Some Stats On Yesterday's Post

AVC on June 1, 2011:

Total Unique Visitors: 45,055 (google analytics)

Total Visits: 47,633 (google analytics)

Total Page Views: 54,105 (google analytics)

Total Comments on AVC: 415 (disqus)

Total Comments on Hacker News: 175

Total Social Media Mentions: 1,453 (disqus)

Top Refers: Hacker News (18,651 visits) and Twitter (~12,000 visits)

It was a big day, I think the biggest in the history of this blog. It may take me a day or two to make it through all of the comments, but I will.

Clearly this is a hot topic. It's got me hot and it's got a few others hot too. That's a good thing. It's clear that we need to do more to fix the software patents mess and the reaction to yesterday's post is a strong signal to me on that front.

#VC & Technology#Web/Tech

Comments (Archived):

  1. awaldstein

    Amazing!Where do you pull this stat from:”Total Social Media Mentions: 1,453 (disqus)”

    1. fredwilson

      disqus analyticsthey call it “reactions”

      1. awaldstein

        Thnx

        1. fredwilson

          i have a bunch of analytics on AVC including google, sitemeter, chartbeat, disqus, percent mobile, and probably a few moreit would be great to have a single dashboard that logged into all of them and gave me a single view

          1. JimHirshfield

            Ducksboard.com perhaps.

          2. fredwilson

            really? i’ll check it out

          3. markslater

            i just signed up – this is exactly what i was looking for.

          4. awaldstein

            Agreed. Dashboards are like a concrete poem about a web object (URL). Great to dig into, never finished pulling ideas from.

          5. markslater

            Fred – i have the same issue with our company. We use google analytics, bit.ly analytics (we generate alot of links), chartbeat and Getsatisfaction support.  We then have our internal CMS metrics which are a deep dive on the service.I am trying to aggregate all of these in to a dashboard and provide access to our investors and advisors. A consolidated world view is something both investors are asking for and mangement needs. And i’m a metrics junkie.

  2. Jan Schultink

    Impressive.Maybe we need some sort of online depository where are all “patent trolls” can be listed nicely and people can post what innovation is stopped because of it. A simple Wiki could do.[Partly related] I am thinking hard how I could create one voice for the hundreds of millions of Internet users that want to pay for but cannot access iTunes and other digital content because of 19th century copyright practices. Legally impossible to solve, but at least it will give a powerful online steam valve for frustration and say “enough is enough”

    1. fredwilson

      Great idea for the wiki. I wonder if someone has already started that

      1. Jorge M. Torres

        Check out the Patent Freedom site.

    2. Chris

      Awesome idea. I will kick in the first $50 for crowdsourced legal support of worst victims highlighted by wiki

  3. JLM

    Hell of a day at the ball park.Proves up several things:You touched the third rail and the subject matter aroused, inflamed and intensified passions — a damn good thing and quite remarkable.  Really!Your message is getting out and is being cast wide and far.  You are a “big” influencer.  You may have to move to Texas to be that big.There is a huge difference in the knowledge base as it relates to the specific issue of software IP and patents.  I would not feel bad about sending in a small tuition check.The troll issue is a huge inflammatory issue and the trolls are alive and well.You have a great opportunity to harness this energy in a Tea Party or Egypt kind of way.  Just compiling the info on who has an iron in the fire is a great organizing theme.  Think about sponsoring — “Tech Innovators Against Software Patents” — some sticky organization which can bottle this energy and bring it to bear at the right time.  PAC?Organize the theme, get the talking points down, rent a bus and take it on the road.  OK, no bus — but if 100K tech folks are dropping the same info on their elected officials it has to have an impact.How would a modern Thomas Paine organize this flow of sentiment?  Can you imagine what Thomas Paine could have done w/ the Internet and e-mail?All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

    1. fredwilson

      We did something like that with Startup visa and its going well. Maybe weneed to replicate with software patents

      1. ShanaC

        I’d help organize that (reason for help: I’m not a DC person at heart, for the vast majority of things I want the gov’t to let me live my life by myself).  You could totally fund yourself easily if you wanted professional help by arbitraging google ads and facebook ads.

      2. Hemang Gadhia

        I do think that the patent issue is one that will require a significant organization and lobbying effort, similar to what folks have done with startup visas. Time to leverage relationships on the Hill and in the Federal Gov’t with folks like Aneesh Chopra to push this issue to the forefront.Fred, if you or others get the ball rolling on this, I’d pledge $500 to helping fund the effort. I’m also DC-based so happy to help in any other way that I can. Within the startup space, I can’t imagine a more important legislative issue that needs to be addressed.

  4. William Mougayar

    Your passion came out, and you didn’t edit yourself too much. It paid off.

  5. RichardF

    The other thing that is impressive is that of the 415 Disqus comments, very few were trolling or rude.

    1. fredwilson

      There were a few though

      1. RichardF

        “haters gonna hate”

      2. CJ

        Good, you can’t have success without haters.  If you stopped getting trolled, you’ve stopped being relevant.  

