DiscussMormonism.com

DrW wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 15, 2022 3:18 am

After all these years, posts regarding the DCP brand still get the clicks.
834 page views in about an hour from only two members posting.
Haven't been around much lately but that must be some kind of record.
Considering DCP's internet persona, I fully agree that he must have significant responsibility for many thousands of deconversions.
If his baptism denominator really is zero, then his damage ratio is unbounded.
The weight that broke a thousand shelves so to speak.
His online behavior certainly helped seal my departure and harden my adverse view of what the LDS Church has become in this century.
___________________

ETA: Some 300 or so more views of so in last 20 minutes. Now 1157 views at ~11:30 pm ET
Controversial guy. Sort of like a Mormon Trump.

DrW, back in 2020 I noticed certain threads aimed at DCP saw page view counts grow at steady rates many multiples higher than other threads. It continues today. I believe this phenomenon has nothing to with popularity or controversy. Rather, my theory is that whomever is behind Dan’s daily “anonymous email stalker” accounts has also set up a rudimentary page clicker bot to draw attention to certain threads related to embarrassing DCP. It may be two separate people, but I suspect the same person.. simpler explanation.

Gadianton wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 15, 2022 1:22 pm

He could also subscribe to the "plant the seed theory" -- "who knows" how many would eventually convert one day from that tract or first discussion, or even that Bible bash. Can't you see him believing that somebody he ridiculed in debate came to believe that he was right all along and eventually got baptized?

Didn't that guy Midgley pummeled in class become active in church later in life and didn't Midgley imply that this was because of the lesson he beat into him?

Maybe so, but I think an important point here has to do with the measurable metrics. Church culture is chock-full of statistics: how many wards there are; how many temples were built; how many PhDs are willing to bear their testimony on MST; how many weeks in a row Interpreter has posted something. And we all know that baptisms are an incredibly important statistic as well, and yet the Mopologists almost never talk about this. You'd be hard pressed to find *anything* from them where they fondly reminisce about a family they helped convert, or anything of that nature. Pretty much 100% of DCP's anecdotes about his mission are about bashing, and pretty much all of them end the same way: i.e., it's demonstrated in some way that he was actually smarter than his "anti-Mormon" opponent.

Contrast this with Honorentheos's account (which, granted, happened later), where he remembers the good folks he engaged with: it's a pretty stark difference. Meanwhile, we know that there is a certainly personality type that is haunted by the mission experience. I think of John Williams of Heaven Up Here, who was apparently left traumatized by his mission in many ways. For someone who is fiercely devoted to the Church, you would think that a lack of conversions would weigh on them. And yet this doesn't seem to weigh on DCP in the slightest; returning to Switzerland isn't a reminder of the fact that he didn't manage to baptize a single person. Instead, it's his favorite vacation spot on planet earth. I guess if all you did on your mission was kick anti-Mormon butt, then maybe the pangs of conscience wouldn't affect you so much, or something like that?

Dr Moore wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 15, 2022 3:19 pm

DrW wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 15, 2022 3:18 am

After all these years, posts regarding the DCP brand still get the clicks.
834 page views in about an hour from only two members posting.
Haven't been around much lately but that must be some kind of record.
Considering DCP's internet persona, I fully agree that he must have significant responsibility for many thousands of deconversions.
If his baptism denominator really is zero, then his damage ratio is unbounded.
The weight that broke a thousand shelves so to speak.
His online behavior certainly helped seal my departure and harden my adverse view of what the LDS Church has become in this century.
___________________

ETA: Some 300 or so more views of so in last 20 minutes. Now 1157 views at ~11:30 pm ET
Controversial guy. Sort of like a Mormon Trump.

DrW, back in 2020 I noticed certain threads aimed at DCP saw page view counts grow at steady rates many multiples higher than other threads. It continues today. I believe this phenomenon has nothing to with popularity or controversy. Rather, my theory is that whomever is behind Dan’s daily “anonymous email stalker” accounts has also set up a rudimentary page clicker bot to draw attention to certain threads related to embarrassing DCP. It may be two separate people, but I suspect the same person.. simpler explanation.

