RANT -- For almost a year now, the Digest receives roughly a thousand unique impressions for each weekday. Most readers tend to only read the cover page while a unique few may actually wander around archives or jump through the content index.
I have no idea who you people are.
Still, considering that number, it is odd that we don't receive more feedback. Over our two years, we've received roughly fifty to sixty messages from readers and most usually sound like this "One of your links is broken". While helpful, it didn't help allay the feeling that we were spewing our thoughts into a large black hole.
Before a recent vacation, one piece of reader mail had us slapping our forehead with disgust. Disgust that such an obvious idea hadn't crossed our minds, the mail read likes this:
"While I find your articles interesting, the lack of a way to find out when you've updated the site makes it difficult for me to remember to come back."
Duh. Duh. Duh. Frequent readers are aware that the Digest tends to be updated erratically. This stems from the fact that I have a serious case of a "life" which occasionally keeps me away from the keys, but Bitsifter articles are continually roaming through my head and when the pain grows too much to bear, I write.
This week, we'd like to introduce the Bitsifter mailing list. To idea is to provide a means for the folks on the staff (hint: me) to get in touch with the folks who actually care to read our articles (hint: you). To join, all you need to do is click here or on the link to left.
Some guidelines:
-- For starters, we'll use the alias to announce new publications to the site
-- Once we've built up a small following, we'll provide the means for folks to post to the list with their thoughts about articles, questions in the vain of the Digest, or, perhaps, killer soup recipes because you simply can't have enough good soup recipes
-- Our mailing will be kept under the strictist privacy and never sold
For over two years, we've been publishing the Digest in the hope that individuals would gleam knowledge from our extensive wanderings of the 'Net. With our new mail alias, it's my hope that not only will we be able to get to know some of the folks who frequent our site, but also learn from their experiences, as well.
may 8, 1998