First, Happy New Year! And second, thanks to all the readers and commenters for making this website more successful than I ever thought it would be when I started it on my editor’s advice.
Now, the stats, thoughtfully compiled by WordPress. Click to enlarge:
The numbers (somebody messed up and used the word “blog”). The average is about 14,800 views per day:
The links (and lynx):
The “lynx” connection mystifies me. Other perennial favorite search terms are “penis size” (from a post that gave average penis sizes of human males in the world’s countries) and “cat penis.” LOL!
Where do you come from?
Look at all those Aussie readers! Good on ya, mates.
Who commented the most? No surprises here: Dominic, Diane G., Ben, Torbjörn, and Icthyic.
Special thanks to those ardent commenters! I expect that Baihu was the cat mentioned most often on the site.
And. . . the most popular posts. The “longest cell” post was picked up by Reddit, and for some reason the Russian equivalent of Reddit was fascinated by the treehoppers. My own favorite among these was the Mason Crumpacker post.
As far as I can see, it was a very good year.
Thank you, Jerry, for providing such a great website!
Happy new year!
/@
Congrats on a wonderful year!
What?!? WordPress does not track this vital statistic? (See, I just mentioned Baihu to give him a good start on 2012. Twice!)
A 1st class site and I have retweeted many articles. Always something interesting to mull over and share with other illuminated beings.
Lynx is a text-only web browser.
I love this website– and the commentary is top notch!
(Happy Belated Coynzza)
ha– I had thought “lynx” might have been a typo for “links”. Your explanation makes more sense.
Thanks to da manjment. Love your site Jerry
Happy New Year and thank you for your informative and entertaining website thingy!
Happy New Year everyone!
Jerry, your editor is a brilliant person.
I know that running a website like this is very time consuming, especially one that maintains high quality content, so I thank you for your hard work.
And thanks to all the posters, even the ones who didn’t make the top 5, the comments are always great to read.
Happy New Year! My favorite post was Mason Crumpacker too. And, of course, the kitteh posts are very special. I can’t wait to see what wonders this new year will bring.
Thank you Jerry and a happy new year to every one.
I have quite a few blogs bookmarked, including this one. If anyone asked me how I originally found them I wouldn’t be quite sure. Usually it would be by following a link to a specific post and then having a look around and reading some of the others. If I find those interesting too I will bookmark the blog and keep coming back.
Happy New Year and thank you. Keep bashing the accommodationists.
The trick is to try not to comment when you see something interesting. … oops.
And a Happy Gnu Year to all!
“Happy Gnu Year”
+1
Hello everyone, I only stumbled across this site a few days ago while I was arguing over Homeopathy with a friend (I don’t remember the specific search terms that led me here).
I rarely post on websites but ended up making a long rambling one on the psychiatric medication page; (feel free to not approve that, I belatedly clued into the way the posts thread and display). I really shouldn’t have tried to address every individual post at once.
At this point I’ve hardly scratched the surface of your content here, but it looks entertaining.
I hope everyone is ready for a good year, I will probably swing back by in the future.
Dave
Much obliged, Jerry.
But really, I keep coming back because your site is one of the best I read. Sometimes it’s almost too good and takes more time than I’d like. I’m about to start on a Master’s in teaching, so I’ll have to be even more careful about time spent here (but the science is important for my education!). I want to read everything and the commentors are so well informed (the trolls are sometimes fun, too).
Your site has been one of my bookmarks for a long time.
I have one more statistic for your edification.
One of the pleasures of reading this site is the interesting word choices made by Jerry and the commenters. I just added the 317th word from this site to my word-of-the-day examples. (It was ‘nonce’.) For those of you who like contests, he handily beat PZ who only has 92 references. And Phil has a paltry 45.
Thanks Jerry and all the great commenters for making this my favorite site to check everyday.
“…somebody messed up and used the word ‘blog’ ”
You only have yourself to blame. What does it say in your sidebar right under ‘Email Subscription’? “Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.”
Happy New Year Jerry, and thanks for fostering this community. This is the website/blog that I most look forward to reading when I wake up in the morning.
As it happens, the Space Needle is just a mile and a half from my apartment, but even so I went up it only twice in 2011 (although I walk past it all the time). So this definitely beats that.
Regarding the top five commenters, it’s not clear to me that this is something to strive for, but rather perhaps a sign that some of us have too much time on our hands and maybe ought to get our own blogs.
Or suffer from chronic SIWOTI. Let’s find a cure in 2012! (Srsly, I love all the comments here.)
Definitely SIWOTI. I don’t have time for anything myself.
Hey! I resemble that remark.
Sorry, all for being such a thread hog…I’ll try to keep it in check…but there’s just so much stupid!
And Baihu, on my shoulders as I type has assured me he’ll do what he can to keep me in check, too….
b&
And a 3rd gratuitous Baihu reference. Damn! Four, four gratuitous Baihu references… OOOOHHH! I’ll come in again.
HA! This is exactly what I expected! So there!
b&
I have! The latter…
I never feel like I have enough time, and now I know why! *blush* *blush* *blush*
Obviously I’m extremely grateful to you, Jerry, for providing this stupendous website.
This is my favourite website, even including the shopping ones! I used to spend most of my time at PZ’s but the quality of the commenters here is so much higher. Thanks Jerry for doing such a great job, if I can only get a pair of cowboy boots I will be able to enter fully into all your obsessions. I was in Phoenix a few years ago but I didn’t buy any boots, big mistake.
Ben is my favourite commenter, I almost always agree with him. 😉
Oh dear… I am really embarrassed… most of my comments are short as I am hopeless at typing, and not really that deep or good at arguing my point unlike others out there. I look at WEIT often first thing in the morning. It also happens that Jerry starts to write at my lunch time, and then I look in when I have a cup of coffee in the afternoon. I am less likely to comment at other times as I only use a USB dongle connection at home.
It is the most interesting site – I dislike theology and love biology. Here is to many more WEIT years!
Me, too. Embarrassed, that is. I can just picture so many brilliantly original “+ 1” and “(subscribing)” posts . . .
My best website after PZs. I am from Africa, one of those tiny little icons on that map 🙁
From such a tiny seed, mighty oak trees grow…
Jerry, well done. As so many others said, I love biology and science, hate religion — the bad parts, not the culturally tasty parts (i.e., latkes) — and fairly qualify as a cat fanatic and longtime lolcat lover. You’ve got it all!