Sometimes it seems like only yesterday and at other times depressingly long since I set a tentative foot in the blogosphere. It is neither. Today is Accidental Blogger's second anniversary and we at A.B. are probably as surprised as our readers by the blog's moderate longevity. On our first anniversary, I was effusive and adopted a right brained approach to the yearly wrap up. This year I hope to take stock in a left brained way and present some facts and factoids. That of course means that this post will be bristling with links.
All the bloggers who were on board in October, 2006 are still here. Since then we have added one more author, taking the total writing force on A.B. to a half dozen, evenly divided among male & female voices and left & right brains as determined by a nifty little experiment (no, the latter divide does not fall along gender lines.) We also recently celebrated a wedding between co-bloggers which as I noted is surely a rare distinction for a blog.
Apart from that, A.B. remains a modest sized, friendly and cheerful place where we agree enthusiastically and disagree without rancor. We have grown a little in size in the past year in terms of traffic but not by a whole lot. The nice thing is that the regulars continue to visit. Our readers come from many different countries of the world and all fifty US states. Despite some slow down in the blogging rate, we still maintain an average of 1.04 posts per day. Comments average roughly 3.5 per post (with wild variations from article to article) which means that A.B. remains a relatively quiet blog most of the time.
The biggest impact on A.B. traffic was felt when our long time patron, Brian Leiter, whose links invariably resulted in sizeable spikes in our readership, decided to move away from political blogging and concentrate on academic and philosophical topics. But as in life, you lose some and you gain some in the blogging world. Other blogs, big and small, continue to be friendly to us, most notable among them being the immensely popular website 3 Quarks Daily and the widely read Indian filter blog Desi Pundit.
I will end with some loose statistics about A.B.'s two year history. None of this reflects any degree of serious measurement or monitoring. The data are based on my general observations and memory but they are probably pretty close to the accurate picture.
The ten most popular blog posts to date - those which generated the most traffic in a 72 hour period: ( all were linked by one or more large blogs or posted on popular feeds.)
- Tehran - More Than An Islamic Megapolis
- Liquid Explosives and Solid Lies
- Barefoot, Pregnant .. and Dead
- Barbara Forrest: Philosopher Activist
- May Day : Up Close and Personal
- Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan
- Sinclair Lewis: An American Oracle
- bla bla bla [sic] (Joe)
- The Ghost Pepper From Hell ... Coming To A Store Near You
- The 7 Most Wondrous Moments In Science
Three articles that continue to attract traffic through their original links long after their publication: (Joe's post about Dianna Abdala's rash email brings in readers more than a year and a half after it first appeared!).
- bla bla bla [sic] (Joe)
- Masculinity, War & SUVs
- The Ghost Pepper From Hell ... Coming To A Store Near You
The post that generated the largest number of comments: (funnily enough it was a report on a local school district's travails in suburban Pittsburgh, not a general interest story)
Blogging continues to be fun for the most part. But I am no longer as obsessed as I once was. My co-bloggers too have slowed down although they promptly oblige whenever I need their help. Barring unforeseen circumstances, we hope to stick around at least until the 2008 elections to disburse opinions and wisdom. We'll see. In the meantime, A.B. is here and we hope you keep coming back. Thanks as always, for reading.
Note: The attached photo (open in a new window if you can't see it fully) is of one of my oil on canvas paintings. I made it for my son's room when he was quite young. It has no other relevance to this post other than the fact that this is our two year anniversary and there are two birds in the picture. Although I like the painting, I don't consider it one of my best. My artistic effort was mainly directed towards successfully creating the crackled look on the tree trunk. But its prints sold briskly at my exhibition.
Happy 2nd birthday to The Accidental Blogger, Ruchira.
I'm waiting for my share of the cake and the party hat:), even though I shouldn't be indulging in cake at my age...
Posted by: Sujatha | October 19, 2007 at 01:25 PM
Congrats, good work Ruchira et all. Your blog is a clean, well-lighted place in cyberspace, pleasurable to visit again, and again, and again. What were some of your "favorite" posts from the past year? Or should we the readers be answering that? To ensure y'all stick around long after the 2008 elections, I urge all readers to vote for http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=giulianis_war_cabinet>Rudy Giuliani!
