Fab, I truly appreciate your hard work on this site. I am sorry the readership has declined. I do not know whether you feel current readership is enough to keep this going. I know you work hard. But if there were a "hide" feature (as on Facebook) I'd set it to always hide these posts. What is their value? They feel like a guilt trip, actually. Akin to a priest yelling at a congregation because so many people fail to come to church. How are they helping?
Hi Bella. I post them because one of the most important parts of the blog for me is keeping it going and - if possible - expanding its reach. I believe the academy is in a world of trouble, and find that the people who traffic our site are smarter, more conscientious, and more like I'd want my colleagues to be, than people I meet in the real world.
I don't intend to make you feel guilty. I'm keeping track of the relative health and traffic of the site. It's a bit of a habit that I've developed and do occasionally get a smattering of positive and negative feedback.
If anyone else thinks I should just quit posting the stats, please let me know.
It must be my catholic upbringing, to feel guilty about any problem brought to my attention.
Anyway, I love this site, and feel the same way about the people here as you do. I just don't know how to spread the word. The few people I've told about it IRL don't come on, and I am not sure why.
In the last few years I've told dozens of people about the site. Very few of them have taken to it regularly, and I can't say for sure why that is. Maybe we are just a really small group?
I know I appreciate knowing that there are others out there like me that view this career the same way, and I keep coming back.
I am sort of torn by Bella's ideas though. I see exactly what she means. I do sort of like to know how many people are reading, and 112000 hits a month seems like plenty. Maybe it doesn't matter.
Oh, I'm partly to blame for this, I think. At the beginning of CM I remember nattering on to Fab about the "importance" of hits, the need to grow the page as much as possible, and it's my belief, too, that we've got good content that needs to be heard.
That actual content has slowed, of course, as the hits have dropped. Maybe we're tired of complaining?
No; we're just busy. And the misery is, after all, redundant. There is an aspect of the wallow hereabouts, and that is a setting each and all of us take to upon a continuum from "sparsely" to "with delighted aplomb and abandon." And any one of us can find ourselves sliding along that continuum depending upon our circumstance at the moment. There is no question that i visited more frequently--several times across most days--in the early years, and I visit less frequently now than ever before. But CM is as important to me today as it ever has been.
I'll take some blame. When I first found the site I visited all the time. I even posted pretty regularly for a while. Now, I don't. And it's about fresh content. Look at the last couple of months.
Lots of linked articles (that I don't mind, but that certainly are not a priority for me), articles about the page itself, articles about behind the scenes trolls and drama (of LIMITED interest to anyone but the moderators), and enough private jokes about football and a lovely (but inconsequential) Ohio uni.
I wish I had more ideas about new posts, but I think I used most of them up. There's not a ton of affirmation to come for me working on new posts for the page, and there is for nobody, obviously, so it all adds up.
I love the spirit of the page, but maybe it's done its thing and now it's over. No offense to anyone. Still a big fan.
We should charge membership dues so we can roast the troll.
I, too, have told people about the site or have sent links to colleagues and friends. They don't seem to feel the misery in quite the same way some of us do and it doesn't appeal to them to keep looking. I suspect they aren't people who read blogs much anyway.
Plus, it takes time and effort to become part of the community and get to know the rhetoric of the page and how to respond and who says what and who is who and who not to piss off and, oh, sometimes it seems like more effort than it's worth. Some people are rigorously accepted and applauded and others don't get that same welcome, and then the inside jokes that keep some of us coming back and feeling like a community can turn others away.
I commend the moderators for keeping up by posting linked articles when those of us with posting rights are slower or too busy to post original content. That's not an easy job. I can't imagine how much time and effort it takes, so thank you!
Are you likely to shut down the blog if we get below a certain level of readership?
Fab, I truly appreciate your hard work on this site. I am sorry the readership has declined. I do not know whether you feel current readership is enough to keep this going. I know you work hard. But if there were a "hide" feature (as on Facebook) I'd set it to always hide these posts. What is their value? They feel like a guilt trip, actually. Akin to a priest yelling at a congregation because so many people fail to come to church. How are they helping?
