Archive for June, 2009

Game Freaks 365 Google Analytics Trends Prove Positive

Posted on: June 30th, 2009 by Kyle. | No Comments

I thought I would post something non-political for a change. As you may know, I also run the video game website http://gamefreaks365.com. A few months ago I signed up for Google Analytics to better track our hit information for everything from where our visitors are coming from to what part of the world they reside. I thought I would share some interesting demographic information about the site that I run.

First let’s look at the distribution of our viewers. The three states that attract the most viewers (in order) are California, Illinois and New York. California being the largest state in the U.S. (by far), makes perfect sense at #1. Illinois (the 5th largest state), surprised me at #2, ahead of New York (3rd largest state), Texas (2nd largest) and Florida (4th largest). In fact, Florida falls behind Georgia and Indiana. My guess is that this has to do with the fact that so many retirees live in that state and thus are less likely to own a computer, have Internet access and be interested in video games. For the most part, the population of a state is reflected in these numbers. Indiana is over-represented (I live in the state, have friends and promote the site here) and Florida under-represented (probably due to the age of its residents).

Being a Political Science major, I have always loved looking at maps like this. Google Analytics does a great job of breaking down viewers by country, state and even city. Not only do I know what states my site is popular in, I know what cities. For instance our California viewers are mostly concentrated in the Los Angeles and Bay Area metropolitan regions. This pretty well reflects the population distribution in the state. In Illinois (not surprisingly), almost all of the viewers are within the greater Chicago area. New York City is the pre-eminent city in the state of New York and the entire East Coast. I should note that these dots do NOT represent a single unique hit. It all depends on the number of hits in a state, along with which cities are most heavily represented. The dots are cities and the larger the dot, the more unique viewers from that city. Obviously an agglomeration of dots is a dense spread of suburbs within a metropolitan area.

Our E3 2009 coverage was extremely well received by viewers. The site experienced an increase of over 50 percent in unique hits during the month of June. At its peak, we saw unique visits reaching nearly 600 a day. Not including periods of downtime, this was significantly up from the three month low of 125 uniques on April 18, 2009. The trend is on the way up as the site continues to retain viewers gained during the E3 period of coverage.

Going forward, the site is going to continue to focus on expansion. With 1272 friends on Myspace, 120 followers on Twitter and 131 fans on Facebook, Game Freaks 365 is well positioned in the social networking sites to not only stay competitive, but provide free promotional opportunities to the site. We will continue to focus on providing high quality news stories, honest reviews and a forum for our community to express themselves.

South Bend Mayor Signs Anti-Discrimination Order

Posted on: June 24th, 2009 by Kyle. | No Comments

South Bend Mayor Stephen Luecke today signed an executive order that prohibits “discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in any city employment.” The South Bend Common Council failed to act on the issue of employment discrimination in the city of South Bend in 2006 when a proposal lost by a single vote. Discrimination is already prohibited based on race and gender.

Today’s executive order means that the city will investigate claims of hiring discrimination, as well as claims brought by city employees “who believe they have been discriminated against on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity,” the order reads. The order does not affect hiring practices outside of city government. That would require action from the Common Council.

It has been recognized that diversity in the workplace is a benefit for everyone. Discrimination is an ill that virtually everyone deplores. Yet it is still a reality, as is housing discrimination, for all too many people that identify themselves as gay. It is time for the South Bend Common Council to recognize the history of racial and gender discrimination, the fact that it benefits no one, and that to exclude gays from this ordinance is inconsistent with the spirit of the law.

Governor Sanford Should Follow Spitzer’s Example

Posted on: June 24th, 2009 by Kyle. | No Comments

“Let me first apologize to my wife.” A phrase that is heard all too often these days. We saw it with Senators Larry Craig (R-ID) and David Vitter (R-LA). We’ve seen it more recently with Senator John Ensign (R-NV). None of these men have resigned from office (Craig chose not to run for re-election in 2008). The one politician that did resign, Governor Eliot Spitzer of New York, is a Democrat. Today, Governor Mark Sanford (R-SC) came out of hiding to reveal that he has been having an affair with a woman from Argentina. He should follow Spitzer’s example by resigning from office immediately.

The news conference held today came after a week of the governor gone missing. His staff believed that he went hiking in the Appalachian Trail, although they did not know for sure, and his family was not even told of his location. This left the state of South Carolina essentially leaderless for an entire week while the governor was having his affair in a foreign country.

“One desperately needs a break from the bubble,” Sanford told the press. He had “profound frustrations” in regard to the stimulus package, in which a state court recently forced him to accept funds that he had wanted to reject. Despite disapproval from people within his own party at a state level over the stimulus funds, he claims that it was “not for a further political office.”

In the press conference Governor Sanford spent over three or four minutes apologizing to people without saying what he was apologizing for, although it was fairly obvious. “I’ve let down a lot of people,” he said. “God’s law is indeed there to protect you from yourself.”

He claims that the relationship “began very innocently in just a casual e-mail back and forth.” The woman in question became a “dear, dear friend from Argentina.” When asked if he has broken off the relationship, he responded “no” and when asked if he was separated with his wife he said that “I don’t know how to define that.” Apparently his family knew about the affair before his trip to Argentina.

As the governor poses the question: “where do we go from here?” Indeed. He has resigned from the Republican Governor’s Association as their chairman. Why should he leave it at that? There is a consequence for claiming to be morally superior to others. Your (supposedly) higher standards require higher punishment. Based on Governor Sanford’s history of criticizing President Clinton and calling for his impeachment, he has a duty to resign. Not just for the hypocrisy. He neglected his duties as governor, misled his staff and the people of South Carolina for his own selfish desires.