fashions of yore:
page view winners
from the site's inception
to february 2017

the super-pages of 2017 at end of february

The Home Page had 2,917 views altogether during the first two months of 2017.

Of the rest, 63 out of the whole 200 were "super-pages", i.e. viewed on average at least once per day.

1: OSS Diary 894 views

2: Man of the World 532 views

3: Clark Ashton Smith 400 views

4: Archives of the Moon 381 views

5: What's New? 268 views

6: Mars 180 views

7. Mercury 169 views

8. Venus 163 views

9: Peril on Pallas 152 views

10: Asteroids 149 views

11: Perelandra 145 views

12: Competition 142 views

13: Wanderers of Mars 133 views

14: Saturn 131 views

15-16: About Us 124 views

15-16: Author Heaven 124 views

17-18: Arc of Iapetus 117 views

17-18: C S Lewis 117 views

19: Interplanetary Knock-Out 114 views

20: Uranus 112 views

21: Jupiter 111 views

22: Outermost Reaches 108 views

23: Pellucidar 107 views

24: Cities 104 views

25: Triton 102 views

26: Stanley G Weinbaum 97 views

27: The Intrepid Travelogue 95 views

28: The Moon 94 views

29: Vulcan 91 views

30: Leigh Brackett 90 views

31: COMOLD 89 views

32. Pluto 88 views

33. Prisoners of Saturn 81 views

34. Mission to the Tenth Planet 80 views

35. Authors 78 views

36. Earth 77 views

37. Martian Landings in The War of the Worlds 76 views

38-9: Silicon Life 75 views

38-9: The Sun 75 views

40: Amtor 74 views

41-2: Primordial Worlds 73 views

41-2: Themes 73 views

43-4: A Rose for Ecclesiastes 72 views

43-4: Star's Reach 72 views

45-6: Page View Winners 71 views

45-6: Mars Quiz - Tale-to-Author 71 views

47: Battle on Mercury 70 views

48: Old Space Program 68 views

49: Callisto 67 views

50-1: Barsoom 66 views

50-1: Asteroid Progenitor Planet 66 views

52-3: Thanksgiving 65 views

52-3: Hollow Worlds 65 views

54: Slaves of Venus 63 views

55: Lurkers on the Moon 62 views

56-8: A Relic from the Old Space Program 61 views

56-8: Neptune 61 views

56-8: World of Never-Men 61 views

59-60: Names 60 views

59-60: A Present for Zendexor 60 views

61-3: Comets 59 views

61-3: Edgar Rice Burroughs 59 views

61-3: Zones Cup 59 views

how things went

See the OSS Diary, 1st March 2017 for a report on how things went during the surge of February 2017.

Most of January 2017 continued December's mediocrity from the usage point of view, but the last 5 days of the month for some mysterious reason saw a dramatic surge, with the 27th being the all-time record day for viewing figures (135 users, 180 visits and 1080 page views on that day). End-of-month totals: 7,499 page-views by 1,004 users.

December 2016 was a bit of a come-down from the rest of the second half of 2016 in some respects. The number of page views (7708) was not bad, but the number of users (819) showed a disappointing decrease. However, you were doubtless occupied with Christmas! Anyhow, we shall zoom ahead now that we're in the futuristic-sounding year 2017.

November 2016 was a good month, with 1,049 users (second only to September's figure of 1,078) and a record number of page views - 8,950 (previous record, September's 7,854).

October 2016 had seen moderately reduced figures - perhaps you readers were having a rest from breaking records. (There were 955 users and 7,060 page views in October.)

Long-term growth of the site is obvious when one compares November 2016's 1,049 users with November 2015's 440, and November 2016's 8,950 page views with November 2015's 1,855.

Nevertheless, I have a suspicion that the big breakthrough is yet to come. Will 2017 see a big exodus from New to Old Solar System readership? And if it happens, what should we call it? "OSSEXIT" has a somewhat unfortunate ring...

Topping 100 views during December: OSS Diary (310); Man of the World (254); Archives of the Moon (189); What's New? (128); Competition (124).

