When Nerds Attack: Number Crunching Madness!
Not so long ago in a land called Internet-celebrity-dom, Ze Frank, the maker of a video blog, got fed up with all the glowing download numbers swirling around Rocketboom. Rocketboom is another video blog (or vlog to the kids) and former home of Amanda “My Friends Say I’m Funny” Congdon.
The following roll of charts, stats, and log analysis could only make a mathematician happy. From BusinessWeek, who is trying to get the whole thing sorted out because they believe there’s someone out there that might still care about a retraction:
But, here’s where things get even trickier. Our original 211,000 estimate also included 55,000 downloads from outside services and sites,including Tivo and Rocketboom Japan, that distribute Rocketboom. We got this estimate directly from Andrew and not from the logs. So, based on this correction and the original outside download estimate, Rocketboom would have 133,000 daily downloads.
However, Andrew in his post now says that after a lot of research, he has pinpointed more sources for outside downloads. Instead of 55,000 outside downloads, he’s claiming 129,000 so that overall Rocketboom has 207,000 daily downloads.
And here’s the kicker:
Now the numbers look muddier than ever. And Andrew says that because he’s getting too many similar requests and because of NDAs, he isn’t going to let any third party, including Rob and me, verify these stats. At this point, he says it’s an issue between advertisers and himself.
HA! FOOL! Once you release the hell-hounds of statistical analysis there will be no respite! Or maybe that’s the IRS….
With it being mid-November I do believe that we’ve officially got a front runner in the most overblown tech ‘controversy’ category for this year.
