It’s come to my attention that my website has been added, for some time, to an automated aggregator site without my knowledge or permission. While I’m fairly indifferent overall – that something I’ve written is shared and seen online is great, and as far as I can tell they aren’t profiting off of my content – I do have one concern. That is, where the hell is the traffic to my website? Where are the people reading the content who go gee, wish I could see more of that and sign up via email for updates on more and read it from the source.
Welcome to the call out advertisement post!
I think I had seen Anarchist Federation previously – it looks like they’ve been posting my content for some time now – but stumbled across them today after I got an email pinging me for a link to my latest piece from their site. The piece in question – A Left Critique of the Voice – And Why I’ll Vote Yes – was posted at 8:00am AEST, at time of writing around 12 hours ago. Since then, it has had a grand total of 2 views on my website, who I found out were my parents – and my mum only read half of it before skipping to the end.
Imagine my surprise, then, when I saw a ping to Anarchist Federation, an automatic aggregator of 427 “anarchist collective” websites, of which mine was one and where everything I’ve posted the past few years has found a new home. Perhaps a courtesy email would have been nice, or a request for permission to just copy my writing with a citation and a single link at the very bottom of each post. As an anarchist I believe information should be freely available – artificial scarcity online, where anything can be infinitely produced, is absurd. But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t want to be informed about this, or to receive some recognition and benefits from such exposure.
That same post that my parents kindly read (mostly) received, at time of writing, 623 views. That’s 623 views that is not reflected in the metrics for my own website, where the content originated. It’s also 623 views that, if not for being pinged by an email about it, I would not even know existed. And this is just the most recent post within 12 hours. I looked at a few others and it was wild just how much traction – relative to my own metrics – my writing has gotten elsewhere.
ChatGPT and the Future of Journalism got 5 views on my website. On Anarchist Federation, it has 1740.
My 2022 Reading List – Part 1 got 11 views on my site, with the subsequent four parts getting less as it went (as such things go I find). On Anarchist Federation, Part 1 got 2545 views. My biggest year of content views on my website was 2019, at 2438 views with 292 posts published. Part 2 also had over 2000 views on Anarchist Federation, although the others had less as it went.
The last university essay I posted – Women’s Liberation Beyond the Limitations of the State – got 8 views all up, while on Anarchist Federation it has 955.
I think you get the picture here. My content, as far as I was aware, had a loyal fanbase of my dad and whoever else happened to stumble across it. And now I find out a site I was previously vaguely aware of has been bringing in hundreds, even thousands, of views to things I have written. Again, on one hand that’s amazing. On the other, if even 10% of those people came to my site and viewed the content there – or even 1% signed up for updates directly – the views would skyrocket compared to what they are currently.
So I implore you, Anarchist Federation readers – yes, I’m talking to you – while I appreciate you reading my content, it would be nice you could pop on over if you like what you see and even sign up to get new posts emailed directly. I even have a Twitter account, if you want to see the unhinged, existential crisis-induced stream of consciousness behind the slightly more curated content found here. There’s a Facebook link too, but it’s just links to the posts on the site – but feel free to share things there too.
That’s the self-promotion done, now give me the damn dopamine hit on my platform pls.
Anarchist Rising 