Blogging anniversary

I started this blog back on June 19th last year.  I’ve been very surprised at how quickly the traffic has grown, and was absolutely astounded when it was listed as one of the brainz top 100 blogs in 2010.

Understandably the blog took a big traffic hit in January and February as I struggled with an extended period of blogger’s block.

But the biggest surprise of all has been the quality of the regular commenters and the discussions we have had as a result over the last year.  When I created the blog my conscious objective was to influence the conversation.  I’m skeptical how much anyone can change the mind of any other person on the kinds of issues we discuss here.  However I think individual bloggers and commenters can influence the larger conversation, and in this way ultimately  the larger conversation will influence some people to change their minds over time.  By larger conversation I mean not only what is discussed on this blog or in the manosphere, but in far off places as well.  From watching where links come in this has clearly been the case.  Our conversations here are referenced in far off corners of the internet.  I assume this is true for conversations outside of the internet as well.

I know it is a bit corny for bloggers to thank those who have invested their own time reading the blog, but I really do appreciate it.  I have by far learned more than I have taught over the last year, and I am very much in your debt for this.  Even those who have read silently have contributed, as their hits show up in the statistics which motivate me to continue on days where I briefly wonder if it is worth the effort.  These same hits help increase the site’s ranking in search engines.  Ultimately this means countless people have found our conversations over the last year when searching for answers on google, etc.  No doubt many have fled in horror at what they found here, but surely others have found clarity.

My debt of gratitude also includes all of the other bloggers who have influenced my own thinking as well as those who have graciously sent traffic my way either by referencing my posts within their own, or by including me on their blog-roll.