Vanity, thy name is.....Ron? UPDATED

About the middle of last month, someone made a rather brash promise, which I thought they would make good on, and did.

I got this little love note in the form of a comment from "Ron in Houston," whoever he/she/they is/are:

"Apparently your

'Authori -Tay'

has diminished and is well on its way to obscurity.

Your current Alexa rating: 387,641

Current rating of Texas FLDS: 383,772 and rising every day."

I'm sure it will, "Ron." Since last month those behind the site Ron brags up have been conducting what amounts to a small "denial of service attack" against their own site. Well, more accurately a "denial of service" attack is the same sort of tactic used to phony net ratings, multiplied exponentially, so as to block legitimate users from accessing a site, a sort of internet traffic jam.

The point is, the "hits" aren't real.

How do I know?

Aside from the fact that the "ratings rise" was meteoric in nature (approximately 2 weeks from the internet boondocks to stardom in a "no FLDS news" environment), there is this curious fact. FLDS Texas site visits, have no antecedent, no "precursor," or in internet lingo, no "upstream."

100 % of FLDS Texas visits go downstream to "Google," and none of them come FROM somewhere before they get to the blog.

By contrast there were several upstream sources and downstream destinations relating to the Modern Pharisee.

An analysis of search terms shows nearly 81% of the "other" site's visitors that came as a result of a search term, coming as a result of just the term "FLDS." The next place finisher also included FLDS and Walther, so really 85% came from one search term, the next place finisher was "Merril," at 1.26%.

For the "Modern Pharisee" there were 8 other search terms that outranked their second place finisher, including searches for me, by name, specifically as an exact phrase.

All this means is the numbers were "doped" or "juiced" and the obsession of those at that site is so overwhelming that they sought to win our little match by monkeying with their own score card. It also means that I am so important to them, that they felt it necessary to tie up several computers nailing their own site repeatedly so as to create the impression, all for my pleasure, that they were kicking my behind.

As you wish.

I haven't blogged about site rankings as a topic much in the last 7 months, the last significant post on the topic being in September of 2009.

It's also hard to believe that I'm dealing with many real people in that group, it's hard to even call them a "crowd." They continue to have remarkably similar sensitivities and bursts of temper and styles of trying to get a reaction out of me personally. You should see the emails I get. "Ron" even ended his little tantrum, with this:

"Post some more Marty Braemer posts and maybe those folks who really give a crap will boost you a few points."

Why do they care so much about Marty?

Marty is a guy who diddles teachers, and does it right in front of kids, and then calls the kids liars. He's an apparent embezzler from charitable and non profit organizations, like the Fort Plain Little league, and "they," whoever "they" are, seem to really be sensitive about me picking on Marty, "TxBluesMan," whatever the heck THAT is, once tried to extort me to remove posts ABOUT Marty.

TxBluesman (August 31st, 2009) - "I'll make a deal with you.

You take down the series of posts dealing with the adulterous preacher who you apparently dislike and issue a public apology, and I'll take down Stamp's comment and issue an apology for his comments.

You incessantly slammed this preacher, humiliated him and the woman he was involved with, when one post would have been sufficient. There was no need for that type of conduct."

Why the concern for a lecherous, adulterous Independent Free Baptist Pastor who abuses kids (albeit indirectly) by conducting sexual affairs right in front of them? I mean, I thought they were all about old men abusing kids in some sexual way. Granted, what Marty did isn't having sex with kids, but groping someone else's mother right in front of a kid, isn't a whole lot better.

Why the concern about someone who seems to have stolen kids baseball money?

Weird. I can't fathom it and I really don't spend much time trying.

Oh, while I was composing this, Ron wrote another love note:

"Boo!!!

Perhaps I'll boost your ratings...

Oops maybe not, because I only have Alexa installed on my firefox account!

How does it feel to be rapidly sinking into obscurity?"

Go back to your boiler room Ron. By the way, are you admitting to hammering your own sites with hits?

UPDATE (4/5/10 6:41pm Eastern): Best theory as to how "Ron" (who doesn't care about site rankings) faked it.

There is no "upstream" source for the hits to FLDS Texas, they are all direct.

Ron rigged the home pages for the Houston Public Library so that the would pull up FLDS Texas. The next page DOWNSTREAM from FLDS Texas, is Google. (Average user signs on, and says: What the !(*@)^#)(*, and then goes to Google.)

Is "Ron" more than a Lawyer? Is he...a....a.....LIBRARIAN?

Or is that just where Ron gives legal advice?

