Readership Survey

I recent years, blogging has become a somewhat solitary exercise.  A few years ago blogging was a more communal activity.  Then came social media.  As a consequence, comments from readers have become increasingly rare whilst at the same time becoming all the more welcome.

I have my own reasons for writing this blog, and I'm not doing it for the glory, I just hope someone, somewhere gets pleasure from what I write.   But occasionally I do wonder about the breadth of my readership.

A recent spate of page views from the USA, then from Singapore, set me to wondering once again about my readership.  Since 2019 I've used the simple, in-built stats that come with Blogger but they don't help with anything other than bulk page views.

I suppose the big question is whether these views are from bots, web scrappers, spammers or real people.  To that end I've put together a brief survey.  If you have time to spare please take the survey; it's only five questions.

Twitter, RSS feeds and "Getting a Life"

As I've said before, things change and sometimes not always for the better.  Recently, I've been trying to figure out what to do about the changing nature of Twitter.

Background
I've used Twitter since Dec 2010 which, for a web service, is a long time.  I recently wrote about my dissatisfaction with the current direction of Twitter and how I'm using Mastodon more and more.

Since then Twitter has got worse.  The tools I use(d) to make Twitter bearable (IFTTT & Tweetdeck) have been adversely affected by the recent changes and free tools are disappearing fast.

I've also been increasingly concerned that my use of Twitter has become a waste of time.  So my plan is to stop using Twitter; if at all possible.  I've been cutting back my usage for a while now but I was still checking Twitter too many times a day: not ideal.

Hardware

Things change and sometimes not always for the better.  Recently, I've been trying to figure out why my desktop computer kept dropping its connection to the internet.

ADLG: Northern League Round 2 (Manchester, 07 May 2023)

Introduction
It's fair to say I had to force myself to attend this round: I have a lot going on at the moment.  Not least the residual upheaval surrounding my recent relocation.

When this year's themes were announced I thought I'd be able to field a new Arab army in this round.  No chance: I've still got to finish the heavy cavalry.  I had to borrow four bases of heavy cavalry from Gareth Jones: thanks Gareth.

Kevin Johnson at the day's organisational nerve centre.  Thanks Kev.

I was surprised by how long it took me to get ready on Saturday.  Nothing was in its usual place.  I'd unpacked things in new places and everything took longer to find.

Of course I forgot a few things (play sheets etc) which was annoying.  Then I ended up with one too many army lists (see below).  To cap it all, I didn't realise that my camera wasn't set up properly until right at the end; so apologies for the quality of some of the photos.

The match to decide first place.  Or was it?