All joking aside this post is a follow up to my blog post about certain 'anomalies' with Timo Paananen's blog, I can't help but notice that an EVEN more unusual pattern is emerging at Stephen C Carlson's site hypotyposeis.org. While it certainly seems peculiar that the population of Finland would take to Secret Mark the way Timo's site seems to indicate (as I note in my post it is ranked about all but two of the top ten corporations in Finland) something absolutely implausible is going on at Carlson's blog (perhaps as a reaction to Timo's sudden surge in the Alexa rankings).
Carlson's site has been sky rocketing as of late. It has went from the low 4 millions to 1 million with the help of the nation of Pakistan???? Well that's what Alexa says when you ask it for Carlson's ranking:
39,018
683,556
Where Visitors Go on Hypotyposeis.org
I won't bother mention what I think is driving this sudden surge in the rankings. It should be enough to say that Pakistan and India are places where companies outsource for IT work.
Are we witnessing an all out effort to 'bulk up' on our Alexa rankings? I don't know for sure but if it is true it certain is embarrassing. It might well show how childish academics really are. That they live in a bubble and avoid the 'real world' at any cost.
When I started this blog I have to admit I had information about my site posted on just about every site I could find. As much as this annoyed people, my purpose wasn't to raise my Biblioblog ranking. I wanted people to hear what I had to say. The truth is that if I hadn't done that I never would have bumped into all the Bibliobloggers out there and the Biblioblog rankings (both of which are a mixed blessing).
After a half a year of familiarity with these people I have to admit that Stephen Carlson and Timo Paananen are not the only sites to have questionable ratings. I noticed a disproportionate number of readers from certain third world countries at even the blogs of famous professors that I admire (I won't mention names but they are individuals EVERYONE admires).
I think this childishness is inherent with scholars generally.
I am not saying that I don't care whether people read my site and the Alexa rankings are useful for determining that. Nevertheless I can honestly say that BECAUSE I am interested in getting an accurate read as to whether or not my ideas are 'getting out there' I don't mess with my numbers.
I wish that more people criticized, commented or complimented my efforts to reconstruct the origins of the canon. I wish that more of my famous academic friends (David Trobisch, Robert Price, James Charlesworth etc.) came by and dropped me a line. Nevertheless I do get at least two or three emails or comments a day and that's enough for now.
You see I actually have original ideas to share. Just having a blog which let's me inform and be informed by bright people is enough for me.
Like I said, I am always on the side of truth. I am happy with the REAL readership of this blog. I am happy with life. Happy with my wife. Happy with my past. Happy with my future. Happy with the fact that I will never lie naked in bed with a mulatta ever again. Well, maybe that not so much.
Maybe I can be one of those old men who go to Cuba or Brazil and have young women visit them, clean the house and comfort them in their loneliness. It would be like a Jobim song:
In my loneliness
When you're gone and I'm all by muself
And I need your caress
I just think of you
And the thought of you holding me near
Makes my loneliness soon disappear
Though you're far away
I have only to close my eyes
And you are back to stay
I just close my eyes
And the sadness that missing you brings
Soon is gone and this heart of mine sings
Yes I love you so
And that for me is all I need to know
I will wait for you
Til the sun falls from out of the sky
For what else can I do
I will wait for you meditating
How sweet life will be
When you come back to me
Oh, I got in trouble for mentioning that sort of stuff about a month ago. Better quit while I am ahead.
That fight did wonders for my Alexa ranking though. Hmmmm ...
dating back to conversations with his grandfather, Gaston Frank. "He said we represent one of the last descendants of the Frankist Jewish faith in the world," he muses. "I grew up thinking that our family was something like the Last of the Mohicans."