Sometime between 9PM last night and 4AM this morning the 500th individual subscribed to this blog’s feed. There is no significance to that fact beyond that which I choose to assign to it. Though I do wonder about the 500th subscriber, and the 499th, 498th, 497th, etc. I wonder who readers are, why they read, how they use the information, the extent to which it influences thought or action, and a million other details. I could conduct a poll to find out more, but it would require more work than I’m willing to do, and it wouldn’t satisfy. Response rates would be low. I wouldn’t learn the detail I’d like. I’m not willing to analyze the results.
Besides, the mystery is fun. And it isn’t as if I don’t know some things. I can see a few things about visitors via Google Analytics, Sitemeter, and Alexa. (Clicking on the latter two and exploring the links and tabs at the target sites will reveal to you as much information about visitors as I am able to see. It’s the same set of information collected by every website you visit. Consider this full disclosure. If this is news to you, welcome to the internet.) However, information about visitors is not the same thing as information about subscribers. Most of you receive my posts without visiting the site. So, subscriber 500 is about as anonymous as (s)he can be, as are the rest of you.
Actually, I know exactly who subscribers 1 and 2 are (me and TFB), and a few others (family members and friends). Someday I may meet a few of the others, which might be fun. If you suspect you’re number 500 and we ever run into each other, let me know. I’ll give you your prize.
