You can accuse me of many things, but being sensitive to trends is not one of them. Running a website dedicated to gothic country music isn't very trendy. To be honest, this isn't a 24/7 job covering breaking news and an endless stream of upcoming events. The best days have come and gone. I like to see myself as a part of a stay-behind operation. I'm collecting information and filling in the historical gaps, documenting for posterity, keeping imposters and fakers out, and waiting for the liberation to come. And, in the meantime, writing impertinent things and speaking truth to power. I'm a private person. I like to remain anonymous and protect myself from the followers of this cult. My avatar is Mik Ezdanitoff. He appeared in Flight 714 and helped Tintin, Captain Haddock and their friends to escape. Mik Ezdanitoff is the editor for the magazine "Space-Week" and mediator between Earth and extraterrestrial influences. Flight 714 is one of the touchstones that shaped my view of the world. Nowadays, we resemble each other. I didn't see that coming. I launched the website on March 1, 2014, which is exactly ten years ago. The first blog entry I posted had the dramatic title "So it begins...". Of course, there was nothing to report at that time. Since then I have posted an anniversary blog post every year. The second blog post (2015) had the expectantly title "So it continues...". Here, I discussed the past, present and future for the site. The third blog post (2016) had the prosaic title "And so it goes on and on and on and on and on...". Here, I did some merciless following up on ambitions and promises. The fourth blog post (2017) had the patronizing title "The necessity of content gardening". Here, I stated that a website, with proper content gardening, could live forever. The fifth blog post (2018) had the technical title "Ratchet effect through organic growth”. Here, I speculated how web indexing and algorithms drove traffic to unprecedented levels. The sixth blog post (2019) had the glorifying title "5 years and 100 000 hits". Here, I rattled off statistics lengthwise and crosswise. The seventh blog post (2020) had the dutiful title "The show must go on". Here, I concluded that the responsibilities I have towards society are too important to be calling it quits. The eight blog post (2021) had the explanatory title "7 is the number following 6 and preceding 8". Here, I complained about muddling through in the time of the pandemic. The ninth blog post (2022) had the cheerful title "Eight is great". Here, I made some random remarks. The tenth blog post (2023) had the rhyming title "Nine is fine". Today, it's time to summarize the last year in a blog post. The visitor counter indicates 261 578.
Assessment
Executive summary: The website has operated successfully for the last ten years. New content has been added with regularity and to a sufficient degree without any deterioration in quality. The website is in need of a minor review, primarly with the intent on updating existing pages and removal of dead links. A plan for this has been developed and implemented. Minor disruptancies in the operation of the website have occured, but this haven't affected production or quality. The coming year we will see a strong focus on content and the management and development of the site.
Visitor statistics
To go from zero to 260 000 visitors took 3 637 days. The site didn't have many visits from start. Then the web indexing and Google algorithms began to kick in. The average number of days to reach another 10 000 visitors has normally been around 130-140. The last year has been a record year. More than 40 000 visitors during the last year. All time high.
| Hits | Date | Days | Total |
| 10 000 | 2014-11-20 | 264 | 264 |
| 20 000 | 2015-07-05 | 227 | 491 |
| 30 000 | 2016-03-05 | 244 | 735 |
| 40 000 | 2016-10-21 | 230 | 965 |
| 50 000 | 2017-04-09 | 170 | 1 135 |
| 60 000 | 2017-08-18 | 131 | 1 266 |
| 70 000 | 2018-01-09 | 144 | 1 410 |
| 80 000 | 2018-05-19 | 130 | 1 540 |
| 90 000 | 2018-10-06 | 140 | 1 680 |
| 100 000 | 2019-02-17 | 134 | 1 814 |
| 110 000 | 2019-07-16 | 149 | 1 963 |
| 120 000 | 2020-01-03 | 171 | 2 134 |
| 130 000 | 2020-05-03 | 141 | 2 275 |
| 140 000 | 2020-10-10 | 140 | 2 415 |
| 150 000 | 2021-02-20 | 133 | 2 548 |
| 160 000 | 2021-06-14 | 114 | 2 662 |
| 170 000 | 2021-09-22 | 100 | 2 762 |
| 180 000 | 2022-01-27 | 127 | 2 889 |
| 190 000 | 2022-05-24 | 117 | 3 006 |
| 200 000 | 2022-09-04 | 103 | 3 109 |
| 210 000 | 2022-11-25 | 82 | 3 191 |
| 220 000 | 2023-02-28 | 95 | 3 286 |
| 230 000 | 2023-06-17 | 109 | 3 395 |
| 240 000 | 2023-10-06 | 111 | 3 506 |
| 250 000 | 2023-12-27 | 82 | 3 588 |
| 260 000 | 2024-02-14 | 49 | 3 637 |
Department statistics
I wrote zero new articles last year. As I have stated before, new articles have no intrisic value. I don't want to lower my standards. I have a list of 4-5 bands waiting to be included in my prestigious article series. I promise to write at least one new article the upcoming year. Moreover, I listed one new artists in the table. I created zero new lists. Who knows, maybe I will make a list after all these years. I wrote 52 blog entries, which is once a week. However, "blogging is not writing, it's graffiti with punctuation" as someone have pointed out.
| Department | 2024-03-01 | 2023-03-01 | 2022-03-01 | 2021-03-01 | 2020-03-01 | 2019-03-01 | 2018-03-01 | 2017-03-01 |
| Articles | 68 | 68 | 68 | 67 | 66 | 65 | 62 | 62 |
| Artists | 172 | 171 | 143 | 142 | 141 | 138 | 135 | 128 |
| Lists | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 32 | 27 |
| Blog | 300 | 248 | 214 | 184 | 158 | 129 | 99 | 84 |
Most visited pages
The five pages below are the most visited. The order has shifted over time. The start page (Home) is and have always been the most visited page. Not very surprising. The second page "Artists" is a simple list with links to Discogs and articles. Still, very popular. The third page is the list "10 essential gothic country albums", which comprises a canon of must-have gothic country albums. The "10 best version of Wayfaring Stranger" list has become quite popular in recent years and is placed as number four. Review of "Fossils" (Sons of Perdition collaborative album) is placed as number five. The Sons of Perdition article page belonged to the five most visited pages for many years. It's now placed as number eight.
| No | Page | 2024-03-01 | 2023-03-01 | 2022-03-01 | 2021-03-01 | 2020-03-01 | 2019-03-01 | 2018-03-01 | 2017-03-01 |
| 1 | Home | 261 578 | 220 038 | 182 591 | 150 601 | 124 031 | 100 813 | 73 857 | 46 277 |
| 2 | Artists | 30 474 | 28 414 | 22 312 | 19 410 | 16 228 | 13 312 | 9 983 | 5 513 |
| 3 | 10 essential gothic country albums | 30 444 | 28 662 | 26 981 | 24 663 | 19 722 | 14 372 | 7 540 | 3 946 |
| 4 | 10 best versions of "Wayfaring Stranger" | 22 757 | 18 632 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 5 | Review of "Fossils" | 21 498 | 19 972 | 16 942 | 13 390 | - | - | - | - |
Flaws
The website has been up and running twenty-four seven. No disruptions of any kind. On December 27, 2023 a spam bot made 5 000 calls to the website. Nice try. I have done a lot of maintance, but still has a few things to fix. If you stumble over any obsolete or incorrect information or any dead links don't hesitate to contact me and I will fix it. I take some pride in that the website is updated. The website has succesfully been migrated to Joomla 5.
Reflections
Nothing to report under this section.
Future
I will go on untiringly within the limits of family, work and other duties.