Introduce Yourself

October 4, 2009, 8:19 am by dc-agape.

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Today make a special anniversary for dc-agape.com, and for more than one reason.  The biggest reason to celebrate is that today is the anniversary of my start to this experiment.  I have actually posted 371 posts within that year.  I had hoped to get 9 posts per week, but being a grad student in the field of Chemistry has minimized the time I can allot for posting.  Adding to that is that my advisor wants me to finish in 3.5 years (most students take 4-5 years), publishing my first article, preparing a second article, finishing my matriculation into the PhD program, and just the normal day-to-day hassles.  I am happy to say that I was able to at least average a post a day! 

I have also reached the point where (even if it is robots and spammers) I have averaged over 50 hits per day on my RSS page.  I know that I only have 2-3 regular commenters, but there are a number of guest who continue to return without making a single comment.  I hope that I can change that and bring in more viewpoints and discussion.  I know that with more commenters I will have to enforce the policy of being tolerant, something that many people have difficulty with.  I certainly do not want to blacklist anyone!  But if new voices are not humble (Christians) or too arrogant (Atheist and Christian alike), I will be forced to intervene. 

This year alone, I have reached the point where 40 of my posts have reached the surprising level of 277 hits (that is averaging one hit per day – for the entire year…with many not written until very recently).  I was not sure if I would be a minor blog that had no subscriptions or if people would take not of my slightly different approach to the issue of communication between Atheist and Theist.  The dc-agape.com still is rather small, but it is obviously growing, should I ask for more?  That was, of course, one of the initial questions that the experiment was to address.  The data is still coming in for that part of the experiment.  Another aspect of the experiment was whether I could keep up the blogging (my own interest) with all the other competing demands for my time.  This seems to not be a problem.  With the addition of the Nag Hammadi Library, the Holy Qur’an, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, I will not end up getting bored, and will have an unlimited selection of source material for my posts.

One more additional interesting thing about this blog is the post that has had the top hits. That would be freewill-punishment-salvation. I knew that posting on the Biblical concept of freewill would spark interest, but it is interesting which of the many posts actually reached the highest number of hits.At this point, it is averaging over 13 hits per day, since I wrote it at the beginning of March, 2009.  What is most odd about this post is that it comes from the Dead Sea Scrolls!  To be exact it is from my reading of the Damascus Document.  And yet not a single comment has been made, neither spammer, nor hate, or nor agreement.  Does this mean that the tracking software that I am using is faulty?

As far as registrations to this website go…it is not a paltry number.  I have 315 users who have actually hit the registration button.  Now even if some of these are robots, that would indicate that some of you out there are actually interested in this project.  The question is how many?

Now comes the request to my elusive and quiet visitors.  I may be sorely embarrassed by the response to this request, but the time has come to make it anyway!  If you have subscribed to my RSS feeder, or even if this blog is something that you visit on that rare occasion, would you be so kind as to speak up?  If you would let me know even the barest details…which side you lean toward (between Theism and Atheism), what brought you to this blog, and what you would like to see changed (I am thinking of changing my host – 1&1 hosting is good for beginners, but it is limiting to what I can do on my own blog site).  If you want to add your contact information, blog site, etc go right ahead.

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