Congratulations, Wesleying!

Yes, congratulations are definitely in order for bloggers and readers of Wesleying alike this week, as we celebrate the end of our busiest month ever. That’s right. This February, Wesleying reached new heights in viewership, or just excessive refreshing. For the last two weeks, I have stalked our Site Stats to watch as the numbers for February 2011 climbed. Ignoring all of my responsibilities, I’ve secretly prayed for controversy, for acb posts linking to Wesleying, and, perhaps most importantly, for the elimination of all 502 errors.

Now, I’m sure you have a lot of questions. How many views is that anyway? How did this happen? What’s so special about February? Which blogger made it happen? What do those idiot bloggers have to say about this historic event anyway? Click beyond the jump for a breakdown of this historic month, along with humble gratitude from the bloggers you love. Or perhaps, the bloggers you love to hate in A-Batte’s case. Just kidding.

Last month, Wesleying received over 250,000 views. Well, 252,200 views to be precise. To give you an idea of where that stacks up in the history of Wesleying, our busiest months till now were May 2009 with 240,206 views and April 2010 with 229,140 views. In May 2009, Wesleying saw a huge spike in visits to the blog, as Wesleying sought to cover and help students recover from the shocking and tragic death of Johanna Justin-Jinich ’10 on May 6, 2009. Naturally, Wesleying drew a national audience and gained its highest viewership in one day with 42,085 views recorded on May 6th.

As to the logic behind April 2010’s high count, possible explanations seem to be the overeager Class of 2014 and their arrival during WesFest. (Since matriculation, 2014 has kept its reputation of technological connectivity through its almost immediate and established presence on the ACB.)  Or perhaps the high activity (harhar) came from the countdown to Wesleyan’s favorite green holiday and its subsequent interruption by PSafe’s Dave Meyer.

But why the big count for little old February, the shortest month of the year? The obvious reason seems to present itself in Dean Mike Whaley and President Michael Roth‘s overreaching policy in the Betagate debacle, a policy that Roth conceded was “too broad.” Not to mention the (ongoing) coverage by two news sources, fire.org and Fox News, that might otherwise seem antithetical to Wesleyan’s ideological leaning. We obviously couldn’t leave out the notable absence of the ACB mid-February, likely steering some serious refreshers (defined: students who hit command+R far too often) towards Wesleying from the intellectually stimulating discourse of CollegeACB. Last, but certainly not least, the contribution of the Wesleyan Technology Front cannot go unmentioned.

The Wesleyan Technology Front (WTF) presents sort of an anomaly in drawing viewers to Wesleying for students who aren’t necessarily familiar with the inner workings of search engines and blogging (namely, me).  By utilizing a popular keyword in google searches (WTF), the WTF managed to collect over 2,800 views during the month of February, long after it was posted on February 6th. I can’t tell you how much I enjoy that a group set on making Wesleyan’s internet faster ended up increasing the views on our blog. The interwebs, man, they’re so connected. Even on our busiest day (pictured below), WTF contributed a formidable portion of total views–impressive, considering our busiest day was nearly two weeks after WTF’s post.

So, in the spirit of the recently passed Oscars, we as bloggers have got a few words as we accept this incredible honor that you, as Wesleyan students (maybe?) and Wesleying readers, have bestowed upon us. Without them, this blog would not be possible. I’d also like to personally call out Zach for his truly impressive 58 posts last month, by far the most of any Wesleying blogger in February. Without him, all of your refreshing would really just be futile.

Zach: Special thanks to whoever keeps arriving at our blog every day after googling terms like “Aladdin,” “joint,” and “nude model.” Seriously, guys: we couldn’t have done it without you.

Syed: While President Roth, Ayn Rand, and the “free food” make Wesleying a special place, professors deserve a special thanks for dealing with the results of our procrastination.  Also, I don’t know about the “treasure map” everyone keeps searching for, but keep searching.

lesanjuan: I’d like to thank our friends in South College for their kind forethought in angering a large portion of the student body, providing us with endless fodder for posts. I’d also like to thank the people who were moved by these posts to write silly comments. Finally, I’d like to thank Budd Boetticher for showing audiences everywhere that “there are some things a man can’t ride around.”

catchair: I believe the month of February deserves some recognition. Without the lackluster spirit and dismal weather brought to the table by possibly one of the most boring months of the year, we certainly could not have gotten to where we are today.

BZOD: I’d like to thank all the other Wesleyan students who reload this page constantly, proving that I am not the only one who can’t think of any better ways to procrastinate.

And, my personal favorite, A-Batte: I hate all of you even more than you hate me.

With that, thanks for reading. And, let’s try for 300,000 views this April? Sorry, too much? Too soon? Oh, and in case you were wondering, WordPress doesn’t even count admin visits to the blog. So, just think about what could’ve happened if my narcissism with reading my own posts had really been reflected in the total views.