Data analysis of /r/the_donald user posting habits

23    12 May 2017 23:12 by u/photenth

Given that only one side has been analysed I took it upon myself to do some data analysis on /r/The_Donald Since I will not make any claims of botting, I will only provide the data that looks out of the ordinary and let you guys decide. I only recorded what my crawler found, so any of these users could have more posts and comments but I just didn't record them. I'll start with only Linked articles/text posts and later go into comments: #Mass Link Posting Users Sorted by Avg posts per active day Name |Posts Recorded |Avg Posts per active day --|--|-- SkillUpYT |935 |49.21052632 DrJarns |1143 |32.65714286 macredsmile |1055 |31.96969697 ShortRound7257 |803| 28.67857143 JohnChrissy |941| 19.60416667 patriotofca| 997| 18.46296296 georgeorgeg |1117| 18.31147541 DeadHead- |1092 |17.61290323 Son0fSun| 980 |17.5 Ivaginaryfriend| 1099 |16.90769231 And_n |995| 16.31147541 NorthJersey908 |1191| 16.09459459 MNJGA |1100| 15.71428571 smiley-dog |999 |15.36923077 HinduPepe |921| 14.85483871 blue_suede_shoes_ |1160 |14.14634146 joker68 |1267 |13.77173913 Zadkielred| 986 |12.48101266 coupdetaco |786 |12.47619048 ExtraRareTrumpSteak |957 |12.42857143 stfuusjw| 1197| 11.50961538 YeowBitch| 1169 |10.72477064 13301| 944 |10.48888889 thunderbert80 |1174| 10.48214286 rumbletubble |1069 |10.08490566 #Most Devoted Users Sorted by avg active hours per day Name |Recorded Posts |Avg Posts per Day |Avg active hours per day --|--|--|-- Simi510 |512| 64| 14 macredsmile| 1055 |31.96969697 |10.81818182 ShortRound7257| 803| 28.67857143 |9.75 patriotofca| 997 |18.46296296| 9.740740741 ClusterTalk| 347 |26.69230769 |9.307692308 eggcake9 |111| 22.2| 9.2 CantGetAlongCommie| 159 |22.71428571| 8.428571429 chagouryXclinton |131| 18.71428571 |8.285714286 JohnChrissy |941 |19.60416667| 8.208333333 mmmmpt| 558 |19.24137931| 8.206896552 shockingly many which look like normal working days, I guess some people have boring jobs. #Hardcore Donald Users Note that there are many many more with max 16 hours a day postings, looks like there are some hardcore users out there. Name |Recorded Posts| Avg Posts per Day |maxActive hour --|--|--|-- Simi510 |512 |64 |19 macredsmile |1055 |31.96969697| 19 DrJarns |1143 |32.65714286 |19 SkillUpYT |935 |49.21052632 |17 smiley-dog |999 |15.36923077 |17 blue_suede_shoes_ |1160 |14.14634146 |17 And_n |995 |16.31147541 |17 ShortRound7257 |803 |28.67857143 |16 JohnChrissy |941 |19.60416667 |16 HinduPepe |921 |14.85483871| 16 #No sleep All occurrences of very sleepless article posting donald users, if a username appears more than once, they had more than one sleepless day. UserName |Posts| Hours Active --|--|-- chcki| 92 |48 DrJarns |185 |40 chcki |34 |29 Mind__Mischief| 45 |24 DrJarns |73 |24 ShortRound7257| 73 |22 chcki |31 |22 sirylj |24 |21 DrJarns |96 |21 macredsmile |107| 20 Simi510 |68 |20 cynicsrising |61 |20 chcki |46 |20 Ivaginaryfriend |70| 19 Simi510 |87 |19 DrJarns| 48 |19 And_n |208 |19 Many more with 19 hours of active time, I mean it's not my thing but I guess some of those users are just hardcore. I'd argue for now these could be all just very lonely people so no need to call them bots. But let's take a look at some hardcore commenters #no sleep comment edition Of course the top is full of bots: Username |Comments |Hours Active --|--|-- trumpcoatbot |731 |238 TrumpTrain-bot |597 |165 trumpcoatbot |302| 70 MAGABrickBot |997 |63 TwitterToStreamable |98| 59 TrumpTrain-bot |298 |52 MotherOfAllBots |116 |45 TrumpTrain-bot |144 |44 TD_fact_check_bot| 72 |42 So at least I know my algorithm is working. Now let's take a look at some top scoring users: Username |Comments |Hours Active --|--|-- 1979FLH80| 146 |40 tommy_chicago |111 |39 L16ENL| 80 |36 bookybooks| 117 |35 jmbatl| 98 |35 Mitschu| 94 |34 Aldebaran333 |128 |33 sirylj| 118| 32 sirylj |90 |31 razgriz301 |42 |30 Tnargkiller| 62 |30 ExtraRareTrumpSteak| 54 |29 MotherOfAllBots |63 |28 RonRonRonRonRonRonRo| 57 |28 tommy_chicago |88 |28 MereMemetics |51 |27 __WanderLust_ |97 |27 sirylj |127| 27 Ask_If_Im_A_Cactus |109 |27 Taleric33 |54 |27 TheWallGrows |259| 27 Winnowil |97 |26 BernsWhenIPee |36 |25 TRUMP4TW |82| 24 donny_trumpins69 |60| 24 Thegoldenmean19876 |56 |24 SilverBackTrump |44 |24 And here I allowed a 4 hour gap between posts apparently some users don't need to sleep long Username |Comments |Hours Active --|--|-- Taleric33| 200 |90 padishar |149 |67 georgeorgeg |248| 64 Trump-Destiny| 105 |62 k-sci |245| 62 DrJarns |114 |61 SirSirob| 194 |61 myndzha |104 |58 CitrusFanatic |122| 56 JohnChrissy |193 |54 padishar |56 |53 Taleric33 |118| 52 Fraplet |91 |51 pipeb0mb |70 |51 JohnChrissy |93| 46 captintin12 |115 |45 rektspec |77 |45 #Speed Posters (Combo!) Number of comments with less than 3 seconds between writing them (I kept the bots for comparison) Sorted by Seconds per comment: Username|Comments in a row|Time Taken[s]|Seconds per comment --|--|--|-- Darkroom2017|6|6|1 MotherOfAllBots|5|5|1 MotherOfAllBots|5|5|1 MotherOfAllBots|5|5|1 Darkroom2017|5|5|1 Fire-Keeper|34|38|1.117647059 Optimaze|7|8|1.142857143 Fire-Keeper|19|23|1.210526316 MantananForTrump|7|9|1.285714286 William-WallaceGhost|7|9|1.285714286 wharfthrowaway|16|21|1.3125 GloriousAchievements|19|25|1.315789474 Fire-Keeper|18|24|1.333333333 xFirstFire|5|7|1.4 GodEmperorDonald|5|7|1.4 GloriousAchievements|83|120|1.445783133 GloriousAchievements|175|259|1.48 ARREST_HILLARY_NOW|16|24|1.5 GloriousAchievements|6|9|1.5 GloriousAchievements|9|14|1.555555556 curlytoot|23|36|1.565217391 Harbinger_of_a_Kek|10|16|1.6 TotesMessenger|5|8|1.6 wharfthrowaway|23|37|1.608695652 johnviku|6|10|1.666666667 RedditJusticeWarrior|6|10|1.666666667 Ne007|8|14|1.75 MEMORIES_OF_HARAMBE|5|9|1.8 Flycatcher_|5|9|1.8 Flycatcher_|5|9|1.8 hooya_loves_pepe|5|9|1.8 GodEmperorDonald|5|9|1.8 Karling20|6|11|1.833333333 Karling20|7|13|1.857142857 theredpillbrief|7|14|2 TheTopSnek|6|12|2 Flycatcher_|5|10|2 GodEmperorDonald|5|10|2 imnotafelontrustme|214|429|2.004672897 Karling20|11|23|2.090909091 Sorted by comments in a row: Username|Comments in a row|Time Taken|Seconds per Comment --|--|--|-- imnotafelontrustme|214|429|2.004672897 imnotafelontrustme|171|648|3.789473684 FinancialAntonement|46|145|3.152173913 FinancialAntonement|40|119|2.975 Fire-Keeper|34|38|1.117647059 curlytoot|23|36|1.565217391 wharfthrowaway|23|37|1.608695652 Fire-Keeper|21|52|2.476190476 Flycatcher_|20|49|2.45 Fire-Keeper|19|23|1.210526316 Fire-Keeper|18|24|1.333333333 JustAintCare|18|56|3.111111111 Karling20|17|41|2.411764706 wharfthrowaway|16|21|1.3125 ARREST_HILLARY_NOW|16|24|1.5 MoonlightsonataX|13|41|3.153846154 Karling20|13|42|3.230769231 Karling20|12|28|2.333333333 zakkaz1|12|28|2.333333333 secreted_uranus|12|34|2.833333333 Karling20|12|39|3.25 Karling20|11|23|2.090909091 lukesterboi1|11|29|2.636363636 Karling20|11|35|3.181818182 tremor08|11|36|3.272727273 Karling20|11|37|3.363636364 Harbinger_of_a_Kek|10|16|1.6 Karling20|10|21|2.1 All these lists are truncated heavily, but I didn't want to post huge long stupid lists again, maybe these are a bit better arranged.