MORE WONKY STUFF: I mentioned above, there is no "UPSTREAM" to FLDS Texas site visits. What this means is that whoever is coming to the site, came there because the browser they used had it's "home page" set to the site, or they typed in the web address or accessed it from favorites on a "blank page."

FLDS Texas, during it's rocketing rise in Alexa Rankings, had a corresponding "Descent into Hell" plummet in it's visitors by "search results." Namely, over the last month, 75% fewer people found the site as a result of "googling" it. That suction was so powerful, that it took the 3 month ranking to -73%. By contrast, this site experienced a 114% increase in discovery by search, maintains a healthy "upstream" number and downstream one (in terms of diversity). The Pharisee's rise reversed a 3 month downward trend at a time when I wasn't posting much (sometimes going a whole week without opening my yap).

For those of you wondering, a "diverse" up and downstream means I am being visited by individuals, of their own volition who have their own agendas and come from wherever they were, going to wherever they want on the internet.

When no one looks for you in the cyber age, but you're suddenly found, and all those who find you go to the same somewhere immediately, the behavior is programmed and unnatural. Quite frankly, it is the "preponderance of evidence" needed to say that someone rigged a bunch of computers to go to a site to "fluff" it's numbers. Those computers (or some of them at least) are probably those of the Houston Public Library. And yes, I do have IP evidence, publicly available if anyone wants to know, of at least one "static" IP used at the Houston Public Library.

The network administrator of the Houston Public Library can identify and walk you to the actual computer in question.

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Blogging Future, Navel Gazing, Site Rankings

Count me as having my jaw to about knee level.

I've decided that part of my site ranking increase is the fact that it's summer and weird people like me don't know that, and weird people who read my blog regularly are like me in that regard. No sooner than I think I've topped out (again) but another round of site rankings reveal that I'm still on my way up. For those of you who want some substantive news, skip to the end of this post and I promise something self centered but newsworthy with regard to the Modern Pharisee will be revealed.

First of all, the self congratulatory site rankings post, along with some observations that might be worthwhile for the budding, mid level or semi serious blogger.

As of Today, Sunday July 12th, 2009 the Pharisee ranks 378,185th in the world as a site. That's not too bad really. More importantly my site rank in the United States is 68,639th. Some comparisons and blathering to hopefully make this interesting to the rest of you.

As a blogger, I am several things. In order of formative influences in life, I am a pastors grandson, a missionary kid, a bad student, flunked Greek and Latin, got "A's" in Calculus in Grad School and went on to be a Disc Jockey, a Car Salesman, a Bank Collector then a Loan officer, back to Cars as a "Finance Manager" (this is what I am now) with detours into Radio ad sales, though not necessarily in that particular order. I've read the Bible cover to cover more times than I can count, in excess of thirty times. To scoop all this together and make it into some sort of substantive impact however temporary in the "bloggosphere" impresses me in terms of how unlikely it all is. Mostly, I'm a "Car Guy" and that doesn't lend itself to the word "impressive" in most people's thinking.

So I look across the blogging world and compare myself to other bloggers and therein is the jaw dropping stuff.

Grits, a blog I am very impressed with is ranked 71,791 in the United States. Me? Bigger than Grits? That's like saying I'm the next best thing since sliced bread. Scott is an impressive blogger and a better writer than I.

The Irreverent Bill Medvecky, chock full of hyperbole and fun loving vitriol (how can those two things be said together?) has been swapping FLDS centered blogging leadership with me over the last several months. Bill is at 66,006* in this country and 351,513th in the world. Clearly US rank has a lot to do with World Wide ranking, as we are the biggest consumer of internet services and publishing.

Comparing Bill and Scott and myself though, there are some interesting observations to make. One is about "on site" time. I'm at 8.6 minutes per unique visitor per day, Bill at 2.6 and Scott at 2.0. This brings up the subject of what I think might be called "spamming" a site.

Scott ranks 113,476th in the Philippines. Are people really interested in the goings on in Texas criminal law practices to that extent, in the Philippines? Let's look at another site, that of LaShawn Barber. Lashawn has appeared on national cable programs and;

"Barber is a native of South Carolina. An alcoholic in her younger years, Barber took a vow of sobriety and abstinence shortly before her thirtieth birthday. She later moved to Washington, D.C. to serve as a legislative correspondent for a Democratic senator. She eventually became a political conservative and a Christian.

Since Barber turned to writing, her articles, book reviews, columns and essays have been published in The Washington Times, The Washington Post, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Denver Post, the Baltimore Times Online, Today's Christian Woman and other publications. Her work has also appeared online at Jewish World Review, National Review Online, Townhall.com and other sites."

