Advice for the friend of an obsessive webalizer-checker
Dear Mr. Mouthpiece,
I have a friend who obsessively checks her web site statistics and flips out if she doesn’t get enough visitors since her last look (typically every 5-10 minutes). I’m worried — what should I do about this?
Harried at HMS
Dear Harried,
If the site is a blog, which I suspect it is, the obsessive stat-checking is typically a manifestation of a condition called novel hypertext-specific spectrum disorder. It frequently occurs in bloggers who are new to the web and haven’t yet become disgusted with the whole business. It doesn’t appear in every blogger; my suspicion is that your friend wasn’t hugged enough as a child. That said, if she really wants website traffic, post a link to her site in a forum devoted to trolling blogs. She probably won’t thank you, but at least she won’t be concerned about the lack of traffic after that.
Best,
Mr. Mouthpiece