I got about 5 times my usual traffic yesterday, which explains why there were some occasional slow-downs all across scienceblogs. I think the server held up fairly well, though, and I know the big guys here are planning some server upgrades to handle future growth.
Don’t worry, it’ll ease up. You can tell from the relatively small increase in page views vs. visits that most of these people zipped in to read one post and didn’t hang around. The new creationists trying to argue weakly in that thread have been mildly amusing, though.
Mildly amusing but incredibly repetitive.
Egads. Seeing the comments in that post, if it had been me I might well have shut down comments, given how idiotic some of them are.
Hey, I’ve seen that hit rate pattern before! It’s exactly* the same as mine. What a coincidence!
*except for two orders of magnitude…
Now, if only PZ had made derogatory remarks about Dilbert in the same post. . . .
Yep, that is exactly what it looks like for many of us when you grace us with a mention in one of your posts. Your power is almost…godly.
You’re doing better than Toby Keith. Thank goodness!
OT: Has anyone else read MSN’s guide ( http://msn.match.com/msn/article.aspx?articleid=4140&TrackingID=516311&BannerID=544657&menuid=8>1=9983 ) for dating as an atheist? I find it kind of offensive, though maybe all their dating guides are aimed at idiots who don’t know how to act around people.
Best/worst part: if you don’t believe in god, let her know you believe in parallel universes so she knows your spiritual; ie you need to believe in something more than this world or your screwed (or maybe not screwed… ahuh huh).
After reading way too many of those comments, I think the only thing we have left to say is:
Lalalalalalalala! You ca-an’t hear me!
Heh. Let’s look at which topics have garnered the most traffic, find a way to lump them all into one post, and watch PZ’s popularity skyrocket. So far we know picking on Creationist anti-science fairs, Dilbert, and if I remember correctly, his Plan B explanation got a lot too. Any takers on how to put all of them together? Minus points for lack of imagination if any immaculate conception is invoked.
Knock that off PZ. Your y-axis is making me feel inadequate.
I could only make it about 75 comments into that thread.
A few months ago, I was trying to help a mildly retarded high-schooler with his algebra homework. That was, I’m afraid to say, much easier than trying to explain science to creationists.
Robert, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry… I guess I’ll just be happy that a) I’ve never been asked that question or talked about religion on a date and b) I somehow ended up with a fellow atheist anyway.
Hmm. It looks like most people don’t read this blog on Saturdays, although the pace picks up a little on Sunday. (Sunday night maybe?)
Fridays are a surprise for me, I would have thought people would waste time at work reading on Fridays more than on other days – but from my own experience I guess that Fridays are the day to catch up on what you were supposed to do.
Mon – Thurs are great blogging days – and are probably the reason why I.. ah.. I mean why your readers are busy catching up on work on Friday.
Thanks for the data PZ, it sort of mirrors what I’ve discovered about my own readers…
… except that I have far fewer data points!
Hey, I was part of that spike! :-)
I clicked through from Newsvine. Gotcha in my feed reader now.
Is that dating article in the “for men” section, or something, or are there just no female atheists in that writer’s world? If some guy was trying to impress me by telling me how “spiritual” he was, I’d roll my eyes and leave. My current SO isn’t quite as atheist as I’d like, but he looks like a supermodel and is a supergeek, so I’m not complaining too much… :)
Those comments on the creationism thread are a hoot. I keep going away, coming back, reading a few more, refreshing the thread… Hours of fun for the whole heathen family!
I too must take credit for this spike – I posted your URL on another website with a huge audience…
http://www.lioncity.net/buddhism/index.php?showtopic=49686&view=findpost&p=682760
yea, I got a big hit that day too. 14 instead of the usual 11 readers, owing mainly to renewed ranting about Home Schooling … (what else).
… so, PZ, if I kill you and make a PZ suite and wear it around and take over your blog, like in that movie, I can have 40 – 50 K hits per dium??? … worth thinking about…
That might work. After all, over the internet, no one will be able to smell the odor of decaying flesh, or detect the grisly seams. You better be sure to torture me first to get all the passwords.
Got a ‘spike’ myself. Mike at 2Blowhards posted a link to my look at Homo floresiensis. 55 people had a look instead of the usual none. I’m so proud of myself. :)
The passwords shouldn’t be too hard – just go for all synonyms of cephalopod and pirate, right?
“The passwords shouldn’t be too hard – just go for all synonyms of cephalopod and pirate, right?”
Simpler: they’re all “Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!”
I suspect I contributed to that traffic spike too. I posted the Creation (non-)Science Fair item link on the BBC website (their mbreligion sub-site).