8 comments

4 u/Lightthrower1 13 May 2017 13:52
"imnotafelontrustme" I'm guessing we should not trust that one.
3 u/ggggnut 14 May 2017 01:58
Very interesting data. I like the consecutive active hours metric.
2 u/[deleted] * 14 May 2017 02:28
[deleted]
2 u/GregariousWolf 14 May 2017 12:31
This is very interesting. I also liked your thread that estimated words per minute. Keep it up.
2 u/ggggnut 14 May 2017 20:42
Took a quick look at the month of April using BigQuery. Unfortunately, a lot of author names are missing. Top 10 authors out of 124,226 submissions (are there really 4000 posts per day?!) [('[deleted]', 26332), ('Simi510', 1898), ('SkillUpYT', 995), ('JohnChrissy', 588), ('wharfthrowaway', 553), ('patriotofca', 525), ('I_am_Orlando', 513), ('bruinboy86', 456), ('macredsmile', 438), ('k-sci', 418)]
2 u/Xanexbarz 20 May 2017 05:29
Is that it? wow i expected much more botting, but there seems to be a main 3-4 bots if any
2 u/photenth [OP] 20 May 2017 10:07
If I were programming bots. I would make sure that it's based on user data. I have now a ton of user activity data. Based on that I could program a bot that looks close to a normal user. Spread that over 3-4 user accounts, give the script a few of my friends and you'd be almost undetectable. So just because you can't see it form this very basic analysis. Doesn't mean it's not happening.
1 u/OdinYggdrasil9 18 Nov 2022 06:18
DrJarns was defiantly not a bot. He was a huge Trumper. He was a decent person who believed Trump could change things. I am a Democrat just stop making the supporters of another party out to be like animals. Most Americans want the same things and yet we are being divided for votes. Change is not bad. No reason to be afraid of change. But yeah DrJarns was not a bot.