Stats for the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News on Flashback Friday

Happy Flashback Friday! I closed For Wayback Wednesday, PBS Eons asks 'What Killed All These Pterosaurs?' by telling my readers "I'll get to the stats for the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News on Flashback Friday..." Without any further ado, here is the first retrospective of the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.

As of 11:59 PM EDT March 20, 2026, this blog had a lifetime total of 10,896,134 page views, 6,536 posts, and 4,274 comments. Minus the 5,222,122 page views, 6,168 total posts, and 4,180 comments as of just before March 21, 2025, that means this blog earned 5,674,012 page views and 94 published comments on 368 posts during the 365 days of the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News. My calculated page views round to the ~5,670,000 page views Blogger's counter showed during the past twelve months. I can't ask for any better given the level of precision available, so not only closer than last year, but as exact as I could measure. On the other hand, the 94 published comments are not at all close to the 125 comments Blogger showed on my dashboard. On the other hand, I can account for the 31 comment difference; all of them are spam that was never published or retroactively unpublished. The stats worked out this year!

Last year's trend of increasing page views continued. Not only did this past year's 5,674,012 page views on 368 posts during 365 days beat the year before's 758,914 page views on 370 posts during 365 days, it beat the year before that's 419,300 page views on 641,234 page views on 380 posts during 366 days. It also exceeded the page views during the entire preceding 14 years. Wow! I had written "May the trend" of "working less hard for more page views" continue, but this was beyond any of my expectations. The blog averaged 15,418.51 page views per post and 15,545.24 page views per day. That's nearly eight times as much as the 2,051.12 page views per post and 2,079.22 page views per day during the 14th year of the blog, the 1,687.46 page views per post and 1,752.01 page views per day the blog earned between March 21, 2023 and March 20, 2024 and the 1,106.33 page views per post and 1,148.77 page views per day between March 21, 2022 and March 20, 2023. I'm not expecting the trend of increasing page views per post and day to continue. I'd just be happy if the 16th year exceeds the 14th.

Both the published and total comments decreased from 123 to 94 and either 154 or 133 to 125, respectively. The published number is still above the 78 of two years ago, but the raw number has decreased from 199 through either 154 or 133 to 125. Since I don't have comment goals, I'm not concerned.

As for my commenters who aren't spammers, I'd like to thank them, beginning with continuing commenters Infidel753, Paul W., and Steve in Manhattan. I also want to welcome back K-dog and Degringolade, who didn't comment last year. Keep up the good work! I also want to thank Richard, Glen Tomkins, and fry1laurie for making their first posts here. Stick around! The exception is Riverboat Grambler, who pissed me off. Don't come back, Grumbler! Unfortunately, I seem to have lost longtime commenters Nebris, the first commenter on my blog, and Friend of the Court. In addition, last year's first-time commenters John R. Christiansen, E.A. Blair, and Steven C. Di Pietro didn't return. Come back, I miss you!

Follow over the jump for the rest of the analysis.

Statistics for the eighth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News

As I promised first in Happy Birthday to the blog and Nowruz Mubarak (Happy Persian New Year)! and again in CNN's 'Dirty Water: Danger from the Tap' on World Water Day, it's time for me to report on the statistics for the eighth year of this blog.

Blogger recorded that this blog had a lifetime total of 2,168,149 page views and 3853 posts at 11:59 PM EDT March 20, 2019.  In addition, I counted 361 comments since March 21, 2018.  The equivalent numbers from the seventh year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News were 3465 entries, 1,630,513 page views, and 2,391 comments during the first six years of the blog.  The result was that the blog earned 537,636 page views while I posted 388 entries during 365 days.  Those are fewer page views and comments for more posts than during the seventh year of blogging here, 682,128 page views and 488 comments from my readers and me on 364 entries.  That's a first, and not a good one, either.  Follow over the jump for my analysis of what went "wrong."

Statistics for the fifth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News

I told my readers to stay tuned for a statistics entry about the blogging year just ended, first in Nowruz Mubarak (Happy Persian New Year) and Happy Birthday to the blog and again in A belated Earth Hour 2016.  It's time to follow through and complete the cycle.

Between March 21, 2015, and March 20, 2016, I posted 435 entries, which earned 176,458 page views and 672 comments from my readers and me.  These are out of totals of 2724 entries, 595,621 page views, and 1309 during the first five years of the blog. For comparison, I present the statistics from the previous four years.

During the fourth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News, from March 21, 2014 to March 20, 2015, I posted 528 entries, the readers and I posted 229 comments, and the blog received 145,875 page views for a total of 2289 posts, 637 comments, and 419,163 page views over the entire first four years of the blog.*  For comparison, the third year of this blog saw 785 entries, 304 comments, and 127,945 page views, the second year I posted 493 entries, readers and I posted 129 comments, and the blog received 97,535 page views, and the first full year I made 483 posts, readers and I posted 204 comments, and the blog received 47,808 page views.
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*I am recording these stats from Midnight EDT to Midnight EDT on March 21 of successive years.  It would be easier to record using Midnight GMT, as that is the default time zone of the stats recorder, but I want to count full days here, not London.

