does anybody actually use this website? - 5.15.03
Anybody out there?
The web is a quiet medium; sometimes I wonder if anybody ever drops by to see what's I've been posting on BigEastern.com. Then there's those gratifying times when somebody mentions that they actually found something useful here. A couple of days ago I was giving a guy my e-mail address, and he said said,
"Bigeastern, huh. You're with them?"
"I guess I am them". A much better feeling than the time the elderly lady greeted me by saying "Marty Lucas...I thought you were dead." But that's another story.
Anyway, here's a look at the use of this website over the past thirty days [April 15 - May 14, 2003], according to an analog analysis of our logfiles. It's a pretty typical period as far as I can determine.
Total 'hits' - 63,694 (2123/day)
Page views - 16,063 (535/day)
Data served - 1.1 Gigabytes - note that 41% of this traffic is in MP3 files, all legal and legite.
The most popular sections of the site are Edge of the Prairie [14,443 requests] and the Kankakee River Log [8075 requests].
Most active days of week - Tuesday and Wednesday (I rarely update on weekends)
Here's a list of our top twenty most popular pages, with a link and access numbers for the 30 day sample period:
- Kankakee River Log (main page) - 1490 (50/day).
- What's a Luddite? - from the Ballad of Ned Ludd - 746.
- BigEastern.com Homepage - (the page you're on now) - 739.
- About Aldo Leopold - on Edge of the Prairie - 658.
- Ballad of Ned Ludd (start page) - 493.
- BigDumbHoosier Archive Index - 452.
- Ludd's Links - on the Ballad of Ned Ludd - 405.
- Mightier than a Machine - a BigDumbHoosier piece recounting my ill-fated effort to cast a write-in vote for Ralph Nader - 304.
- Floating dredge offers sediment removal alternative - KRLog piece describing a method for dredging rivers and streams that minimizes disruption of streamside vegetation - 284.
- Fun with the Digicam - a particularly silly episode of BigDumbHoosier - maybe people see the title and expect something a bit more 'exciting'? - 272.
- Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England - a footnote to the Ballad Ned Ludd, written by Stephanie Faul - 269.
- Tad Robinson - official homepage for Indiana based blues and soul recording artist - 243.
- Lupinus perennis occidentalis - Edge of the Prairie is the most popular section on this site, but usage is diffuse. Lupines are blooming now, page use stats for a page devoted to a wildflower tend to bloom simultaneously with the corporeal cousins - 242.
- Edge of the Prairie [homepage] - 186.
- The Ballad of Ned Ludd [title song] - 168.
- Liatris Aspera - on Edge of the Prairie - 167.
- the Green Shift - jumping the fence - the BigDumbHoosier's spin on party reallignments - 166.
- Tad Robinson: Gigs - blues fans keep up on Tad's concert schedule here and in Europe - 140.
- Lomax - a paid page with info about an entire historic community on the Kankakee River now for sale by owner - 127.
- Kankakee River Log - Maps - 122.
BigEastern hosts a collection of MP3 files, mostly of material not commercially available. Here's a list of our top ten downloads. (click on the file to download your own copy).
- Raining in New York - a lovely ballad by Tad Robinson (to purchase the CD on Delmark Records, visit Tad's Discs page) - 229.
- IvorE-D-Armor - piano soundscape piece by Marty Lucas from the a:kill soundtrack- 227.
- trak-D-Armor [moody background mix] - soundscape piece by Marty Lucas from the a:kill soundtrack - 224.
- trak-D-Armor - another mix from the a:kill soundtrack - 222.
- What Love Did to Me - by Tad Robinson - 220.
- Rekilled - remix of theme from a:kill by Ed Kurlewicz, John Zane and Marty Lucas from the a:kill soundtrack - 215.
- Enviros: a summer pond - green frogs, etc in a relaxing natural recording of a humid Indiana night - 214.
- Running - soundscape piece by Ed Kurlowicz, w/ Zane and Lucas - from the a:kill soundtrack - 213.
- Enviros: Wren Creek - a wren dominates this audio landscape from a hot July day - 213.
- Hacked - guitar by Ed Kurlewicz, percussion by John Zane; synths and remix by Marty Lucas (try this one, electronica fans...) - from the a:kill soundtrack - 210.
Note that, for privacy reasons, we don't attempt to record who is using our site. Also, I guess I don't really care that much. If you want to say hi, just drop me an e-mail.