Knock knock
It doesn’t happen often, but it did this morning: 0 pageviews, even at 9 am European time. The Middle East had been up for hours. The Balkans and the rest of Europe for an hour or so. Yet somehow no one had found it necessary to read peacefare.net. How disappointing!
Not really, and the moment did not last, but it does make me wonder whether the effort is worthwhile. I admit that what I publish on peacefare is not much more than what I am thinking at the moment, plus any more serious reflections that have found their way into print elsewhere. And now also wonderful contributions from my Middle East Institute interns, currently the very capable and assiduous Gregor Nazarian and Ilona Gerbakher. They have been writing up Washington events, something I find very helpful since it is impossible to get to all the interesting ones.
The question is whether this is a worthwhile effort. While my WordPress software and Google Analytics provide lots of data on visitors and pageviews, they don’t provide a feel for what people are thinking. Nor do they tell me when you are reading peacefare.net on an RSS feed or an email subscription. I get some feedback in the comments on peacefare and appreciate it, even when it is sharply critical. But often I don’t hear back much, except for the occasional hit on the “like” button or the several tweets per day referencing peacefare, which are always appreciated.
So this post, on what promises to be a slow day, is a plea I guess for a bit more vibe back from readers. There are lots of ways: the like button is the simplest (but not the most nuanced), comments are always welcome (even when they specify that I am an idiot, provided there is good supporting argumentation), tweets (citing @DanielSerwer) and emails (to daniel@peacefare.net) make their way to me, citations and links to peacefare.net are terrific.
What do want you to hear more about? What less? How is what you are reading here useful or interesting? How is it boring or annoying? How could it be improved?
Most of all, I would like to hear from those of you with something to contribute. I never intended peacefare.net to be a one-voice outlet. But I have failed, with some few and warmly welcomed exceptions, to get others to pitch in. Posts are not hard: 500-800 words, focused on a compelling thought or current event connected to peace and war. Send them to me: daniel@peacefare.net I can’t promise to publish everything I get, but I can promise to read it and seriously consider it, with of course the possibility of editorial changes.
Knock knock. Who’s there? Peacefare.net, hoping to hear from YOU!
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11 thoughts on “Knock knock”
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RSS - Posts
I get the RSS feed, which doen’t make easy to respond unless i take the additional step of opening it in a browser (I get the feed on my iPad using a RSS feed app).
Your challenge I think is satisfying two very different audiences: (I) generalists like me and (ii) inside baseball followers of what’s happening in the Balkans or someplace else.
I really liked the VFW piece. Keep it coming
Alan
No, the feed reader does not register a hit on my site, but note my reply to Doug Leins: there are 81 Googlereaders taking the peacefare feed. There are presumably other using other readers. Maybe thousands more?
Don’t know exactly how the system works, but your page is aggregated into my feed reader where I read it with no direct access by me to your site. I don’t know if the feed reader registers a hit on your site or not, but suspect others may be accessing the site in the same way.
Nice to hear from you, Doug! You are THE man who enabled me to set up the peacefare site. No, I don’t have any real way of counting feed readers, though I do know there are 81 on Googlereader. With very best personal regards,
I am also get RSS feed on my laptop and on my phone.
I am also getting RSS feed on my laptop and on my phone.
This plugin might help to get accurate number:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/statpress-visitors/
Very few people are getting their feeds outside of some aggregation software. I do visit the page when I want to get specific category in retrospective.
Summer doldrums Danny! Everyone is on vacation or preparing for vacation or recovering from vacation. In addition, all the entertainment provided by Mr. Romney on his world tour and the ensuing commentary has been quite distracting. The Caldas’ remain big, though silent, fans!
And much appreciated ones! Best to you,
I’m one of the google reader subscribers! I appreciate your blog a lot, especially when you try and get into the minds of current policy-makers/implementers and assess the various forces impacting their decisions.
Thank you, Rashad, for this helpful comment. I’ll try to keep up that mindreading!