Thread by @conspirator0

If you wander through the replies to WNBA-related tweets, you may encounter a theme: the @WNBA makes no money and no one cares about it.

cc: @ZellaQuixote

To study this activity, we downloaded replies to @WNBA as well as replies to tweets containing "WNBA" that also contain "WNBA" (7108 in 10 days), and categorized them based on whether or not they contained the word "money" or "revenue" (1225 tweets, or 17.2%, from 935 accounts.)

We then used Vader sentiment analysis to score each of the replies. The replies containing "money" or "revenue" scored as more negative in attitude on average than those that did not.

Do the two sets of accounts link the same websites? No. The 3465 accounts that don't have replies containing "money" or "revenue" to WNBA tweets mostly link sports-related sites, whereas the 935 that do prefer follower-tracking apps, an online gambling site, and the Daily Caller.

The gender balance between the two sets of accounts also appears to differ. Based on first name, the group that mentioned "money" or "revenue" has an 18.4:1 M/F ratio (423 M, 23 F, 487 unknown) vs 7:1 for the group that did not (1480 M, 211 F, 1774 unknown.)

Are these accounts an organized operation? Possible, but seems unlikely based on two observations:

1) They barely interact with one another (only 36 of 935 have retweeted one of the others within the last 200 tweets).
2) Their replies tend to be delayed.

H/T @AndrewStellman for the idea.