One should check the wind direction before the pissing contest begins.
Just a thought.

you know, you just can't yourself, can you.

I hope you issue a retraction for this whopper:

"Indeed, all of Pat Crowley's previous posts and comments have changed to the generic, anonymous "RIFUTURE," as well."

complete fabrication. As usual.

I have to say that Pat Crowley cannot be accused of trying to deny responsibility for what he says.In that respect we are similar-"here's what I think,and if you don't like it -go screw".
I don't mind criticism half as much coming from a real person as when some jerkoff behind an alias throws out a snipe.
Jerzyk also takes responsibility for his thoughts.
Disclaimer:I agree with these guys about as often as I eat cow brains.

Hardly a "whopper" Pat. But could you clarify why some posts are by "Pat Crowley" and others by the more anonymous "RIFUTURE"? I noticed and became curious even before reading Justin's post.

Editorials in major newspapers run anonomously, maybe the RIFuture moniker is simply the opinion of "The Blog."

I tend to agree with Michael. Sometimes a generic byline or attribution is used for a generic thought. Pat certainly has plenty of those.

I noticed that Pat doesn't hesitate for a second to attribute malice on your part, using such words as "whopper" and "fabrication," but has no compunction about dishing it out on a regular basis. He can't even entertain the thought that someone might have a serious inquiry based on a valid perception. You still didn't get a direct response to the original inquiry, just more ad hominen sniping. Whenever he chooses to comment, it always seems to the the "drive by" kind .. the intellectual equivalent of "your mother's ugly and wears combat boots." Maybe he has a reason for wanting to change the subject, instead of just answering the question?

I do hope whatever money Matt may have gotten out of the deal was worth it, because the "brand" has suffered irreparable harm under its new owner... whomever or whatever it really is. Anyone wanting intellectual discourse and a rigorous debate of ideas certainly knows where not to look anymore.

Glad to see you fixed it, thought the proper etiquette is to cross out your error so people know what was fixed.

Chalk it up to typical right wing think.

My, my, my Patty my boy has his undies in a bundle. I find it ironic that someone who acts like he cares about everyone only knows how to spew anger and hate towards anyone that does not agree with him. I do not blame him for going to an alias. RIF has gone down hill and fast. Repeat the lies Pat, Repeat the lies.

People keep saying that RIF has gone downhill. How do you know? Is it because you keep going there? If you think it's gone downhill and you really disagree with the way PC runs the show over there, then stop going. I don't know how much of the traffic is from the right-wing, but if we all stop going there, it will be a decrease of some sort. The last time I was there (probably 6 weeks ago now), even some of the regular liberals on the site were getting grumpy with Crowley and threatening to stop posting and visiting.

So if you really don't like the site then stop going and stop linking to it. Treat it for what it is, some megalomaniac's ego oozing all over the ether.

Patrick-I stopped posting there awhile back.It seemed the people there were just going to the rating system rather than make an intelligible reply.
It also became clear that the whole tone changed after Jerzyk left.I think Matt is wrong about 80% of the time,but usually he would debate the questions in an interesting and challenging way.i really don't like preaching to the choir all the time-if no one tries to dispute your ideas,you can get too comfortable-bad thing.
I won't say Crowley always uses the "drive-by" method of response,but he doesn't avoid it either.
There are some other much more radical people there with whom I would not communicate because they are "programmed" sounding.
Also,there are a couple of people there who use RIF as a venue for their personal arguments-I don't know who they are and I don't know why they butt heads so often,but it detracts from the focus of the threads.

Over the past three months, traffic to Rhode Island's Future dropped about 10% and Anchor Rising dropped by 20%. I think the traffic changes are mostly due to the conclusion of the national election.

Rhode Island's Future and Anchor Rising actually help each other's traffic on the web. When Patrick Crowley writes here, it links back to his site - which in turn supports RIF page rank and key word/phrase relevancy.

And, a search of the phrase 'Rhode Islands Future' yields high relevancy for Anchor Rising. The sites are symbiotic. Not unlike Moe and Curly.

"Patrick-I stopped posting there awhile back.It seemed the people there were just going to the rating system rather than make an intelligible reply."

Glad I'm not the only one who noticed. Their own rules say the rating system is not to be used to mark down a post you disagree with but is relevant. Yet Mr. RIFUTURE and his webmaster are the kings of that. You call them on it and they simply respond with the always intelligent "it should be obvious".

Even better is when you post nothing inflammatory other than to disagree with them and you get banned from the site without notice. Yet you see the rest of them who agree with the owner and they can all call each other names, etc. I have no use for the site.

Robert,

I don't know from where you get your information (or even, specifically, what you claim to be measuring), but you state your case with much more confidence than Web statistics merit. Even with server-side data of what files are served to whom, I'm reluctant to make specific claims.

That said, using AWStats, the software that I've found over the years to offer the most reasonable sense of both trends and size (not too high, not too low, agreeing with other software on trends), our number of monthly visits was down about 3% in May from March/April (which were close), but up about 7% from January/February.

As always happens, we did see a large spike around the elections, with October ranking as our best month ever, about 20% higher than our May number, but we remain about 10% above our typical 2008 month before the spike started in September.

Exactly - the downward trend in blog interest for both RIF and AR is based on higher graphing around the elections and only covers about six months.

AWStats creates redundancies - especially with AOL accounts, images, and spiders. Lots of data, but not very informative.

PC is just plain nuts. Apparently he not only is ruining RIF, but the teachers union, and who knows what else. He's just an evil person, and a bully.

by the way, will Robert Balliot like to share how we know each other or should I ?

Robert:

1. I think you're missing the meaning of those who've referred to a decrease in interest in RI Future: They aren't talking about the past few months; they're talking about the past couple of years. I can't speak for RIF, but AR has seen nothing but growth year over year.

2. You still haven't explained your sources, much less why they're more accurate than AWStats, whatever it's limitations (and they've all got limitations).

3. I assume by "redundancies" you mean overcounting, rather than undercounting. That's one of the reasons I track visits, not pages or hits.

Kathy,

He's not evil. He's a victim of his own bad judgment and some continual unhealthy reinforcement from others.

Let's not go off the deep end.Crowley isn't evil-he's just a no compromise leftist.He's the kind of guy who always wears the second hat-the Congressional Whips,the Assistant Principal,the Deputy Warden-you know, the ones who exist to put the hammer down and let the first hat still look like a good guy.Walsh in this case.They are role playing to a certain degree.And it works,because a lot of people see Walsh as more personable and reasonable.
It's hard for me to run someone down for being committed to their side.I like to think I'm committed on the issues I care about.of course I'm not paid for it and I don't want a damn thing out of it except to see the leftists defeated badly.
You want evil?Child molesters.
And legislators like Art Handy and activist scumbags like Steven Brown who run interference for them.For what reason?Who knows?These POS's cannot explain themselves on that issue.
OK,rant is over.

It wouldn't be any great loss to see the rating system go. It's like having a toy available which invites misuse.