Are they Popular or is it Linux

I want to get this out as fast as I can. This isn’t going to be a long essay on the various cultural ins and outs of videogame or even geek culture. In fact, this has me sort of scared. Basically put, I have noticed that the majority of my readership is likely a computer just adding hits. In the recent NEWS we have been finding out that the UK Government has programs to increase the hit count of various websites, to increase their popularity. Even more interesting, popular youtube fans have started to admit that they are being paid for reviews. This brings up a question, is their popularity really from fans, or is it a computer running Linux?

To start, my blog isn’t big. I wish it was, I really wish it was, but at my high tides, I tend to get 1200 hits a month. This is not a money making endeavor, and more just a hobby I really enjoy. Although I have thought about it, to my knowledge I have not submitted anything to get any advertising, or hit increases.

For a while now, I have noticed that I have a high percentage of Linux users. Here is this weeks hit count.

Notice the Linux usage is at 73%. I admit to being a bit of a techie, but not high enough to be getting a majority of hits from an OS that almost requires extra thick glasses. But thats just a few hits, what about a month?

It is now at 76%, and not really competing with anything else. Windows -the most popluar OS- is at 19%. This is hard to admit, but I honestly don’t think I have earned those 471 hits. I am willing to accept 20 or 30 of them, but not nearly 500. The all time hit count shows even weirder things.

52% Linux. In other words, the Linux influx has been fairly new, and even weirder, I think I know when it began. I made a quick comment about Putin and the Ukraine. Suddenly my hit count went up, and I had viewers from Russia and the Ukraine. The rest of the countries listed I have a few friends in, and can relate each hit to that.

This brings up the recent NEWS that the United Kingdom’s spy agency has programs for raising hit counts. As much as I want to believe that the UK government just loves reading about how people working in videogames are creating a really cool culture, it just doesn’t add up. Prince William is not secretly a fan of my site, and nearly named his boy Alfred. I am more of a Harry styled site anyway.

Really though, if the UK government has it, then so does every other country, company, or group of friends with a similar amount of techies. Do you think that the Ukrainian, or Russian governments don’t have something like this? A person will suddenly get increases in certain articles, videos, or ideas and thus want to post more about them. They don’t realize what is happening, just that it gets hits.

Before we go on, there are people that specifically pay to have a higher hit count. They can be spotted easily enough based on comment amount, likes, dislikes and other things. They exist, and can be spotted. This is about people who don’t have control over this, and don’t know its happening.

I don’t have comments on my blog, nor any major likes. I have a good idea of who visits here, and what they want. There is the John Lucas folks, the videogame fans, various people I have sent links to, and then the Linux computers.

Getting a high hit count is pretty easy, and forums have talked about programs. Some people want an exact amount for testing purposes -I think they’re daft. So you can increase your hit count, without paying anyone else. It’s not hard, and just needs some trick. BTW, don’t download directly from the links I posted. There are just as many people that will post a virus to trick sheisters as there are real honest black hatters trying to help out.

Back to the UK Government programs, the idea of governments, or companies trying to control the internet is a big subject. The PEW Research project has a great article on how companies will try to make money off of internet use, and governments will try to control what you think by what you find. It’s basically a Cold Cyber War over what your opinions are going to be. If you don’t know that the Russian government is behind the uprising in the Ukraine, and the shooting down of a passenger flight to Malaysia, then it will be a very different war. In another sense, if the only videos you can see are of Israelis firing on Palestinians, you will be missing half the subject.

How will this work? Well first off, we can see that I can an increase in hits from Linux using computers right after writing an article. I am tempted to write the rest of this in Russian, and have a picture of Vladimir Putin riding a Geoduck. In fact, after work, I will totally add that picture.

In the commercial zone we do have some videogame references. It seems that popular youtube videogame fans have admitted to taking payments, and presents from companies to do reviews. In other words, the companies have worked to change the opinions of what was supposed to be fans. This places people like TotalBiscuit in a strange new light. The fans have turned out to be shills. Companies work to control, or change the opinions of reviewers by all sorts of ways.

Now we are about to go into tinfoil mode, so sorry about this. What if those popular sites were only popular because of companies figuring out how to control them. I don’t mean super control, or some sort of super mind control. If the creator sees that he gets a lot of hits for Sony products, he will talk more about Sony. If Sony sends him some products, it won’t seem weird to him. He has a large hit count about the company, and the fans have shown enthusiasm for the company. In the creator’s mind he is independent.

In other words, I seriously wonder how many popular youtubers are popular because people enjoy their videos, or because of a program for Linux? Do the creators even know? It’s one of those really difficult games of popularity, and trickery. The worst is that anyone can play.

There is a great way to check, just look at your hit count, and see if there is a high Linux count. If it is above 30%, then you may want to relook at what you are making. As you can see, some weird comment from my blog got a sudden increase after a small comment about a government figure. Tons of companies like Sony, Google, Microsoft, and Apple have more than enough programmers to make similar programs as those countries. The idea of a raised hit count is known. So, if thats true, how much of the popular things are just Linux?

I think I just lost a job by posting this, but the problem has been itching my brain for a while. The high Linux count has made me wonder what was going on, and how much was known. With the revelations about the UK spy agency, and youtube payments things finally hit me. So, sorry about the conspiracy theory, but that really is the best bet based on what evidence I have. Unless of course the Royal Family really is big fans of my site, then “Bro, don’t name a kid Di, or I will nickname her 2D6.”