The typical reader
From blog stats at Quantcast, I’m confident (within ± a kajillion percent) that Sepia Mutiny readers are SepiaCrack-addicted single male grad students refreshing hundreds of times a day:
Whereas Ultrabrown readers are couples browsing from their yachts in between a little cognac and billiards:
SM is, of course, much larger and so the first set of stats should be more accurate. Keep in mind that Quantcast also thinks most of our readers are Hispanic 
I was complaining to Amit Varma this morning about how wildly off Alexa stats are compared to server logs and decided to find better sources of data. Alexa is hobbled because:
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Its main data source is a search plus spyware toolbar which reports every site you visit
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Its toolbar does not work in Firefox
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The more tech-savvy your readers, the less likely they’ll install the toolbar
- Small changes in toolbar downloads equal large swings in statistics
So the savvier your readership, the less accurate your Alexa stats.
on Friday, February 23rd, 2007, 10:04 pm in Blog, Humor › 
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Addicts vs passers-by I can get. Where does the education/age/income/ethnicity etc data come from?
they used to have a fierce contingent of hipster-wannabe indian blow addicts. now they all come to this site.
tell them to put down the mouse and step outside for some fresh air.
SM readers are a bunch of cliques, who seem bored with their lives. Regulars seem to inspire drama and e-wars amongst themselves, and anyone who seems to oppose their views get their comments deleted or called “trolls.” My vote for goes more intellgent blogs such as Turbanhead or Ultrabrown.
Asha, welcome to the Internet. May I introduce you to alt.culture.us.asian-indian, home of the same flame wars going back 15 years.
Asha stated ‘SM readers are a bunch of cliques, who seem bored with their lives. Regulars seem to inspire drama and e-wars amongst themselves, and anyone who seems to oppose their views get their comments deleted or called “trolls.‒
Hmm, as a regular SM reader, I must protest :)
Some of us lead very exciting lives when we are not refreshing SM ;)
There are enough regular conservative commenters like KXB, Razib, Manju, MD to put forward the opposing view.
I am actually glad that none of the new bloggers at SM are conservatives. For a while I was concerned that SM might get some desi conservatives on board. SM bloggers (except for Vinod) are pretty liberal/left leaning and thats pretty much in line with most of the readers.
i agree whole heartedly with asha.
i tried voicing my opinions only to be shot down within minutes for opposing their views.
it’s very much a club of select few who are adored and listened to and aside from them there’s isn’t room for substantial dialogue.
i too cast my vote for ultrabrown!
…i wonder of my copious SM commentary is responsible for gnxp.com being one of the sites that is most similar to SM in its demo.
Surely it’s responsible for SM readers’ knowledge of haplotypes in prehistoric Africa :)
How do you feel about Google Analytics vs. Quantcast? I will probably sign up for the latter; thanks for introducing it!
Also, I agree w/ comment #4. Getting banned was way too easy on the SM.
Any logging of your own visitors, such as Google Analytics or a server log analysis tool like Mint, will be more accurate than a third party estimate like Quantcast.