One year (and counting)

One year ago today I made my first blog post. And while the traditional U.S. first-year anniversary theme is paper -- hardly apt for a blog! -- the modern theme is clocks. So let's look at what's happened over time.

In the blog's first year, I've posted 87 times. Which topics most interested you, the readers? That, it turns out, is hard to determine.

• The free version of Sitemeter -- fairly enough -- offers only limited statistics. And Sitemeter doesn't count all traffic: it misses, for examples, views of cached web pages and via many blog readers.
• Sitemeter misses, in particular, views of syndicated blog copies. For about two months this blog was featured at Analog and Asimov's web sites. The blog remains syndicated on an ongoing basis through Amazon.com.
  
• When readers arrive at the blog's front page, does that indicate interest in the most recent story or a routine drop-in?
  
• How does one compare topics that generate lots of reader comments with topics that get a lot of views?
  
• How does one contrast onetime topics with ongoing themes?

There are other complications, but you get the idea: The list of popular topics I'm about to give has an element of subjectivity to it. I am unrepentant :-)

Herewith my best guess of your interests. (Don't read relative rankings in the order of the list. The method is too imprecise for that.)

• tropes in SF (a series)
• alien aliens (a series)
• science/technology news & opinion
  
• my own writing
• the state of the genre

That'll be input to -- but not controlling of -- future posts.

Thank you all for clicking in, commenting, cross-linking, and emailing. I appreciate your interest over the past year and look forward to continuing the dialogue.

An anniversary toast: to more SF and Nonsense.