First Veerle outed her lurkers, now Colly is doing the same. Since I shall leave no bandwagon unjumped, I’m calling olly olly oxen free on my own lurkers. Site stats show that the vast majority of my traffic comes from search engines — mostly one-timers searching for “Guerra Communications” and related topics — but I know there are at least a few regular visitors and feed subscribers. To those loyalists (I think I’m up to five, take that, Ethan) I apologize for my recent infrequency. Shortage of ideas, abundance of distractions, workday exhaustion, etc.
So if you’re a reader, whether by surf or by feed, please drop a comment to let me know who you are, where you’re from, and how you got here. I’ll get really depressed if there are less than five, so do it for my sake.
I’m a bit late with the Obligatory Year In Review, so let’s just run through 2005 real quick. I went to my first SXSW, loved it, I’m going back. I was quoted in the New York Times (password required). Some time in May or June I earnestly began work on a redesign, which has since simmered most silently on the burner furthest back. I’ll find the time, energy, and motivation to complete it soonish perhaps. In the course of said slow redesign, I rediscovered the pleasures of ink. I really do need to draw more. I went to a weekend workshop and hobnobbed with heroes. I discovered conditional comments and got linked on Stylegala and in a comment on 24ways which is still giving me traffic, almost as if I were a credible resource. I learned a lot this year, even though I didn’t read enough.
And since you can’t post a year-in-review without a bulleted list:
- Best redesign: And All That Malarkey
- Best new resource: tie – The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web and the CSS Table Gallery
- Best Garden: Organica Creativa, by Eduardo Cesario
- Best bad movie: House of Wax
- Worst good movie: Schultze Gets the Blues
- Best movie I didn’t see: Howl’s Moving Castle
- Best minute: March 12, 8:21PM
- Best t-shirt acquisition: This lovely illustration by Jon Hicks, which apparently also has something to do with some obscure web browser. Who knew.
And resolutions for 2006?
- Read more books.
- Take more pictures.
- Meet more people.
- Write more worthwhile content, at least more worthwhile than this drivel.
Total world domination.Maybe in ’07.
I’m peeking out from the shadows. I’m in Toronto, and can’t remember how I ended up here…I think on an old search for feedback on Jakob Nielson’s workshops.
I feel like I’m doing the first-day-school ice breakers going around the class. Who’s next?
Hey that’s one in less than 12 hours, and a Canadian too. My eminence is surely imminent.
Good morning. Colly (pro-lurker) here, hoping to help get you way over five comments, as desired. May I ask what you were doing in your “best minute” of 2005, or is it a bit rude?
Anyway, good-looking blog. I’m off to lurk somewhere else now…
I must confess I had to do a bit of guessing about exactly when the best minute occurred. But it was definitely somewhere in the course of the evening of March 12th, 2005, Day One of SXSW. I had gone to this conference with only the faintest hope of meeting any of these people whose blogs and books I’d been reading for a long time, and suddenly I found myself surrounded by familiar names.
So I’m trying not to fawn too much, but that dinner was easily one of the brightest highlights of the year. The specific minute I’m thinking of (which may or may not have been 8:21PM) is the moment I realized where I was and that the unfamiliar feeling that had come over me must be this “sense of belonging” I’d always heard about.
Does a very close relative that checks in regularly count?
Happy 2006!
I followed a link to your post about conditional comments from 456 Berea Street, and noticed your statement that it doesn’t work when you have multiple versions of IE installed on one computer. Hardly anyone seems to know this (you’d think they’d be shouting it from the rooftops), but this problem has been resolved.
It’s a bit of a chore, and involves editing the Windows registry. Position is everything has the instructions, however:
http://www.positioniseverything.net/articles/multiIE.html
Thanks for the tip Adam, the original post has been updated with linkage.
So I called for comments, and in 7 days I’ve had 7 comments: three of them were me and one was my dad. That probably ranks me somewhere near the lower third of the H list. Suppose you gotta offer a prize to draw the lurkers out. Still nice to know someone besides spambots is hitting my site.
Hi Craig – just thought I’d confirm my state of lurkedness. See you again at SxSW!
Yup, I’m lurkin’.
Hey Craig,
Just found you by way of Malarkey (www.stuffandnonsense.co.uk).
I’m a designer/developer for my own small (really small) studio. I’ll show as a dot in Adelaide, Australia.
Consider me a subscriber (I added your feed to Vienna).
So in addition to offering prizes, it seems getting linked by an A-lister will also bring out lurkers… thanks Malarkey, my ego has been soothed.
I know I am way late on the “pro-lurker” tip but I thought I would give a shout out and say hey. So.. Hey I stummbled upon your site with the Guerra search but stayed to read some of the posting and am sure to back.
Good site and nice design
Well, Craig… I must say – I don’t follow feeds much any more, but I catch your flickr stream in my contacts list all the time. Tonight I came over wondering if you had posted anything about going to SXSW this year, but, alas…. Are you going? If so, I’ll see you there!!
Yep, I’ll be at SXSW, haven’t posted about it because, well… I haven’t posted anything at all since January 19th. I’m a bad blogger. But hey, SXSW will give me stuff to blog about!
This is the first time I have visited your site, and yes I got here via a google search on Guerra Communications. Nonetheless I am really impressed by the site and stuck around to read some of your other non Guerra related threads. I will more then likely stop back from time to time to see what new stuff has been posted. Since you are keeping track I am located in south Florida=)
Oh and my email address (which I realize will not be published) isnt anything to do with spamming. (not THAT kind of promoter)
My boyfriend basically gave the old email to me so that I could use my own on his aol account- a bygone from his wrestling years.
Hey Craig, I got here in the process of researching 16work.com. You’re pretty cool, so I’ll hang out and poke around a bit :)
Hi!
Mi name is Eduardo, i’m the creator of Organica Creativa, and i’m very pleased that you stated it as ‘best garden’!
Tnx a lot!
I wanted to tell you that i’ve redone all my site, now you can found it at http://www.criaturacreativa.com (not .com.ar), and i would love if you can replace the old http://www.criaturacreativa.com.ar for the new url!
Tnx again, and grettings from Argentina!
Eduardo
[You’re welcome and done.]