We all know that Alexa ratings are “tainted” at best. Alexa requires a browser plug-in that most folks would call spyware, and that only runs under Win32 and Internet Explorer. That skews the ratings pretty hard for audiences full of technical types (though that doesn’t stop Slashdot from having a great Alexa rating), and we can only assume that there are other statistical shortcomings.
Okay, fine. But today, ladies and gentlemen, Schlock Mercenary’s Alexa Rating for both “rank” and “page views” beats the Alexa rating for Sluggy Freelance.
Part of this is no doubt due to the fact that because the sample size is small, there are dramatic peaks and valleys in both our graphs, and they are not in phase. But part of this is ALSO due to the fact that my Alexa ranking has been on the rise for two months now.
Pete’s work was part of what inspired me to head down this crazy path six years ago, and this little patch of graph shows us like we’re EQUALS. I feel a little bit like Sandra felt a few years back when she realized that we were making more money than her parents were (and oh, the fall from THAT patch of hubris… try an 80% salary cut sometime, Dad!)
So… for today, anyway, I love Alexa.
It doesn’t hurt that, by Pete’s own admission, Sluggy is in sort of a rut, while you’re still going on strong after taking us to the end of the universe and back.
Funny + story = success. Funny + story + smart = great success.
Why’d you have two separate links? Alexa also has the option to show two sites at once like this
The graphs can be compared, but the numbers can’t. I was comparing numbers.
Sluggy’s been in a Rut of Suck since shortly before 2000. Schlock, OTOH, sucksn’t.
Sluggy got me into webcomics and its been my homepage for something like 7 years (and i’m only 19 so thats saying something) but I have to admit that in the 5 or so years that I’ve been reading Schlock it has story arcs as interesting as sluggy and at times is consistently funnier. Keep up the good work.
Time to change your home page! I’ve got lots of cool links on the sidebars — especially to cool Blank Label (and other label) Comics, this Live Journal, and more!
And, as an added bonus, the content on MY page will change daily, like clockwork. And the blog down below sometimes changes TWICE daily.
–Howard
aah, its tradition now though. I do still look forward to my daily dose of Schlock more than my daily dose of Sluggy.
Part of it could be due to the fact that I stopped reading Sluggy last October. Chaotic updates and fractured story lines just weren’t interesting. And Sluggy was the first web comic I’d found, back in ’97.
It was my second. The first was User Friendly. I no longer read either strip.
I still check in on UF every day. Even though it’s not the funniest comic out there, it’s regular and concise and that’s worth something to me. Even if a comic’s not on a daily update schedule, regular updates are very much appreciated. I think that’s why Kathy’s still running in the newspapers.
You’re also a hair ahead on the one-week average. 🙂
Alexa will never be installed on any PC I control. Scum doesn’t even come close to what they are. Slashdot gets good ratings because the people there can hack. More computer literate people read yours then Sluggy, I think they want more than stick figures.
I think you’re overreacting on the “scum” front. There’s spyware out there that is much worse, and that installs itself without letting you know what it is. Alexa has moral high ground here in that a) they tell you what they’re doing, b) they’re publishing aggregated information in a manner that is useful to the wider community of internet users, and c) they’re not re-selling your information.
But not putting spyware on your PC is always the safe path.
Sucess is a good feeling… and you don’t get it often even when you are.
I remember one morning… I was driving two children to school, going to work, getting grocery shopping done on my lunch hour, picking up the girls and going home. I was stopped at a traffic light and I remember thinking “My car is paid for, my girls are well fed, well dressed and being educated to the best of my ability, I have no debt outside my ability to handle, my house is paid for… This is sucess!” I’d been having a bad morning up until that time but somehow it got better very suddenly.
Maybe it’s also that the current Sluggy storyline is so convoluted and difficult to follow that I, a dedicated reader, have been reduced to simply checking the page out to see if he’s doing something different, and not reading it if it’s still the Oceans Unmoving (ain’t THAT the truth) storyline…
I LIKE Sluggy. But boy, howdy… this is excruciating!
Couldn’ta said it better myself!
I just want Pete to make with the funny again.
Seriously! Oh, for the REAL days of Suicide Bikini Frisbee and other such nonsense!
The latest story line is what finally made me drop Sluggy, after 7 or 8 years. Part of the problem with Ocean’s Unmoving is that so much of it is visual in nature but Pete’s artwork isn’t up to it.
I don’t think I’m going to -drop- sluggy, but I’m certainly not paying attention at the moment. Too much reading of the archives for me to just quit.
Schlock has finally defeated Bun-Bun. Now no one can stop him. Except for Skull the troll.
Actually I stopped reading Sluggy because I got tired of the disrepect Pete showed his fans. Once I started feeling that every time I’ve tried to pick it back up I get pissed and turn away. I don’t even bother looking anymore.