For context, the past few weeks, I'm averaging 350 pageviews per day, which is surprising that I don't have any jump pages and very few comments. The average daily audience is right around 500, and at any given moment I have 20-30 people browsing around, a number which skyrockets every evening. I have regular readers from the US, Canada, UK, Russia, Mexico, Germany, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bangladesh, Ukraine, Jordan, Cayman Islands, Norway and Denmark.
I feel lame letting this go to seed, but I'm not getting any less busy at work, and this is just another thing to devote time to, no matter how enjoyable. I truly liked doing this, sincerely appreciate the patronage, and will (probably) pick it up again in the future. I'm just not really able to do it the way I'd like now.
Now for the important stuff:
As you can tell, I care a great deal about the comment section, and relish the opportunity to sometimes be a part of it, and to enjoy what the commenters provide. There are so, so many good comments dropped on any given day on Deadspin, that it is hard to pick the ones that I post here. As I said a while back, if I didn't feature your comment (that may have been the belle of the ball in a thread) don't despair - we all know how good it was. I didn't expect, when reading with these eyes to have so many unstarred and less-known commenters surprise me with what they brought. Granted, there are certain recognizable commenters who, day in and day out, show tremendous wit, creativity and intelligence, and I applaud them for their exceptional talent and dedication. There are others who dip their toe in now and then with inconsistent success, and some who only rarely hit the sweet notes. Regardless, the comment section reads best when there are a number of voices, with their own unique angles and perspectives taking cracks at jokes.
Be generous with your support of new commenters. Be forgiving and look past biases or dislikes, and give credit and reward where it is due, no matter if you found the commenter bad, or tiresome in the past. Lead by example, but offer positive feedback and encouragement. There are well-regarded, funny commenters among you (who may be on their first or their fourth screen name) who bombed when they started. If they'd be aggressively drummed out of the place, we'd be poorer for it.
I'll be back soon, but I have some dragons to put to bed.
Keep kicking ass.
That is very well said and thanks for all the work you put in here.
ReplyDeleteThis may have been covered before but I have to ask. Why the rabbits in the background?
DeleteA great work of art that I've always loved. I found it particularly relevant in that it was a technical masterpiece, painstakingly done with detail, nuance and subtlety.
DeleteI read that the artist did it sort of as a celebration and exploration of his talent, and not to fill any external request or to humor contemporary demands.
This was fun. Hope you come back.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteThanks for all the work you did here. I enjoyed the daily recap immensely.
ReplyDeleteVery well said. As a commenter on his second account and not as regular or regularly funny as most, I enjoyed the positivity in both the last two paragraphs and the blog as whole.
ReplyDeleteWhile I like the positivity, I also liked how you pointed out the bad comments. You would call it how you saw it, often times just using a succinct word or sentence. I do believe that there is a need to point out the negative, fearing to make the shit-list motivates me to be more discriminating in what I post.
Hope you're back soon and thanks.
Thank you for doing this, and I enjoyed reading your recaps. I hope your dragons go to sleep quickly. Also, I don't understand metaphors.
ReplyDeleteEchoing everyone else here. I enjoy your recaps, and I agree with sweatingmullets that some negativity can be a good thing, especially when it's constructive criticism and not just unduly harsh words. Like I commented on an earlier roundup, one of your writeups made me realize I was forcing too many jokes, which has made me tighten up and think more (I hope).
ReplyDeleteI'll also say it was really nice to get some a mention when I was unstarred, and I like when you've highlighted comments that perhaps get skipped over during the day. Positive feedback is nice, especially when you're unstarred. I still feel like I don't know what the hell I'm doing, but that feeling was much more magnified a few weeks ago.
Didn't finish that thought (and made a typo to boot). I meant to say that the feeling was magnified a few weeks ago, but positive mentions made me feel like I was at least on the right track.
DeleteStreetCheese -
ReplyDeleteI don't know who you are, but... I've never had anyone dissect a joke or comment of mine the way that you did. For the Joe Paterno [dying] joke, you basically read my mind. However, I never, ever could have articulated the points of the joke with the precision that you did. Fantastic work, old chap.
+1
RMJ=H
Fantastic blog. FYI, the Jordan, Qatar, UAE, Bangladesh and Russia visitors were probably all me. This was a go-to part of my daily routine no matter where I was in the world -- thank you for the hard work, and I hope you come back when the timing is right for you.
ReplyDeleteGod damn, this may be the most fucked-up compliment I've ever read.
DeleteFair enough. It looks pretentious in retrospect. I didn't mean it that way - I meant only what I said, that reading his list of countries made me realize that no matter where I was or how tired I was, I made it a point to read what streetcheese had to say that day. I'm not sure how to complement someone better than that.
DeleteP.S. Giving out anonymous insults is fairly fucked up too.
Mr. Streetcheese, thank you for your efforts. Hurry back real soon, ya hear!
ReplyDeleteNice work, Street Cheese. It's a lot more work than some may think, and you did a hell of a job.
ReplyDelete/tip o' the cap