Oh no, 80% increase! Look out!</sarcasm> This is a pretty good example of how big numbers out of context can be presented as a trend. In order for this stat t

Oh no, 80% increase! Look out!</sarcasm> This is a pretty good example of how big numbers out of context can be presented as a trend. In order for this stat to be meaningful at all, we need to know a few more things. First, how many of the posts claim to be from people who arrived in town for the DNC, versus those from people who are already in town looking to hook up with out-of-towners? Secondly, how many are posted by the same person? And thirdly, how many people are in town for the convention? Let's assume 150 of the 340 posts are from unique DNC visitors. And let's assume 50K people in town. That's a 0.3% post rate. Not quite an orgy. Beyond that, how does the stat mentioned compare to the increase in postings across all of Craigslist Denver? How does it compare to the increase in postings to Craiglist during DNCs and RNCs in year past? How about whenever there's any large convention in town? I guess this article wouldn't have generated as many pageviews if Declan's editor at CNet titled it, "More People Get it On When More People are in the Same Locale." Just because you can do the math in a way that yields a big number doesn't make it a trend or a scandal.