Four years of the Phytophactor

There was a lot going on Feb. 12, 2012: Darwin Day, Lincoln’s birthday, oh, and my kid sister’s birthday too. Hmm, she is the youngest of the three. So with all those things going on somehow the Phactor slipped right by the 4th anniversary of this blog. Let’s check in and see where we were and where we be. Well, a year ago, for the 3d anniversary, this blog had just passed its 600th post, and during the last 12 months almost another 600 posts were made, and at present the Phytophactor stands just short of 1200 published posts.  A year ago, this blog was averaging about 150 hits per day, which was about three times the readership at the time of the 2nd anniversary. At present readership is running well over 600 hits per day, and still increasing.  March will probably record more than 20,000 hits, and you will notice no tacky ads in the side bars either. This year's increase was the result of joining Fields of Science collective in August. According to the Nature Blogs Network, the Phytophactor presently ranks 9th among plant-related blogs, around 100th out of all the nearly 2000 nature blogs they record traffic for.
One year ago marked the addition of the 50th Phactor Phollower, and as of today there are 93, not quite doubled in the past year. The Phactor remains grateful and flattered that so many disturbed and desperate people are out there. And it remains very positive that new Phollowers are still adding themselves faster than the old ones are dying. Good going people!
Not everything is necessarily better. With less time to spend, the blogs have gotten shorter, simpler. But this is not because the Phactor has not been writing. During the past 12 months he has co-authored 3 scientific manuscripts, 2 published, 1 still in press, and the book is nearing completion.  For some reason my university gives credit for that writing, but not for this.  What's wrong with them?  After all how many people have read my last scientific paper?  It'll be fewer than read this.  This year the Phactor was fairly religious about the Friday Fabulous Flower.  So this still remains an amusing activity, so the Phactor will keep blogging away, even if artichokes remains the most read blog!  Thanks for all your support and comments, although that remains the one area where the rate has not gone up.