      3. David Semeria

        Some of them were quite funny.There’s a lot of random people out there…

    2. roger

      Also, remarkably few were informative.  Mostly comments telling us “the point” of capitalism or property or private rights, or how much government or patents are stupid or suck, or making it rain American Exceptionalism (I’m always entertained by the Patriots for Profit who have so much hate and scorn for The Government yet are usually frothing at the mouth with American Exceptionalism platitudes, including but not limited to undying love of the Constitution — as if it didn’t come from The Government — and the Founding Fathers — as if most of weren’t members of The Government).Reading through the comments was like overhearing a conversation about Wrestlemania with a bunch of drug addled juvenile delinquents. Except with the latter there’s at least the possibility that someone will mention Andre the Giant or Bobby The Brain Heenan.

      1. FAKE GRIMLOCK

        IT HARD TO BE PASSIONATE ABOUT ISSUE WHEN FACTS GET IN WAY.

  6. andyswan

    Pardon me sir,My firm has been issued a patent on the business process of writing passionate posts railing against government issuance of private-property rights to the few.Pls do send $1 gazillion (negotiable) at your earliest, or suffer domain lockdown from my friends at the FCC (who, incidentally, are looking for a job in the Venture Capital industry).Sincerely,Ellsworth TooheyAdvocate for the compassionate advancement of the collective. Unite!

    1. fredwilson

      Can I send it in bitcoin?

      1. ShanaC

        When I raise money, Can I have it in unobtanium or Latinum?

        1. CJ

          Ooooooh Latinum.  Someone should invent that, I bet it would sell like hotcakes.

          1. ShanaC

            100%

  7. William Mougayar

    Actually, here are additional stats you probably didn’t have, courtesy of my friends @visibli:twitter Top Re-shared link : A week on Foursquare, May 19 – 3,496Top recently shared; Breakfast jazz at Jeffery’s June 1 – 80Your average clicks on re-shared links 3,983 in past 7 days.http://visibli.com/public/a… 

    1. fredwilson

      Cool. Thanks for sharing that

  8. Parafly

    Awesome Fred, I’ve been following your blog for a few weeks now and saw the Gizmodo post yesterday linking over to your blog. Was that a big part of the contribution of traffic? Looking forward to seeing more thought provoking posts! Good stuff! 

  9. Guest

    As I commented yesterday, enough traffic generated to clog a ‘series of tubes’ and more comments still.

  10. Elia Freedman

    So the question is… how do we keep the pressure up? We can’t just let this fade away otherwise no action will ever take place to fix it. It will just be a rant.

    1. Alex Murphy

      this is the right question.how about votizencall your local … scratch that, go see your local legislators.

  11. JamesHRH

    You should patent the process of being a troll, then defend it against Lodsys and other trolls!It does seem that the basic defensive value of a patent keeps many pro-patent people from joining up with you.Real innovation that is stolen via a process of reverse engineering is hard to accomplish in the software world, whereas it is obviously easy to do in the hard goods space. Software may be an exception.

    1. Guest

      “You should patent the process of being a troll, then defend it against Lodsys and other trolls!”I needed a good smile/laugh this morning as it is off to a rocky start. #thanks #appreciation

    2. Alex Murphy

      could work, the pto really doesn’t seem to care about prior art.

  12. J.R. Sedivy

    Congrats on reaching this new milestone – which of course will fuel your ascent to the next level! 

  13. leeschneider

    Do you make anything of the roughly 1% of unique visitors that left a comment vis Disqus?  I’d be curious to know what your usual comment/visitor ratio is.  1% seems pretty good to me.

    1. fredwilson

      it hovers around 1%there’s a 1/10/100 rule in social media1 will contribute10 will curate100 will read

  14. treyfisher

    Wow. I’m surprised the 23rd street subway announcement created such a stir. Who knew?

    1. fredwilson

      🙂

  15. ShanaC

    You know, you kind of just gave me the answer to why political blogs get pageviews.  People feel very strongly about these issues, and it will get them to speak when they probably wouldn’t have otherwise.

  16. Tereza

    Politics is always a barn burner. You should test how it compares to a post on Sex next Wednesday, for fun.Some ideas:At @TechCrunch #tcdisrupt last week, one co brought a young model clad in panties, silver body paint and nipple shields. Is it possible to pitch seriously and hold an investor’s attention when there’s that much skin that nearby? (props to @kminshew1 for calling that one out in her blog: How Sex Sells, But Can Also Ruin Your Conversation http://cot.ag/kaq8wu)I was curious so posted a question on HonestlyNow.com. 70% so far said, nope, not possible to sustain an investor’s attention. Then again, our audience is 70% female (coincidentally). Would love to know what AVC thinks!An alternative sex topic to test in its performance vs. politics might be — hey everyone! what are your favorite tech features & functionality in the porn world that you think have high potential in the broader market?Or — any other ideas out there?

