Saturday, April 5, 2008

Quo Babalú?

I've made this comparison before but never did the scales tip in RCAB's favor as far as they do today. The last 10 posts here at RCAB have garnered a total of 249 comments. The last ten at Babalú just 33. How is this possible since Babalú is supposedly the "powerhouse" among English-language Cuban-American blogs? There are several possible explanations:

1). Babalú has alienated most of its commenters with its censorship and bannings.

2). Babalú in effect gets more comments than these but Val & Henry only post the ones that agree with or do not challenge their positions.

3). Most visitors to Babalú are googlers whose only interest in Cuba is as a subjet for a school paper. Because they know nothing about Cuba in the first place they would not be expected to join discussions about it.

None of these explanation excludes the other. In fact, I suspect that they all account in part for the fact there are practically no comments hitched to the posts in the ghost town that Babalú has become.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think a lot of Babulu commenters probably hesistate to speak. In effect, a self-deletion takes place, in addition to the physical deletes. Much like the hesistancy to speak in communist Cuba.

MAT, as a side note. Can you determine whether or not that Babulu's lurk in here, including Henry and Val?

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

John:

You are right. After becoming accustomed to censorship people do begin to censor themselves. Not you, of course.

The Babalunians have lurked on this blog since Day 1.

Why not?

Since nothing is happening on their blog.

Anonymous said...

Mat said: After becoming accustomed to censorship people do begin to censor themselves. Not you, of course.


Mat, I was born a free man in America. Free to think, free to write, and free to speak. And when i see an institution like Babulu that attempts to repress these God-given inalienable rights. Then i will spend quality time to defeat these communist forces that reside in this nation, i.e., Babulu.

Anonymous said...

Great news about the comments on RCAB. Now you can claim you're as popular (and as accurate) as the Weekly World News. Kudos!

Fantomas said...

te lo he dicho mil veces un buen blog no se mide por la cantidad de comentarios que este pueda tener

Estas obsecionado, necesitas ayuda siquiatrica.

Mira el caso de mi blog, es muy visitado y muy popular pero con pocos comentarios.

Y tu crees que es me va a decepcionar para seguir trabajando por Cuba

Mira Mat yo recibo mas de 200 comentarios diarios en un chat que tengo puesto en el blog , como tu no me viistas no sabes de esto

Pero de 200 a 300 personas estan comentando 24 horas al dia alli, date una vueltecita y si quieres el codigo para ponerlo aqui me avisas te lo doy sin problemas

Yo te lo habia ofrecido anteriormente y no me hicistes caso

a la gente no le gusta dejar comentarios ya, prefieren el chat simultaneo porque es mas directo y real

te lo dice a kinder and gentler fantomas , saludos para Vana, kill alex y agustin

longn john pal laton de basura

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

anonymous:

I always wondered where you Babalunians get your news from. Now we all know. Henry might even consider submitting his series on "Nostradamus" Dorschner to the WWN. He might even get more than $25.00 this time.

Anonymous said...

Self censorship is natural under any tyrannic society.
It's perfectly normal to also happen under the rule of the goateed dictator and his sidekick.

Anonymous said...

val prieto=chivato

Anonymous said...

val prieto=chivato
henry=chample y chivato

Vana said...

Manuel:

Yes Babalunia is a ghost town, at the rate they censor and ban people, soon no one will want to comment there, as I said before they will be posting and commenting themselves soon enough, in this world if you create bad karma it will come back at you tenfold.

Nemesis said...

There is something intrinsically funny about someone who just writes val prieto=chivato
Over and over again, Kindda brit humor, you don’t get it until it becomes silly and then you LOVE it.

