Today at 00 GMT (5PM PST) a new month started. Every time a new month of statistics starts being logged by WordPress for Watts Up With That, I say to myself, “there’s no way I’ll get this sort of traffic again”. And yet, again I’m surprised that WUWT not only met last months stats, but significantly exceeded them.
Thank you again, loyal readers.
Click for full sized image
It was one year ago that I moved from the Typepad blog to WordPress, and as you can see from above, the growth has been steady, except for one month, April. which had a slight dip.
For September 2008 the total was 846,193 page views, up from 667,215 page views in August 2008.
But there is a caveat, I think the real numbers are just shy of 800,000, because on the weekend of 09/20 and 09/21 I got quite a bit of unexpected traffic that I’m not sure is real or not. During that time, we got a lot of Spam on one particular older entry comparing UAH, RSS, HadCRUT, and GISS, but not anywhere near the numbers specific to that post, shown below:
Blog Stats Increase due to DOS “something”
Saturday 09/20 23,486
Sunday 09/21 25,319
Monday 09/22 1,006
Total: 49,811
You can read about it here in this entry
I checked with WordPress support, twice, and they assured me that the numbers are real, saying:
Hi,
Our stats expert has had a look and found no evidence of a DoS or anything untoward. He says “the most plausible reason is an email newsletter featuring the URL, or else some other non-browser app loading the URL such as a feed reader. I have not been able to find any evidence of of a DDOS attempt or other “foul play.”
Separately, I’ve checked our security logs and see no other signs of activity that would normally indicate a blog under attack.
In short: we’re quite sure the traffic is genuine and doesn’t correspond with an attack of any kind.
Kind regards,
Alex
WordPress Support
Even so, I’m unconvinced. I got not one single comment added on that posting during the onslaught of traffic, almost 50,000 page views, which tells me the numbers aren’t real, no matter what WordPress support says.
Therefore I have decided to take the step of publishing an “adjusted” set of numbers this month. The difference is that instead of inflating the numbers, such as GISTEMP and USHCN adjustments do, I’m reducing them to what I consider a truly representative value for the month.
Raw WUWT September numbers: 846,193 page views
WUWT Spam Uncertainty numbers: -49,811 page views (from 09/20 to 09/22)
Final Adjusted WUWT September numbers: 796,382 page views
Still, not too shabby.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Why are you surprised? You made something good, with a good mix of humor and science. No hidden agendas, just interesting thoughts. I contribute three or four hits a day, to see What’s Up. Never disappointed.
And, quite honestly, we should all be skeptical. Of just about everything.
I know it’s a huge amount of work, h/t to the moderators, but this is an important source of information. And the polar bear thread with the soft drink was a ray of sunshine.
When you build a better mousetrap, expect a stampede.
Daily read for me! Great site
Readers of your blog quickly become AGW skeptics. So an increase in readership means objectivity is spreading.
On the other hand, I have recommended your blog to many AGW believers and sent selected articles to eco-journalists, but mostly in vain. Just about everyone simply “wants to believe” in AGW. If it’s written in the paper or shown on the nightly news, it has to be true. And people who question the “consensus” are to be viewed with suspicion.
Here in the province of Quebec, Canada, the government has even made AGW is a mandatory teaching subject in elementary school.
Darn it! They beat me to the Hockey Stick remarks.
Congrats Anthony!
Anthony, congratulations again! I am *concerned* (stated with an arrogant, condescending tone), however, that so much internet traffic coming your way must have a ferocious carbon footprint. Perhaps you could approach RealClimate to see if they would sell you some internet traffic carbon offset certificates. They should have plenty!
🙂
Keep up the great work!
Anthony, What a wonderful site. I am not a scientist and only have 2 years of college but this site is written in a way that most high school grads can read and understand. The commenters are for the most part courteous and understanding, also willing to explain their view points. I also in disagreement with richardj think that the titles to the posts are very relevant in comparison to the alarmism of the climate change proponents.
Good things about your site,
well written
thought provoking
truthful
self correcting
good commenters both professional and amature
presents both sides of the issue at hand
good moderators that are willing to be known
most commenters use real names
Bad things about your site
I can’t think of any except I wish I had high speed available where I live to be better able to enjoy the site.
I visit several times a day.
Thank you Anthony for such a quality site that isn’t afraid to face the issues with dignity and also good humor.
