Tenure (I has it)
On the 16th of April, 1996, France Télécom, not yet privatized by the French government, set up an Internet portal at wanadoo.fr. At the time, I’d already been on the Web for a week.
Now Wanadoo is gone, replaced by orange.com, but I’m still here after thirteen years.
It occurred to me some time last week that I have one person on the blogroll who wasn’t even born when I started out. And I’m pretty sure that when I put up Vent #1, I wasn’t even coming close to envisioning Vent #624.
It took almost three years to push the counter over 6,000. Today it’s at 1.7 million, not counting people who just read the feed. I am grateful to the regulars, who make this more of a joy and less of a chore, and to the search-engine drive-by types, who make Monday mornings a tad funnier. (“Strange search-engine queries” dates back to September 2005; there’s even an explanation of sorts in the comments.)
And now, back to the Same Old Stuff.
fillyjonk »
9 April 2009 · 7:09 am
I was gonna say “oh hai congratulations” because the word “tenure” makes me think of a very specific thing (which I also has, and am very happy to has). But I see you mean another kind of tenure. But I guess I can also say congratulations on that.
Adam »
9 April 2009 · 8:08 am
You’d think they’d have made it as easy to measure feed subscriptions as pageviews by now. Count me in the feed reading category :)
Also, I may have been born when you started, but I would have only just turned eleven at the time.
CGHill »
9 April 2009 · 8:43 am
My current best guesstimate on feed traffic is about 1,000 a day, though there’s no way to distinguish between who’s actually reading and who’s just trying to scrape the joint.
Jeffro »
9 April 2009 · 9:25 am
You’re in my reader, but usually you get traffic from me anyhoo – something, what it is I dunno, compels me to visit.
sya »
9 April 2009 · 9:54 am
I once tried a feed reader, but once the unread posts got up past 1,000–I gave up.
McGehee »
9 April 2009 · 10:08 am
The reason I don’t use a feed reader is, if I didn’t go to the sites I read, I’d never get out of the house.
Baby M »
10 April 2009 · 12:40 pm
I think the word you wanted was “seniority.”
Call it whatever you like–’tis still a thing to be celebrated. Keep up the good work.
CGHill »
10 April 2009 · 2:46 pm
At my age, I can’t hear “senior” without thinking “discount.”