Hey Dr. Moore, thank you for the heads up. The hypothesis would explain the outlier data, so you are probably right. If it was a rudimentary page clicker bot, it must have been set to run in overdrive. If I recall correctly there were over 1200 views counted in about an hour.

Dr Moore wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 15, 2022 3:19 pm

Rather, my theory is that whomever is behind Dan’s daily “anonymous email stalker” accounts has also set up a rudimentary page clicker bot to draw attention to certain threads related to embarrassing DCP. It may be two separate people, but I suspect the same person.. simpler explanation.

Who knew Louis Midgley was such a computer whiz.

Good points professor. Sure, some sow others reap, but across all apologists, we’d expect to see the reapers who used Mopologist tactics.

Doctor Scratch wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 15, 2022 1:54 am

I mean, if a smarmy, arrogant, prematurely balding young American showed up on your doorstep with a Book of Mormon in his hand, how would you react?

Huh. It hadn’t really registered with me that DCP was already balding in high school. Interesting. I guess you’re right from the looks of it.

Oh, and DCP? Don’t sweat it. You looked like a young Vincent Price! I’m sure your dance card was full, brother.

- Doc

I can very easily imagine that kid enjoying Bible bashing much more than spreading the Good News.

Kudos to Dr. P. for today’s blog entry. I don’t know whether it was influenced by this thread or not, but it surely has to be seen as an improvement over the dreadful travelogues—or, even worse, the slams on Christopher Hitchens and Jonathan Neville. I can only hope that he doesn’t wind up recycling it ten million times like he so often does with entries like this.

And Prof. P., if I may: you shouldn’t allow this board to take up so much real estate in your head.

Dr Moore wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 15, 2022 3:19 pm

DrW wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 15, 2022 3:18 am

After all these years, posts regarding the DCP brand still get the clicks.
834 page views in about an hour from only two members posting.
Haven't been around much lately but that must be some kind of record.
Considering DCP's internet persona, I fully agree that he must have significant responsibility for many thousands of deconversions.
If his baptism denominator really is zero, then his damage ratio is unbounded.
The weight that broke a thousand shelves so to speak.
His online behavior certainly helped seal my departure and harden my adverse view of what the LDS Church has become in this century.
___________________

ETA: Some 300 or so more views of so in last 20 minutes. Now 1157 views at ~11:30 pm ET
Controversial guy. Sort of like a Mormon Trump.

DrW, back in 2020 I noticed certain threads aimed at DCP saw page view counts grow at steady rates many multiples higher than other threads. It continues today. I believe this phenomenon has nothing to with popularity or controversy. Rather, my theory is that whomever is behind Dan’s daily “anonymous email stalker” accounts has also set up a rudimentary page clicker bot to draw attention to certain threads related to embarrassing DCP. It may be two separate people, but I suspect the same person.. simpler explanation.

I’ve wondered that myself, Dr. Moore. I have also wondered if it was a case of certain posts getting passed around amongst the Mopologists. I suppose you would know better than I would.

Doctor Scratch wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 16, 2022 12:13 am

Dr Moore wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 15, 2022 3:19 pm

DrW, back in 2020 I noticed certain threads aimed at DCP saw page view counts grow at steady rates many multiples higher than other threads. It continues today. I believe this phenomenon has nothing to with popularity or controversy. Rather, my theory is that whomever is behind Dan’s daily “anonymous email stalker” accounts has also set up a rudimentary page clicker bot to draw attention to certain threads related to embarrassing DCP. It may be two separate people, but I suspect the same person.. simpler explanation.

I’ve wondered that myself, Dr. Moore. I have also wondered if it was a case of certain posts getting passed around amongst the Mopologists. I suppose you would know better than I would.

Maybe there are just that many, but over several instances it looked more like a high rate linear function for views. A clicker makes most sense imho.