About: Site Reports

I’m nuts about numbers. Pretty, pretty, preciousss numbers. Combined with my insatiable egomania, this naturally results in a pretty frightening impulse to analyze my own web site statistics. Though those reports are mostly of interest to me, the rest of you can use them as a glimpse into the life of a webmaster, along with the weird feedback, strange search queries and assorted weirdness such a site can generate on a monthly basis.

So here goes, in chronological order:

2002

  • Archive of 2002 Web Reports
  • April 2002: First statistics: I explain how people *really* search the web. (1,791 page views)
  • May 2002: Christian can’t spell, a reader doesn’t agree and I end up doing some homework for other people. (4,166 page views)
  • June 2002: My WFC-2001 report is discovered, a turnip flood, correct spelling doesn’t deter perverts and cinema critics attack! (3,568 page views)
  • July 2002: I’m called a “brutal” reviewer, I find out what music video was first played on MuchMusic and I receive a masterpiece of drunk writing on the 4th of July. (3,801 page views)
  • August 2002: Summer. Not much happens. (3,115 page views)
  • September 2002: A scientist tells me not to believe everything I read (prompting a correction to one of my reviews), a writer thanks me for loving his book and a reader asks me about my Jungian/MBTI type. (3,765 page views)
  • October 2002: Miscellaneous comments and queries even though a stupid mistake put the FormMail engine out of commission for half the month. Someone asks me to second-guess Kathy Reichs, one college student raves about my review of Atlas Shrugged and an ex-colleague makes contact. (4,383 page views)
  • November 2002: Another writer thanks me for loving her book. Meanwhile, someone tracks me down and asks why I’ve used her family name in one of my screenplays and whether Yuri ever went to the gym. (Don’t ask) (5,074 page views)
  • December 2002: A dissatisfied reader states that I’m on crack, another tries to sell me translation services, librarians love my bookmarklets, everyone is befuddled by SOLARIS (the movie) and someone mistakenly offers to buy one of my books. (5,764 page views)

2003

  • Archive of 2003 Web Reports
  • January 2003: Thrill! Doug TenNapel thanks me for reviewing Creature Tech! Meanwhile, on another site, video pirates and LiveJournal morons steal my bandwidth. (5,136 page views)
  • February 2003: At least one reader is enlightened about SOLARIS, but many more are just looking for explanations. (5,825 page views)
  • March 2003: Some people like my site just a little bit too much, a film director asks if I want to review his latest film and a concerned mother asks for guidance. (6,529 page views)
  • April 2003: Page views pick up, the University of Concordia wants a picture, at least one person in the world likes my CSS design and I get a whole lot of empty messages. (7,997 page views)
  • May 2003: Page views are down, a teacher checks for plagiarism (I think) and an ex-colleague makes contact (6,967 page views)
  • June 2003: Page views are down even lower and -as if that wasn’t enough- I’m asked about the whereabouts of a convicted terrorist. Twice. (5,479 page views)
  • July 2003: I hear back from a cool author, I get to act as an unofficial Canadian representative and someone wants to buy a book from me. (6,163 page views)
  • August 2003: Empty messages, a German thank-you, a link correction and a SOLARIS deluge! (6,155 page views)
  • September 2003: I help out on a book report in France, someone agrees with my Top-100 Film list and I get great feedback from an author. (6,877 page views)
  • October 2003: A friend makes contact and improbably enough, people just can’t get enough of SOLARIS! (6,655 page views)
  • November 2003: Some people watch over my shoulder as I write a novel and an author asks if I want to review his latest book. (7,048 page views)
  • December 2003: A bunch of letters in the mailbox, and three separate kiddy scripts attacks! (6,250 page views)

2004

  • Archive of 2004 Web Reports
  • January 2004: New year, new goofs. (7,260 page views)
  • February 2004: Short, quiet month. Too quiet… (6,420 page views)
  • March 2004: Busiest month so far, two new links and quite a few messages in the mailbox (8,722 page views)
  • April 2004: A blogger takes notice, two girls from Alberta attack, a bunch of emails come in and Rockland, Ontario is crowned international capital of web designers named Christian Sauvé. (7,666 page views)
  • May 2004: A few fun messages, otherwise a quiet month. (8,010 page views)
  • June 2004: New page views record and yet nothing in the mailbox. Go figure. (9,210 page views)
  • July 2004: Hotlinking attacks! (9,347 page views)
  • August 2004: Oh joy: the 10,000-page-views milestone is broken. (10,446 page views)
  • September 2004: I actually respond to a request rather than make fun of it. But then I ruin it by making fun of a second request. (9,934 page views)
  • October 2004: A very quiet month (8,469 page views)
  • November 2004: A porn-bot attacks! (8,859 page views)
  • December 2004: A big month for referrer spam and reader mail. (9,943 page views)

