Website stats: end-of-the-year summary

December 31, 2015 • 8:15 am

Every year WordPress sends me a late-December email giving some yearly summary stats for the site.

First, the number of views. As is so often the case, the most popular posts were largely reposts, in this case the sad tale of Heather McManamy, the dying mother who, an unbeliever, asked people not to tell her young daughter that she was in heaven after she died. I simply put up Heather’s final Facebook post, which was incredibly poignant, and added a few remarks. But my old Mother Teresa post (a simple notice that two Canadian researchers had published a paper criticizing her and her work) continues to be a perennial favorite, rediscovered and put on reddit once or twice a year. By this time next year, she’ll be Saint Teresa.

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More data: we didn’t miss a day. Average was about 7.4 posts per day, which seems a bit too many, no?

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Below are the most viewed posts (but not necessarily the ones that got the most comments). You can see that the Mother Teresa post, over 2½ years old, still heads the pack. I’m not sure why people keep returning to it.

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Here are the most prolific commenters, which will be no surprise to regular readers. I suspect Ben Goren will slip considerably next year due to his new inamorata. I am surprised, though, that a free-will post about the resemblance between compatibilists and creationists (I should have said “theologians” instead of “creationists”) got so much attention.

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And here are the views by country for the year. As far as I can see, we’re missing only the Central African Republic and North Korea (one blessed year we had two views from the DPRK, but of course Internet is prohibited to all but high officials there). Svalbald looks blank, but it counts as part of Norway.

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Top ten countries (total views):


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Bottom ten countries:

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85 thoughts on “Website stats: end-of-the-year summary”

  2. If I ever make it to St Pierre, existence of which I wasn’t even aware of till sometime in the last decade, I’ll be sure to log in.

    Otherwise, surprised the Vatican isn’t paying closer attention.

  3. You’re also missing Western Sahara and Svalbard, but I guess those are part of Morocco and Norway, respectively. I’m surprised Vatican City is included in the list of viewers. 😛

  4. Yeah, I’m sorry about the Vatican too. (Never heard of Kiribati…) But you’re a great success otherwise.

    Happy New Year! (It’s just 8 hours 20 minutes away.) But I’m wondering if we will get any fireworks this year. I know they have been canceled in Paris. Here’s hoping 2016 is an improvement over 2015, but I’m not holding my breath.

    1. Kiribati. The Gilbert Islands. A group of small atolls near the equator in the mid-west Pacific. (Actually, a long way north of New Zealand, north of Tuvalu (which is even smaller) and Fiji).

      Since Tuvalu doesn’t make the bottom 10, do we conclude that its 10,000 inhabitants have more than 4 readers, or does it just not exist on the Intertoobz yet?

      cr
      P.S. I must admit to not knowing where Mayotte is.

      2. I spent some time in Kiribati back in 2004 and they had Internet then (only in the public library and gov’t offices, and at the telecom (phone) office in the capital city, Tarawa) – but they did have it. Probably much more extensive by now, 12 years later. There are also several dozen or even hundred ex-pat Aussies living there.

      1. By that logic whoever posted the most will have violated the Roolz.

        If everyone followed Roolz 9 and 12 to perfection there would still be a “winner”, no?

        1. No, I don’t think that follows. It’s logically possible for everyone to operate within Da Roolz, and for the difference between the most frequent commenter and the fifth-place commenter to be so small as to be negligible. That, I take it, is the kind of situation Da Roolz are meant to encourage.

    3. An average of about 18 posts per day, and not only that, but many (perhaps most?) of them fairly lengthy and well thought out. I couldn’t even begin to approach that.

      1. Yes, fishing. I’m going to Christmas Island (Kiritimati), named after Captain Cook’s visit on Christmas Eve, 1777. It’s a flyfishing destination for Bonefish (Albula vulpes) and Giant Trevially (Caranx ignobilis).

        2. >I’m going to Christmas Island (Kiritimati)

          Which raises the interesting topic of the Kiribati writing system which does not include the letter “s” (or a few others). So, when the name of the island in English (Christmas) is ‘translated’ to Kiribati, it comes out with the “CH” replaced with a “K” and the ‘s’ replaced with “ti” -which is what they use in writing in place of the letter ‘s’ – you get Kiritimati. It is pronounced “Kirismas” when spoken.

          By the same token, the name of the country itself is a bastardized version of the original name, “Gilberts” from The Gilbert Islands (named by a British sea captain named Gilbert of course) – you get Kiribati – which is pronounced “Kiribas”.

