One of the things I needed to consider when I made the jump over to this site was what to do about comments. As I already said, I left behind Haloscan, and all the comments within. The original comments from my early days at Blogger ported just fine, and they’re all here. Another thing I brought along with me was the site meter.

Most of you are familiar with site meters. I didn’t bother with one initially, because I had started my blog as a sort of private project, and a way to do some daily writing, as a writing exercise (obviously the “daily” part didn’t work out the way it was supposed to…). But over time, as I started getting comments from people I had no idea were checking my writing out, the curiosity factor became too strong to resist.

So I caved, and installed a site meter. The first couple of days (and I suspect I’m no different from anyone else), I was astonished at the far-flung locales that were seeking me out, stumbling upon my blog, and actually staying longer than 0 seconds to read something that I had written. I also felt a little nervous– for various reasons, I wanted to preserve a modicum of privacy (this changed over time– as I’ve previously said, my identity is now an open secret, and I know of at least one or two family members who have discovered the blog. Again– c’est la vie…). But at the same time, someone in Japan, someone in Italy, oh- look at that- two people in Paris! It was interesting and exhilarating at the same time. Back on Blogger, quite a few people reached my site (and quickly exited) via the “random blog” link at the very top.
After a few days, the novelty wore off. I was and am realistic enough to know that if I can hold on to the original audience I had, that was good enough. I don’t expect to be and am not interested in attracting half a million people to my blog. I do not harbor narcisstic tendencies and maintain an overblown ego about how “important” I am. I also do not plan to become a professional blogger, now or in the future.

Insteaad of becoming enamored by the numbers, I’ve since become interested in where my readers were coming from, and why. It’s this last bit that has provided some amusement. Last night, when I typed up my first entry of the new year, I decided to go into the site meter and see what was going on.

I’ve blogged about quite a variety of topics, but I really am curious about the person in Britain who was seeking pages on “nude househusbands.” A few people definitely knew where they wanted to go: “Mr Sandbox.” It’s “Mr. Sandman,” but thank you. Not everyone is getting here through DeafRead, that’s nice to know…

Someone Googled “wife of mr sandman.” Uh huh, sorry buddy, she’s married. The word “wife” should have tipped you off right there. Another seeker of wisdom typed in “sexual positions gay sandman.” I’m not sure I want to know about that one. He must have had a kindred spirit sitting next to him, because yet another visitor found me by entering the search terms “Jack Skellington having sex with Sally.” Um, I don’t think any of my entries covered Tijuana Bibles, but thanks for stopping by anyway.

Some were typing in names of deaf individuals- I have no idea if this was part of a research project, curiosity in examining all possible sources of information, or simply a lonely soul at home wanting to know that people knew who they are. Another guest was seeking information on “national deaf economy.” I didn’t know we had a deaf economy, let alone a national one. Some people are really reaching this blog through searches completely unconnected: “obfuscate Harry Potter.”

It’s quite an interesting mix of people, from old friends, family members, the denizens of DeafBlogLand, random searchers, and people occupied in desperate attempts to gain knowledge about or enhance their sex lives. I’ll continue to check the various referrals, and muse over and snicker at how people are finding Mr. Sandman’s Sandbox.

But for the record, so far my favorite is “nude househusbands.” My friend, if you ever return, feel free to enlighten the rest of us as to what THAT was all about.

Approximately a month and a half ago, I made the switch from Blogger to Wordpress, and more specifically, to having the blog hosted at DeafRead. At the time, I had a few curious readers who wondered why exactly I made the switch.

I’d like to take a few moments to briefly explain now. The first, and most important reason, was to support DeafRead and the Deaf community. Although I’ve been blogging for nearly two years now, and I don’t consider my blog to be totally deaf-centric, I’d estimate my readership to be at least 80% deaf/hard of hearing, if not more. Additionally, neither Blogger nor Wordpress are specifically allied with or support the deaf community, but DeafRead does.

I’m not receiving any money or support for making this switch; I owe no allegiance to DeafRead, or its owners. DeafRead management does not exercise editorial control over my blog content, nor do they expect to. I was simply informed that DeafRead would start offering the opportunity for bloggers to either import their blogs or start one at DeafRead, and that I was welcome to do so or to stay put.

I’d already mused about making the switch to a different platform as it was, so it was not a difficult decision in the end. Some of the features on this platform are desirable, or interesting: for example, categorization of my posts. Uploading and positioning pictures was easier for me on Wordpress than on Blogger. The wide variety of themes beat the comparative handful of options available at Blogger. Most importantly, Blogger was experiencing several periods of outages, which hindered me from actively posting. I wanted to experiment with another host. I tried Xanga– didn’t do it for me. Wordpress seemed viable, so I decided to give it a try.

There are and were other little things as well (such as maximizing space on either side of my post for all the bits and pieces in the sidebar), and generally I’ve been satisfied with the move. As I stated in November, I left the old blog up and running, albeit without any new posts. Since then, Blogger has entered and exited a beta phase, where it apparently has introduced some new bells and whistles. I’m not sure how the new, “improved” Blogger compares with Wordpress. I suppose if I ever wanted to, I could go back and resume blogging over there. I highly doubt it, though.

The only thing I really miss from Blogger is varying the text colors in my entries. I’m hoping Wordpress will offer this option at some point. I’m also disappointed all the comments from Haloscan apparently couldn’t be moved over as well, but that’s the way it goes– c’est la vie.

I’m still tinkering here and there- especially where the blogroll is concerned. I removed a few blogs for various reasons (mostly due to the authors’ privacy concerns), and added a couple. But the small number doesn’t mean my reading is only limited to those blogs; I’ve read quite a few, thanks to DeafRead, and there are several smaller, more private blogs that I read daily, and just haven’t highlighted due, again, to the blogger’s individual desires. A couple of newcomers (and one “old” blog!) have recently been brought to my attention, and could be added soon.

As I said back in November, if you have any ideas or suggestions, comments or concerns, let me know. You can either leave a comment, or find another, more direct method by clicking on “About Mr. Sandman” in the column to your right.

That’s it. I know some of you may be saying, “Wha…?!” Yeah, no complicated explanation, no backroom deals, no excessive rationale. Simply a desire to experiment, expand, and at the same time, support a great website. Didn’t cost me anything in terms of finances or independence. *grin*