Today marks the one year anniversary of The Ancient Gaming Noob. I thought I would mark the occasion with a few comments on the last year and a bit of obscure data about the site.
Views on Page Views
I do not really have a comment on the number of page views, the only metric WordPress.com gives you about visitors to a site. It is just a piece of data and only valuable if compared against similar data. But here is the month by month data for this site over the last year.
The chart runs from September through August, in case that was not obvious.
May was popular due to a trifecta of being mention in the EverQuest II Town Crier, getting a long run as one of the top five items on VirginWorlds, and being mentioned in a post by Tobold. Page views did not return to that level until August, and that was only because my grousing about the Tabula Rasa beta forums got ranked very high on Google.
Getting Hit On
The best places when it comes to consistently getting people to come to the site:
EQ2-Daily – The EverQuest II community is a click happy bunch. It is almost addictive to write about EQ2 because when the EQ2-Daily crew links you up on the main page, people come to visit. With the recent overhaul of the site, that has trended down a little. It is harder to go visit the site on which a story is posted from the main page now. (And quite impossible if you use FireFox 1.x.) But the information on the main page is much better. So the greedy hit monster in me hates it, but the data obsessive in me likes it a lot.
[correction: FireFox does work if you put “www” at the front of their URL. Cyanbane sez, “Relational Pathing is teh devil!”]
EverQuest II Town Crier – This doesn’t happen very often, but it does generate a lot of traffic. I have been linked there four times this year, so I am sure I owe somebody down in San Diego a beer or three.
VirginWorlds – This would be in the number one spot if I just counted the times when I have been the top five articles on the main page. Nothing beats that most days. But Brent puts up so much news that once you get down the list very far, people lose track of you. Still, as a site for promoting general MMO news and information, VirginWorlds cannot be beat.
Tobolds MMORPG Blog – Go ask Potshot what happens when Tobold points to your site as the main focus of a post. Page view fire hose! Even the couple of passing mentions of this site has generated quite a bit of traffic. The man has a following. Beware if he decides to use his power for evil rather than good!
Virgin Firsts
By some fortuitous accident Brent at VirginWorlds noticed my site very early on which allowed him achieve a number of “firsts” here.
First Comment
First External Site Link
First Mention of the Site on a Podcast
That was enough attention for me to dispel any thoughts of “why am I doing this?” I mean, look at his site. He knows what he is doing. So if you don’t like the site, you can blame Brent’s early encouragement.
Comments on Comments
One of the things that feeds the blogging need is getting comments. Getting reactions, even negative reactions, is a good thing. I frankly enjoy to argue at times. Ask my wife. So while I never know quite how to respond to positive reactions to what I write, disagreement can end up with me writing comments that exceed the length of the original post. See the ongoing thread about bloggers and the press for an example, or anything on which Kendricke and I have disagreed. So comments are good. Here is some data about the comments here over the last year.
All data as of 5pm Pacific time (midnight GMT) on September 11th 2007.
Total Comments Left: 1799
Ping backs: 67
My comments: 399
Reader comments: 1333
Total posts: 518
Comments per post average: 3.5
Total spam comments: 41,964
Comment signal to noise ratio: 1 to 23 (thanks to Tachevert for the idea)
Top 21 Commentors (20 was a tie)
Name Comments % of Total Kilana 102 7.65% Adele Caelia 52 3.90% Darren 44 3.30% Kesselia 43 3.23% Potshot 42 3.15% Tipa 39 2.93% Stargrace 38 2.85% Yunk 38 2.85% Gaff 37 2.78% Brent 35 2.63% Pvthudson 29 2.18% Bildo 28 2.10% Mrrx 24 1.80% Cyanbane 23 1.73% Van Hemlock 23 1.73% Kendricke 21 1.58% Saylah 21 1.58% Cameron Sorden 19 1.43% Ethic 18 1.35% Godlesswanderer 16 1.20% Trigger64 16 1.20%
Deletion
Number of non-spam comments deleted: 5
Common Theme: All were comments on posts where I was critical of WoW.
The one I regret deleting: “This blog is the biggest uninformed farce I’ve ever read.”
Search Term Surprises
I have been surprised a number of times that this site has ended up as the top item for search terms on Google. I am surprised that I even ranked once.
