8/7/2024 update:

* Neocities (which I so much appreciate --thank you Kyle!) provides me with grand total traffic-to-my-pages counts, but not to my 80 (or so) individual pages --which I'd like to know, so that I could give the most popular pages the most attention.

To get some idea, I Google searched on "57296" + "neocities". That doesn't bring up my pages in recentness and click count order (which does factor in), but in order of estimated over-all value to searchers -- a better way to rank my pages.

* If you find this "update" to be rather out of date, I may have quit the field. I'm 81 years old. My composing computer and programs are something like 25 years old --plus: a private Internet connection has become rather expensive. (Thanks be for access via our public libraries!)

Earlier writ:

* It seems clear now --that my website visitor and "click" counts were going up 2 to 4 times after I posted a freshly edited page, then plunged well under 100 per day --after my visitors either didn't find what they were looking for, or they found other objectionable content. This was probably compounded by a tendency to limit searches to recent postings. Thus: the (below) boom-bust-boom-bust of the counter graphs. (Be my guess: that minimum count of 50 to 100 has been mostly accidental "bounces".)

* So: I'm trying something new: moving the controversial stuff to another index page: "Index2" --not to hide those topics, but to make it more likely they won't turn up unless visitors are looking for them (via a Google search, say).

Even earlier writ (re-edited):

* While web pages are great for "personal clarification", many of us are interested in who else and how many others are browsing through them. The provided Neocities counter used to tally my old pages at about 300 "unique" visitors and maybe twice that many clicks per day.

The last counter graph under my old URL: https://craigeroochi.neocities.org/index.html (I take it that these are
the combined counts for my 80 or so HTM/L files (15 are subordinate to 65 titled pages --or orphaned).
 

An earlier counter graph after I took down "craigeroochi" and rebuilt my web site as: https://57296.neocities.org/index.html
(I wanted to redo several pages, but the Neocities system was painfully slow at deletion, so I killed it all off.) My previous
high counts might have simply been due to folks hitting on that cute name.
 

June, 2020

November, 2021

These graphs are typical and show a very slow come-back after the demise of "craigeroochi". My pages/subjects are nearly the same as before, but with a multitude of corrections, additions, polishing and updates. (Notice that the count scale changes from graph to graph.) There's always been a boom-bust pattern. I once asked Kyle if we're actually looking at random numbers, but he said the clicks are real --and that he wonders at them as well. I've seen no pattern as to the days of the week. Again, a recent updated posting helps since Googlers tend to restrict their searches to the past week or so.

* Even in the low double digits, those clicks and minutes of browsing really add up. I try to make my pages worthy of so much collective time and attention.

* I appreciate that Kyle (probably) intended for each of us to dwell upon one subject, learning to use our HTML coding skills effectively along the way. Instead of being web-weaving oriented, however, I've used an old GUI application to hammer out a crap-load of pages on a number of subjects. So thanks for tolerating my departures from the spirit of Neocities, everyone. If it helps my case any, these simple pages haven't taken up much web space.

* Most of my pages originated years previous to Neocities and cleave to an old fashioned "static" style. (I've always posted to complimentary web space.)

** On 10/18/2020, my renewed and re-URL'd pages had been posted for a year, but Google's search engine had no awareness of a page (The 2-way Book, at: https://57296.neocities.org/books.html) that I test searched --even when I quoted that page's title. However, someone had posted a copy of it in 2016 (under a long, obscure looking URL) and that one did come up. You have to be patient, leave pages at a fixed location, and don't rename them. (I did see a lot of interest and opinion on annotating books, but nothing about publishing books, so as to facilitate annotation.)

* DuckDuckGo was able to locate my "The 2-way Book" page, but not without those quotation marks.

* The original content of my pages is --of course-- unencumbered by copyright.

* Those of you perusing my pages with an out-of-date browser might notice that they're giving you no trouble --and those using up-to-date browsers should also be experiencing good reception --thanks to the reach-back of most browsers to accommodate legacy page coding --and that I've (painlessly) composed them with a good old 1999 edition of Netscape (version 4.7). Netscape was a combination email, browser and GUI composing program which you can probably still find somewhere as a free download. (I don't suggest that anyone use it for email or on-line browsing anymore, however.) I ran it on a typical desktop "tower" PC under the XP operating system (Service Pack 3), and now under Vista.

* Our work horse computers have been off-line for years --free from both attacks and those furslugginer updates.

* We've been using Chromebooks to go on line, which painlessly update themselves and are fairly bullet proof to attacks. (They'll totally reboot and recover nicely.) We simply avoid doing any commercial transactions via the Internet.

So: when my Web pages look good enough on our old home computers, I move them on a flash memory stick over to our Chromebook, then upload them to Neocities.

* Unlike a web page saved by even remotely modern web authoring applications --which either places all the image and other non-HTML files into a sub folder ("name_files") or saves everything as a combined "MHTML" file, Netscape-4.7 simply parks everything at the "root" of the drive being used. So: use a dedicated flash to store your web weaving --and that's also how you must work on them. Afterwards you can copy all the files into a folder on the flash stick memory that you take on-line --perhaps at the library or wherever there's WiFi for uploading.

Again: if you get a copy of Netscape-4.7 for your own use, make sure that you compose and save at the "root" of an empty flash stick of memory. When you move the files to another flash stick, sub-folder or drive, copy them over from your composing flash stick/s. Don't open and resave them. (Use a dedicated flash stick for each web document that you create, so as to stay out of trouble.)

I find that this old HTM/L stuff has everything I need to express my thoughts and link to those of others. I use no "frames", special Java scripts, or even "tables" on my pages (although Netscape-4.7 can do tables). I simply insert a GIF or a JPEG of a graph, table or chart when and where I need it. Sometimes I build up a chart or table with Netscape by using a monospace font (so that my columns stay straight).

Motivations:

* Even after working with (mostly GUI interfaced) HTM/L and the Internet for 20+ years, the scope of possibilities, the potential reach of our efforts, the connectedness we might realize --is still a "Wow!" factor for me. We share a privileged place in history, where we can internally and externally link/weave our thoughts and images together in a network with others.

* There's a sense of community with my --at least imagined-- readers.

* I used to post my email address but there was less than one cold contact per year --and that's when my visitor count totaled over 300,000. Perhaps the pages I print out and mail to correspondence friends have more actual impact. (There's SO MUCH to pay attention to in our e-era.)

* Then there's the personal and spiritual "clarification" aspect (as Bruce MacEvoy put it) --that experience of not knowing if one is thinking coherently or usefully --until a set of observations, ideas or approaches can be bounced off of another person --for comments, criticisms, amendments and "reality checks". We need to see ourselves and our thoughts as reflected and refracted in our others, even if it's only an imagined audience. "Presenting" via web pages goes a good distance in that direction.

* There are 57.296 degrees in a radian --handy to know.

 ...Craig