500,608 Readers!

My Blognosticator reader-odometer passed 500,000 today; that’s something to be proud of.

Fourteen years ago I began writing The Blognosticator. Since then I have written and illustrated 354 posts, received 680 legitimate comments, and have enjoyed not having to delete 883,255 spam comments. Those were rejected by the Akismet software I have running to protect my blog site (thank you Akismet!).

That is 0.07 percent legitimate comments! (And, it’s 99.93 percent spam.)

Akismet has also killed 183,668 malicious attacks on my site, again saving me from lots of trouble, I am sure. That lowers the ratio to 0.006 percent legitimate. That’s a lot of spam!

On my best day, April 30, 2012, I hosted 856 readers. On a typical day I have 97.84 readers. I am happy to have those sincere readers every day. If you are that 0.84 reader, I expect your full participation soon!

I have never made a dime on this blog site. No sponsors (I tried). No advertisers (I didn’t try). My wife seldom reads these posts. I have no friends who read these posts (I have no friends)..

But I believe that I have contributed to the graphic arts and photography industries by writing my missives. I have answered a few questions for people experiencing some of the same problems I have encountered, and I have learned a tremendous amount about a large number of things.

I hope I have steered a few people away from disaster, and I am sure that I have steered a few people toward products and services that I feel are valuable.

I have tried not to whine. I occasionally gripe about a lousy product, but I am sincere in my opinion of that product or service, and I am not doing it to spite anyone. I think I am being helpful.

I don’t use inappropriate language in my blog posts (I reserve that for the thousands of times I misspell a word or click the wrong button on my screen). The Blognosticator is a family-friendly site, though admittedly it’s for a family of folks who are interested in some pretty esoteric topics.

When I published (actually re-published) the matrix catalogs of the Linotype and Intertype companies, I did a service to the industry. My pal Bill Berkuta suggested that all twelve people alive who care about these catalogs are grateful for my efforts. Fortunately he is one of them. I really hope there are eleven more out there!

I have discovered a small but lively community of people who own and operate 100-year-old Smyth book sewing machines. Lovely crowd! I am thrilled to have been helpful to those people too (there are more than 12 of them!). Among the most appreciative of those people are my students at Cal Poly who have actually used the book sewing machine to produce case-bound books. That has been fun.

I have discovered and analyzed the output of the Landa production ink-jet presses, which I consider the most important printing technology in the industry today. For that work I have assembled a following much greater than 12, but still shy of a few hundred. Again, I am working to educate, to share my excitement, and to help people to enjoy the fruits of my studies.

The driving force behind my work here is to share what I have learned, and to help people get their work done more effectively. If I have helped you, that’s all I want. Thank you for reading The Blognosticator.