So she's a big deal. Credentialed and all that jazz. I outrank her nationally but not world wide. You'd have to figure that LaShawn is an important read in North American, and perhaps England but really, France and India? I'd say "spamming" is an issue with her site as well, with a cumulative unique visitor on site time of 1.4 minutes a day. This is not to say that LaShawn doesn't have legit readers, she certainly does, but it would seem that some sites have their numbers "massaged" to some degree.

Then there is my friend Rick Beckman who has a legitimate site rank of 60,464. Rick wrote a plug in for Wordpress bloggers and that accounts for the majority of hits on his site, he says. They have to go to "Rickbeckman.org" to download it I guess, and there you go. Apparently it's a very handy plug in and Rick is profiting from that.

60's and 70's musical counter culture Icon Joni Mitchell? Yes, the Modern Pharisee draws more world wide. Weird to me, believe me, very weird. Bob Dylan? He kicks my hiney, trust me.

So it would seem that you can make a dent in public perception coming from about anywhere in the social spectrum. You can even pass your childhood music idols which has a truly disturbing quality to it. Some part of me never wants to be more popular than Joni Mitchell in any way shape or form, no matter how trivial.

All of this makes me wonder how someone ends up being on a "Bill O'Reilly" or "Sean Hannity" or "Anderson Cooper" or "Larry King" show. Certainly I have controversial enough views to rate. Clearly there's a bit of a machine and a selection process when it comes to allowing people into the corridors of powerful publicity. My friends tell me that having a book would do the trick or at least grease the skids towards that sort of appearance. That of course, will have to wait.

So the last part of the post on navel gazing site rankings and superstar comparisons and site news is this: I've settled a way of handling my religious obligations to my church who of course, disagree with me on a prominent blogging topic of the Modern Pharisee. I will for a time, if necessary, suspend the blogging on that topic for the duration of my debate with them, should they elect to compel me in that regard.

I strongly believe for good reason that I should submit to the governance of my church, even if I think they are wrong, and of course, even when I disagree with them. This has limits. They owe me edification. Assuming I am wrong simply telling me "you're wrong" and "shut up" only works in venues like the Catholic Church. In venues such as conservative reformed and Presbyterian denominations, you owe a man an explanation when he agrees with Luther but not the Westminster Confession of Faith. To that end I will archive all my advocacy regarding a certain marriage doctrine until that debate is over, should they agree to "edify" me in that way. Those of you who know me, know what I'm talking about. If there is to be a book it will be on the other end of this process. It might even end up to some degree being about that process.

On a completely different note I've been listening to Pandora Radio during the composing of this post. I've observed that as far as Pandora is concerned, my favorite song is "End of the Line" by "The Traveling Wilburys." There is some justification for this even though I am sometimes dubious. I never tire of hearing the song. The Wilburys consisted of George Harrison (The Beatles) and Roy Orbison when they were alive, and also the still living Bob Dylan, Tom Petty (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) and Jeff Lynne (Electric Light Orchestra). I like them all and no doubt Pandora figured that out and plays "End of the Line" in what I would call "Hot Rotation" on my personal Pandora Channel. There are days I just nod my head and say "They're right."

I do however have other tastes as reflected by the selection of songs like these:

"Something More Than This" - October Project from "Falling Farther In"
"The Flood at Lyons" - Renaissance from "Azure D'or"
"Polar Nettles" - Nico Case from "Middle Cyclone"
"Hold on, Hold on," also by Nico Case but from "Fox Confessor Brings The Flood"

I wish Pandora would realize how much I like Mary Fahl and her former band "October Project." "Something More Than This" shows the immense power of Fahl's voice in a way that brings tears to the eyes. Sadly there is no Mary Fahl and the "October Project" any longer, but for the music lover, that makes it easy on the budget since all that can be had under that band's banner is out there and is small enough a collection so as not to break the budget.

Enough rambling for the evening. Please put me on your prayer list. I'm really going to need it next Sunday. In other news, tomorrow is the Anniversary of my wife and I marrying on Flathead Lake in Montana. We have two other anniversaries of marriage. Yes, I know it's weird and I won't explain. Tomorrow is the one my wife likes best. It was our public ceremony and we composed our own vows. Their was no priest or minister in keeping with our marriage beliefs. It was on a lake, not in a church. I am a fortunate man indeed.

*as of July 15th, I moved slightly ahead of Bill. Again. Post something Bill!

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