How many hits counts as viral?

Posted on June 22, 2010 by

Yesterday I wrote about examining the evidence found in my blog’s stats page about how people find various entries I’ve written. It’s definitely interesting to see the ways people arrive here and what they might be looking for that ultimately leads them to one of my posts.

So, you can imagine my surprise yesterday when I came upon this interesting statistic:

Really? REALLY?

This discovery raises a whole host of questions for me:

  • Is it really possible that seventeen people came across this page yesterday while trying to find out information about “The Great Corn Pone Research Quagmire of 2010″ that I mentioned yesterday?
  • Did I accidentally co-opt the name of an already existing event unknowingly? If so, to whom should I give credit?
  • Could there really be major corn pone dilemmas afflicting our world that I don’t know about?
  • Have I just coined a term that is about to go viral and become a major internet meme?
  • Assuming the answer to the previous question is “yes,” will Ludacris discover this term (and by extension my blog) and offer me a record contract?
  • If the answer the Ludacris question is “yes,” will he make me use auto-tune on my record?

I think I know the provenance of this statistic, but I’ll suspend all rational explanations and instead imagine a world where a Great Corn Pone Research Quagmires are free to exist.

I mean, really?

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About Nate

Originally from Salt Lake City, UT, Nate Kogan taught for eight years in Fort Worth, Texas, but is now back in his hometown teaching Upper School History at Rowland Hall. Nate is also a doctoral candidate at the University of Texas at Arlington studying Transatlantic History. Nate holds a B.A. in history and architectural history from Columbia College, Columbia University (NY), and an M.A. in history from the University of Texas at Arlington. His pedagogical interests presently center on how to integrate technology into the classroom to encourage greater student accountability, self-directedness, and improved critical thinking and research skills. His historical research interests center on transatlantic religious and disability history. Some of Nate's previous research, (largely the result of his upbringing as a Jewish gentile in the land formerly known as Deseret) Nate wrote about the history of the LDS Church, its changing presentation of identity to various outsider groups, and its concomitant quest for integration into the mainstream. His dissertation focuses on the role of Quaker transatlantic humanitarians in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and how their advocacy served to help Quakers gain legitimacy within the public sphere of mainstream Atlantic society.
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5 Responses to How many hits counts as viral?

  1. Allison says:
    June 22, 2010 at 1:15 pm

    Wow, that’s really weird, Mr. Kogan. What do you think the provenance of this statistic is? Because I personally think it’s about to go viral and you will in fact be forced to use auto-tune to create a record based around the Great Cone Pone Research Quagmire of 2010. Why, this is even better than detwritus!

    Reply
    • Nate says:
      June 22, 2010 at 1:24 pm

      Yeah, I had a sense about the provenance. But I am still holding out hope for option #2. Did you find any related links about this “Great Quagmire” from sites other than mine?

      Reply
      • Allison says:
        June 22, 2010 at 1:54 pm

        Surprisingly enough, no, I didn’t. And I would just say that I have too much free time in the summer, but I would have done the same thing had you posted that during the school year, so that’s not really a valid excuse. Just be glad I never hid one of these in your room: http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/8c52/. But I do sense a record deal in the works! And I’d really like to hear you sound like Cher in “Believe” as that would be quite entertaining.

  2. Pingback: This Week in Narcissism « The History Channel This Is Not…

  3. Pingback: 2010 in review, or “The Cheapest and Easiest Post I’ll ‘Write’ All Year” « The History Channel This Is Not…

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