Saturday, April 5, 2014

My readers love to write comments about pets


In Student worksheets for the second and third year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News, I mentioned that I was going out of order.
I'm doing something irregular by writing this entry now.  I'm skipping the tenth and eleventh place entries and featuring the twelfth most read one instead.
...
Don't worry.  I'll work back up to them in the next two retrospectives.
I'm returning to the tenth place entry now, but I'm also examining the entries with the most comments.  As I wrote in Statistics for the third year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News, comments were up last year in comparison to the previous year and first year, and one of the reasons why is that I've written about pets, which seems to get my readers to comment more.  In fact, two of my entries about pets have the most comments of any on this blog.

The entry from the third year of the blog that received the most comments was Dog census in Michigan posted on June 4, 2013, which received seven comments and 341 page views, making it also the tenth most read entry of the third year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.  The person I credit for driving page views was Julie Bass the Garden Renegade, who linked to this entry at her blog and then commented on it there.
i have several stories all competing to be shared with you, but the one that just flipped my switch was one posted by my friend pinku-sensei over at crazy eddie’s motie news (http://crazyeddiethemotie.blogspot.com/2013/06/dog-census-in-michigan.html).

here’s my satirical take on it, and then you can hop on over to his blog and read the actual (non-hysterical) story:

basically the folks who rule the universe in a certain city in michigan (but you could really insert any name of any city in michigan, because they are all equally plausible in this story…) can now scramble a tactical team in full gear, assemble on your property, breach your door, and strip search all members of your household to determine if you are sheltering any fugitive animals. (i wonder if you could tell them there is no such thing as an illegal animal? or that they just aren’t documented yet???) if they determine you to be on the wrong side of the law, they will publicly flay you alive or some such other appropriate punishment, but not before confiscating all of your worldly possessions and transferring your assets unto themselves, because that is the actual real reason for their sudden diligence in the pet realm; they are lacking in funds.

it’s all about the payday… and the power…and the pecking order…
In one day, her link drove more than 95 people to read the entry, and the page views continued to pile up.  Thank you, Julie!

That wasn't all.  She vented her frustration in a comment at my blog.
how do you type the loudest possible scream??? this is my 3rd time reading your post, and the first time i was calm enough to watch the news clip... if the city is so benevolent to want to hire someone to go door-to-door to give information, how about giving info just about shots and spay/neuter? if they pay too much to transport animals to the humane society (thus justifying this program to raise money for the city by invading your privacy), here's a thought: STOP DOING THAT AND MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS, CITY!!! if an animal is dangerous and menacing, dial 911, otherwise, man up and stop expecting the city to be your babysitter unless you want then to be overbearing like this knocking on doors nonsense. ugh. wanna know how i really feel???
I did my best to give a helpful response.
Hi, Julie!

"how do you type the loudest possible scream???"

ALL CAPS and formatted with the BOLD (or STRONG) HTML tags, like so.

AAAAAUUUUGGGHHH!

I'd add the BIG HTML tag, but the comments section of Blogspot won't accept it.

That, or just embed a screaming sheep video.
Julie appreciated my suggestion.
okay, so now i have a new reason to love you for a source of information: the screaming sheep video!!! priceless!!! who knew?!?!?!?!?! ;)
She liked it so much, she embedded it in her next entry, thank you sir, may i have another?  As I wrote in a comment on that entry, I am so glad I introduced her to that meme.

Speaking of which, here it is, the screaming sheep video.


As Julie wrote, "and how was your day?"

As active as this entry was, it wasn't the one that had the most comments left at it last year.  Follow over the jump for an entry from the second year that finally got the attention it deserved during the third year.

The most commented entry from the second year of the blog was Cats as a threat to biodiversity posted February 11, 2013, which has thirteen comments but only 138 page views.  That's almost seventy page views behind where the twentieth most read entry of the second year of the blog, National Review ironically reveals another deep truth about the current GOP, was at the end of the second year with 203 page views, as I mentioned in Second Year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News: Eastwooding, so I would never have mentioned this entry in the retrospectives of the second year had I completed that series in a timely manner.  It didn't even have thirteen comments by March 21, 2013; it had only two.*  The remaining eleven all happened during the third year of this blog, when animal blogger Rocket Roo Roos dropped by on June 22, 2013, to leave eight comments, while I responded with three.  By the twelfth comment, I wrote "Congratulations. Thanks to you, this is now the most commented upon entry in the history of this blog."  It still is.  See what one determined, non-spamming blogger can accomplish.

*The actual most commented on entry from the second year of the blog with comments actually left during the second year of the blog was probably Matt Taibbi and Mike Lofgren are on the same page about the global rich with eight comments.  I'll get to that post in a future retrospective.

Previous entries in this series.
Entries in the previous series:

2 comments:

  1. Love it all!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope lots of people come to read (and not just your students who are forced by the curriculum- hehehehehe... hello students!) Seriously, so glad you stop by my blog from time to time to say hello- it gives me an excuse (read: reminder for my old and feeble mind) to come and catch up over here :)

    Send my love to D-town ;0
    (is that a kissy face???)

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    1. Julie, I'm glad you approve. As for my students, I mentioned you and your problems in my class yesterday. Also, you can stop by here any time. Finally, I will send your love to D-Town, and no, that's not a kissy face emoticon. This is. ;-*

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