Tuesday, August 30, 2005

100th Post

According to Blogger this is my 100th post. This blog is over a year old so it actually does not average to much. I am not sure how many people have read this blog. I do not have a site counter. But, on the basis of the comments my regular readership appears to be pretty low. On the other hand I have not had to go purge my comments of Scottish trolls and their libelous confederates recently either and that is a very good thing.

In the past 100 posts this blog has dealt extensively with academia, writing, Russian-Germans, Stalinist deportations and life in Arivaca. In the future it will probably have more posts on Central Asia, diasporas (especially German ones) and the American South West. There will also be a conscious effort also to reduce the number of complaining posts. Plenty of other blogs specialize in whining and I am beginning to find it very unattractive. That probably means fewer posts on academia since there is not much positive to say about it from my perspective. Indeed there is not much about it I really understand. It will also probably mean not too many comments about other blogs as well for the same reasons. On the other hand if you want to know about my quiet little life and strange historical interests there will be lots of posts.

6 comments:

Chris O'Byrne said...

How did you get interested in your area of academic expertise?

J. Otto Pohl said...

It is a rather long story. I think it really requires its own blog post. The short answer is that growing up my neighbors were active in the Lithuanian diaspora. That got me interested in Soviet policies towards non-Russians under their rule. My interests have since moved eastward over the years for various reasons. I will post more on it this week.

Chris Conway said...

Otto, don't stop whining. People enjoy whining posts!

I'm only half joking when I write this.

But I do think your experiences and situation don't quite conform to the mainstream of academic bloggers, who tend to spend alot of time writing about certain kinds of department politics and such. I think the historical focus of many of your posts does set you apart and makes your blog potentially available to a more general readership.

Anyway, congratulations on 100 posts, that's an achievement. I think you should get a free counter because you may be surprised to find that more people visit and spend time on your blog than you think. They are not that hard to install. I've had good experiences with sitemeter.

J. Otto Pohl said...

I tried to get a site meter once and screwed it up so bad I decided better to live without it.

Frank said...

Happy 100th post, JOP!

You may be better off without a sitemeter; I'm obsessed with checking it and get very emotional about my traffic. *LOL*

J. Otto Pohl said...

I think you are right Frank. I waste enough time on blogs without needing to check my minute traffic flow.