Four Years In, No Further From Noobdom

Today is the fourth anniversary of The Ancient Gaming Noob.  While I couldn’t come up with a really good title for this post, at least I steered clear of the death reference of last year.

And, as with every such anniversary, I take a few minutes to haul out some vague statistics about what has gone on over the last year as well as the lifetime of the blog.

So as I did with the first, second, and third anniversaries…

Basic Statistics

What has happened here and how has it changed from a year ago?

Days since launch: 1461 (+365)
Posts total: 1,640 (+383)
Average posts per day: 1.12 (-0.03)
Comments: 10,306 (+3,025)
Average comments per post: 6.3 (+0.5)
Average comments per day: 7.0  (+0.4)
Spam comments: 138,603 (+24,321)
Average spam comments per day: 94.87 (-9.4)
Comment signal to noise ratio: 1 to 13.5 (-2.5)

I am always surprised at the end of the year as to how many posts I have put up.  I start off any given week with one regular post planned, the instance group report, and maybe one additional item.  The others just seem to appear.

Demographics

Something new to look at.  I’ve been running that flag counter widget for about a year now, so by this point it can give a reasonably accurate read on from where my readership hails.

The geographic distribution of readers

While people from 185 different countries have hit the site at some point, the majority of readers come from countries that speak English.

Deep insight, I know.

And the percentages of the key English speaking countries on the list represent almost, but not quite, the ratios of their populations.  The US is a little over represented.  And that a bigger English speaking population means more visitors from that country is, again, not exactly a deep insight.

So I looked at the other end of the spectrum.  Here are the locations (not all of them are countries) from which I have had exactly one identifiable visitor since I installed the widget.

• Anguilla
• Antigua and Barbuda
• Benin
• Cameroon
• Ethiopia
• Gabon
• Gambia
• Kyrgyzstan
• Lesotho
• Madagascar
• Mali
• Mozambique
• Papua New Guinea
• Rwanda
• Saint Pierre and Miquelon
• Tajikistan
• Zambia

Generally speaking, if you are from a rich, western country that speaks English, you are more likely to visit my blog than if you are in a poor, equatorial nation.  Who would have guessed?  Obviously the marketing department at Blizzard still has new worlds to conquer.

Incoming!

Or who sends traffic to The Ancient Gaming Noob.

All time

1. virginworlds.com
2. blessingofkings.blogspot.com
3. eq2-daily.com
4. keenandgraev.com
5. wordpress.com
6. letrangeeve.blogspot.com
7. westkarana.com
8. killtenrats.com
9. cracked.com
10. commonsensegamer.com

Over The Last Year

1. virginworlds.com
2. blessingofkings.blogspot.com
3. wordpress.com
4. keenandgraev.com
5. cracked.com
6. letrangeeve.blogspot.com
7. playervsdeveloper.blogspot.com
8. wow.com
9. westkarana.com
10. killtenrats.com

VirginWorlds is still number one.

Cracked.com made the list by virtue of linking one of my posts last month, as WordPress.com did with that whole World Cup octopus thing.

Outgoing!

I have to leave the WoW Guild Name Generator post off the list, as it skews the totals.  It is still number one by a long shot.  Aside from that, here is where people go from the site.

All Time

1. pokemon.com
2. evegeek.com
3. syncaine.wordpress.com
4. potshot.wordpress.com
5. keenandgraev.com
6. commonsensegamer.com
7. killtenrats.com
8. blessingofkings.blogspot.com
9. tobolds.blogspot.com
10. westkarana.com

Over The Last Year

1. pokemon.com
2. syncaine.wordpress.com
3. evegeek.com
4. keenandgraev.com
5. biobreak.wordpress.com
6. blog.weflyspitfires.com
7. killtenrats.com
8. blessingofkings.blogspot.com
9. forums.runicgames.com
10. commonsensegamer.com

This is less precise.  A lot of times I link to individual posts at a site, versus the main site.  Still, it is approximately correct.

Most Viewed Posts

All time over the history of the blog.

1. Play On: Guild Name Generator
2. How To Find An Agent in EVE Online
3. Getting Upper Blackrock Spire Access
4. Five LEGO Video Game Titles I Want
5. Is There Hope for a Science Fiction MMORPG?
6. My LOTRO Video Crash
7. LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
8. 2008 MMORPG Progdictionations
9. We’re in the Summer News Doldrums Now…
10. Upgrading: Golem or Raven Navy Issue?

The Accidental Salesman

Posts that have made people offer to buy stuff.

• The World of Warcraft Magazine – I had two offers to buy this first issue of the magazine.
• A Quick Pass Through GDC 2010 – Somebody wanted to buy my Zombrex goodies
• TAGN Central – I have had two offers for the Strongbad pen that appears in the picture of my desk.

Strange But True Tales From Google

What search bring people here

All Time

1. wow guild names
2. onyxia
3. ancient gaming noob
4. guild name generator
5. thorin
6. tagn
7. dire maul summoning stone
8. blizzard april fools
9. balin
10. hulkageddon
11. evemon

Over The Last Year

1. onyxia
2. blizzard april fools
3. hulkageddon
4. heroic deadmines
5. tagn
6. wow guild names
7. ancient gaming noob
8. bolvar fordragon
9. thorin
10. blood elf porn

For a while now, I have been trying to figure out how searches on “Thorin” and “Thorin Oakenshield” have been leading people to the site.  This blog is not anywhere in the top dozen pages of sites when you do that search.

Then I noticed that on the first page of the search there is also a set of pictures of Thorin.  Among those pictures is one from this post, which has Thorin and Gandalf.  And when you do an image search, I rank pretty high for Balin as well.

What Does It All Mean?

Who knows.

But at some point in the next year I’ll be able to change the tag line for the blog to “25+ years of online gaming and still a noob.”  Won’t that be exciting?

To those who stop by regularly and leave an occasional comment, thank you for visiting!

If you like what I write, it probably won’t change much in the future… and if you don’t like what I write… well… consider that a warning.