Topping 100 views during November: Man of the World (318); OSS Diary (295); Archives of the Moon (199); Competition (131); Mercury (124); What's New? (121); Perelandra (116); Venus (106); Triton (102).

Triton's popularity was amazing. Obviously there's something I don't know about the importance of this Neptunian moon - something that puts it above Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Titan, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon... And why should Triton be more popular than Neptune (40 views), anyway? I must send one of my agents to investigate whatever's lurking there.

The popularity of the Competition page is bizarre, since it's a competition which nobody enters for. But perhaps multitudes of people just view it for one second, then draw away with a shudder...that one second being enough to count as a view.

In December, the number of "super-pages" for the year - those who have had at least one view per day on average - grew from 43 to 44. (In November it had grown from 41 to 43; in October from 38 to 41.)

In December, Mars overtook Pellucidar; the Old Space Program caught up with Clark Ashton Smith; Stanley Weinbaum and C S Lewis overtook Pluto; Author Heaven overtook both Your Views and Primordial Worlds; the Sun overtook Edgar Rice Burroughs (!), and Arc of Iapetus overtook both of them; Neptune overtook Hollow Worlds, and COMOLD overtook both of them plus ERB and the Sun; the Asteroid Progenitor Planet, overtaking Valeddom and Fictional Dates, caught up with Leigh Brackett.

the super-pages of 2016

(i.e. averaging one or more views per day)

1: Home Page 10,792 views

2: The Archives of the Moon 1,992 views

3: OSS Diary 1,656 views

4: What's New? 1,366 views

5: Man of the World 1,319 views

6: About Us 961 views

7: Peril on Pallas 913 views

8: Mercury 882 views

9: Competition 877 views

10: Venus 828 views

11: Perelandra 713 views

12: Mars 658views

13: Pellucidar 656 views

14: Jupiter 639 views

15: Asteroids 590 views

16: Moon 573 views

17: Uranus 545 views

18: Saturn 534 views

19-20: Clark Ashton Smith 514 views

19-20: Old Space Program 514 views

21: Earth 511 views

22: Stanley G Weinbaum 487 views

23: C S Lewis 484 views

24: Pluto 482 views

25: Author Heaven 481 views

26: Primordial Worlds 468 views

27: Your Views 463 views

28: Triton 459 views

29: Vulcan 453 views

30: Outermost Reaches 448 views

31: The Arc of Iapetus 428 views

32: COMOLD 417 views

33: Sun 415 views

34: Edgar Rice Burroughs 412 views

35: Neptune 410 views

36: Zendexor and the OSS 406 views

37: Hollow Worlds 400 views

38: Mission to the Tenth Planet 398 views

39: Cities 392 views

40-1: Asteroid Progenitor Planet 382 views

40-1: Leigh Brackett 382 views

42: Fictional Dates 372 views

43-4: Amtor 370 views

43-4: Valeddom 370 views

The most-viewed page is always the home page, naturally enough. Leaving that aside, let's see which, out of all the other pages, has proved the most popular, month by month, right from when the site was begun.

DATE MOST-VIEWED PAGE

June 2015 Mercury

July 2015 Mercury

August 2015 Mercury

September 2015 Pellucidar

October 2015 Mars

November 2015 Mars

December 2015 Mars

January 2016 Uranus

February 2016 About Us

March 2016 What's New?

April 2016 Peril on Pallas

May 2016 The Archives of the Moon

June 2016 The Archives of the Moon

July 2016 The Archives of the Moon

August 2016 The Archives of the Moon

September 2016 Author Heaven

October 2016 OSS Diary

November 2016 Man of the World

December 2016 OSS Diary

January 2017 OSS Diary

February 2017 OSS Diary

That is the basic summary of the winners. But suppose we want a bit more detail: say, the top four in each month.

Colour-coded as follows: Red for top place, Blue for second place, Green for third place and Black for fourth place.

Stid: Why these colours? Do they symbolize Republicans, Democrats, Environmentalists and Catholic cassocks respectively, by any chance?

