your hit counter is lying

[zing_och]

Since I'm a lurking lurker who lurks most of the time, I don't really feel qualified to say this, but whatever.

Ok. You want to know who's making you sad by giving you a bad hit-count / comment ratio?

It's me.



I open the story in a new tab. 1 This new tab is now the right-most tab in a row of a-lot-more-than-I-will-read-right-now tabs. I surf on for a while, then I have to go to bed / work / shopping / whatever. I close my browser.

Next time I'm on the computer my browser restores my tabs. 2 I surf the web, starting with my circle, opening yet more tabs, then moving on to all those other tabs.

These steps might be repeated a lot (sometimes I'm dragging around open tabs for weeks). But we'll say -

Ok. I'm getting to the story tab now! It's on an LJ with a layout I can't (or don't want to) read. I click my handy Readability applet. It reloads the page. 3

I read the story. I love it! I want to leave a comment! But Readability doesn't give me a comment link, so I have to reload the original page. 4 I post a comment!

And finally I bookmark your story on delicious because I love it so much. Because I'm an obsessive re-reader (is that a word?) you'll get lots more hits from me if I love the story - but probably no more comments.

So if I liked your story and left a comment, but don't come back to it, the ratio is still not all that great. With every re-read it gets worse. Plus I tend to open links from recs without really checking if I already know the story. Even more hits!

Lots of hits / not many comments doesn't have to mean "people read the story but don't like it".

(Of course that doesn't get into all the comments I don't leave because [list deleted; this is a topic for another post - which I probably won't make. This one's easier! *g*])

Comments

[kickair8p]

You mean a hundred and thirty-some unique and special people didn't read (and fail to comment on) my super-secret double-dead-fandom crossover fic? I'm crushed, I tell you -- absolutely crushed!

[/snark]

Probably a good point to bring up, though.

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[zing_och]

It's 175 now! And umm, one by me, because of course I had to see what it was! And now it lives in my tabs, and someday I might read it (even if I only remember Forever Knight really vaguely and have never seen West Wing), but chances are I'll forget why I have it open and close the tab in a few days.

Er. Sorry?

[kickair8p]

S'okay -- like I said, double-dead-fandom (although fans of both could dispute me on the "dead" label). If you get Bravo, they're showing West Wing on weekday mornings. And there's always wikipedia, but this site's got more info and pictures: http://westwing.bewarne.com/leo.html

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