Follow over the jump for my analysis of the fifth year's statistics compared to the fourth year's.

Popular entries from the back catalog for the fourth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News

It's time to finish this series.

I concluded Reactionary movements for the fourth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News with the promise of one more post.

That completes this look back at the 20 most read entries of the past blogging year.  Stay tuned for the final installment about posts from the back catalog that made big moves on the leaderboard last year after a celebration of Earth Day.

That echoes how I concluded the retrospective series of the previous year's entries in Social media for the second and third year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.

That's all for the entries from the the third year of the blog for this year.  Maybe next year I'll describe how one or more broke out of the pack to get into the top ten list, but that's next year's problem.

Let's see if I can tackle both in this entry.

The most read entry for the history of the blog according to the default counter as of March 21, 2015 and still the current number one is Eye spy the gas price rollercoaster about to coast down like a parachute, posted on September 2, 2012 with 1988 page views, which it still has now.  The post currently has 2916 according to the raw counter.  This entry was not among the top 20 for the second year of the blog on March 20, 2013, and not among the default top ten as of March 20, 2014.  It began its rise during the second half of 2014, when gas prices began their long, deep slide from $3.50 to just under $2.00 and a lot of web searches retrieved it as one of the results.  The entry was in the monthly top ten for six months running during that time period, enough to move it from not on the list to the top of the leader board.  Amazing how a change in economic conditions can revive the fortunes of an old post.

Follow over the jump for more revenge of the back catalog.

Statistics for the third year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News

As I wrote in Happy Nowruz and happy birthday to the blog, "I'll have the past year's statistics tomorrow.  Stay tuned."  It's tomorrow, so it's time to start the cycle all over again, just as I did last year and two years ago.

During the third year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News, from March 21, 2013 to March 20, 2014, I posted 785 entries, the readers and I posted 304 comments, and the blog received 127,945 page views.*  In comparison, during the second year of this blog I posted 493 entries, readers posted 129 comments, and the blog received 97,535 page views while during the first full year I made 483 posts, readers and I posted 204 comments, and the blog received 47,808 page views.  The total page views increased by 30,410 (31.18% more) from last year but required 292 more entries (59.2% more) to get that increase.  The higher effort required to increase readership is reflected in the numbers of page views per entry (162.99) for this year, which is less than the same ratio last year (197.84).  I'm starting to reach the point of diminishing returns.  However, I am able to point to the average page views per month with pride.  The first year saw 3984 views/month, the second 8127.92 views/month, and this year 10,662.08 page views per month.  When I told Chris Savage of Eclectablog last year that my blog was starting to get 10,000 page views/month, he appeared impressed.  I'm glad I've been able to maintain that level.  Here's to building on it.

The one statistic I found disappointing last year has dramatically improved this year--comments.  This is what I wrote about the lack of reader participation in last year's report.

Like last year, the only stat I find disappointing is the number of comments.  More people are reading, but fewer of them are commenting.  Readers left 75 fewer comments this year than last year.   That's 0.26 comments/post, 10.75 comments/month, and 0.0013 comments per page view.  Those are all striking declines from last year's 0.42 comments per post, 17 comments per month, and 0.0043 comments per page view.  I enjoy the increased readership, but wouldn't mind more reader participation, even if it means arguing with denialists.  That would be a step up from spammers.

I can say that reader participation, even if a lot of them are still spammers, is way up.  This year, the blog received 304 comments, nearly double the 333 from the first two years combined.  Running comparable numbers to last year, that translates to 0.39 comments/entry, 25.33 comments per month, and 0.0285 comments per page view.  That last was such a huge jump that I double-checked the previous year's calculations; they were correct.  Keep those comments coming.  I have and will respond to the best ones in entries of their own.

One final statistical note that I haven't mentioned before--it looks like the Chinese have discovered the blog.  During the entire three years, readers from China have contributed 3107 page views, 1423 of them during the 30 days before March 20th alone.  That's 46.0% of the total for China.  That surge catapulted China ahead of Australia and Ukraine into seventh place among countries in my audience.  Maybe I should write more entries about China.

That's it for general statistics.  The next installment will begin the reverse countdown of most viewed posts from the past year.  Given the topic of this blog, it should come as no surprise that one of those most viewed entries is about this structure.


*I am recording these stats from Midnight EDT to Midnight EDT on March 21 of successive years.  It would be easier to record using Midnight GMT, as that is the default time zone of the stats recorder, but I want to count full days here, not London.

Previous entries in this series.

Happy Nowruz and happy birthday to the blog