Not much going on now as we wait for the Big Debate, so i would like to talk a little bit about my audience in Talkmarkets because it seems to be a strange one. None of what i am going to say today is of much importance probably to any of you, but it will give you some sense on how i measure different things.
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What you need to understand to begin with is this. I know that, regardless of my post, i can count on a pretty steady group of followers, numbering in or about the "twelve" category. I could put a title on a post, then write about going to the bathroom and i would get twelve views for my post.
The funny thing about my audience is that it grows the less serious i am with my dialogue. Fancy that. It's not that i have a large audience to begin with, but i have noticed that when i move away from "world peace" and "globanomics" my audience increases. If i make strong suggestions regarding policy-like issues, i can count on a much smaller audience.
My question is this? How do people know what i wrote before they look at it, which counts as a view. How do those who look at my post, know from the title alone whether i am being serious or not?
To begin with i have no idea how anyone on Talkmarkets even finds my blog. Nothing pops up on my Talkmarkets screen that tells me who has blogs and who doesn't have blogs out there. I just happened to trace one of my commenters the other day to see who they were following and when i clicked on the face of one of this person's followers, i noticed that person had a small blog, which was last updated in 2022. But how would i have known this person even had a blog. How do people know that i have a blog. (Someone please tell me).
It's really kind of funny and sad at the same time. I have been writing for Talkmarkets for more than seven-years now, and i have absolutely no fucking idea how it works. I have no idea who my regular followers are. I get no reports relating to my blog. All i have to go by with regards to what i am doing is by the number of "views" each post gets. And lately, it has gone something like the following:
38, 13, 24, 32, 59*, 18, 48, 25, 31, 25
Now compare that to just a short time before
29, 16, 24, 14, 17, 27, 16, 20, 23, 18
Now you probably have to be either a mathematician or me to interpret the meaning or difference between the two lines, but here it goes.
- The five largest number of views are in the first line;
- The second line pretty much looks more like what i have come to expect--because many times i send my posts out to some non-Talkmarkets friends and colleagues, which tends to boost my overall number up into the twenties.
So, what explains the difference between the two lines. It's not because all of a sudden that i have become more popular. Part of it had to do with me writing a satire with humor, but again i would have no idea how people would have known that or distinguished it differently from other blog titles that i have used.
Occasionally, but rarely, someone comments to a post, and if i respond, i notice that the view counts will rise--and sometimes to about double the norm. But that implies that certain followers are aware that i comment on a comment. Or at least, so it seems to me. But how could that be? Hell, i have no way of knowing in Talkmarkets whether i commented on a comment or not, so how would others know, especially those followers who were not responsible for the comment.
And besides, who gives a shit what comment i make on a comment other than person who made the comment?
So, you see, folks, why i am so confused about what i am doing? I write something almost every day, and in the end it all up being one big "crap shoot".
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But of all the above type mysteries, yesterday's post entitled "The NYTimes Must Think that I Am Stupid" really bewilders me. That post got 38 views (i.e., 35 views, taking out my views of the post at different times after i wrote it). I did not send this post out to my friends and colleagues, so it means that it got viewed by about three-times what i would expect from my regular followers alone.
It's things like that i spin my wheels over. How does Talkmarkets work? After seven-years, i still do not have a fucking clue and i think that makes whoever is in charge very, very happy--or at least content.
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ps. Unless someone screws with the algorithm, this post will receive less than twenty views.
