Monday, January 08, 2007

Vanity count

What, you may be asking yourselves, is this all about? The picture comes to you courtesy of the BBC GCSE Bitesize website, which I found by doing a Google Images search on the word 'counter'. "Counter circuits record the number of times an event takes place" it tells us, and "[this] is a pin-out diagram showing the arrangement of pins in a 4017 counter chip, and a guide to what each pin does". (Go there if you want to know more.)

Whether this has anything to do with the hits counter I have on my blog, I don't know, but I do know that my counter passed the 6000 mark overnight, which is very gratifying. In my first year of blogging I scored 3000 hits. My next 3000 has taken only just over four months.
I have made 140 posts, and have uploaded goodness knows how many pictures. I reckon I had about 18 hits overnight, and there were 4 comments waiting for me this morning, so I must have some silent readers. I suppose I average 4-5 comments a day - depending of course on keeping up my output: no blog, no comments. And in the 17 months since I started I have had comments from about 60 different people, some of them only once, some of them very regularly.

So what about my silent readers? I have to wonder: what interests them in my blog? do I ever shock them? are they too shy to comment? Some will not be interested of course, but perhaps there are others who come regularly but simply do not wish to comment. I wonder what we are missing by not getting to know each other. But they are very welcome to continue their silent visits, and perhaps one day I shall provoke, or entice them into words.

My blog is so many things to me:

A playground - where I lark about, relax, and have fun.

A stage - where I perform, show off and can play many parts.

A schoolroom - where I learn new things and widen my horizons.

A party - where I meet people, talk a lot, and maybe flirt a little.

A workshop - where I am creative linguistically, visually, conceptually.

It is the breath of life to me now.

Drawing of a pre-techno-age 'counter' , borrowed from freecounters.net

17 comments:

Pauline said...

And a delight to all of us who read here!

Pete said...

Echoing Pauline

Here, Here. It's good to get to know you Judith

Pete
XX

herhimnbryn said...

As they said!

Flea said...

I agree with Pauline, it's a delight to come and read what you've been up too or want to share! Thanks.

(M)ary said...

Cool beans. I bet you never imagined in a million years that someday you would have an international stage with international fans! (-:

Unknown said...

Wow! I see a lot of poetic writers stop by to read Judith's blog... you guys are all so serious writers! On the other hand, my blog is so random and nothing serious at all! :p Nice to meet you all here! :) I need to make some friends!

stitchwort said...

Judith, I think you've pinned down why many of us blog.
And the lurkers are fascinating; if you have StatCounter or similar, it gives you information about your blog's visitors, including how they arrived and how long they were there.

Judith said...

Stitchwort, I have just checked that out. My counter (which I did not install myself) comes from easy-hit-counters.com. They don't offer stats at the moment, but say they are going to soon - I nice vague statement that may not produce anything for quite a while. I shall keep watching - thanks for the tip.

Anonymous said...

Judith,

You are always full of surprises whenever I open up your blog. I saw the picture of the counter chip and it reminded me of school.

- AV

Unknown said...

www.sitemeter.com does!

happyhippychick said...

I'm a lurker on the whole - will leave commenty words more as I feel my way around! But I do love to read your blogs so being a lurker is an enjoyable thing at the moment

Helen said...

I have to admit to being a lurker at times, Judith. It's not that I don't want to say anything, it's just that I'm in awe, and speechless! Maybe suffering 'inadequacy' at times. But that's something I hope blogging will cure.

Tongue in Cheek Antiques said...

Judith, Your comiong by my blog has lead me here, your wise and giving comments truly touch the soul of the person.
I am certai those who come to your blog, come for YOU.

Thank you for showing me your spirit!

Avus said...

Companionable silence is good too. Friends can enjoy each others company without comment.
I echo the others - I love to read your posts. At 68 I am a mere youngster and your blog gives me hope - age is purely relative.
I often wonder why I blog - you summed it up perfectly.

Lee said...

Yes, it is hard to stay away from blogs, once you are hooked.

DellaB said...

good post, Judith... very thought provoking, AND I agree with everything everybody else has said.

I like to get insights into how other people blog, and I think about it quite a bit. I know some people blog daily, I read several who do and really enjoy their styles, then there are others, you never know, when you go to visit if they will have posted something new or not, but you keep going back so that when they do post something you don't miss it...

And then there is the visiting, and reading, and commenting - yes you are right, there are lurkers, and I often wonder if blog-writers share something in common with the newspaper and magazine columnists - now I know how they must feel, how would they know who or how many are reading them? At least we get some idea if there is ANYBODY there at all!

Thanks again, Judith, for a wonderful read, and yes I went to visit Corey, so thank you for that link too.. fascinating

:-)
Della

Judith said...

Interesting that you talk about newspaper and magazine columnists, DellaB. That is rather how I think of my blog now. Before starting it, I wondered if I should try a column, but did not think I would be able to meet a regular deadline. Also of course an editor is liable to have some editing rights over one's work. Here I am free to say exactly what I like, how I like, and if I don't break some elementary rules of decency etc no one is going to grumble.