I have a blog now

[Greg Cox]

Yah, I don't see the issue here. I think its a good idea. Sounds like common sense for a trek writer to spread word about his new blog on the treklit forum.

Amen.

 

[Smitty]

Awesome, good for you! Thanks for telling us about it. This is basically the only area I visit on the bbs so I am glad you let us know here.

 

[D Man]

This is really cool, Christopher! You're probably my favorite current Trek writer and a great poster around these parts, so I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with your blog.

 

[Thrawn]

Awesome. Added to bloglines!

 

[bbailey861]

Great. I can't keep up now with all the lurking, surfing, linking that I do. Adding another one to the list....

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Great. I can't keep up now with all the lurking, surfing, linking that I do. Adding another one to the list....

This is where RSS feed readers come in handy. Let the RSS reader bring the blogs to you.

It's how I keep up with Peter David and Bob Greenberger's blogs, for instance. And fans like Julio Angel Ortiz.

 

[Christopher]

Question for blog veterans: When I look at the stats on my blog, the listed number of post views is considerably lower than the listed number of total blog views. Is that because the individual post views don't count views of the whole main page? (Stands to reason, since the computer couldn't tell which post was being read.) Given that, would there be any benefit to switching to a summary view on the main page so that people would need to click the individual posts to read them in their entirety? Is there anything to be gained from that beside the illusory perception of more activity?

 

[Allyn Gibson]

You're looking at the stats provided by WordPress, correct?

Yes, that's normal. The number of post views will be lower than the total views of your website.

Post views are the number of times an individual post was clicked on. Someone who does a "drive by" of the front page and looks at that counts toward overall views, but not for individual post views.

Also, if someone is looking at a Tags, Category, or Search page won't have their views counted on the individual stats, but they count toward the overall.

ETA: One quirk with the way WordPress' stats work. Someone who posts a comment gets counted at least twice in your stars. First, when they loaded the individual page on which to leave the comment. Second, when the page reloads after they've made their comment. And third, if they came into your blog through the front page. So there's always going to be a certain amount of inflation to the reported blog stats. End ETA

As for the final part of your question...

I've tried both systems -- excerpts on the front page and full posts. I came around to the viewpoint that putting up excerpts is off-putting, because you're making more work for your casual readers. Yes, it helps to boost your blog stats, but for little, if any, gain.

It's for the same reason that I allow full-posts through the RSS feed. I'm trying to make it easy for my readers to get the content, not make it harder.

 

[Thrawn]

The general rule of thumb in web design is that for every click that a reader has to make, you're losing half of the people that have made it that far.

 

[Christopher]

Okay, makes sense. I went with full-post view because it was my own preference as a blog reader, and I guess I was right to trust that feeling.

 

[JWolf]

Congratulations on the blog! I rather like it.

 

[Julio Angel Ortiz]

Subscribed! Look forward to reading it.

What does this have to do with books? Nothing. This belongs in the Web Sites forum, or perhaps a link in your sig. For shame.

Christ Almighty, I've held shorter grudges against people who have cheated on me.

Beautiful comment, David.

God, Omaha, you'd think Christopher pissed in your cornflakes and ran over your dog... twice.