Happy Birthday

In two days time this blog will be one year old. I’m feeling quite pleased that I have managed to keep it going this long, and without any massive gaps. I’ve averaged about one post a week, which is pretty good, and about 10 hits a week, which is not so great, but not completely hopeless. I’m not sure how many blogs reach their first birthday, but since ex-bloggers outnumber active bloggers two to one, I’m guessing that it’s not many. My Technorati ranking has dropped from an initial 3297860 to a slightly-disappointing 5137428, but I’m putting that down to blog-inflation rather than an actual drop in popularity, or, more accurately, an increase in non-popularity.

This blog’s continued existence is even more impressive when one considers the fact that it has been almost completely devoid of interesting content, and, especially over the last few months, has had very little to say about its supposed subject, Second Life.

The fact that I am posting this today, instead of on the actual anniversary, goes some way towards explaining the low level of SL-related comment. I’m not going to be able to post for a few days, because I have much more interesting things to do in my real life.

The sad fact is that, in my experience (and most SL members agree with me, if you believe Wikipedia), Second Life just isn’t very exciting. Most of the time there seems to be no one else around. There are places that are guaranteed to be busy – you can probably guess the kind of establishments I’m referring to – but even those locations get dull pretty rapidly.

I have had a few interesting interactions on the grid, but nothing that’s really added to my knowledge of on-line psychology. I’ve learned more from a few hours reading journal articles than many, many hours spent wandering round deserted shopping malls looking at virtual shoes.

My hopes for this blog may have remained unfulfilled, but I’m going to keep it going anyway. I may find myself able to devote more time to the project, and I guess it is possible I will find some interesting facets of SL that I have hitherto overlooked. I might start posting up more links to other interesting sites, which, after all, is what a blog is supposed to be for. And I’m sure I’ll have a few more things to say about the US elections, even though Hillary’s campaign looks dead in the water.