          1. That’s quite common in Polynesian languages. Rarotongan (Cook Islands Maori) and New Zealand Maori (most dialects) and I think Tahitian don’t have a ‘s’ or a ‘l’.
            By contrast, Samoan has a ‘l’ but not a ‘r’. ‘l’ and ‘r’ are often equivalent.

            You can see this in the word for e.g. ‘house’ – whare in NZ (‘wh’ is almost like a ‘f’ sound); ‘are in Rarotongan; fare in Tahitian; wale in Pukapukan (northern Cooks); fale in Samoan. (The ‘e’ at the end is always sounded, so it’s two syllables – ‘far-eh’ etc.)

            Many of the islands have their own dialects but islanders can generally understand each other.

            (And that’s the limit of my linguistic knowledge).

            cr

          4. You need to go to Fiji. ‘c’ = ‘th’, ‘d’ = ‘nd’, ‘g’ = ‘ng’, ‘b’ = ‘mb’, ‘q’ = ‘ngg’ (I think). I’m not sure about ‘y’.

            So Laucala Bay is Lauthala Bay, Nadi is Nandi, and Ba is Mba. I don’t think I’d even try Yaqaga (Island).

            (Disclaimer: I’ve been to Fiji for a total of two weeks. And, aside from Na(n)di, Si(ng)atoka and a couple of other larger towns, the really tongue-twisting names don’t often crop up in a tourist context).

            cr

          1. Flats fishing is a lot of fun. You wade around in ankle to knee deep water searching for fish, which are difficult to spot. The bonefish are continually on the move, searching for shrimp and crabs as the changing tide exposes areas. Bonefish are extremely strong and fast, pound-for-pound. Giant Trevally, which can reach over 100b, are frankly unbelievable, especially on a fly rod.

  7. I am surprised, though, that a free-will post about the similarity of compatibilists to creationists … got so much attention.

    I think that that comment count was partly the fault of myself versus Ben Goren. 😉

    (Sadly, we still haven’t been able to persuade Ben what compatibilism is actually about 😉 )

  8. It’s probably not a surprise that you are 50% more popular in Canada (pop. 36M) than in the US (pop 323M). The UK is also marginally ahead and Australia only marginally behind.
    But the big deal is New Zealand (pop. 4.6M) which scores almost twice as many views per head. Is it the biology or the atheism, or the cats?

    1. Well, we’re 42% atheist, and have an extremely high level of cat ownership, so it could be those. I don’t know whether we’re more likely to read the science posts, or why that would be if we do. All I can say is I always read them even though my own science education is very limited.

      Maybe we just know quality when we see it!

    2. Is it the biology or the atheism or the cats?

      Yes.

      And the readers’ nature photos, music clips, food porn, the vigorous defence of free speech… Variety is the spice of life.

      Plus Da Roolz ensure that comments by the readers are largely positive and thoughtful, almost never descending into the abusive ‘discussions’ which mar some other web sites.

    3. Is it the biology or the atheism, or the cats?

      Inclusive OR, it would seem.

      1. It is all three. It’s about the balance. Everything is about the right balance.

  9. If I must continue to battle at work (probably won’t because I have low tolerance for battles) then my precious pearls of wisdom 😀 will be shared less.

  10. My morning pleasure for about 10 months now is to feed the my fur-babies Kofi and Minky, pour a coffee, and read the morning posts from WEIT. The perfect combination for me – science reporting, intelligent atheist notations – with a bunch of cat lovers thrown in. CONGRATULATIONS Jerry on great website stat results. Payoff for the effort you put into running a smart, fun site. Seven posts a day – not too many at all. Kind thoughts to the clever and civilized people who post comments here.
    HAPPY NEW YEAR, GOOD HEALTH AND HAPPINESS TO ALL. G.

  11. Congratulations on a banner year!

    Ben Goren has a new inamorata? Why am I only reading this now? Since PCC(e) is obviously in the know maybe he would get us all up to speed.

    Also, isn’t St. Pierre part of France? It certainly was when I was there, but that was in the 60s. If I ever get back, I’ll boost your stats.

    2. St. Pierre is part of France (making it one of the obscurer Canadian neighbours), but for some reason there are non-countries with country-like TLDs. I have never managed to figure out why.

  12. Yes, Svalbard… after the recent tragic avalanche hitting a mining society I learned that these slides happen with a frequency of 1/3 years and that they don’t have an avalanche warning system as other nations.