I think that this is due, in part, to how WordPress.com handles automatic notification of updates to search engines. In addition, I also run my RSS feed through Feedburner (now a Google company) which also updates the search engines.
Search terms for which this site has ranked #1 on Google at some point:
Abishi Tian
Arasai
Guild Name Generator
Revelations Tutorial
Rise of Kunark Beta
Tabula Rasa Beta Forum
By comparison, I do not get on the first page of results for any of these terms when it comes to Yahoo.
Tagged
The number of times the tags I use on this site have been associated with posts. Remember, a single posts can have multiple tags.
EverQuest II 222 World of Warcraft 101 EverQuest 84 Sony Online Entertainment 72 EVE Online 71 Lord of the Rings Online 70 Vanguard SOH 67 Misc MMOs 55 Podcasts 40 General 32 Humor 25 Hardware 15 blog thing 14 wii 14 Other PC Games 13 Ancient Gaming Things 12 MMO Design 7 Pirates of the Burning Sea 6 MUDs 5 Star Trek Online 5 Tabula Rasa 5 memes 4 poll 3 RPGs 3 MAME 2 In Person 1 lego 1 LEGO Universe 1
Offers
Occasionally somebody writes me with a proposition. Usually a simple response along the lines of, “I’m straight, I’m married, and I couldn’t get myself in that position in any case” is enough. But once in a while somebody actually wants me to write for another site.
Offers to write for other sites: 5
Offers to write for other sites that involved money: 0
Offers to write for other sites I seriously considered: 0
All five offers were from sites that were forming blogging “communities.” Four of them just wanted free content for their sites as far as I could tell. In the case of all five though, the thought of having my work judged against the work of other people, some of whom could no doubt actually write scared me off. I like prefer my own little space where I control the content and I do not feel too self-conscious putting up something completely goofy.
The 5 Things You Write…
I tend to write lists of five things. This is usually because I can think of three good things for a list then can pad it out to five pretty easily. Getting to ten, on the other hand, would mean that the most of the list would be crap, as opposed to just 40% of the list.
Number of lists of five things: 8
Five Coming Signs That WoW is Mainstream
Five EVE Online Wishes
Five Minor LOTRO Gripes
Five Podcasts To Listen To Again
Tagged: Five Reasons Why I Blog
Five Insane MMO Things I Want
Five Things You Do Not Know About Me
Five Features Blizzard Should Steal From EverQuest II
Another 5
Number of MMO Gamers I have met in person since I started TAGN: 5
Brent from VirginWorlds
Brenden from Another Here
Gary from Massively Online Gamer
Todd from Massively Online Gamer
Brenlo from SOE
All of those were at GDC 2007, when I was deathly ill. I also saw Ryan from Massively Online Gamer, but he and Gary were in deep discussion with somebody from CCP, so I did not interrupt. I can, however, attest to his height relative to Gary, Todd and some Viking from CCP.
Games Games Games
This site is primarily about MMOs, so I probably ought to wrap this up with a list those that I played during the year. I did not write about all of them. Even I have limits as to how much I need to play a game before I comment.
MMOs I Have Played Since I Started TAGN:
City of Heroes
DungeonRunners
EVE Online
EverQuest
EverQuest II
Tabula Rasa
The Lord of the Rings Online
The Matrix Online
The Saga of Ryzom
World of Warcraft
Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
In Conclusion
Many thanks to everybody who has visited this site, plus an extra thanks for each comment you left!
It has been a fun year. Writing about gaming and my gaming experiences has definately enhanced my enjoyment of gaming. I hope it has added some enjoyment to your own.
The Ancient Gaming Noob 
“This blog is the biggest uninformed farce I’ve ever read.”
Haha, that’s a great tagline ! Hard to imagine this site has only been around for a year. Congrats on the 1st anniversary, may there be many more :).
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Beware if he decides to use his power for evil rather than good!
Muahahaha! Be afraid, be very afraid!
And congratulations to the success of your blog. Mine didn’t get 120,000 views in its first year. Probably closer to 120 views. :) The MMORPG blogosphere sure has grown. I think World of Warcraft isn’t totally innocent in that development.
