Threads from Henry's Web

Tag: Biblioblogs

  • Biblioblog Rankings for July

    I thought they might not post a static list, since you can get it live, but they did, and it’s here. There are also a couple of notes on developing the library:

    1. Need for better hosting
    2. Possible peer reviewed bibliblog
    Check out the post for those, even if you don’t care about the actual rankings.
  • Quick Note on (Biblio)blogging

    I note quite a debate around the blogs I read regarding just what is a biblioblog. For a long time, this blog was listed as a “related” blog, then a few months ago was “upgraded” to a biblioblog, and I’ve been in the top 50 ever since, and even made the top 10 a time or two. I’m not going to join the debate. As long as I’m so classified, I will participate in the community by displaying the badge and linking to the biblioblog library. If the classification changes, I’ll still be linking to lots of biblioblogs (however defined), because I subscribe to a number in my reader, and read quite a few more via links from those.

    As far as topics are concerned, I find that many times when I think I have written something significant, nobody notices. At other times, when I think I’ve batted out a few throwaway lines, I get a bunch of links. I’m not sure whether my “significance meter” is on the blink or if my readers are, on average, a bit weird. It could be both.

    My most popular post at the moment is one that relates to the Bible, though it isn’t very academic: Ephesians 6:18 – Always Pray in the Spirit. That struck me this morning because yesterday I wrote a post titled A Sense of the Spiritual, in which I noted that it can be hard to really feel a Bible story as the original hearers might have without also having (or at least truly understanding, I suppose) a strong sense of the nearness of the spiritual realm as they did.

    So much for reflections …

     

  • The Biblioblog Top 50 for June

    . . . finds me at #27, which is actually surprisingly good considering that I only wrote one blog post during June. My excuse is that I was working on half a dozen book releases for my company, two of which will actually take place in July.

    As for the great controversy about the library, I would note that if one puts complete posts in one’s RSS feed, as I do, one must expect to lose some page views. You can follow my blog via Good Reader and never actually look over here at all. At the same time, I’m glad the discussion resulted in direct links to posts, which is a requirement for collating content.

     

  • Biblioblog Top 50 Posted

    … and I got bumped to #16, which is not surprising given how little blogging I’ve been doing lately.  Come to think of it, the really surprising thing was how long I stayed in the top 10!  Thanks to Jeremy for his hard work and for “more cowbells.”

  • Another Biblioblogger List

    This time it’s from J. K. Gayle at Aristotle’s Feminist Subject.  I’m not getting into this debate.  In general, I’m going to link to any list that has me on it (it’s a nice thank you, I think), and to any list that I find interesting (that’s a service to my readers).

    I’m honestly not that sure this should be called a biblioblog anyhow.  I don’t post things for scholars, generally.  I actually set the blog up to allow me to write on topics I’m teaching on in various Sunday School classes, and to separate musings about particular texts from more general “opinion” blogging.  When I wasn’t listed on the old biblioblog top 50, which was right up until the last couple of months, it seemed appropriate.

    On the other hand, I appreciate Jeremy doing all that work.  Jeremy – the cowbell idea is a winner!

  • Biblioblog Top 50 Posted

    … at Free Old Testament Audio.  Surprisingly, considering how little I blogged last month and how much my 30 day Alexa number rose (not good!) I remain #9.

  • David Ker is Bored

    Well, at least he’s finding the blogosphere boring. He finds that there are only two interesting Christian bloggers left, James McGrath and Eddie Arthur. What’s interesting is that, while I don’t seem to generally agree with David as to what is interesting, I agree with him that those two bloggers are very interesting. I read everything they write, except for the stuff James writes about LOST.

    My purpose here is not to complain about David’s tastes. What interests me is just what people do find interesting. I’m pretty much going to blog what I feel like irrespective of whether it gets read or not. In fact, I’ve found that my most read posts are almost universally ones that I would regard as a sort of filler. On that basis, this post should be popular, because I’m just rambling, though I’ve found things aren’t quite that predictable.

    My own comment levels are down, though my readership has held pretty well. I suspect that has to do with the fact that I’m not blogging about the creation-evolution controversy nearly as frequently as I used to. Looking back, most of my comments were on those posts, followed closely by political ones.

    I have always been surprised as well by what attracts links. It is very rare that a post I have labored over and lovingly read and re-read attracts many links. When I write unedited, dashing something off in the heat of the moment, it attracts much more attention. It also embarrasses me, because I’ll find the link, then look back at the post to discover just what I wrote, and I’ll find numerous errors.

    The most interesting change over the last year, however, has been that this blog is not my primary blog any more, at least by readership. When I split this blog into three based on interests (Threads for general commentary, Participatory Bible Study blog for Bible study notes, often related to classes I’m currently teaching or to books I’m working on, and Jevlir for fun an fiction) I expected that this would be my main blog, I would have a few readers for the Bible study blog, and family and friends, if that, for the fiction blog. The latter is true, well, except that family and friends rarely read Jevlir, but I still have the sort of hit numbers that go with a “family and friends” type blog.

    But Participatory Bible Study has climbed, while this one has remained steady or dropped a bit. The discouraging part of that is that most of the hits over there have to do with biblioblogging even though I rarely link to anything about that. One way to generate a bunch of visits is to write something about who is a biblioblogger or about one’s current ranking.

    For a long time Participatory Bible Study wasn’t on the biblioblog list, which was fine by me. In fact, I didn’t think I fit the definition. But when I was added, my rank was fairly respectable (#7, last I checked). But it totally amazes me how many posts are written and links provided just to keep up with who has a higher Alexa ranking.

    OK, so this is rambling, and perhaps blatantly linking into David’s post to generate some traffic, though I think my traffic is adequate to my purposes.

    If you read this far, have fun! I’m amazed!

  • Biblioblogs Rankings

    Someone new has provided Alexa rankings for the Biblioblogs for the month of December.  Joel Watts suggests passing this around in order to keep up the competition.  I think it would all be fun if less people fought over the whole thing.   It’s a bit of fun competition based on some rather loose stats, not a life and death struggle.

  • In Which I am Included . . .

    The “which” is a list of bibliobloggers compiled by John Hobbins. Through it I discover that I am on the extended (not the top 50) list at Biblioblogs Top 50. Thanks to all of the above, and to Biblioblogs.com which provides a valuable service to the Bibliblogosphere.