    Googling around I see that they started to implement a reliable (and very fast) internet last year. [ http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303325204579467542262163298 ]

    I would give them a few more years to get their feet wet. From other google hits I gather they have some ferocious web gamers already!

    PS Ben’s cat has increased its staff!? Splendid!

  13. I’m surprised to find myself the number five most frequent commenter. I feel guilty because I usually just make hilariously funny (to me) remarks under someone else’s serious philosophical incites. Many others produce minor research reports and treatises extending over several pages, while I sputter mostly nonsense in tiny spastic ejaculations. And then, the spelling errers…I’ll stop here.

    1. That’s *erors*.

      Yes, the quality of the comments here is pretty astounding. It’s the exceedingly rare occasion when I feel I’ve contributed to that quality.

  14. Congratulations and Happy New Year, Jerry!

    The comparison with MoMA reminded me of an old Saturday Night Live bit from the ’80s, in which Joe Mantegna appeared on the news as the Spokesman for the NYC Department of Tourism. “I would just like to point out that for every person murdered in New York City, four people go the the Metropolitan Museum of Art.”

  16. Congrats Jerry on another excellent year. Your success is thoroughly deserved imo. Long may it continue! 🙂

  17. First, congratulations on the great stats! Those numbers don’t happen by accident. Although, as the name implies, I believe it was originally put together to answer questions about the book, it has become much more. The authors and the commentators here have taught me more biology (in lay person language) then I ever learned from a text book. Additionally, the articles on social issues such as free speech, critiques of religion, and yes, free-will were all partially controversial but also always thought provoking. I think these characteristics lead people who even stumble upon the site on accident to wind up bookmarking it.

    Secondly, I don’t think it should be surprising that given the audience that this web-site attracts, that a compatabilist/non-combatabist post would attract high traffic. It was clear, concise argument accessible to non-biologists and non-philosophers. Obviously, there are very smart people on both sides of the argument. To the non-compatabilist it provided a strong layout for argument and to the combatilibist it provided a set of premises and conclusion that I believe that they felt deserved an answer.

    Oh, and Happy belated Birthday!

  18. A big factor in the popularity of this site, I think, are not only the subject matter and quality of the posts, but the frequency of the posts. There are not many sciencey web sites out there that provide several posts per day, day after day. I get up in the morning and look at WEIT over my coffee and Cheerios. Mid-morning? Check WEIT. Lunch with WEIT. And so on.

  19. IIRC last year Diana MacPherson was first and Ben Goren 2nd. Consistent (and great) readers/commentators both.

    I’m happy for Ben, but will miss his insight and well-written comments.

    Thanks PCC(E) for another fact-filled year of diverse and pertinent posts. 7 a day too many? Nay I say!

    1. I can’t give details about Ben’s love life; I’ll leave that up to him. But I’m happy for him, though not so happy that I could tolerate his not posting here any more.

  20. ‘Ben has a new inamorata’

    And I thought he just had a cat. 😉

    This is possibly the only site on the Intertoobz where one might encounter an ‘inamorata’.

    I had wondered where Ben had gone, his absence was noticeable. A couple of times, when I was briefly controverting “Jesus existed” commenters, I wished Ben was around to give them a blast solidly backed up with Biblical authority.

    cr

  22. Why am I blushing?

    Yes, completely unexpectedly, the love of my life has found me and I her. She’s practicing cello in the bedroom as I type. She’s even won over Baihu…he no longer asks me for his katsuobushi dessert…now he asks Misa!

    I’ll still pop in from time to time, especially on work days when I need a distraction. But, suddenly, my days are overflowing. And, despite spending lots and lots and lots of time with Misa, I’m ploughing through more projects at greater speed than at any time I can remember. So amazing to have a Muse, to get to actually meet her, and then to fall in love with her.

    …but now I’ve got to finish getting the printer going so I can make up some better-late-than-never New Year’s cards for us….

    b&

    1. What a pleasant surprise. You read like a romance novel.
      “she’s practicing cello in the bedroom…”.

      I’m very happy for you both.

      1. Thanks!

        Don’t know that a novelized version of our lives would sell very well…all the sturm und drang is in lives past, before we met; now we’re in the “…and they lived happily ever after” part that, understandably, gets no more text than what I just wrote.

        But, yes. Most wonderful to have the printer pause for a moment and me to hear Ave Maria coming from the bedroom….

        b&

        >

      1. Thanks, I think. I’ve been good about the Hili Dialogues, at least! I’ll be sure, though, to make the time to dive in on some of the meaty posts. I at least owe you that much….

        b&

        >

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