“me + richard armitage” at three years old. Stats and thanks.

[As some know, the very first picture of Richard Armitage I ever downloaded, from the Daily Mail, October 10, 2009. Guylty *ooof*ed it here. Source: RichardArmitageNet.com]

As I think about the last three years, I declare this blog a big success!

One way to measure that, of course, though by no means the only one, is by means of its use by others.

For the record, as I hit publish on this post:

POSTS: 1,522.

HITS (note that roughly half of these have come in the last year and almost a third of these have come since August 2012 — i.e., this has mostly to do with Armitage’s increased prominence): 1,449,696.

COMMENTS: 40,260.

What’s been most popular? Hard to say.

Half the comments are ones I made, and hits are not the same as unique users, and WP changed how it reckoned its statistics after I started blogging, and a lot of people who end up on these posts aren’t reading them or certainly not all of them — but this is the only statistic I have to share so I’ll share it, with the usual caveats. The difference in hits between one and ten on this is roughly a factor of ten. Also, if I keep blogging, some of these will eventually fall off; if I look at the list of ten posts most popular in the last year, only four of these are on that list. So with that: most popular posts, since beginning of blog, as measured by number of hits.

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1. “me + annabel capper: or, the limits of Armitage fangrrling, almost a year in.” December 1, 2010. With four times as many hits as the next post on the list, this one still gets hundreds of hits every week. Taken as evidence by at least one reader of my psychotic qualities, moreover, this post was one impetus for a pages-long anti-fanfic directed largely at me. (No, I’m not linking.)

2. “On the ill-fitting suits: or Armitage resartus, part 1.” June 10, 2010. Analysis of Richard Armitage’s wardrobe in various settings in light of what he wore to the 2010 TV BAFTAs. Twice as many hits as the next post on the list.

3. “Transitive property of resemblances?” February 18, 2011. Discussion of whether Armitage looks like Lara Pulver, based on a remark he made during the Robin Hood series 3 publicity. Surged to popularity when Lara Pulver appeared in Sherlock. Also gets hits from people looking for a pictorial demonstration of the transitive property. Ironic that this is so popular, because most readers didn’t think my joke was all that funny at the time  — and I think this one will eventually fall off the “most popular” list.

4. “Performing Richard Armitage, Performing Dr. Servetus, Parts I and II.” June 3, 2010. The first place where I argued something that would become an ongoing theme of the blog: That Richard Armitage was performing a version of himself in public. Sounds defensive because I’d just been attacked. In fact, I got so tired that June that I never finished that series. But looking back, I think this is fairly well expressed.

5. “How can one face say all these things?” August 9, 2011. Annotated diagram of Armitage’s face based on a screencap from Robin Hood; my most popular “diagram” post. I’m puzzled as to why this post gets so many hits. I can’t figure out what search is driving traffic here.

6. “Mr. Armitage, his fans, our pursuit of “great art,” and me as critic, part 1.” October 7, 2010. The first part of my argument, in the wake of fan restlessness over the action roles in Strike Back and Spooks 9, that which roles Armitage took didn’t matter to me. Written a few weeks before the announcement that Armitage was cast as Thorin in The Hobbit, which made the valences of those roles look very different. But I feel the general point just as strongly as I did then.

7. “Malice Aforethought: Favorite Historical Hat Moments.” September 13, 2010. Traffic to this post is generated mainly by searches relating to Wallace and Gromit. But did you know there’s an intermittent blog feature, called “Dick Heads,” that deals with Richard Armitage in hats? It’s here.

8. “And we’ll know that it’s Richard by his nose, by his nose: or, a short prolegomenon to Armitage nose logistics.” December 5, 2011. A post on recognizing Armitage from afar, the problem of the visible nose prosthesis, and what Armitage does with his nose while kissing.

9. “Miscellaneous for Hitting the Road.” August 18, 2010. Although this post mentions one of my favorite Armitage-related fanfic authors, khandy, the main thing that seems to be driving traffic to it are image searches for the model of car I own.

10. “On the abandonment of ill-fitting suits, or: Armitage resartus, part 3.” June 13, 2010. Continuation of #2, specifically about the BAFTA suit.

As an addendum — the most popular humorous post in the blog’s history:

1. “Ex-Dwarf ‘not hot enough’ for Richard III role.” August 25, 2011; written for King Richard Week 2011. In general, I tend to write humorous posts when I’m in a bad mood, and for that reason, can rarely make myself revisit them, but this one has stood the test of time, and I’m actually reasonably proud of it.

And, for the sake of honesty — here’s the post I most regret.

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Thanks, Richard Armitage, for making everything possible. Gosh, you’re amazing. More amazing all the time. Congratulations on the year you had — may you continue to go from strength to strength. Thanks for providing so much to write about that I feel like I’ll never run out of material.

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Richard Armitage as photographed by Victoria Will, December 2012. Source: RichardArmitageNet.com. Why are you hiding your left thumb? *Ooof*ed by Guylty here.

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And, it can’t be said enough, in no particular order:

Thanks to every fan who went before — and to all of the big fansites for making this blog possible, especially Richard Armitage Online and RichardArmitageNet.com, the two I use the most frequently.

Thanks to everyone who comes here — for whatever reason you come. I treasure your presence — even you lurkers! — more than ever.

I also feel the need to thank all the people whom I write about here who don’t know that I’m writing about them. (I know that’s a bit strange.) And those who do.

And I want to apologize to any and all people who I’ve hurt by writing this long document. I know there have been a few. I don’t want to pretend that I’ve always known what to do in every wituation, or that there have been no casualties from this process.

Fellow bloggers make Armitageworld a virtual destination worth visiting. I have learned valuable lessons from so many of you, and my weekly Legenda posts make an attempt to acknowledge my debts. Special thanks, for different and not always easy-to-name reasons, to RAFrenzy, Judiang, Jazzbaby1, FedoraLady, thefrencharmitagearmy, Snickers’ Mom (wherever you put the apostrophe), Jas Rangoon, ItsJSforMe, and Ana Cris.

Thanks to all the people who’ve become virtual friends over the last three years. There are a lot of you, some of you visible on the blog, others not. To all the invisible people who would prefer not to be named — thanks for staying in touch even when I am out of touch, and for keeping me sane. Among the people who are visible commentators, I’d prefer not to offend by forgetting anyone — so I’ll limit myself to saying I hope each of you knows how much I value your encouragement. I make the effort to answer comments because you are so dear to me. Getting to hear from you guys makes a lot of this worth it.

Thanks to all the people who’ve consented to be interviewed over the last three years. The conversations I’ve had with you have strengthened and enlightened me and enriched my world.

UK Expat, you’ve been unbelievable. Thanks for being there and going above and beyond with your amazing energy (or your AMAZING ENERGY!!!!, as you would put it), and for repeating things until I hear them. Also for explaining the “energy vampire.”

Thanks to my collaborator, Guylty, who gives me a serious boost of intellectual energy and a little bit of a rush every time she blogs.

And finally: thanks to CDoart, who puts loyalty and honor together in one very self-disciplined package.

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I know this sounds elegiac. I hope you don’t think it’s over the top, but it feels like time to say some of these things. Next up — personal reflections.

~ by Servetus on February 25, 2013.