A conversation I had with Tabitha this morning (slightly edited):
Tabitha: So I went to a ladies night get together Saturday and I met this woman who was talking about her openess to being hooked up. I asked- well, what do you like? She started talking and I was like- if this were a year ago, I’d have someone perfect for you but he lives in NY
Me:Haha
Tabitha: She said, “I love NY” and I was like- yeah, you’re into comics? He has a website you’d probably love. It’s called melanism.com. She was like- I LOVE melanism! I read that site ALL THE TIME!
Me: HAHAHAHA!
Tabitha: I had no idea your site was so pervasive
Me: Me neither frankly
Tabitha: She swore by it. It was a little weird. It’s like realizing your friend is a bit like a celeb.
Me: This is weird to me because I’m always convinced that no one but a handful of people read my blog
Tabitha: Do you track the traffic? I’m fairly certain (after this conversation) that its way more than a handful
Lately, I’ve been wondering what to make of my blog.
When I started in 2002, my audience was basically people from Okayplayer and the few people I kept in touch with from NYU. If I had to think of a main reason I started blogging, it was so I wouldn’t have to have the same conversations over and over again. For example, because it’s pretty well-known that I go to the movies alot, I’ll get asked “How was ____?” Having to tell 5-10 people how the same movie is hard because whatever passion I had about the movie when I talked to Inquirer #1 dissipates by Inquirer #11. Since I had a little free time during my job at the time, I taught myself some HTML and made the blog. I’d use it to relay my thoughts about movies I’d seen, albums I loved, reactions to any nonsense going on in the world and why I thought “The Takeover” was superior to “Ether”.
Fast forward to 2010. I still write reviews of movies and have added Lost and 24 (not anymore) to my list of things I had to blog about so I didn’t have to keep repeating myself over and over again. I rarely talk about the world outside of television and myself but the number of assumed readers has since plummeted. Judging by my comments, I can count on my two hands who read my blog. Only one of those commenters I don’t speak to on a semi-regular basis. Aside from a couple of moments of notoriety thanks to links from PopCandy, as far as I know, my blog exists in a vacuum. I do have blog traffic but I don’t know if that’s people actively seeking out my blog or because my site is the third entry on a Google search for the word “melanism.”
So when I get random comments that the one at the top of this post about my blog, it never fails to weird me out. It’s like a compliment I’m never able to accept. I had no idea someone – ANYone – I didn’t know personally read my blog. It makes me feel better about the nonsense I write. I hope there’s still people reading after Lost ends. It will make me feel better spending years assuring I could never run for public office.
I guess this is my long-winded way so saying “Thanks for procrastinating with me, strangers.”
