Rankings boosted by strange post

April 7, 2014 • 7:24 am

Just once—once in my fleeting life—I’d like to be the #1 website on WordPress, even if it was just for a few minutes. Then I could die happy. (Not really: I could die happy if I petted a baby tiger and went to Antarctica to see the penguins and hiked the Milford Track and saw Angkor Wat and Petra and had dinner at Alinea here in Chicago and drank a bottle of  1982 Petrus.)

But I’m settling for the list below, which is okay. At least I beat the global-warming denialist site “Watts up with that?”, which lately, and thankfully, seems to have lost its permanent spot at the top.

Screen shot 2014-04-07 at 7.37.13 AMNow this rise in rankings (I’m not always in the top 10) is due to a single post that was highlighted on reddit (of course), which garnered me 87,000+ views yesterday. Sadly, it’s not a post that has anything to do with my intellectual acumen or my perspicacious analyses of philosophy, theology, or current events. No, as usual it was a throwaway post meant to be amusing.

Guess which post would garner this kind of traffic?

 

UPDATE:

As some of you have correctly guessed, the post attracting the extra traffic is the one on Alabama’s ban on sex toys.

This tells us something about humanity.

 

50 thoughts on “Rankings boosted by strange post”

    1. Batesian mimicry of proselytizers?

      That falls within the category of “perspicacious analyses of current events”. I’ll go with the cat topiary.

  2. Please don’t tell me it was the cat-and-toilet-paper video. (No offense intended, of course, to the cat, who did a splendid job.)

    1. That’s what I thought, too, until I noticed it was from Saturday, and so then figured it was the Batesian one, but since it’s just the Reddit post that was yesterday I’ll go with first impressions.

    1. It’s hiding under the WEIT logo?
      (I hear Matthew making phone calls to his bevy of nightjar camouflage specialists, even at this time of night.)

  6. That drives me nuts too.

    Dozens of highly researched, well presented posts and very little interest.

    One post I wrote in 10 minutes, full of hyperbole becomes a minor sensation on reddit and gives me ten times my average number of hits.

    sigh.

      1. Good night, Deepak
        Good night, Deepak
        Good night, Deepak,
        We’re going to leave your woo.

        1. LOL!

          deep deep deep deep deep deep deep deep
          deep deep deep deep deep deep deep deep
          deep deep deep deep deep deep deep deep
          deep deep deep deep deep deep deep deep…

  9. I vaguely recall one of the posts getting a bunch of comments from people I didn’t recognize…but I didn’t pay much attention to it, so I’m afraid I’ve completely forgotten which one it was….

    b&

  10. PFFFFFFTTTH! An e-raspberry to those who would categorize my efforts as throw-away 😉

    1. Perhaps if you redrew those Mormons with less clothing Jerry’s ratings would go up. It’s a choice between authenticity and ratings.

    2. Your efforts are very enjoyable, and I’m glad Jerry features them from time to time.

  11. Wait… what? Don’t you want to also spend time with the endangered Kakapos?

  12. You know, Jerry…I bet your page ranking would go through the roof if you did a PBS special or started to make appearances on the fake news shows.

    b&

    1. I should hasten to add: by “fake news shows,” I, of course, mean Colbert and Stewart and the like — the comedic satire news shows. I’m not suggesting you try to get on Fox, though I imagine that’d also draw lots of hits.

      b&

      1. I would love to see Dr. Coyne on “The Daily Show” or the “Colbear Repour”. He’d be great.

  14. Nobody has guessed “Chili’s” yet … so I will. Don’t know if it’s a ‘throwaway post meant to be amusing’ though.

    It’s probably the toilet paper cat.

  15. This question is not as easy as it appears. I don’t recall seeing a recent post that had nothing to do with philosophy, theology, or current events, AND was amusing. “Did they find the lost plane?” was a peripheral throwaway post. But, “Against all reason, Alabama outlaws sex toys” was peripheral AND amusing.

    1. I thought the baby lions trying to roar like papa was amusing and peripheral, but I don’t think it’s the answer to today’s quiz.

  16. Do we have to guess? I went to reddit and gathered some empirical data on the question. But I don’t want to spoil things in case guessing is key.

  18. Lion cub trying to roar, cat with toilet paper, and Alabama sex toys are all good choices.

    I’m going to guess sex toys just because funny cat videos are a reasonably common occurrence on JAC’s website, but he said this uptick was unusual.

  19. It’s the Irish cat who raised the ducklings video from last week, isn’t it?

  20. “This tells us something about humanity.”

    Yes, we’re all very interested in Alabama.

  21. Any idea of why the climate-change denier blog (It doesn’t deserve the title ‘website’) has dropped in rankings? Hopefully it’s permanent.

  22. so, what is it that would make *you* die happy?

    I want to snuzzle a snow leopard’s belly. I know, it’s to the leopard’s detriment so I will be happy to die a bit unhappy 🙂

  23. Note: The post in question was the one on Alabama’s banning of sex toys. A few people got this right, but most didn’t. But that’s understandable: who would have guessed that would go semi-viral?

    1. I should’ve known! I would’ve liked it better if cat TP had been the one so everyone could see a demonstration of how the cat corrects incorrect toilet paper orientation!

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