Since I have not a clue what the traffic at BLAB-a-LOO was, (this is how unimportant these guys have been to me for almost two year, I do not know what the comment ratio is. I can tell you I have received about 40 emails of people saying that although they disagree with a lot of my stands about Cuba (this comes primarily from Miamians) That what Prieto did was such a low, despicable thing to do he has revealed himself in his true persona, a dictator to be, a gangster who will blackmail you if t means getting away with whatever agenda he has in mind. Physically, and physiologically we have a Castro clone, who even shares the homoerotic tendencies. No honor, no decency, no morals , no scruples. When the "Editor in Chief” of a blog lets the world see his innards and they are THAT dark, most civilized , intelligent , humane folks will head the fuck away from the filth.
Regarding the comments, at BLAB.. Most of them were one liners saying
“Yeah man, I agree. Hell of a commentary.” It becomes REALLY tiresome after a while. People get to the point when changing the channel is the only option. I am sure there are a LOT more interesting blogs out there (and I do NOT mean KillCastro AT ALL) where serious mature conversations can take place about a variety of intelligent subjects dealing with Cuba without the needs to worry if s the “Editor in Chief has his mensies or going through a bipolar moment.

And yeah Fantomas you are a LOT gentler.. Scan and post a psychological evaluation. That will be a good start to even begin paying serious attention to you.

Fantomas said...

And yeah Fantomas you are a LOT gentler.. Scan and post a psychological evaluation. That will be a good start to even begin paying serious attention to you.

Have I ever pay attention to you nut case ?

Vamos vendele el script de esa pelicula de ciencia ficcion tuya a holywood eso de que un familiar tuyo esta preso y de golpizas inventadas, , eso no se lo cree nadie bro. Eres un tremendo cuentista , le ganastes a Yoani , ya mismo el pais te da un premio

lol

el Daniel ortega Award

Anonymous said...

"Eres un tremendo cuentista , le ganastes a Yoani"

If there were any doubts about where this guy gets his paycheck, I think they have been put to rest.

Anonymous said...

Comment numbers in blogs are not a direct correlate to raw traffic. They are however a good indicator of the relevance of the posts to the blog's visitors.

Fantomas said...

If there were any doubts about where this guy gets his paycheck, I think they have been put to rest.

a fatty fatty check comes in the mail periodically

lol

Anonymous said...

val prieto=chivato

Vana said...

Fantomas:

You are irrevelant, no one cares how or what you think, don't you get ir? nobody respects you or gives a shit about your opinion, you are the Bafoon of the blogsphere, and the very aptly named by Manuel, Village Idiot!

I believe Killcastro, I believe Val Chivato Prieto, out of sheer envy, meant to do KC harm, and he achieved it, but you know what? Chivato did not win the war, because he exposed himself for the vile sewer Rat that he is, and a lot of people have taken note. To be a Chivato is despicable.

Anonymous said...

fantomas=chivato

Fantomas said...

But the intent of the post was to see how predictable you are


o sea que tu te la pasaa creando historias inventando coss que solo pueden estar en tu mente repleta de envidia para ver que predictable son las personas ..get a life dude ..i dont have to prove anything to any comunity much less a comunity full of people like you ...a community of nuts
You are problaby the one using one thousand nicknames escribiendo aqui for as much as you want to disgused you are all just one person ...what a fool

You are digging such a hole for yourself in the CUBAN community you have no idea how fucking deep you are

mira como tiemblo comemierda , que vas a hacer?deep de que vamos habla

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

fantomas:

Did you not claim for a long time, do you not still claim today, that your blog abajofidel is written from Cuba by some unnamed dissident?

Do you despise Yoani Sánchez for doing what you only pretended to be doing, not just as a joke but in earnest?

Have you sunk so much below the level of human decency that you would question the assault on Killcastro's cousin? Do you know so little about conditions in Communist Cuba that you would actually discount the sadist character of the regime in order to deny the pain of a fellow Cuban? Have you really fallen that low?

I will say, however, that if you are able to even extract one cent from our enemies for your efforts, you are a lot smarter than we give you credit for and Castro is a lot dumber.

Fantomas said...

I will say, however, that if you are able to even extract one cent from our enemies for your efforts, you are a lot smarter than we give you credit for and Castro is a lot dumber.

No MAT I have not gotten paid by anyone..it is a lunatic out there spreading lies and false rumors, Ring a bell?

the truth , only the truth will set you free

" Me voy hacia la mar porque en la tierra no hay justicia"

Anonymous said...

fantomas=chivato

Anonymous said...

kill castro= chivato