Is Anybody Out There?

Every once in a while I wonder how many people actually read this blog. If you're currently reading, that's me in the (admittedly somewhat creepy) picture looking at you through the window of my computer screen. Thank you for being here!

I mean, I know for sure at least some people read it. One reader brought a printout of this post to the Volume One Relaunch Party back in April 2013. And my speaking engagement for The Green Apple Project in Lewiston, Idaho in 2017 was a direct result of one of their board members coming across my blog.

Besides that, Blogger tells me that I've had hundreds of thousands of total views over the blog's lifetime since it started in 2012 (of which only about a thousand or so are me), and my per-post view count spiked up pretty significantly after I announced that I'm neurodivergent this past May.

Still though, despite all that, to this day the blog only has a total of 27 comments spread across 711 posts. Eleven of those comments are from for-sure real people (seven from the same one), five are from me, and eight are obvious spam. That leaves only three comments that may possibly be from other readers that I don't already know.

I mean, I get it, believe me. I'm not a big commenter myself. For example, I've been an avid reader of the Seattle Mariners-related blog Lookout Landing since the early aughts, but yet I think I've only commented...maybe twice? Three times? That's right, I'm a lurker of the highest order. So maybe my blog simply attracts readers of a similar nature (great minds think alike)? Or maybe my posts just aren't the kind that really invite discourse? Or maybe...

A good amount of those thousands of views that Blogger tells me I'm getting are (gasp) bots?

I'm hoping not. So this week, if you would be kind enough to humor me with an experiment: if you are a real reader, please leave a comment on this post. It can be as simple as "Hello" or "Yes, I'm real" or as detailed and opinionated as "Brian, that picture of your eye is SUPER CREEPY I HATE IT NEVER DO THAT AGAIN." Either way, I promise I will reply!