ReplyDeleteHi Bella. I post them because one of the most important parts of the blog for me is keeping it going and - if possible - expanding its reach. I believe the academy is in a world of trouble, and find that the people who traffic our site are smarter, more conscientious, and more like I'd want my colleagues to be, than people I meet in the real world.
DeleteI don't intend to make you feel guilty. I'm keeping track of the relative health and traffic of the site. It's a bit of a habit that I've developed and do occasionally get a smattering of positive and negative feedback.
If anyone else thinks I should just quit posting the stats, please let me know.
It must be my catholic upbringing, to feel guilty about any problem brought to my attention.
DeleteAnyway, I love this site, and feel the same way about the people here as you do. I just don't know how to spread the word. The few people I've told about it IRL don't come on, and I am not sure why.
In the last few years I've told dozens of people about the site. Very few of them have taken to it regularly, and I can't say for sure why that is. Maybe we are just a really small group?
ReplyDeleteI know I appreciate knowing that there are others out there like me that view this career the same way, and I keep coming back.
I am sort of torn by Bella's ideas though. I see exactly what she means. I do sort of like to know how many people are reading, and 112000 hits a month seems like plenty. Maybe it doesn't matter.
Oh, I'm partly to blame for this, I think. At the beginning of CM I remember nattering on to Fab about the "importance" of hits, the need to grow the page as much as possible, and it's my belief, too, that we've got good content that needs to be heard.
ReplyDeleteThat actual content has slowed, of course, as the hits have dropped. Maybe we're tired of complaining?
The only important hits at the compound involve the game "Puff, Puff, Pass."
DeleteOr if Chase is playing, "Puff, Puff, Puff, Puff, Puff, Puff, Puff, Puff, Puff, Oh Shit There's No More, Sorry Dudes."
No; we're just busy. And the misery is, after all, redundant. There is an aspect of the wallow hereabouts, and that is a setting each and all of us take to upon a continuum from "sparsely" to "with delighted aplomb and abandon." And any one of us can find ourselves sliding along that continuum depending upon our circumstance at the moment. There is no question that i visited more frequently--several times across most days--in the early years, and I visit less frequently now than ever before. But CM is as important to me today as it ever has been.
ReplyDeleteIt's all about content. If there's new content, people visit and read. If you get used to there being no content, you don't come back as much.
ReplyDeleteAnd there is a lot of content ABOUT the page, and not the topic. That's something moderators could control better. Sorry.
+1
DeleteThe monthly hit counts I can get behind, I guess, but weekly? TMI. Takes away from the capital-M Misery when there's too much small-m blog misery.
I'll take some blame. When I first found the site I visited all the time. I even posted pretty regularly for a while. Now, I don't. And it's about fresh content. Look at the last couple of months.
ReplyDeleteLots of linked articles (that I don't mind, but that certainly are not a priority for me), articles about the page itself, articles about behind the scenes trolls and drama (of LIMITED interest to anyone but the moderators), and enough private jokes about football and a lovely (but inconsequential) Ohio uni.
I wish I had more ideas about new posts, but I think I used most of them up. There's not a ton of affirmation to come for me working on new posts for the page, and there is for nobody, obviously, so it all adds up.
I love the spirit of the page, but maybe it's done its thing and now it's over. No offense to anyone. Still a big fan.
We are becoming more selective. We are elite.
ReplyDeleteWe should charge membership dues so we can roast the troll.
ReplyDeleteI, too, have told people about the site or have sent links to colleagues and friends. They don't seem to feel the misery in quite the same way some of us do and it doesn't appeal to them to keep looking. I suspect they aren't people who read blogs much anyway.
Plus, it takes time and effort to become part of the community and get to know the rhetoric of the page and how to respond and who says what and who is who and who not to piss off and, oh, sometimes it seems like more effort than it's worth. Some people are rigorously accepted and applauded and others don't get that same welcome, and then the inside jokes that keep some of us coming back and feeling like a community can turn others away.
I commend the moderators for keeping up by posting linked articles when those of us with posting rights are slower or too busy to post original content. That's not an easy job. I can't imagine how much time and effort it takes, so thank you!
Are you likely to shut down the blog if we get below a certain level of readership?