Thursday, January 6, 2011

A blogging year in review

Some blogs have been carrying lists of their most commented posts each month of the previous year. Sounded like fun, so here we go.

January - As befits a new year in which I returned (still somewhat unexpectedly) to full-time stipendiary ministry, the January post to get the most attention was New beginnings, with six comments.

February - The attempt to have the Church of England General Synod endorse North American schismatics ended up being roundly defeated, in part because of the excellent work of Canon Alan Perry, which I blogged about at Clouding the issue with facts, generating 57 comments.

March - There was a tie between two posts with six comments each. Nancy, your dad would be ashamed was about a Saskatchewan Party constituency association's disgusting use of a 9-11 picture of the buring twin towers to promote a pig roast fundraiser - seriously - and the deafening silence of the Saskatchewan media. O Blest Communion! Fellowship Divine! tells the story of how the clergy at St. Andrew's Cathedral in Honolulu helped me to provide pastoral care for a parishioner and her family after the parishioner had suffered a stroke on holiday in Hawaii.

April - The most commented post for April was the unsolicited PR advice I offered to Pope Benedict XVI in Scandals - and how to make them worse. But I have to say that the most widely distributed post was my April Fools' claim that former Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert and former Minister of Many Things Pat Atkinson were going to be appointed as Liberal Party candidates for the next federal election. Lorne Calvert to run for Ignatieff Liberals went viral on Twitter and generated media inquiries to Count Ignatieff's Parliament Hill office.

May - In a slow month, the two most commented peices for May each got three. HAPPY MAY DAY! included video of my favourite renditions of The Red Flag and The Internationale. The hazards of lying in the age of YouTube exposed a bit of deception from Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.

June - The end of authentic Anglicanism discussed the competing Pentecost letters of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, generating nine comments.

July - I generated six comments with my discussion of the new Canadian G20 police state at Cowardly police leave "anarchists" alone and assault amputee.

August - In a slow month with only two blogposts, My hair looks really good in this video garnered two comments. Unfortunately, the video no longer works - but my hair really did look good.

September - A Happier Church (or at least a happier vicar) reproduced a 2006 piece from the Church Times and generated three comments.

October - Who would Jesus bully? discussed the rash of gay teen suicides, generating eight comments.

November - There were 14 comments on By the Numbers, an irreverent comparison of various Anglican related statistics. I'm still curious about the 427.5 percent year over year increase in Anglican Communion expenditures on accomodations and meetings. That's an increase of GBP 491,717 / USD 791,428 / CAD 799,287. I still think I can come up with better ways to spend $800,000.

December - My last post of the year, Federation, Communion or Church generated 21 comments.

Simple Massing Priest has gone from 10 posts in 2007, to 68 in 2008, 86 in 2009 and 109 last year. Oh, and one so far for 2011.

Happy New Year.

5 comments:

Leonard said...

I don´t get the comment stuff--there can be over a hundred visit and no comments and another day only a few dozen with five or so--I don´t know what it means except that my ¨religious feast day¨ visitors are few and I assume they are feasting and can´t read or talk...then there are the secret/importantes who visit--love those late-night spies from deepest Africa and darkest Pittsburgh...what´s the blogworld all about? Does Alfie know or ought we consult with Jake, Padre Mickelmas and Mad Priest on this one? I always pretend there is a full audience all the way to the last row of the dark balcony--obviously they are enthralled/speechless and can´t even comment--better for my creative spirit that way.

Anonymous said...

Would your list be the same if you looked at the number of views for each post? Just wondering.

SCG said...

57 comments?! Like Leonardo, I have people who clearly stalk my blog, but don't ever participate in a dialogue. Not sure why, and it doesn't matter that much. If they are getting enough that they come back for more, that's great. Congrats on your stats, and Happy New Year!

Malcolm+ said...

I suspect not, but I don't have my counter set up to do that.

Kurt said...

Malcolm,

I'm helping this post become the most commented post of January 2011!!!

Thanks for your blog: come over and visit mine sometime!

Kurt