survey

How am I doing? I know I haven't been posting as frequently lately. I promise to do better in the future.

I'm truly gratified at the amount of traffic mediagirl.org gets anyway. You all have been great.

So.... maybe you'd like to fill out one of those blog surveys. This one doesn't take all that long, and you can even skip questions or quit early. Even just a few answers help!

Please?

Blogiversary? Anniblogary? Blogday?

On November 12 of last year, I started this site. I had no idea what to expect. My blogger site was but an obscure little thing with like 5 readers. Before that, I'd never blogged about anything but personal trivia, which was utterly boring -- to me and everyone else.

For mediagirl.org, I chose Drupal for the site software because of its flexibility. I'd hoped to build this into a community site, but since then it's kind of morphed into more of a group site, where 2-3 dozen women have blog posting access. (Thank you Matsu, ferdette, gballsout, Morgaine, Sour Duck, Pseudo-Adrienne, The Heretik, truthinboots, laurentayloris and everyone else for helping make mediagirl.org a worthwhile stop!)

[Helping to make Our Word succeed has been a nice extension of this initial desire, and I urge anyone looking for robust open women's discussion to go there.]

Some (boring) factoids:

I'm delighted that the traffic has grown here. Statcounter says we're averaging around 900 a day, but to be honest, that fluctuates quite a bit. The server logs say another 10,000 pages are viewed by crawlers and bots. The Feedburner counter has remained under 10, but the server logs say 186 people (or 'bots) are subscribed to the direct feed. Sitemeter says that the average visit for the past week lasted 1:36, which tells me that most people are actually reading what they find, which is a good thing, even if they aren't sticking around to read everything else -- or anything else.

But I'm under no illusions that the site's modest success is because I'm especially insightful or entertaining. More people stumble here from Google or Yahoo than from bookmarks or blogrolls. (Recent searches include "trailer clips of women oil wrestling"; "no knickers girl photos" (hello, England!); "signs of men on the down low" -- but also: "pain in ovary"; "pregnancy ERA television"; "male insecurity".) The site has won no awards (and actually I find all the "vote for me" posts to be rather obnoxious and sad.) Sometimes we've benefitted from a kindly link from Daou and Digby and Pandagon and other bigger and better blogs. And I'm sure having to scrub the database of multiple URL aliases for every page hasn't helped things. Still, every day we get 80-150 return visitors.

Thanks everyone for dropping by!

Enough about boring numbers. They count only for advertisers, ego lists and blogwhores who are afraid to link to smaller sites lest they lose their PageRank.

Getting to the point:

I'd really really like to know what you all think. I feel like I'm flying blind here most of the time. Traffic aside, is anyone getting anything out of what I'm writing here?

What do you like or dislike about mediagirl.org?

What should I/wewe focus on in this coming year? Please share your suggestions, recommendations, complaints, rants. (No, this isn't an invitation for trolls.) Would you like to see more on politics. (As if that were possible!) Less? More feminist stuff? More whimsy? More sarcasm? More pictures? Less?

I'd love to hear from you. (Comments are open for the next 30 days or so.)

Sometimes it's the silly ones that draw me in....

You Are 40% Weird

Normal enough to know that you're weird...
But too damn weird to do anything about it!

How Weird Are You?

Your Hair Should Be Orange

Expressive, deep, and one of a kind.
You pull off "weird" well - hardly anyone notices.

What's Your Funky Inner Hair Color?

Your Japanese Name Is...

Hide Yamamoto

What's your Japanese Name?

Your Superhero Profile

Your Superhero Name is The Winter Bug
Your Superpower is Supernatural
Your Weakness is Fish
Your Weapon is Your Air Boomerang
Your Mode of Transportation is Broom

What's your Superhero Name?

Your Kissing Purity Score: 20% Pure

For you, it's all kiss and no talk.

You're in a permanent lip lock.

Kissing Purity Test

The Keys to Your Heart

You are attracted to good manners and elegance.

In love, you feel the most alive when your lover is creative and never lets you feel bored.

You'd like to your lover to think you are stylish and alluring.

You would be forced to break up with someone who was emotional, moody, and difficult to please.

Your ideal relationship is lasting. You want a relationship that looks to the future... one you can grow with.

Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment.

You think of marriage as something precious. You'll treasure marriage and treat it as sacred.

In this moment, you think of love as something you thirst for. You'll do anything for love, but you won't fall for it easily.

What Are The Keys To Your Heart?

Your Band Name is:

The BBQ Panties

Band Name Generator

Your Personality Profile

You are pure, moral, and adaptable.
You tend to blend into your surroundings.
Shy on the outside, you're outspoken to your friends.

You believe that you live a virtuous life...
And you tend to judge others with a harsh eye.
As a result, people tend to crave your approval.

The World's Shortest Personality Test

This is a new meme - location. Bold the states you've been to and italicize the one you live in now.

Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California /Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware/ Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa/ Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana/ Maine/ Maryland/ Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada/ New Hampshire/ New Jersey/New Mexico /New York / North Carolina / North Dakota/ Ohio /Oklahoma / Oregon/ Pennsylvania / Rhode Island/ South Carolina / South Dakota/ Tennessee / Texas/ Utah/ Vermont / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsi/ Wyoming / Washington D.C /

I have always wanted to visit Alaska and Nebraska, I barely missed. I hope to get there yet. I currently am in transit and do not have a home state.

Should I call this "First Annual"? I've been pondering this for a while, but got sidetracked by the unexpected crash of my 2-week-old iMac and the sudden need to create an online community for a group of really interesting and insightful progressive bloggers.

So...I didn't do the graphic. I didn't plan ahead. I let it slide and slide.

But it's still a pretty darn good idea, isnt it?

The Feminist Valentine Blog Awards

Over the next six days, if you post a particularly feminist perspective on St. Valentine's Day, trackback here or comment here with a link. If you see a good snarky blog on romance from a feminist perspective, post a link here. If you or someone you know posted some great stuff in the past... yes, that's right, post a link here in a comment.

I don't know what categories there will be. Probably things like Snarkiest, Most Militant, Most Heartwrenching, Best Argument for the Subjugation of Men... you know, cheerful stuff. In actual fact, there will be just enough awards to have one for each submission. Every woman has valid insights on Valentine's Day! (Maybe some men do, too.) And I will be sure to have some nifty graphic that winners can put on their websites.

Send in your submissions! Please!...Because really, this is just a way for me to discover some really great and empowering writing to give me strength and hope during this very depressing valentine's season, where I feel like I will never ever find love again.

Nominees can (hopefully) be found in comments and trackbacks to this post. Awards will be given out as soon as I recover from my night-of-the-14th chocolate-and-pinot-noir binge towards oblivion.

There's a poll on RealityBuzz.org, a new website that asks whether you believe President Bush actually believes his plan would help people. It's an interesting and obvious question, and one that might have people scratching their heads for years to come. To me, it seems to come down to this: Do you think the president is stupid, or is he really just out to screw you?

[Edited to add that a discussion of this is also happening here.]