The state of the stats

Way back when I used to be quite keen on blog stats, it seemed to be important for some reason that I got hits and so on. Maybe my younger self had more of an ego that I do today. Anyhow, these days it is hard to think of something I worry less about and I can safely leave these pages to gather dust for weeks on end. I came back to it few days ago after another longish hiatus and happened to notice the following.

You probably don't notice it, I rarely do, as it is buried quite some way down the page on the right hand side. On a phone you probably don't see it at all. It's a counter of sorts, I've no idea how it works but when I first started this blog I noticed that many bloggers had this same little widget and I wanted it too. All you had to do was register your blog or birding website with FatBirder and then you could happily track your popularity and bask in a warm glow. Or something like that, I don't think I ever made it into the first two pages......

But look at this! #19? This can only mean one thing! I am brilliant, the quality of my writing is nearly unsurpassed, legend is not a frequently used word but.... It is 2023 and everyone has stopped blogging. Nearly everyone that is. Consequently if I deign to write a post once in a while I simply leapfrog hundreds of birding web pages that have not been touched for even longer than mine. Oh dear, what a sorry state of affairs. Indeed if I look down my links to other blogs I used to enjoy (also on the right hand side of the page when viewed on a computer) the vast majority of them are now defunct, with the last update in some cases years ago. Almost all have dropped by the wayside, a real shame when you think how much great content there used to be. There was also a massive amount of drivel of course, badly written and uninteresting. No great loss there, but no doubt it satisfied a need at that particular time and that can be important.

I wouldn't have read those anyway, or not more than once, but there were pages I used to regularly visit and that I still think about from time to time. Thankfully a few bloggers are still gamely plugging away and I greatly enjoyed a couple of posts about seawatching from the south-west approaches that popped up recently. Moths forgotten, the sheer joy of scanning the waves leapt from the screen! And the prize, gosh, I can only imagine! Not in Wanstead that's for sure, although there was a record of Cory's Shearwater over Regent's Park a few years ago so perhaps never say never. Tales like this are why blogging still has a place, you need the space to build up to the big moment, the short formats that are temporarily all the rage could not possibly convey it adequately. Keep the faith people, it may yet come full circle.