Bill Derryberry
REPLY: Thanks for the kind words Bill. – Anthony
Anthony, congratulations! Another great month. Maybe NOAA has been reading http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/news/2008/090808a.html, but then again they are not sure so have to recheck their numbers.
Hi
I was thinking of the temperature peak in 1998. Not only did the temperatur rise on the surface of the earth, but according to RSS and UAH the temperature also went up 0,5 degree C in the Troposphere.
I have seen several remarks that this peak had to do with an very strong El Nino, but the Troposphere thats about 10 000 meter up. To me it seems very odd to blame El Nino for the peak in the troposphere, the surface of the earth OK I might buy that, but up to 10000 meter well thats something else.
What kind of energy is needed to heat the troposphere from the surface up to 10 000 meter 0,5 degree C?
BTW Anthony you have a very nice page I read it almost everyday
Anthony
Enough with the current stats … I want to see a projection for page hits 100 years from now.
REPLY: Current traffic models don’t adequately incorporate user feedbacks, so I’m doubtful any projection 100 years from now would be relevant. Plus, I’ll be dead. – Anthony
There is a reason for all the hits.
You have all of the most recent and most relevant information (in the form of actual data) that I have been able to find.
By the way, what would be wrong with taking weather records and either 1) leaving them all as recorded in Fahrenheit or 2) converting them into tenths of a degree Celsius? At least recording to the nearest degree F and converting to tenths of a degree C would not lose a lot of data.
Once all the averaging and norming was done in F, the averages could easily be converted into hundreths of a degree C to compare with records from the rest of the world.
By the way: how often are thermometers in these weather stations calibrated? The old minimax thermometer is a mechanical device, after all, and should be regularly checked using the best available technical means.
As it is, roundoff error is introduced by converting to full degrees Celsius before any monthly or annual averages are computed.
Amps*Volts*Power Factor=Watts
And your Power Factor is approaching 1.
Nice Job Anthony
Mike
Add the RSS feed to your iGoogle page. Then you can check headlines while waiting for search results. (too bad icecap.us can’t get their RSS feeds working…)
And I don’t expect you to compete with Drudge. A spinning anemometer just doesn’t carry the same urgency as a rotating red light. Although I suppose you could use a Thunderbolt 1000 Civil Defense Siren.
Anyone approached you for ads yet?
REPLY: No, I’m part of the great “unclean” for advertisers I’m sure. – Anthony
Nobody beats the Rev!
Dr Watt? (for British TV fans).
Urgh!
Why are you surprised?
Because he is genuinely modest.
I would not be offended if you offered ads to help your costs….something to think about.
I might even want to pay for one in the future. Our business is making rechargable battery packs.
If this were an AGW blog any statistical adjustments would have been made using an arcane and unpublished set of data massaging operations in order to yield a more hockey stick like result and thus tend to confirm a (questionable) hypothetical model.
Evidently this blog is not driven by hot air forcing factors.
They should change the internet prefix from www. to wuwt. LOL Great job, Anthony!
It’s a great blog which is a constant source of information. I’m good for a few hundred reads myself.
Thanks again.
http://noconsensus.wordpress.com
The wattage at WUWT just keeps increasing. Great job.
Numbers looking good! You do a nice job with the blog Anthony. Its on my daily ‘check’ list of websites. Thanks for all the hard work and info.
Congratulations, Anthony Watts.
As an historian with a love for science, I have visited your blog at least once a day since I found it in July. I have been adding a number of others on all the complexities of climate change, but yours remains at the top of my list. Your commenters are excellent, too. I have to read them all.
My biggest concern is the political scene and all those expensive anti-global-warming projects we are just beginning to see discussed and passed on the state level, with more to come on the federal. We Americans need to become educated on this matter faster than fast or it will be more than the financial fiasco that will put us all in debt.
This site represents the very best of the scientific method as I know it: careful, humble, curious, skeptical and aware that each discovery is only one step for us humans. I wish you the very best and I thank you for being there. I will try to contribute, too. Since I have cancelled many subscriptions and no longer watch network or cable propaganda “news” stations (where has investigative journalism gone?), blogs like yours are a natural substitute.
I agree with Pierre Gosselin. Think very hard when you vote this time; who might be committed to a free internet? Freedom on the net is why we have Anthony and knowledge about careful scientific investigations. There are some ominous signs.
Congratulation Anthony!
BTW Yesterday I read it was snowing on Mars.
I am getting a blank page right now when I try to access CA.
Steve S:
CA appears to be up and running now.