2017 Year In Review For We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident

Word Press no longer produces annual reports, but they have given bloggers access to statistical information.  If you blog on Word Press and want to see your statistics, sign into your account and go to https://wordpress.com/stats/year.

A Zillion Thanks

There are no words to express my gratitude to followers and participants.  According to 2017 statistics as of December 26, 2017, 1139 of this blog’s followers are Word Press bloggers.  We have a fantastic and diverse blogging community.  They, as well as followers who are not bloggers,  are my motivation.

A Slow Year For Writing

This year has been one where I’ve not written as many posts as in the past.  That’s due to more than a handful of reasons, and has caused me to consider how I will continue in 2018.

Since the presidential election, the political atmosphere in America is suffocating, with things happening on almost a daily basis. I try to keep up, but every week it looks like another name is added to the list of those with connections to Russia, or another person in the Trump administration leaving the building.  There is no way of being on blogs and/or Twitter without reading about Trump.  Quite frankly, I’m sick of it.   I see Trump as a dictator and danger to America, our constitution, and equality for all.  In the coming year, I might reblog more posts about politics.

From The Beginning Until Now

This blog began because in February 2012, Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year old, was walking home in Sanford, Florida when he was killed.  That brought me to the internet and made me aware of a world of hate and racial animus that I thought had dissolved into the archives of history.  I followed the trial of George Zimmerman, and I’ve kept the focus of following trials for over 5 years now.

On this blog, a search by category returned 80 posts under “trials.”  Since 2012, media sources have changed.  Trials are not live streamed like they were years ago.  News sources might make some videos available on their website, but not on Youtube where they can be embedded in blog posts.  The best I’ve been able to do under such circumstances is seek trial information on Twitter and post that in the comment section until the jury or judge (if a bench trial), reaches a verdict.

The federal court system does not allow cameras of any sort in the courtrooms, so those trials always have to be reported by depending on news sources.  After the initial blog post, we keep up-to-date in the comment section.

This year, I also created a pull-down sub-menu to “Cases/Victims”.  When hovering, the names of victims appear in the pull-down and you would need to use the middle scroll of your mouse to see all of the names.  Then clicking on a name returns posts about that person, including any trials.  When clicking on “Cases/Victims” without scrolling through the names, it will return all posts about all cases.

Absent Bloggers

It is not unusual for some who blog to take breaks.  There are others who announce their retirement.  For example, this year in April, Kstreet (The Fifth Column) retired from blogging.  You might remember reblogs here from her blog, many titled “10 Things You Need To Know Today.”

Then, there are bloggers who do not announce taking vacation, a break or retiring.  I wonder what happened and if they are alright.  Fatherkane is one such blogger.  He last posted on his blog, The Last Of The Millenniums in June of this year.  I miss his humor.

Getting Back to The Year-End Report … ;

From January 1st and as of December 26, 2017, We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident had;

37,906 visitors

76,461 views

6,722 “likes”

3,752 comments.

The top 3 posts with the most views in 2017 were:

9,115, The Jeffrey Dahmer Victim Who Did Not Have To Die. (Published August 2015)

5,653, Man Who Likened Himself To George Zimmerman Found Guilty of Second Degree Murder. (Published September 2015)

1537, The Impact of Trayvon Martin’s Death on America.  (Published July 2014)

For two years in a row now, posts published in previous years received more views than newer posts.  The Impact of Trayvon Martin’s Death on America has ranked in the highest viewed posts for 2 years in a row.

The post receiving the all-time record for views to-date is 32 Guards Fired From The Florida Department of Corrections, with 33,523 views.  It was published in December 2014 and continues being viewed.

It was also a busy year for referrals with 26, 558 views via search engines and 4,865 views via Facebook.

This year, a long-time follower, chuquestaquenumber1, wrote posts for the blog.  His posts received 645 views.  He writes when he has time and I appreciate his contributions.  Then too, there were writers who retired from writing before this year whose blog posts are still being read.  For example, BlushedBrown retired in 2013 after the George Zimmerman trial, yet her posts received 46 views this year.

Insights

Word Press does a good job with the statistics in the “Insights” section.  That section allows for comparing year to year, and month to month stats.

The busiest month this year was July, with 14,300 views.  I published 16 posts that month. The busiest month for all time was September 2016 with 40,800 views.  I published 25 posts that month.

A Word About Awards

Peer-to-peer awards are wonderful recognition from the blogging community.  This year, there were nominations that I did not follow-through to accept.  Things have changed since the awards were first circulated with the biggest change being newer Themes or blog layouts.  Most blog awards require the posting of the award on the blog’s border, but the newer Word Press themes do not have borders.  Along with that, most nominations require paying it forward and the number of required blogs appears to have increased over the years.  This is why that is a problem with award acceptance …

Some bloggers no longer accept awards.  I don’t know all of their reasons, but I slowed down with accepting this year because it has become increasingly difficult to identity blogs that accept awards, have Themes where they can be displayed, and an About page where nominations can be posted in the comment section.  Additionally, Word Press now provides more than one way to access the Admin side and there are bloggers who are unfamiliar with image widgets and how to size award logos.

In other words, although I’ve not reached the point of saying I no longer accept Awards, I do have to consider what is required by the Rules in accepting them.

What’s Ahead For 2018

That’s a good question.  Along with following trials, I’ll see whatever else moves me.  Feel free to give me suggestions.

On To 2018!

 

Here’s wishing everyone a healthy New Year.  May we continue working for equality for all.