A quick glance at my blog statistics reveals that I was the recipient of a spike in traffic last Friday (see graphic). Sites used to have trouble when they got linked to by popular engines, such as Digg or StumbleUpon and of course anyone could be ’slashdotted’.
I seem to have been ‘Bad Astronomered‘. My statistics also show that the offending page was Phil’s Thursday posting titled Travisty of Astronomy, but no link to my site can be found there. Though a mysterious reference to a ‘bad link’ from Phil in the comments suggests that maybe I had been placed in error and then (like a weed) removed.
Thanks for the brief flurry, Phil. I really must get some ads put up in case this happens again. I also note that several of the unsuspecting guests went on to read a post or two: welcome, if you’re still reading.
Yup, that’s how I found you - I clicked on Phil’s link that claimed to be an astrophotography gallery but got to your blog instead. I searched around looking for the alleged gallery (a completely different site) and in the process noticed a few interesting posts, some of which I have read and others I emailed myself a reminder to read (this sometimes works). Very interesting blog so I’ve added it to my feed list of “space blogs” to regularly check.
I haven’t been Bad Astronomered per se, but I have experienced temporary spikes in traffic when I’ve hosted the Carnival of Space (which pretty much means space and astronomy). The one I did on January 3 gave me a huge traffic surge (by my standards) I think because it was linked by Phil and by the MSNBC Cosmic Blog. You might consider hosting sometime (see Universe Today for more info) - it’s a bit of work but fun. Traffic has gone back to usual levels, maybe a bit higher - a couple of people posted notes like this saying they liked the blog, which is always nice to hear even if you “write for yourself.”
Cheers,
Bruce
Thanks for letting me know. It turns out I have also been to your blog. In fact it may well have been because of the Carnival of Space, which I didn’t realise was an open club. I shall look into it. Thanks for the info.
Yeah. Oops.
I was at the AAS meeting and had just heard of your blog from Chris Lintott, so I typed the URL in to read it. I liked it, so I cut-n-pasted the URL into my feed reader.
Somehow, when I wrote the blog post about Travis Rector’s site a few minutes later, I didn’t overwrite the clipboard, so it pasted in your URL instead of his. I found the error relatively quickly and fixed it.
I do plan on posting about new blogs I found at the AAS, including yours and Chris’s. Hopefully some of that traffic will stick!
Well I shall look forward to that, Phil. Thanks for the heads up :). Glad you like the blog, I have been reading your for quite some time.
You never know, maybe Bad-Astronomered will one day be a verb.
I was explicitly BA’ed here, and plan to return often. Very nice site.
John