My traffic has been down a little in the past couple of weeks, which of course can't possibly be because I haven't posted anything really interesting in that time. No, clearly, it must be that I'm not playing the game right.
Thus, I have performed an extensive study or high-traffic blogs, to determine what it is that they post that I don't, and the answer is clear: Internet personality quizzes. Thus, here are some quiz-type things for your amusement and edification:
- A timed online IQ test. You get 13 minutes to answer 38 true/false questions, and then it tells you how smart you are. (Via Scalzi at AOL.)
- A diagnostic test for "people's values and tribal membership" from an outfit called "Environics." A bunch of Agree/ Disagree type questions giving you your location on a two-dimensional plot of "Traditional/Modern" vs. "Social/Individual." (Via Calpundit Monthly.)
Surely, posting these links will boost my traffic into the stratosphere, and I will make millions. Or something. My results, and miscellaneous commentary below the fold.
The IQ thing put me at 136, which they claim is just short of "genius." If I thought that meant something, I'd either be chuffed or offended, I'm not sure which. They don't give you the correct answers, though, so there's really not a lot more to say about that.
The more interesting of the two is the "Environics" test, which claims to identify the "tribe" to which you belong, and provides a helpful list of "icons." As I'm right on the edge of the age ranges they use for their categories, I could go one of two ways. If I decide to skew old, I'm a "Connected Enthusiast," which offers the following list of icons:
- Pop star Madonna (Not so much...)
- Film-maker Denys Arcand (Who?)
- Celine Dion (Yikes!)
- Shirley MacLaine (*cough* *splutter*)
As this is clearly horrifically wrong, I can also opt to skew younger, and end up as a "Social Hedonist," which is at least a better name. The icons, though...
- Race car driver Jacques Villeneuve (Who?)
- Extreme sports athletes (Huh?)
- Pop-punk band Blink 182 (Well, OK...)
- Pop star Ricky Martin (What the...?)
- Movie character Austin Powers (Enh.)
- Rap star Sisqo (This is a joke, right?)
I mean, seriously-- do Sisqo and Ricky Martin even rate the term "star" any more?
So, not what you'd call an smashing success on the personality test front...
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I end up Autonomous Rebel which seems pretty accurate (Bill & Hil are examples) and competely typical of my age cohort.
MKK
The page that told me my results has at least three typographical errors.
(143, 4:06 minutes left, and what the heck was the "how many fingers usually fit in six gloves and three shoes" question about?)
143, 4:06 minutes left
See, I told you you were smarter than I am...
Well these are Canadians we're talking about here.
As the tribal test thing refers to former Canadian PM Paul Martin as "Finance Minister", it is obviously a little dated.
I think the real reason your traffic is down is the change of the scienceblogs.com front page....
I really don't like the new format. I've learned to live with it, and see some of its advantages, but it's too messy, too cluttered, and has way too much on it for a front page.
There are more blogs here now, so your traffic may be diluted. But there's also the fact that the old front page had all of the blogs' newest posts, and if you were near the top, somebody was likely to click on you. Many people coming in now who don't want to search may be a bit overwhelmed by the excessive amount of content, and not realize that by scrolling down and looking about and trying not to be distracted by two sidebars around *four* columns, they can find some nice "new in my favorite category" lists.
-Rob
There are more blogs here now, so your traffic may be diluted. But there's also the fact that the old front page had all of the blogs' newest posts, and if you were near the top, somebody was likely to click on you. Many people coming in now who don't want to search may be a bit overwhelmed by the excessive amount of content, and not realize that by scrolling down and looking about and trying not to be distracted by two sidebars around *four* columns, they can find some nice "new in my favorite category" lists.
I think you're right that that's the real reason. I've also been doing some fairly lightweight blogging lately, because I was so brain-fried at the end of the term, and am only just beginning to recover, so I'm not entirely surprised. But the dip pretty much matches up with the re-launch of the front page, and the addition of a zillion new blogs making it harder to stay on the front page.
I'll say again that the "classic" ScienceBlogs front page is still available, as the Last 24 Hours channel. It's just the most recent posts on all the blogs, in chronological order. Of course, there are a lot more posts than there used to be, so it's harder to get a traffic boost from that...
You're out of Quebec things !
Film-maker Denys Arcand (Who?) The barbarian invasions last years at Cannes, a quebec's movie !
Race car driver Jacques Villeneuve (Who?) A born in quebec, live in france driver !
Humm.. Quebec is the french province in Canada ! North of your country !
No, I'm not smarter than you are, you told me what one of the questions was and I experimentally determined the answer.
There is a front page? I just moved my book mark from the old site to this one.....