If you have a DU Journal, would you like to have a VIEWS counter on it?

[Radio_Lady]

I'm not sure my journal is being read by anybody. The new VIEWS feature for threads is kind of interesting. I just thought it might be a good feature -- my only other thought is that perhaps you'd want to be able to switch it on and off by choosing it as a toggle feature.

My journal link is attached to each and every email I send out. I'm pretty curious if anyone takes the time to visit. It would be fascinating to see if anyone reads the journal posts ... sometimes comments come in, sometimes not.

Anybody else agree -- or disagree -- with this?

In peace,

Radio_Lady

PS. Technically, I don't know what it would take to add this. Maybe it would be a nightmare for the admins and the mods.

[longship]

1. I'm not sure I want to know how unpopular my journal is.

:-)

[Radio_Lady]

3. Yeah, I've had that same thought. It's kind of like writing in your diary...

you can probably say things you might not want your mother to read!

I've always felt sorry for those folks who put a blog together and then pay for a COUNTER at the bottom.

Sometimes there are only a half-dozen people or so who have visited the blog in several years! It may also be completely abandoned...

Oops....

[longship]

It's like when I put together a large post.

And it slips off the bottom with zero kicks and zero nominations.

It happens all the time. I put a lot of work into some of them and they just disappear.

I did one today and it's gone and forgotten, apparently.
I didn't even bother putting it into my journal. Apparently it sucked.
I didn't think so, but everybody else apparently did.

[Radio_Lady]

8. We all like to feel that our work is being noticed and appreciated.

This is a blazing fast website with lots of action. That's good in a way, but not so good in a way. You work trails off into infinity, sometimes before you feel it should.

As a radio personality in my former career, I enjoyed interacting with an audience. However, the call-in format it did cause a lot of stress and strain. Now, I just do a full hour with guests -- and reading articles. This is a volunteer job. No strain, no pain -- but it would be nice to have some discussion now and then.

DU Loungers do a great job in jumping in on almost every topic.

[Mythsaje]

2. My journal is not nearly as popular as I think it should be...

Especially considering that one of the most viewed members is one of MY fans...LOL

Funny, isn't it?

[Radio_Lady]

5. I took a look at it tonight. But I have a big bias in reading blogs or journals!

I cannot stand white type on a black background.

Otherwise, it's very interesting. Do you do anything to publicize it?

I did have to highlight it to read it. Another website I use infrequently has this same design: www.megacritic.com

In peace,

Radio_Lady

[Mythsaje]

6. I find white type on a black background

to be easier to read, myself.

Use that format on my PDA for e-books.

Maybe I should try try another format.

[Berserker]

10. Just a

personal opinion but a black background with any color font looks like a hacker website to me and freaks my eyes out when I go back to a white page.
No offense intended.

[Mythsaje]

11. I fixed it...n/t

[Radio_Lady]

13. To me, it looks MUCH BETTER! Thanks for your response!

I wish members of my family would take my suggestions like you do, Mythsaje!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. I probably should be interested..........

But I'm not......

I don't think it would be hard to set up.

After all, the most popular journals are on a list on the Journals page...

So they are kept track of, somehow.

[Radio_Lady]

7. You're right. There must be a tracking system. But offering it as a feature

might be another story.

Good night and good luck... we're babysitting for our grandson tonight and I've got to get to bed. He gets up early and then we're off to a 10 AM screening of "Happy Feet" on Saturday!

Radio_Lady in Oregon

[TahitiNut]

9. Yes.

:shrug: If it's not of interest to anyone, why bother?

I'm humbled and honored that I'd make the 'Most Blogrolled' list, and that occasionally I see it in the 'Most Views: Today' list. Given the number of Journals that're on DU's Front Page by folks (e.g. top10, AuntiPinko) with other than the casual Discussion Forum participation, it's somewhat remarkable when hoi polloi such as myself gets enough hits to show up.

That said, since the hit counter is obviously tiered (all-time, weekly, and daily) and maintained for each Journal, it seems that 95% of the work is already done ... and making it available for perusal would be a SMOP.


SMOP = "Small Matter Of Programming" (a trivialization guaranteed to raise the ire of any professional programmer such as myself)

[Radio_Lady]

12. So, do we want a VIEWS counter -- or not? Journalers, are you out there tonight?

[Bucky]

14. Most counters exaggerate readership.

If you count clicks as readers, you really have no sense of how many readers you really have. You have to have a report that covers how long people stay on your site. Any site visitor who's on your page for less than 30 seconds is not reading what you write. Most counters don't bother to make that distinction.

[BlooInBloo]

16. lol! Holy anthropomorphization Batman!

[Radio_Lady]

17. BlooInBloo, what is the exact meaning of anthropomorphization?

I need a word in one of my film reviews to describe the humanizing of animals.

It happens all the time in the new movie "Happy Feet" -- the computer graphics takes penguins, elephant seals, a walrus, killer whales -- and make them look more human -- and they all speak English (or Spanish!).

Are you using the right word to describe that? If not, what is it?

[BlooInBloo]

18. the attribution of personlike characteristics to non-people....

"counters exaggerate" and "most counters don't bother", just to mention two illustrations, chosen COMPLETELY randomly.

:)

Another fertile ground for cancerous anthropomorphization is the field of animal rights. You can tell just from the very name of the field, in fact.

EDIT: If it's helpful, anthropomorphize literally means "to change into a man".

EDIT EDIT: It's a subclass of the more general class of so-called "category mistakes". I would imagine that the google search "category mistake wiki" would provide plenty of information, if you're interested.

EDIT EDIT EDIT: The sort of thing you're after strikes me as in some sense "too literal" for "anthropomorphize" to be exactly what you want. I'd ask a cartoonist for a word whose connotations are a better fit for what you're after. (And I'm not a cartoonist.)

[philosophie_en_rose]

15. Nope. It'd be kind of creepy.

.