It was on 16th March, 2011 that I started this blog mainly for the benefit
of 1962 entrants to the Colombo Medical Faculty, which is said to be the second
oldest medical school in Asia. It was one of the very first steps taken as
part of the planning process for our 50th Anniversary Reunion held in August
2012 to celebrate our entry to this prestigious institution in June 1962.
Looking back on the progress made so far, one of the outstanding features is
its popularity judging solely by the number of pageviews which I have been
monitoring over the years. As of today, it stands at a staggering
386,797
with an average of over 1000 "hits" per day. It is obvious that we
have many viewers who are not members of our batch, which I consider to be a
very healthy sign. I have repeatedly said that this blog is primarily for 1962
entrants, but it does not preclude any web surfer not only from discovering
its existence, but also from making frequent subsequent visits to see
what's going on. There must be something in the blog that attracts them. One
could be its unusual content.
It is also interesting to see where these visitors are scattered around the
globe. A break down of page views by country as shown below
indicates that it is by far in the USA that the great majority of
followers are. I have also provided a breakdown by posts made so far since its "launch".
In concluding this brief note, I wish to record here my sincere
appreciation of what my friend and colleague Mahendra Gonsalkorala
(based in UK) has done to ensure success of this project. From time to time, he has come
up with valuable suggestions and always been at hand to offer advice whenever I
needed it.
By country (first ten)
USA - 166685
France - 56266
Germany - 16985
UK - 14603
Poland - 9442
Sri Lanka- 6766
Indonesia - 5362
Canada - 4707
China - 4520
Taiwan - 3905
By post (first five)
Anatomy Block Centenary Celebrations - 218241
An Interview with Sanath Lamabadusuriya - 49345
How to post a comment - 5356
127th Annual International Medical Congress - 3874
Kamali Nimalasuriya de Silva - 1895
I can take heart by the fact that "how to post a comment" has been popular although not many comments have resulted! Clearly, people are interested in Faculty matters and I hope we take note of that as we must listen to feedback and make the blog even more attractive by "giving what the audience wants"
ReplyDelete- Speedy - (functioning at a more leisurely pace after retirement)
This is fascinating stuff Lucky! If I was asked to guess from which countries the hits come from, I would have never included Poland, Taiwan, Ukraine, Russia or China. I truly wonder what the appeal is. I hope you post information now and again on a month's hits as the "All time" list would not include "new arrivals" like Ukraine which as you know came up in your earlier one week analysis. It would be really nice if people who access from these countries take a minute to post a comment and indicate what else they would like to see in the future. Whatever the reasons are, it is heartening to note that the Blog is clearly serving an useful purpose, dare I say, Internationally. I yet again appeal to my friends to be more interactive and post some comments and observations. - Speedy -
ReplyDeleteDear Lucky,
ReplyDeleteWe are really fortunate to have you doing this arduous task of running the Batch Blog and maintaining the Batch Directory. I note the blanks against many of our very valued batch mates who are non contactable. This is really sad. I have tried my very best to get information in the past when you circulated this list. But I had no luck at all. And as for the apparent lack of interest what I think is most of our members must surely read your email communications and the blog. As for the inaction,I said to Mahendra that this is internet inertia. He thought that is a good phrase. So all we can do is hope that suddenly this inertia will be overcome and you'll be flooded with contributions. But even if this takes a long time to happen, we appreciate your efforts and this blog stands out as 'a beacon in cyberspace' Forever, may it shine!
Zita
Ps I thought of writing this comment after I read the email you sent to us all on the 22nd September 2014.