Posted by: Namit | October 19, 2007 at 05:57 PM
Congratulations on two years, Ruchira and crew! And thanks for your engaged, interesting, and insightful commentary.
(By the way, Ruchira, I also loved this painting—such gorgeous color! When I first glimpsed the thumbnail, I actually thought it might be a photograph. Even after looking at the larger view, the tree trunk looks almost photographic. Whether or not that's what you were striving for, I must say it's very impressive. Wish I'd been there to pick up a copy at your exhibition....)
Here's to another good year!
Posted by: Usha | October 20, 2007 at 12:17 AM
Congrats on two fine years, Ruchira and co.!
Posted by: Amardeep | October 21, 2007 at 11:21 AM
Congratulations!
And why only till 2008? Please stick around.
Posted by: confused | October 21, 2007 at 03:59 PM
Congratulations. I enjoy visiting your blog and have reccomended it to some friends. I look fwd to your comments on the elections, but do continue beyond 2008. You are doing a great job. Happy blogging.
Posted by: jatinder | October 21, 2007 at 09:34 PM
Congrats Ruchira -- and I second the praise of the painting!
Posted by: Andrew Rosenblum | October 21, 2007 at 11:49 PM
Thanks everyone for the encouraging words. We will keep on truckin' as long as the flesh is willing and the spirit co-operates.
To answer Namit's question about my own favorite posts, rather than root around the dusty archives, let me just say that it is most satisfying (and also harder) when I compose a piece largely consisting of my own thoughts. By that standard, most political articles which are reactive to current events, shouldn't qualify. But some political posts, particularly those written in anger, have been very satisfactory. Most book posts and some cultural commentaries based on life experiences have contributed to pleasurable writing. Posts which generate lively discussions too become favorites when the backing and forthing is interesting, substantive and often humorous. Among the top ten popular posts listed above, the essay on Sinclair Lewis is my favorite.
Posted by: Ruchira | October 22, 2007 at 05:29 PM
I am struck, and instructed, by the fact that a piece I saw as a side-dish to my Iran coverage, dealing with geopolitics, energy politics, Iran-US confrontation and such "important issues", was of so much interest to the average reader who was really keen to read about everyday life in Tehran.
For me as a professional journalist, it is a message on the need to remain focused on the most important aspect of my profession-- servicing the needs of my readers/viewers by excelling in my most basic task-- reportage. My own views and prejudices need to be kept under tight control, and are always secondary to my basic duty-- that of reporting-- which I expect will help you shape your opinions. This is, or ought to be, the dharma of a journalist.
Posted by: manoj | October 23, 2007 at 10:56 AM
Hey Manoj, are you saying that you learnt some journalistic lesson from the blog response to your Tehran article? That piece sure was pure reporting without much editorializing on your part.
Posted by: Ruchira | October 23, 2007 at 11:08 AM
The lesson is not general, it is something to do with my own perspective. What I'm trying to say is that while I write on the so-called heavy subjects, the subjects that really make a mark with the readers attention, are the "soft" ones. In other words, sometimes journalists like me, and sometimes our newspapers and magazines, get disconnected from our readers.
Posted by: manoj | October 24, 2007 at 12:19 AM
Hey Team AB.
Many congrats and hope you continue writing.
All the best!
Posted by: Amit | October 24, 2007 at 11:10 AM
Congrats to you all!
Posted by: AB Fan from CA | October 27, 2007 at 09:18 PM
I'm astonished it's been that long, though only in the sense that I can't believe the point in time when AB first started was two years ago. Tempis fugit. Given Ruchira's energy as "managing editor" and positive noodge (is that an oxymoron? there must be a better term) to her (very excellent, of course) contributors, combined with her will to keep going, I'm not surprised that AB continues to be as enjoyable a place to check in as it was the first time I did so. One of my favorite aspects of it, though, is the high quality of comments by our globe-spanning but selective readership. Congrats to all of us!
Posted by: Anna | October 29, 2007 at 01:39 AM
Anna:
It is not an oxymoron. When an older woman (your Mom or your "managing editor") browbeats you, consider it a positive noodge.
Posted by: Ruchira | October 29, 2007 at 12:49 PM