I was looking at a site analytical tool which stated that 75% of BC's traffic comes from the U.S. and about 6% from the UK, 4% AUS, 4% Can.
Erin - Are these percentages somewhat accurate?
Given a semblance of accuracy it seems to me that a disproportionate amount of posted content (stories, blogs, and comments) come from the UK.
Do others share my perspective?
If so, do people have an opinion of why this is?
Two of my favorite writers are from the UK. Some of my favorite people on this site are from the UK. Many of those who comment favorably on my stories are from the UK. I don't mean this as a criticism, just an observation.
Jill
Comments
UK?
Unbelievably kind? Unparalled koolness? Unforgettably kissable?
Love, Andrea Lena
Ultimate Kristmas
Which is what I wish to you and all others who read this.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Or as others have said
TUKOGBANI
Hugs :)
-
You can't choose your relatives but you can choose your family.
Reporting software
There's a US bias in most of those reporting software. My own investigations show that half of our traffic comes from the US Eastern time zone. About 10% each comes from US Central, UK, All of Canada, US Pacific, the rest of the world, in approximately that order.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
US Bias
Sometimes I think our government has a US bias. Just sayin'.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Possibly, because the site
is of a higher standard than most others of the genre, it attracts British writers. I'm not aware of anything similar hosted by a Brit.
Angharad
I Get That, Angharad
This is the only site where I post stories; has been for years. Erin solicited me to write for her site after she read a story I then had posted on FM.
Merry Christmas to you. I hope the New Year finds you healthy and happy.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Singing from the same hymn sheet
I spent a while looking for decent stories, and FM was one of the sites I visited more than once. It seemed to include a lot of graphic sex, and while I am more than happy doing some of that I have never really wanted to read about it. This site is also an exception to Sturgeon's Law*, unlike FM. Most importantly, the atmosphere here is much more pleasant.
*Originally applied to SF, then more generally. General form: 99% of everything is crap. The corollary is that there are jewels buried in it.
Web bots
Jill
A sizeable amount of the traffic may be generated by regularly repeated crawls from search engine web bots. The primary search engines are driven out of the US.
If you assume a 5 to 1 population ratio (US to UK) that would suggest that about 50% of the site traffic is made up of automated searches.
It's just an idea. The only way to check that would be an IP address analysis.
Persephone
Non sum qualis eram
Interesting
Supposedly my analytical tool scrubs bots from the data.
I wonder how they do that?
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
A good strong carbolic soap ...
... scrubbed well in, eliminates 99% of all known germs (and 89.9% of statistics are fabricated). Probably works for bots :)
I suspect there's a limited market for TG literature of any sort and the US sites (BC and FM, mostly) satisfy it. Hence the dearth of ones in the UK. It's probably also because the US was ahead in adopting the internet, so sites got established. I think we in the UK have caught up (most of the country is covered by high speed broadband) but there's no need for more TG sites. I guess we Britons will continue to trespass on your hospitality as long you'll have us.
Two UK sites I visit are Carmenica Diaz's and Emma Finn's but neither are exclusively (or even mainly) TG fiction, even though Ms Diaz has written some of the best TG fiction around most of her books are femdom/bondage, sadly. Ms Finn's stories are mainly about transformation in general and mostly female/female.
Ms Diaz's site posts 6 photographs/day. They are most often bondage of various types which does little for me but the imagination and picture quality is high and they often make me laugh out loud at their absurdity.
Robi
Higher standards.
I actually do not know if the site has changed or if I have. Notice I do not say it has gotten worse. There has been a definite change in the demographics of the writers. Again, or is it me? I used to really like certain types of stories but in the last few months, they are tiresome to me. Why is that?
I still think it is the best site that I know of.
Personally, I am not attracted to gay stories, kinky baby stories, and certainly not violent ones. I am very aware that I wrote a story that is extremely violent, and these days I am confused as to why it did so well and why I will not likely write any more of those.
Whately is a great idea but too many of the stories end when they go to Whately. I am so frustrated with that I've been working on my own story that has the person not doing that.
Getting crabby in my old age I suppose.
Gwen
Well Erin is just packeting it all in, that's why!
And it costs a packet to run this site too so please donate ^_^
What do the figures really mean?
I'm always wary of information produced by these programs, without any sight of the way they produce it.
For example, a lot of UK users are hosted on aol. Does aol transport its traffic to the US before it enters the system, so is it conceivable that aol users are counted as US users?
I Was An Oddity
* Many will say I still am*. However, in this context I was some fraction of a percentage point using this site from first Hong Kong and then Singapore. I wonder what the search engine made of me?. Now I'm just one more from Oz.
I would suggest a similarity between our persuasion and SF/Fantasy. The USA was the pioneer in SF magazines and while there is good and great SF now from many other countries the prime source of SF mags is still the US. Even the UK has rarely managed to be able to sustain a viable market for a decent SF/Fantasy magazine. The major publications today are still Analog, Asimov's and F & SF. Likewise BCTS and FM will always remain the premier sites for TG fiction (at least as long as Erin breathes).
There is no doubt which is my favourite and I think writers, contributors, readers and fans from the other English-speaking countries will continue to patronise this site above all others for its inclusivity as well as its quality.
And a MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR to all here.