Hey, is this thing on?
I’ve always maintained that the target audience of this blog has size one: In general it’s written for me, and is about stuff I find interesting. If other people find it interesting, that’s great. If not, that’s not a problem. Sometimes I write specific posts that I actually do want other people to read, but most of the time I don’t really care.
On the other hand, Google reader tells me I have 379 subscribers and Google analytics tells me I average about 50-200 visits per day (around 2000-4000 visits per month) depending on how much I’ve been writing recently (and a few giant spikes where I’ve written something that’s got 10k+ visits all on its own).
These aren’t huge numbers, but they’re respectable. Clearly the audience is a bit larger than just me.
So, who are you lot? How’d you get here, and which bits are you actually interested in?
Given that I write about politics, philosophy, mathematics, web comics, voting theory, feminism, programming, cooking, game design and probably more things I’m forgetting about I imagine the only person who is actually interested in everything I have to say is the aforementioned audience of one.
So which bits are you actually interested in? Are there any subjects you particularly would like me to write more about? Chances are I’ll pay only slight attention to it if there are, but there are enough ideas on the back-burner that there’s a good chance I’ve got something to say about it that I haven’t yet.
I can’t really recollect how I got here, but I’m one of your Google reader subscribers out there :)
And I can tell you – being a full-time programmer, pen-and-paper role-player, fond of my cooking, married to a feminist, reading quite a few webcomics on regular basis and mostly talking philosophy and politics with my wife and close friends – I most probably came for the programming stuff, and stayed for the rest :)
Fair. I guess I’m rather less of a unique snowflake than I think I am. :-)
landed here for the programming stuff few weeks ago, enjoying the ride since… :-)
I started reading back in your Scala days. I especially liked the voting theory posts. I do skip some, but I have enjoyed posts in most of your subjects. Thanks.
> So, who are you lot? How’d you get here, and which bits are you actually interested in?
My name is Michael Chermside. I’m a programmer in the Philadelphia area, currently working for a bank, with a background in math and physics and a broad interest in many different topics.
I no longer remember where I first heard of your blog as I’ve been reading it a long time but it was some other blogger who mentioned you and I found the posts interesting.
I am most interested in the programming related topics (since that’s my profession). But I am fascinated by many of the other topics. For instance, voting theory (which you mentioned) is an interest of mine for which I track information from a number of different sources. I find game design to be really interesting and spend some time on it as a hobby.
My philosophy on blogs is that if you include different things, not just one subject, it tends to be interesting to the readers and they can easily ignore the stuff they don’t want. Of course, I don’t practice that myself so you should probably pay no attention to my advice.
I also started reading the blog when I was learning about Scala and you were giving all the most useful answers in IRC. I enjoy the programming stuff, the bits about working as a developer, the random tangents – I’m even gluten and dairy intolerant :)
I wouldn’t want to influence the output too much – it’s a great mix – but I’d encourage any amount of “off-topic” rambling. I really am interested in all the topics you mention and more (though my maths isn’t good enough to keep up when it gets *really* mathsy).
Thanks for making the continued effort to maintain this blog – it’s great!
I suspect I got here through a Scala link, and whilst observing that you don’t write Scala, the rest of the content was interesting enough to stay. I’m likewise a mathematician now working mostly as a programmer, and of your list of topics, the only one I wouldn’t describe immediately as an interest would be cooking.
Not sure there are any particular things I’d encourage you to post about; the current balance seems pretty good.
My reasons are the same as Nick. I’m subscribed to http://friendfeed.com/scala-programming, and your blog entries still come up through there. It’s how I came to follow you on Twitter too. I’m also aware that you don’t use Scala any more, but I st\ill think you write enough interesting stuff about programming/maths etc that means I don’t feel the need to un-follow you. I’m also interested in philosophy etc.
I would be interested to hear your views/experience on moving from statically typed languages like Scala to Ruby. I’m still sceptical about the practicality of using dynamic languages in large systems, and would appreciate your views on the transition, especially as you seem rather even-handed and non-fan-boyish about technology in general.
Cheers.
Hm. I wonder why I’m still on there. I think that may just be part of the general “The Scala community hasn’t quite figured out I’m not one of them any more” thing. :-)
I’ll have a think about what I can write about the move from Scala to Ruby. It’s worth nothing that it’s not really a move per se – I was also writing Ruby during most of my time writing Scala. So it’s more of a decision to stop using Scala than it is a decision to move. It’s also worth noting that despite my extensive use of it I’m really not a fan of Ruby. :-)
Ha, it looks like I’m like a lot of the others that responded already. I’m a software developer in the Philadelphia area who stumbled across your blog when I first started learning about Scala. I’m also subscribed through Google Reader. I guess your work with Scala left an impression.
I’ll go for weeks without seeing anything I want to read on your site, but that’s more a reflection on my moods than your choice of topics. I like just about everything you write, so every few months I’ll read through almost everything I missed.
Came here during the scala days. Stayed for the great content all around
Software engineer, 33, from NL, working on test automation (which, despite common opinion, is awesome and challenging if you want to do it right). Came via Scala, still reading most. Wish I had more time to more thoroughly read the maths posts.