Keep up the good work!
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Sorry about that encouragement. :)
Congrats on your first year. It is a great milestone. When I started doing this I noticed that one I hit the 8 to 12 month range it was integrated into my life pretty well which meant there was not much chance of me stopping. So far so good, right?
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Wow I had 29 comments? Errr 30?
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Congrats on the 1 year AGN. I am an avid reader and love your consistent writing. I am just hoping Kunark will bring back some more non-eve writings.
Also:
Who still uses Firefox 1.1?
;)
New site design is still in beta (actually only the first of 5 big update phases has rolled out) so the kinks (programming and UI) will be worked out I promise. FF1 and Safari users will be back in the hunt hopefully this week. :)
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Gratz Wilhelm. You have become one of the frequent excuses I use to rationalize not doing actual work at work. Keep up the great job.
my boss says ..I.,
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Grats on the first year. The blog feels like its been around much longer than that.
I think one of the things I most enjoy about your blog is that you don’t take yourself too serious (I mean, the site is called TAGN, so yea) and you mix up writing about ‘hot button’ topics with just easy reading ‘I did this in this game’ stuff. Too much of one or the other and it might detract from the enjoyment, but you seem to strike a perfect balance.
Plus, you just write a lot, consistently, which is certainly nice for someone who checks the same list of blogs each day, sometimes 2-3 times. Looking forward to year two Wilhelm!
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Woo! Number 18 4tw! Keep on keepin’ on, man! :)
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Congratulations on your 1 year anniversary!! For some reason I assumed you’d been around for like the last 2-3 years hehe. You certainly are a pillar of the mmo blogosphere, and I have always enjoyed reading your site. As the years go by more and more of us are moving into that “ancient” status, so we need you to keep blazing the trail hehe. :)
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I’m one of those readers who never comments…so irritating, I know =P But on this auspicious occasion of your first anniversary, just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy the blog. Thanks for all the, uh, hard work! And for keeping me from doing my own, lol.
*looks shifty*
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Congrats ont he one year of the site…awesome work here as always and you’re not a bad co-host either :)
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Congratz on your dinage Wilhelm and I can truly say you’ve been an inspiration on getting me to blog. Here’s to another year brotha!
/downs a bottle of Goldshlager
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Looking forward to the next year…
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Congratulations Wilhelm, you rock =) Keep it up!
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Congratulations from me as well on the first year, I enjoy reading it ;)
I must say I also thought that your blog had been around longer, but maybe that was memories of your comments in other places.
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Congratulations on such a successful year! Also thank you sooo much for telling me about the relational pathing issue w/ eq2daily, you are my hero for the day!
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Congrats! May your next year be filled with explosions and isk. :)
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Congratulations. Beware of anniversary cakes with rustling sounds: they may contain weasels.
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Grats on your year–I still remember you IM’ing me the link–quite exciting where one short year has taken you. Thanks for the reading! Post count +1
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It is success! Good work.
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Congratulations! One year is a definite achievement… hope to see much, much more. (After all, what else would I do waiting for conference calls to start at work?) :-)
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Pingback: The list bug, plus some Evercrack. « Hardcore Casual
I’m surprised I made the comment list. :)
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*blushes* Have I really posted to your blog that many times? Oh dear I better do some work at work then eh?
Grats Wil – Looking forward to the next year :)
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Thank you all!
Site tag line changed, for the moment, per Eric’s suggestion.
The site feels like it has been around longer than a year? That reminds me of a joke about marriage. You don’t actually live longer if you are married, it just seems that way. I first heard Martin Milner say that on “Adam-12” way back when. I am old.
On not concentrating on one topic or style of post… yeah… that’s… a feature… and not at all a reflection on my mental state.
Yes, Kilanna, you are #1. And you have been trending down lately. We’ll see what happens when Rise of Kunark comes out and I start talking about that.
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Well done! Looking back I think I started my intial blog the same time as yours but of course after 9 months made a clean break & am now 3 months in.
Although I don’t always read your blog, shame on me, I like your writing style & you’ll go on my links page. Congrats & long life to you!
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aggreed with syncaine . thanks for the post
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Hehe number 2 woot! I better not let up or Darren will be passing me up!
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