2005

  • Archive of 2005 Web Reports
  • January 2005: I’m repeatedly googlewhacked, and it’s not quite as awful as it may sound. (9,943 page views)
  • February 2005: We clarify our policies. All two of them. (8,933 page views)
  • March 2005: Respect at last: A sovereignist calls me “a spiritual inheritor of Trudeau”! (10,680 page views)
  • April 2005: A sudden deluge of hits! (12,267 page views)
  • May 2005: Quiet month, but the hits just keep on coming! (13,526 page views)
  • June 2005: Summer crash and cheese monkeys explained. (9,378 page views)
  • July 2005: Summer lull and the wonders of globalization. (9,388 page views)
  • August 2005: More summer lull and some plagiarism by a lobbyist. (8,859 page views)
  • September 2005: Our numbers hit rock-bottom.. or have they? (8,207)
  • October 2005: A few kind words from satisfied visitors (9,988)
  • November 2005: The mailbox delivers a number of comments (9,098)
  • December 2005: The year ends on a questions about reading long books (8,047)

2006

  • Archive of 2006 Web Reports
  • January 2006: A quiet start to the year (8,776 views)
  • February 2006: Review raves and authorial corrections (8,369 page views)
  • March 2006: “Anonymous” abuse and quirky questions, along with a sudden boost in hits! (13,882 page views)
  • April 2006: Bloggers respond! …and SOLARIS still needs to be explained four years later (15,287 page views)
  • May 2006: A small flurry of activity (13,449 page views)
  • June 2006: Compare and contrast. (9,209 page views)
  • July 2006: People like my pictures. (12,039 page views)
  • August 2006: Empty mailbox. (9,492 page views)
  • September 2006: Grr, spam. (10,956 page views)
  • October 2006: Grrr, more spam. (9,481 page views)
  • November 2006: Controversy! (10,857 page views)
  • December 2006: Movie ticket questions? Read the essay again. (12,137 page views)

2007

  • Archive of 2007 Web Reports
  • January 2007: Ftaires and new links to my reviews. (11,762 page views)
  • February 2007: A short but ordinary month. (10,954 page views)
  • March 2007: Nothing in the mailbox. (13,402 page views)
  • April 2007: “If you think New York is expensive, it’s nothing compared to Europe!” (9,989 page views)
  • May 2007: By request: My Top Ten Romantic Comedies (11,701 page views)
  • June 2007: No, I don’t want to review your work. But I appreciate it when you tell me when I “inspire” your school reports. (12,895 page views)
  • July 2007: “I was very glad to read that you survived your South Central adventure” (12,336 page views)
  • August 2007: “Is Sauve as good as the name brands?” (10,357 page views)
  • September 2007: Stats crash! (8,023 page views)
  • October 2007: “Canadian action packed heist movie that was a failure in 2003” (10,110 page views)
  • November 2007: One moment of Zen (9,153 page views)
  • December 2007: Radio Trivia Action! (11,607 page views)

2008

  • Archive of 2008 Web Reports
  • January 2008: Eye-opening revelations from Google Analytics (11,344 page views… right?)
  • February 2008: Usenet isn’t dead, apparently. (10,624 page views)
  • March 2008: Solaris needs to be explained again. (12,548 page views)
  • April 2008: An unsolvable trivia question. (13,629 page views)
  • May 2008: When pr0n catches up to reviewed fiction, it’s time to alter my reviews. (15,316 page views)
  • June 2008: A month of mailbox abuse. (13,651 page views)
  • July 2008: Summer, quiet summer (13,897 page views)
  • August 2008: Summer, ever-quieter summer (11,999 page views)
  • September 2008: Things pick up a bit. (12,338 page views)
  • October 2008: Ever-exotic spam. (14,340 page views)
  • November 2008: Page view record?! (15,627 page views)
  • December 2008: End of year (13,203 page views)

2009

  • Archive of 2009 Web Reports
  • January 2009: I’m twittered, and there’s some positive feedback on two reviews (13,292/1,069 page views)
  • February 2009: Strange spam (12,091/959 page views)
  • March 2009: SF writers argue with scientists… on this blog! But I don’t care any more. (13,795/1,300 page views)
  • April 2009: Profound query: “what does a christian man with a computer science degree do?” (11,294/1,464 page views)
  • May 2009: Nothing of note. (11,537/1002 page views)
  • June 2009: Complete site overhaul! (12,155/1,471 page views)
  • July 2009: Overhaul consequences. (17,967/1,425 page views)
  • April 2009: New month, new issues. (forthcoming)

2010