Tweet, repeat

Messing around a bit with lexical analysis of my tweets (of which there are about 10,000).  It’s interesting to see which tweets I’ve essentially duplicated (I mean, after @-mentions, etc. are removed.)  Some of the top duplicates:

• Thanks (8 times)
• thanks (6 times)
• Yep (6 times)
• Yes (5 times)
• yep (5 times)
• Thanks so much (5 times)
• RT (5 times)
• I know right (4 times)

More detailed tweet analysis later.

 

 

Obscure novels that are great

I was thinking about the amazing and barely read here TRIOMF, by Marlene van Niekerk, and asked on Twitter:  what are novels you think are truly great and which nobody knows about?  Like, say, less than 10 Amazon reviews, to use an imperfect measure?

@JSEllenberg I don't know if RM Koster's "The Dissertation" is 'truly great', but it deserves more attention.

— Prabhakar Ragde (@plragde) November 23, 2015

@JSEllenberg The Burnt Orange Heresy, by Charles Willeford.

— William Denton (@wdenton) November 23, 2015

@JSEllenberg Satyrday

— Christopher D. Long (@octonion) November 23, 2015

@JSEllenberg I've got another one: SHAMP OF THE CITY-SOLO by Jaimy Gordon. Indescribably hilarious and strange. https://t.co/6zzilXHwXY

— Jordan Ellenberg (@JSEllenberg) November 23, 2015

@JSEllenberg The Museum of Eterna's Novel, by Macedonio Fernández.

— Pedro Poitevin (@poitevin) November 23, 2015

@JSEllenberg Also: Mathematics: by the French mathematician and poet Jacques Roubaud.

— Pedro Poitevin (@poitevin) November 23, 2015

@JSEllenberg Emily’s Magical Bejeweled Codpiece by B. Snow @octonion

— Mark (@markadams44) November 23, 2015

@JSEllenberg By the Iowa Sea, by Joe Blair.

— Samantha Abrams (@sabramse) November 23, 2015

@JSEllenberg The Compleat Purge of Trisha Low

— Peli Grietzer (@peligrietzer) November 23, 2015

@JSEllenberg Marie Redonnet's trilogy of novellas: Hotel Splendid / Forever Valley / Rose Mellie Rose. Hypnotic, funny, heartbreaking.

— David Neel (@orininc) November 23, 2015

How do you share your New York Times?

My op/ed about math teaching and Little League coaching is the most emailed article in the New York Times today.  Very cool!

But here’s something interesting; it’s only the 14th most viewed article, the 6th most tweeted, and the 6th most shared on Facebook.  On the other hand, this article about child refugees from Honduras is

#14 most emailed

#1 most viewed

#1 most shared on Facebook

#1 most tweeted

while Paul Krugman’s column about California is

#4 most emailed

#3 most viewed

#4 most shared on Facebook

#7 most tweeted.

Why are some articles, like mine, much more emailed than tweeted, while others, like the one about refugees, much more tweeted than emailed, and others still, like Krugman’s, come out about even?  Is it always the case that views track tweets, not emails?  Not necessarily; an article about the commercial success and legal woes of conservative poo-stirrer Dinesh D’Souza is #3 most viewed, but only #13 in tweets (and #9 in emails.)  Today’s Gaza story has lots of tweets and views but not so many emails, like the Honduras piece, so maybe this is a pattern for international news?  Presumably people inside newspapers actually study stuff like this; is any of that research public?  Now I’m curious.

 

 

Social media benchmark

Sometimes I share my post to various social media sites.  This morning, as it happened, I shared a post almost simultaneously to Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.  On my hit counter, I now see

• 80 hits via Facebook
• 30 hits via Google Plus
• 23 hits via Twitter

Wouldn’t you have expected G+ to come in a lot lower?  Despite the general sense that it’s a total failure, there really are a fair number of people using it. 

Just to reassure you the Earth is still on its axis, Google Search provided 58 hits and Bing 2.

 

In which I am on Twitter (and so is Manny Machado)

I am on Twitter.

Why am I on Twitter?

The editor of the book I’m writing said it would be a good idea to have an account up and running well before publication.  So I could say “I have grudgingly agreed to use Twitter as a means of letting people know about my book.”

Except let’s face it — I like social media.  I like blogging and I like Facebook.  I even like Google+!  So I think I’m going to like Twitter, too.  Only an excuse was needed.

What does Twitter have to offer that other platforms don’t?  It’s very simple — on Twitter, I can ask Manny Machado about his already-legendary fake-to-first-trap-the-runner-off-third play in a crucial game against the Rays last October — and he answers!

" @JSEllenberg once the ball hit my hand!"

— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) January 19, 2013