Tiny Inroads

Regulars will have noted by now the implementation of a new commenting system, which I hope will prove more effective and graceful (those with difficulties ought to consult me forthwith). This has gotten me writing about writing the blog once again. At the time of my belated first anniversary here at the blog, I bemoaned its apparently limited impact, but expressed resolve to stick it out. I knew that I had some readers, but believed that they were exclusively people known to me personally. I take pride in what I've got here, and believe it to be a good and fine thing, but there was no evidence that people outside of my immediate circle were even aware of it, let alone coalescing as a following. This was something I was determined to change, and I have assiduously made efforts to do so since.

Whereas I once infrequently checked subscriber data and banished the hit counter for lousing up the look of the page, I have lately embraced both things (and make an effort to find and make use of other tools to supplement them). Checking the latest data has become a regular force of habit, and reminds me a bit of the population totals on Battlestar Galactica. I do it so that I can try to shape and deliver what I offer in an appealing way, but I do enjoy the process in itself. There's an emotional investment in the numbers akin to the box scores in the sports section.

It's rather amusing to see what things I've written have effect, and moreover to see what the nature of the effect is. Currently mystifying to me is what was so great about this post, but there's no difficulty in understanding that a post I wrote on taco trucks seems to have caught the eye of such an operator in Illinois. I had no intention then, nor shall I ever, of tailoring content for the purposes of drawing anyone in particular. It was an organic expression of my enjoyment of the thing. I had no knowledge even of the existence of taco trucks in that state, but was glad for whatever uptick in attention which resulted. Write it down: I and Vessel Of Knowledge don't pander or compromise (so long as there's no profit in it)!

Of course, the friends and family segment remains my bread and butter, if the nature of people who discuss the blog with me is as telling as it would seem. It all adds up to suggest that at some very minor level, it's beginning to catch on. The test of that for me was always the appearance of anonymous web surfers on the radar, and while they're not exactly among the townspeople yet, they're at least being sighted in the county, if you follow me. Keep it up, strangers: you'll like what you find.