Zendexor: You haven't quite got the idea, Stid, and to put an end to the ideological speculation, I shall explain:

As a child I used to read about the exploits of King Arthur's knights. One of them, Sir Gareth, went on an adventure in which he faced four opponents of increasing strength, named from the colour of their suits of armour. The dreaded Black Knight was followed by the even fiercer Green Knight, and he by the even fiercer Blue Knight, and he by the mightiest of all, the Red Knight. The tale made such an impression upon my youthful mind, that the sequence Red-Blue-Green-Black remains for me a code ranking First-Second-Third-Fourth.

DATE MOST-VIEWED PAGES

June 2015 Mercury Valeddom About Us The Immortals of Mercury

July 2015 Mercury Sun About Us Venus

August 2015 Mercury Pellucidar Venus Earth

September 2015 Pellucidar Mercury Mars Venus

October 2015 Mars Asteroids Mercury Sun

November 2015 Mars Jupiter Mercury Intelligent Plants

December 2015 Mars Leigh Brackett Neptune Mercury

January 2016 Uranus Mars What's New? Pellucidar

February 2016 About Us Jupiter What's New? Humanity's Place in the OSS

March 2016 What's New? About Us Pellucidar Jupiter + Page View Winners + The Influence of the OSS

April 2016 Peril on Pallas What's New? About Us Venus

May 2016 The Archives of the Moon Peril on Pallas About Us Mercury

June 2016 The Archives of the Moon About Us Peril on Pallas Pluto

July 2016 The Archives of the Moon OSS Diary What's New Man of the World

August 2016 The Archives of the Moon OSS Diary What's New Perelandra

September 2016 Author Heaven Archives of the Moon Man of the World OSS diary

October 2016 OSS Diary Man of the World Archives of the Moon What's New

November 2016 Man of the World OSS Diary Archives of the Moon Competition

December 2016 OSS Diary Man of the World Archives of the Moon What's New

January 2017 OSS Diary Man of the World Archives of the Moon What's New

February 2017 OSS Diary Clark Ashton Smith Man of the World Archives of the Moon

gawping at the stats

Every morning I examine the latest results, and I find these daily stats endlessly fascinating and puzzling. For one who is that way inclined, it's as much fun as a football league. Even the short first summary raises some intriguing questions: why did Pellucidar surge in Sept 2015 and Uranus in the following January, or Pluto in June 2016? And why oh why was About Us suddenly so popular from February 2016 when it had not been before? And what happened on Triton to create the Tritonian surge of November 2016?

Who knows - but anyhow it's nice to imagine the rejoicing in the fictional dimensions when one or other world wins the championship... Uranians throwing their hats in the air on 31st Jan, having wrested the cup from the redoubtable Martians.

Stid: Let's try to think up some serious explanations. It shouldn't be impossible. Mars, for example, which is always bound to be a popular OSS topic, may have received a boost last autumn from the film The Martian, don't you think? And Uranus may have benefited from the publication of Uranian Gleams.

Zendexor: Maybe, although Uranian Gleams had already been out for several months... but I suppose it could have taken that long for word to spread. As for Mars, your argument may gain support from the fact that the October figure for Mars page views was exceptionally high.

Harlei: But what about Pellucidar? Why that surge, just then?

Stid: We'll leave that question to you, Harl. I'm sure you can be trusted to undertake a rigorously logical approach.

Harlei: Thanks; here goes: I suspect it was the Mahars, experimenting with their sixth senses and causing ripples in the ether, which drew the sensitized psyches of our readers towards the page on this site... Perhaps, baulked of domination of their world, the reptilian race is preparing to break out into ours...

Stid: Well, here's some of my logic: I bet the popularity of the Vulcan page is due to Star-Trekkers mistaking its subject-matter!

Zendexor: Be quiet, Stid. Anyhow, even if you're right, one can still hope that the Trekkers will stay and become converted to OSS fandom...

>> page view winners from March 2017 onwards