Random Reflexions

Today marks the 3^rd anniversary of this blog. This blog in its previous incarnation came to life on the same day of the same month in 2004.

It gave me a reason, today, to dive into the archives and read some of the posts that have shaped this blog. There are 210 published posts (including this one) and 114 unpublished ones that were once upon a time published and over 2,300 comments. The unpublished posts are those that were about my kids and family. I decided to remove those as my posts, over time, became more political and controversial. Also when it got listed on DO and some of my posts made their appearance there I knew this blog would never be personal in that sense anymore.

According to Google Analytics, during October there were some 1,400 absolute unique visitors with the majority of visitors arriving from DO and then MvBlogs. These visitors, it seems, spend an average of about 4 minutes per visit and does 2 page views each on average. I've been told this is a pretty good figure by web standards because as it turns out most web surfers have very short attention spans.

I must be doing something right.

About 55% of all visitors are returning readers. That means 44% are new visitors. This also suggest a good balance between the two types. Firefox tops as the browser of choice by visitors to this blog.

Over the 3 years there has been an explosion of blogs from Maldives and Maldivians abroad. Still I feel more should join. We Maldivians are a very opinionated bunch, aren't we? So why don't we bring the coffee table chatter and debates to the blogosphere and expose them to a wider audience? Blogs are an excellent communication and feedback tool and it works both ways between people, the public and the government. What's more, it can be a living history of how this country is shaping up and where it is going.

Recently there have been calls from various bloggers and commenters to ban and remove certain blogs from MvBlogs. MvBlogs is a bastion of free speech in Maldives and is in my opinion a reflexion of the diversity of our thinking. And it should remain as such. If we close a door here then ultimately we will end up closing all but a few doors.

As for me, 3 years on, I feel I will not stop blogging as long as I live. That is a promise I make to myself and to all you faithful readers.

Thank you for the 4 minutes of your time. It means so much to me.