The everyday blog of Richard Bartle.
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8:49am on Thursday, 1st January, 2026:
Anecdote
2025 sounded futuristic, but 2026 sounds like an ordinary, run-of-the-mill kind of year.
Normally at this point in the calendar, I look back at what blog posts were the most popular. I did indeed do that this time round. Sadly, though, they're incomplete.
In previous years, my web site's stats package has deleted the monthly stats every quarter. This time, though, it didn't, so safe in the knowledge that I could access the whole year any time I wanted, I didn't record them.
When I checked yesterday, it had changed its mind and deleted all but the stats for October to December. Splendid.
Oh well, here are the posts that had 240 or more hits on my QBlog site for the final quarter of 2025, ranked by the number of hits they received:
1082 I gave a presentation to some VR world developers https://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2025/QBlog111125A.html
814 My notes for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight https://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2025/QBlog061025A.html
295 My wife telling me I didn't need to wake up https://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2025/QBlog031025A.html
294 I had a flu jab https://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2025/QBlog091025A.html
290 The BAFTA longlist https://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2025/QBlog101225A.html
275 Men in lycra shout at me https://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2025/QBlog131025A.html
260 The loss of Terra Nova https://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2025/QBlog101025A.html
251 A nine-year-old girl has a sultry voice https://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2025/QBlog021125A.html
240 My BAFTA voting thoughts https://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2025/QBlog221125A.html
I chose 240 as my cut-off because my stats package only records the top 30 hits of whatever kind (including icons, landing pages and the like), and 240 was the highest number to be bottom of the 30.
In addition to these posts, there were two from the past that consistently bring in a good number of hits. Gawd knows why:
1154 How the look of playing cards has evolved over the past two hundred years https://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2013/QBlog050413A.html
832 The Red-Nodes Clown joke https://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2010/QBlog030510A.html
So, overall, then, I can improve my hit count by mentioning BAFTA and talking to people with a shallow knowledge of the history of virtual worlds.
I cross-post my QBlog entries on Facebook, so have another metric for measuring success (or, more likely, failure). The top posts by number of shares are:
8 Pope Lego XIV https://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2025/QBlog271225A.html
5 A rip-offer is ripped off https://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2025/QBlog290125B.html
5 I gave my final lecture wearing my PhD gown https://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2025/QBlog300425A.html
3 A student's use of AI https://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2025/QBlog300325A.html
3 I published Bhrēwā https://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2025/QBlog060825A.html
3 Game Game Game https://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2025/QBlog250925A.html
2 Pebble decorations https://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2025/QBlog310325A.html
2 Application accepted https://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2025/QBlog020425A.html
2 This Lemon Fancy has no icing! https://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2025/QBlog040425A.html
2 Volume I of the 2nd edition of Designing Virtual Worlds is out https://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2025/QBlog280825A.html
2 Take me to your leader https://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2025/QBlog081025A.html
2 Fibreglass goats in Poznan https://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2025/QBlog281025A.html
All the rest received 0 or, very occasionally, 1.
As far as Facebook is concerned, it looks as if publishing books, moaning about AI and making visual puns relating to faith leaders are the way to go.
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Copyright © 2026 Richard Bartle (richard@mud.co.uk).