Tuesday, April 24, 2007

If you read this, please comment

Blogging is an inherently egotistical undertaking founded on the assumption that everyone should care about what you have to say. My own is no exception and even the title asserts that I am, in fact, smarter than 90-some percent of people on this planet.

The question that naturally comes out of that pomposity is how many people are actually paying attention to what I have to say. If I didn't care, I'd write a diary and keep it under my pillow. Getting a web counter is easy enough. There are zillions of choices. I decided on one that not only plots the hits on a map but shows a daily hit count.

Typically, my hit count is on the order of half a dozen a day. I know a few friends and family that might be dropping by on a regular basis but the map shows hits all over the world. Are people all over the world actually reading my blog. Well, with a billion people surfing the web, it shouldn't be surprising if a few stumble across my website.

I don't usually look at the little map on the right side of my blog page as it had been hovering pretty consistently around the half dozen mark but last week say a ten fold increase in the daily hits. What the hell happened?


I'm guessing it's Virginia Tech. I posted a blog last week tangentially about the shooting about Virginia Tech but mostly about religious wingnuts blaming atheism, evolution and science in general for all the world's ills. I suspect that people worldwide doing web searches for VA Tech information came across my blog, and apparently continue to do so. My hit count will probably remain high for a month, dropping down when people loose interest and the posting drops into my blog archives.

Or, perhaps it's robots and spiders just crawling the web along search links. Perhaps those people aren't actually reading my blog, it's just programs hitting the site.

So, an experiment is in order! If you are reading this, post a comment. I don't care what you say. It doesn't have to be insightful or even relevant. Just click on the comment button and say that you read this posting. Then, and perhaps only then, will I know just how truly insignificant my lone voice is in this big, stinking pile of crap that is the Internet.

5 comments:

Alex said...

I read ya, baby.

-Kel

Stitchin-Liz said...

I just hit the "next blog" button and wound up here. But I like your title and you have some interesting things to say so I might come back.

Unknown said...

I too hit the 'next blog' button. I really enjoyed your comments on the need for more non neo-con gun owners. It was nice to stumble upon a like-minded individual.

adelheid said...

Guess who

Anonymous said...

yeah baby. nice blog.