Comments on: You are disturbed people.

By: Indyanna

Indyanna — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 20:57:31 +0000

Sounds like a good call, Ortho. The diss. has to come first. (NB: On the subject of this thread, I wonder if Historiann will get an even weirder selection of daytrippers–the electronic “bridge-and-tunnel” crowd– when people start downloading this “Chrome” thing that Google is bringing out? I don’t know, since I don’t know the difference between browse and search… )

By: ortho stice

ortho stice — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:08:34 +0000

Indyanna, I have not pursued the pissing dogs trope further. I thought about exploring the trope by responding to The Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies representing animals CFP, but then I decided to continue working on the dissertation instead.

By: Historiann

Historiann — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:02:26 +0000

Oh–thanks, John! I used to read Vonnegut, but I didn’t remember that term–it sounds more familiar now that you explain the connection. (And now I also understand why Tom might know something about Tralfamadorians.)

By: john

john — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:56:34 +0000

The Tralfamadorians are a fictional alien race mentioned in several novels by Kurt Vonnegut. Tralfamadore is the fictional home planet of aliens from several novels by the American author Kurt Vonnegut. Details on the inhabitants of the planet vary from novel to novel. from wikipedia

By: Historiann

Historiann — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:42:11 +0000

Hey, thanks Webmaster. We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy!

By: Miles

Miles — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:17:24 +0000

OK. Here’s how this works. If someone clicks from a Google/Yahoo!/Cuil/MSN/etc search engine results page (SERP) to a historiann page, then the relevant [sic] search term(s) are captured and show up in your wordpress dashboard.

Since most people (generally) trust Google et al, they directly click on SERP links without vetting the site as a whole — assuming that they will get relevant info. (I would assume that they quickly realize that they’re in the wrong neighborhood.)

So, it’s really the search engine and their less-than-perfect algorithms that are to blame here. (Though the humans typing in those terms are another story altogether; they might want to look into the Pete Townshend/Gary Glitter defense.)

While this stuff can be fun/scary/amusing, it would be significantly more troubling if you actually had a HIGH ranking for a term like “Burning Man naked girls.” (Time to sell my Google shares!)

best,

your webmaster

By: Indyanna

Indyanna — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 21:15:59 +0000

Yikes! Coulda been some of my students from last spring, I suppose! Any progress on tracking down that trope, Ortho, the peeing dogs one I mean? I don’t see any of my students in those links to Historiann.com, though, ‘cept who knows about that Burning Man thing?!? Maybe the Adams as well. No Federalists in my classes, that I can see, anyway!

By: ortho stice

ortho stice — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:25:07 +0000

Thanks, Historiann! I just got off the phone with my IT people. They told me how to do a keyword search term analysis for the blog. The three most popular terms are: “dogs don’t pee there,” “how often dogs pee,” and “peeing dog graphic.”

By: Historiann

Historiann — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 19:28:42 +0000

It’s in the wordpress software…and you’re not on wordpress, so, sorry!

(And I have no clue how to do it if my software doesn’t do it for me…) If you figure it out, my guess is that there are some sickos who have googled “dogs peeing” and have found you that way.

By: ortho stice

ortho stice — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 19:26:41 +0000

How do I find out what people “Googled” to get to my brilliant blog?