3+ Years, 500 Posts, and Counting…

I considered doing a 3rd Anniversary post in August, but since I wasn’t far off  from 500 posts I decided to wait and share the regular stats along with something different.

 

Categories

First I’d like to share the same type of rundown I’ve done the previous two years.

Please see my post from Derailments of Thought’s one year anniversary for the original breakdown.

 

Last times stats, as of 403 posts:

~36% reading reviews (18% of total manga, 9% comics and 8% prose)
~28% wrestling related
~19% gaming related (13% boardgames, 6% video games)
~9% movie reviews
~6% mystery box reviews
~2% other

 

Current stats, as of 500 posts:

~34% reading reviews (17% of total manga, 9% comics and 8% prose)
~31% wrestling related
~16% gaming related (11% boardgames, 5% video games)
~9% movie reviews
~5% art reviews
~5% other

Pretty consistent overall, with the wrestling percentage growing and the others dropping just a touch in turn. As I’ve mentioned previously those posts do tend to be longer in general, so the actual percentage of my writing focused on wrestling is probably closer to half. I dropped the mystery box percentage as I’m no longer reviewing those (and haven’t been for this entire update period) so it belongs lumped in with “other” now,  and my features on various types of artwork are increasing in number so that category gets its own line now.

Nothing unexpected here, but it’s still interesting to see broken down into categories. As with previous years the final ~5% catch all category is not to be overlooked, as some of my most interesting experiences end up outside of my comfort zones and can be found there. 

 

 

Specific Post Details

Derailments of Thought is 100% a personal hobby blog, and my little corner of the web is generally pretty modest in terms of views. More than half of my posts garner under 20, and the “highly viewed” posts generally end up with a few hundred. This is fine, and I greatly appreciate everyone who takes the time to read. I’m pointing it out for context for the extent in which a couple of my pieces have deviated from the norm. I’m sharing this short list because I find the mix of subject and other little details interesting.

 

 

Here are the top 5 posts from the blog in terms of views (the counts could be off by a few, but these numbers have generally stabilized):

 

5. A Suitably Marvelous Followup   357 Views

A few years ago Chigusa Nagayo tried to expand her brand a bit with NYC based shows for the US branch of her promotion Marvelous. They were an interesting experiment, and the third and final one she ran featured the wrestling debut of Mio Momono, who I believe to be the fastest rising star in wrestling. There was a fair amount of interest in this endeavor and when I wrote these up I remember getting linked to by a Japanese blog. Why this second show in particular, which was the only one of the three that didn’t feature any visiting Joshi talent wrestling, has been looked up the most I’m not sure. Although it likely has something to do with Kimber Lee and Patrick Clark in the main.

 

4. Welcome to Shimmer  500 views

Around the time of my favorite independent wrestling promotion’s 10th Anniversary I was inspired to write a piece talking about a few DVDs from Shimmer’s run that would be good starting points for new viewers. With the number of excellent talents that had gone on to WWE (including my favorite wrestler, Kana/Asuka), I added context highlighting appearance of those wrestlers appearances on the shows I had chosen. Last year I went back to this post and edited it to add further information regarding participants in WWE’s Mae Young Classic. I link back to this often as I really like the way it came out, I adore introducing new viewers to Shimmer, and I still think the three shows featured are wonderful places to jump in to watching. This (and other pieces I’ve written) has been shared on social media by Shimmer themselves as well as others, which was a wonderful compliment.

 

3. Raven’s of Thri Sahashri Beginner’s Guide  549 views

I adore board games, and have written about several and played tons more. A couple of years ago I stumbled upon a fantastic little 2-player cooperative game called Ravens of Thri Sahashri, that has extremely interesting asymmetric game role and a hook of no talking (players are supposed to communicate what they want the other person to do through the gameplay choices they make).

The drawback of its uniqueness and depth is it has a rather high learning curve, and it’s tough to get into from just the rulebook (although all the information is in there somewhere). I decided to write what I called a “Beginner’s Guide,” both to help others and to get things straight in my own mind. I offered some basic strategy hints and walked through the rules in what I thought was a more accessible way. I state in it that it’s not supposed to be a rulebook replacement, but by the time I was done it essentially is.

I haven’t promoted this one in particular nor reshared it at all. It became my 3rd (2nd actually until a month ago) most viewed post simply by people searching the game’s name and presumably looking for rule clarifications, etc. I hope it’s been helpful.

 

2. A Ray of Light Gone Too Soon  1,095 views

This is the most recent post on this list, and the toughest to talk about. In early 2016 professional wrestler Ray was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor and summarily retired. She was always pushing herself and there always seemed some outside hope of recovery and a return. Sadly she passed away last month. This tribute was incredible hard to write and felt woefully inadequate. I’m touched it’s been read so much and I can only hope that means I managed to do some justice to someone I truly adored watching perform that was taken from us too soon.

 

1. Japan Cuts 2017: Mumon: The Land of Stealth   1,953 views

Until the post about Ray this review of a movie I saw at Japan Cuts (a Japanese Film Festival held every year in New York City) had 4 times the views of anything else I’ve written. Even now it’s still about double. I had no idea the fame of the main actor of this when watching, it was just a movie I really enjoyed. I’m grateful I was able to convey those feelings well, and for the way the review was shared on social media among the actor’s fandom. Someone even asked to translate it into Japanese, and the two versions are cross linked. A cool outlier for my modest little blog.

 

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I wrote less (post count-wise) this year than in the past, but still a good turnout I think and this blog is still an important outlet for me. I greatly appreciate everyone who’s read, shared, and or commented on things I’ve written.

Please stick around for much more to come. 🙂