Jotter, over the last week (from last Saturday to this Friday), there were 1705 posts, of which 1663 received recommendations and 967 had more than 9 commenters.
And according to me, there were only 11 posts that had no recommendations, no comments, and no tips. They had absolutely zero impact, as judged by these measures. See below for a table with these rare and remarkable posts.
One benefit of ZIPs (discussed in the
first edition) is that they tell us something about the Kos community, regarding what does not get us involved with a post (and thus does not irritate, misinform, obscure, time-waste, sleep-deprive, house-arrest, chair-lock, back-wear, etc, as HIPs can do). With that in mind, I've categorized the above posts as follows:
1) Promotional: Directs the reader somewhere else, such as to an event or to some other media (e.g., TV, radio, a blog on another site, etc).
post |
words |
description |
Hose Off~ |
361 |
Promotes current episode of on-line, interactive, live radio show "Netroots Radio". |
Occupy Tulsa~ |
43 |
Promotes a blog post on another website, which includes commentary relating to troubles with "Occupy Tulsa". |
LGBTI activists~ |
906 |
Promotes a live, webcasted TV discussion on human rights violations against LGBTI persons. |
Virtually Speaking~ |
754 |
Promotes upcoming episodes of on-line, interactive, live radio show "Virtually Speaking". |
Notes: These posts are not necessarily intended to engage the reader, but rather, they are intended to get the reader engaged with something else. It is interesting that the "LGBTI" post had 3 tweets and 9 shares. So, these posts may have more impact than what their impact score would indicate. By the way, the "LGBTI" post is also an example of the "cross-posted" category, which is described next.
2) Cross-posted: Comprised of text that was copied from some other place and that was not originally intended for DailyKos. It may not have even been initially intended for any blog.
post |
words |
description |
Two Comments~ |
3659 |
Includes comments submitted for the House & Senate records relating to tax proposals. These comments were originally written by the author Michael Binder as part of his role in the organization known as "The Center for Fiscal Equity". |
Notes: This author publishes very similar posts twice per week. These are fairly technical, as they were originally submitted to Congress. I think the purpose is just to widely and frequently disperse the ideas that he's passionate about.
3) Humorous: Political humor, generally making fun of Republicans.
post |
words |
description |
The Ant Farm |
1091 |
Compares the Republican party to an ant farm. |
Profiles in (Lack of) Courage |
785 |
Describes Romney's recent campaign events in a satirical manner. Includes links to many articles. |
Animation: Rocket Man-Newt Gingrich |
10 |
Includes video with graphics showing Gingrich landing on the moon. The video also has audio that dubs Gingrich's words into Elton John's song "Rocket Man". |
Notes: First of all, let me just say that I do not claim to have any special expertise on these types of posts, as evidenced by the fact that recently one of my humorous posts was a ZIP. But I do think that humor is very difficult, because people know they're not going to get any useful information from the post and unless they're amused right from the start, then they would rather read something else, particularly if the post will take many minutes of their day. It has to be very easy-to-read, with ideas that are appealing to a general audience, right from the start. Still, I enjoyed writing my humorous ZIP, and like all ZIPs, it was basically harmless.
4) Didactic: Calls on the Kos community and the general public to change the way they get involved in politics.
post |
words |
description |
It is our responsibility |
78 |
Calls on voters to do their own research on the candidates, rather than depending on the MSM to do the research. |
Lessons in Messaging |
2755 |
Criticizes media and progressives for not focusing on essential issues in a serious manner. Self-described as a rant. |
Notes: It seems like this kind of post could get people involved, especially if it were critical of Kossacks, but these two particular posts had qualities that may explain their low impact. E.g., one of these posts was very short (78 words). The other was very long (2755 words) and required some extra effort on the reader to ascertain the point. These particular posts seemed to be more a way of expressing one's self and clarifying one's thoughts than expecting much involvement from the reader.
5) Historical: Describes a historically significant person or event.
post |
words |
description |
Honoring Justice |
792 |
Recounts anecdotes about Robert Carter, a judge and civil-rights leader, who passed away recently. |
Notes: Perhaps, posts relating to history do not elicit many demonstrative reactions. However, in January, the author published
a similar post on Robert Carter that received one recommendation and one comment. So, there's some randomness when it comes to impact.
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The End
Congratulations! You made it! Whew, there are 1018 words behind you. Give yourself a hand. Whistle, clap, clap.
So, that's it for this week. Last week's edition was more of a humorous overview and this week's edition was more of a serious investigation. In future weeks, I have other plans for you dear reader, but not to worry, none of them are sinister. I'm committed to making sure that the ZIPs series impact is not negative. First, do no harm! Primum non nocere! And with that in mind, let's make it a rule to keep the discussion (if there be any) positive and not a festival of harsh ridicule. Remember, "we are all sensitive people, with so much to give ..."