    1. Tereza

      Another one — Casey Anthony! Why TF was she in bed canoodling with her BF all day the day after her little girl web missing??Inquiring minds need to know! We need to judge! It’s like a train wreck we can’t not watch and is burnin’ up the women’s web.Would love to see analytics on that.OK, maybe not for AVC, but…

      1. Dave W Baldwin

        Being I’ve had to answer questions regarding new sexual possibilities related to AGI/Robotics (never heard back from that funny I sent you)… I’d say go the Full Monty-We simply need the bombshell of bombshells who is witty, pro capitalist (plenty of one liners) that is a Centerfold toward Aug/Sept… then runs for President.If she stayed cool and gave intelligible answers to real questions would her supporters be for her due to her looks(?) or say Thank God someone knows what they’re talking about?

    2. Dave Pinsen

      I don’t think Fred’s comfortable posting about sex. I think I linked to Cindy Gallop’s sex-oriented site here, during the course of debating something with her in the comments, and Fred deleted it. 

      1. Tereza

        Great idea, Dave! Fred should reblog @CindyGallop in an explosive post about sex AND politics AND that other sleeper subject — education.It would be exploring the question:”Sex Ed: if you had to choose between taught in schools, or online, what would you pick? Discuss!”Would love to see the analytics on that, too.:-)

      2. PhilipSugar

        That site is both hilarious and makes a really good point.  I had never heard of her.

      3. Donna Brewington White

        Fred censors?  Nah…

        1. RichardF

          I thought the same thing more likely to be a Disqus error

        2. fredwilson

          i don’t delete comments unless they are spam or hate speech or pornsex is fine as long as it is in good taste

      4. ShanaC

        Semi-a-pity.  I recognize sex is awkward.  I have to say though that if it weren’t for the internet, I would have never had sex-ed (my school didn’t have it)

  17. paramendra

    45K? Wow. My blog is at 2K. Small league. And all that traffic from Hacker News. Wow. 

    1. Donna Brewington White

      —(deleted — commented by mistake)

  18. Donna Brewington White

    Fred, I absolutely loved the “rawness” of that post!  Your authenticity at its best. Saw the post very early morning before a conf call w/ the East Coast and there were already 70-some comments so I knew it’d be a doozy.  Went back later to read comments and had to put it off due to the sheer numbers.  But I look forward to the education when I finally do.  Relieved to hear I won’t have to wade through much troll-ness.

  19. Prokofy

    Meh, and here I came here to see what you were saying about the Groupon IPO, and you’re still nattering on about expropriating the expropriator.Fred! Try to remember you are a venture *capitalist* not a venture *communist*! Ok, then!

    1. fredwilson

      i don’t know anything about groupon and daily deals. i never looked at any of those companies. i only invest in what i understand. and i don’t understand deals and coupons. i’ve never used them in my life

  20. Prokofy

    P.S. you should put ads on your blog like Scoble does (and I do!). Gotta get the bills paid. That GE thing you have up there looks like a courtesy infomercial and not an ad, if it’s an ad, good work, you need more.

  21. Tom Labus

    Your current crop of successful companies were chosen and started when this blog got 30 comments on a big day. Maybe this is the top and it’s time for USV Enterprise I. 

    1. fredwilson

      i don’t have that in me

  22. Dave W Baldwin

    Congratulations Fred!  Doing a copy/paste or scrape/dump of what I placed on the EisE not realizing what today’s blog was:Microsoft has received five times more income from Android than from Windows Phone http://www.asymco.com/2011/… interesting piece of trivia related to the patent debate thanks to our friends at XYDO (I’m a little behind).     

  23. Dave W Baldwin

    Here is another repost from EisE… via @twirrm:twitter … it gives everyone something to refer to in writing their Rep: They’re in the process of passing a major change to the patent system that will make it worse too, the 2011 Patent Reform act.Significantly it switches from ‘First To Invent’ to ‘First To File’, providing huge benefit to large established companies with dedicated patent staff/lawyers, over small ones without. It also eliminates the grace period. Currently inventors can take about a year to file a patent application without risk of losing their intellectual property. No grace period means inventors will need to start paying out for patents on stuff they’re not even sure will even work, just to be safe.It does nothing to improve the quality of Patents or the Patent examiners, or even do anything to improve the speed of the process which is already lauded as stifling innovation.There is a good Washington Times article here: http://www.washingtontimes.com

    1. fredwilson

      i will read themthanks

  24. custom research papers

    very interesting post) so thanks a lot for sharing!

  25. TanyaMonteiro

    just read this article by Russell Simmons who’ll be “delivering the opening keynote address at the Urban Entrepreneurship Summit at Rutgers Business School in Newark (monday), which is being co-hosted by the White House” reminded me of this post. tweeted your link but might be best if it came from you? just a thought to raise awareness.http://www.huffingtonpost.c

  26. leigh

    where did you get the social media measurement stats on disqus?

    1. fredwilson

      disqus analytics