You are probably aware of the ongoing improvements to WUWT I’ve made. They seem to be paying off. Lately, things have been looking up for WUWT:
Source: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wattsupwiththat.com#trafficstats
WUWT has been in the top 5 on wordpress.com lately, and recently often in the top 3. Today, we are number 1 in all the millions of wordpress blogs out there and we are number two for all posts system wide:
Source: my internal wordpress dashboard (sorry, can’t link)
As a result, I’ve been invited by the higher ups at WordPress.com to join WordPress Enterprise, at a reduced rate from the normal $500 per month. There’s a backstory that I might be able to tell someday, but suffice it to say that I believe I owe this opportunity to something Al Gore did against WUWT .
This Enterprise level of service will add lots of functionality, and the best news: it will allow you to edit your comments to fix typos and other issues, a feature most often asked for.
It will open a whole new dimension for WUWT in many many ways with new features and ways to improve global visibility. This, all while maintaining the high level of uptime and hardened network firewall against the attacks from people that want to bring it down.
I’ve accepted the offer. Thanks to everyone: the moderators, the readers, and the guest authors for bringing WUWT to the top.
The change will be about a month away. There’s a major amount of importing and conversion that must be done by the wordpress.com staff.
On the downside, there’s a cost, not unlike having a monthly car payment. Gone will be the days of a free ride on wordpress.com . I’m hoping that WUWT readers might consider helping me with maintaining the experience. If so, I’ll look into a monthly PayPal program.
Thanks for your consideration, and thanks for being part of the WUWT community – Anthony Watts
Footnote: while I am congratulating the success of the WUWT community, I should also offer congratulations to Andrew Revkin for his DotEarth blog being named to TIME’s top 25. http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/05/dot-earth-makes-time-magazines-list-of-25-top-blogging-efforts/?_r=0
For those railing against PayPal – it is a more secure payment option that inputing your credit card information….
I would prefer to give a cheque for a lump payment. I paid PayPal for a diver’s or golfer’s watch or some such to the benefit of some guy in Arkansas. I’m not sure how it happened. I got a notice that I would be receiving it soon, I alerted my credit card company and they said I had to wait until it was billed then they would deal with it. One thing and another I forgot about it for the longest time. I don’t buy through them anymore.
BTW, how will you handle the occasional visitor? You do want to continue to increase. Also, it will be interesting to see how many trolls will pony up for the privilege.
Can I donate right now? Since I block ads I feel that my “account” is in arrears.
Donate button (surfacestations.org) is the right place I’m guessing.
Anthony Watts says:
August 7, 2013 at 10:23 am
“Given the grief I was given for appearing on PBS last year, it would be fulfilling.”
____________________
Yeah, well- I’m sure your mother scolded you when you were eight and about to pull some bonehead stunt which would have broken both your legs, too.
By the way- did PBS play straight and narrow with you? No?
See, Mommy knows best.
Bloke down the pub posted: “I wonder how many of those visitors came from the other camp, curious about what all the fuss was about?”
Which other camp? Here we can hear comment from both sides, and posts are not all really one sided, but fact and data based. Is the other camp really the fever swamps where every single post follows the warmist dogma, and comment sceptical of posts or other comments are swiftly deleted?
If there is a warmist site on “the other side” it would have to be one that allows the free flow of ideas, data, and links, I have yet to find one. Anybody know of one?
Almost there, sks are about 100k and WUWT are 4k that makes it a 96 percent consensus against the consensus.
Glory Hallelujah!
Let us know about a recurring PayPal option. I will commit to a year’s worth of regular monthly donations. I can easily afford it as I am flush with secret cash payments from the fossil fuel industry.
/sarc, for the humor impaired. (The commitment is genuine, not a joke).
I’ll subscribe, but I prefer an annual payment.
Keep up the good work, Anthony.
Looks to me like Real Climate is not a mass media bog. It is effectively a in-house noticeboard. Nothing wrong with that but it won’t move the public debate. Which was its original intent.
SkS only registers occasionally. The biggest peak matches WUWT’s recent expose of creepy photos. It looks like SkS is just a trampoline for WUWT. But in the other hand they do also broadcast, Via Dana N, on the Guardian website.
WUWT is on a different level to all other climate blogs. So is it actually a genuine science blog, not just climate?
Is WUWT the internet science channel?
If so New Scientist and Scientific American will be text-book cases in business schools for missing the boat – Rank Xerox style.
Their political alarmism lost them their obvious opportunity.
KUDOS!!!!
Congratulations, Anthony. With all of the great stuff you provide for battling it out with the ill informed, it’s this kind of stuff that I love to throw in their faces.
Congratulations and well-earned prestige for all Anthony’s hard and un-ending work. Thank heavens WUWT got ahead of ‘Stoopid Housewives’ in the rankings!
I’m another that would like to set up a monthly payment. I’m afraid it will be rather small but hopefully they will all add up.
Massive ‘grats!
I’ll sign on for a monthly PayPal contribution, funded from my pension, with enthusiasm and pleasure.
Kind of odd though that the top ranked post has nothing to do with climate or science. Regardless, congrats too to Willis for his part in this record breaking streak. I’ll be happy to join Exxon, the Heritage Foundation, and any other deep pocket contributors (joke, of course) with my own trip to the PayPal button.
Yes – I can help. When Paypal is set up, help dino-sour like me with a Paypal101 for Idiotic 9idiosyncratic) posters. Pretty please!
Auto.
Gratz to Mr. Watts. Well earned for all the quality hard work.
Revkin deserves no praise from a decent person like you.
Revkin has been pushing the murder of a single person in the climate wars as a crime:
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/?s=jairo+mora+beach+costa
I posted a a non-offensive comment with this link highlighting an environmental pogrom.
The comment & link was deleted:
“Tens of millions of pounds of UK aid money have been spent on a programme that has forcibly sterilised Indian women and men, the Observer has learned.
Many have died as a result of botched operations, while others have been left bleeding and in agony.
A number of pregnant women selected for sterilisation suffered miscarriages and lost their babies.
(A) working paper published by the UK’s Department for International Development in 2010 cited the need to fight climate change as one of the key reasons for pressing ahead with such programmes.
The document argued that reducing population numbers would cut greenhouse gases …”
Sterilisation has been mired in controversy for years.
With officials and doctors paid a bonus for every operation, poor and little-educated men and women in rural areas are routinely rounded up and sterilised without having a chance to object.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/apr/15/uk-aid-forced-sterilisation-india
.
Revkin’s actions & silence says it all.
Especially if I can correct my typos 9see)!
Auto – with a red face.
Not sure who useful this woould be for me as I never make typpos.
Oh – and this needs to be a sticky post!
D’oh.
Using FF, and the Adblock Plus add-on, I’ve never seen even one. Here or on any site.
Congratulations! Oooh, that’s going to sting in the alarmists camp. 😀
I can forego a bottle of red every couple of months and donate the proceeds.
This is a site worth paying for.
You may be surprised by the number of people and amount people are willing to donate. How would the IRS view this sort of thing? A rhetorical question perhaps. A 501 c (3) might fit the bill and it would really put the wind up a lot of non-skeptics on the other side.
I personally will drive my truck less and donate the difference in fuel expenses. Of course this makes it a fossil fuel industry derived donation.