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steve irwin

You are currently browsing articles tagged steve irwin.

Most popular posts of 2009

27 December 2009 in Blogging, Human Nature, Politics by Stilgherrian | No comments

As the first of my end-of-year posts, here’s a list of the most-read posts from (most of) 2009.

  1. Fisting Twitter and the birth of “trend fisting” (1 March) I daresay that for many visitors this piece wasn’t what they were really looking for. Nevertheless, it’s an interesting Twitter case study. For some value of “interesting”.
  2. So what is Stilgherrian, exactly? (12 April) Almost as popular as the official About Stilgherrian, which isn’t listed here because technically it’s not a “post”.
  3. Virgin Blue’s mistake reveals countless selfish whingers (15 November) A combination of a good headline and being listed at mUmBRELLA helps boost traffic.
  4. Live Blog: Politics & Technology Forum 2009 (22 February) Again, proof that a slow, steady audience over time can be of great value.
  5. Jim Wallace’s pro-censorship lies and distortions (26 January) Wallace speaks for the Australian Christian Lobby about Internet censorship, using the “extreme libertarian” straw man and other fallacious debating tricks.
  6. Special Melon Pepperoni Edition now online! (28 March) It’s probably less that this post is about an edition of Stilgherrian Live, more that it includes Andrew Bolt’s astoundingly tasteless slur on those who oppose Internet censorship.
  7. What now for Senator Conroy and the Magic Filter? (30 March) Again, not what I’d have picked from my many writings about Internet censorship, but there you go.
  8. Conversations are not markets, people! (26 July) A long ranty piece that seems to have struck a chord.
  9. Project TOTO: the #secretmission has begun! (19 May) Interesting that the post announcing this project was the most popular, and then interest declined. Why? My guess is that visits to this post were inflated by so many people commenting on The Gnome Incident rather than the substance of the project. There’s a lesson in there somewhere.
  10. Live Blog: ALIA Information Online 2009, Day 1 (20 January) This is a big surprise. However we’ve now moved well out of the long head of very popular content and all sorts of factors could come into play. I suspect that traffic to this page was a short, sharp spike around the time of the conference and then virtually nothing since.

Many older posts also continued to be popular.

Indeed, 5 of the top 10 posts of all time are not from this year, and it took longer to work down the list to find a Top 10 for 2009 than it did to find the Top 10 of all time — yet more proof that the more material you have on your website the more visits you’ll get. Don’t delete your old material, people!

This could also explain why the Top 10 above is mostly from the first half of the year.

OK, the Top 10 posts of 2009 that weren’t written in 2009.

  1. So this is human sexuality? July (2008) Little more that a collection of the popular words from sex-related spam, it continues to attract 2000-odd visits a month.
  2. Julie, I want to make you a star (in a Samantha Fox kind of way) (September 2007) My ode to Julie Bishop, popular because of its photograph of Samantha Fox.
  3. Live Blog: Internet censorship forum (November 2008) Can anyone tell me why this post is the most popular of the many I wrote about Internet censorship prior to this year?
  4. Hello Kitty, you’re dead, and other surprise products (October 2007) People link to the (fake) photo of the Hello Kitty AK-47. Few seem to realise it’s a joke.
  5. Film Review: “Joy Division” (February 2008) I think most people link here for the classic photo of Joy Division by Kevin Cummins.
  6. Heath Ledger dead: jokes here please (January 2008) My tasteless experiment in Googlebaiting continues to attract visitors.
  7. More Steve Irwin jokes (September 2006) Another lesson: Providing a forum for the lowest common denominator of society generates hits — but are they of lasting value?
  8. The Madness of Corey Worthington Delaney (January 2008) And speaking of lowest common denominator… ;)
  9. What’s wrong with used knickers? (December 2007) Well, it’s a fair question, isn’t it?
  10. Used knickers, revisited (January 2008) I detect a theme developing here. Thank goodness we’ve reached #10.

You might also like to check out my own selection for what I think was best, plus the lists for previous years:

Most popular posts of 2008

21 December 2008 in Blogging by Stilgherrian | No comments

Following established mainstream media tradition, my year-in-review pieces will start appearing well before Christmas. He’s a list of the most-read items on this website for (most of) 2008.

  1. Heath Ledger dead: jokes here please. It’s rather depressing to discover that my tasteless little experiment was this year’s highlight. Maybe I should’ve put advertising on this page.
  2. So this is human sexuality?
  3. How do you treat your staff? Like 37signals, or like this prick?
  4. Topic 9 to discuss Australia 2020 Summit’s government topic. This is actually spurious, as most hits are from link-following robots attempting to spam my blog at topic9.com.au (which has been since been abandoned).
  5. 67 Australian SAS captured airbase defended by 1000, though most of this traffic is to see the photo. The miltech fanboys are incapable of hosting their own photos, it seems, because most of their troll-filled forums don’t allow people to upload photos. Dark Ages.
  6. About Stilgherrian, which would seem to be a popular second page for people to visit once they’ve arrived here for other reasons.
  7. Corey Delaney, freedom fighter (for the right to party) — and increasingly I think Mr Corey Worthington Delaney is one of the true heroes of 2008. But not thereafter.
  8. Spaceport America, designed by Foster+Partners.
  9. Jason Calacanis and the Evil Cult of the Internet Start-up.
  10. Achtung! Die grosskapitalistischen Hühner kommen!

As with last year’s list, I’m somewhat disappointed with the results. I’ll therefore choose my own selection of “best” posts, just like I did last year.

Read the rest of this entry »

Heath Ledger dominates Top 100 search phrases

28 January 2008 in Internet, Marketing by Stilgherrian | No comments

Further to my last post about The Heath Ledger Experiment, it’s interesting to note that of the Top 100 search terms which brought traffic here, 27 are Heath Ledger-related. 28 if you count “drug overdose joke”.

That compares with 33 related to Corey Worthington Delaney and 2 to Steve Irwin.

Read the rest of this entry »

Lessons from tacky Heath Ledger jokes, Day 1

24 January 2008 in Internet, Marketing by Stilgherrian | 6 comments

[Update 30 January 2008: More analysis of this has been posted since this article was written. Look for items tagged "heath ledger".]

Screen grab of Google AdWords advertisement: Heath Ledger jokes. Only just dead, but the tacky jokes have begun. Outrageous! stilgherrian.com

Just 24 hours ago, actor Heath Ledger died. Before most people even knew he was dead, I’d set up a web page asking for jokes about his death and I placed an advertisement (pictured) on Google. Tasteless. But there was a porpoise. This was Science!

Here’s what I’ve learned so far. If you have any questions as you read this, please ask them. I’ll be exploring the data more deeply over the next few days.

Read the rest of this entry »

Heath Ledger dead: jokes here please

23 January 2008 in Film, Humour, Internet by Stilgherrian | 185 comments

Photograph of Heath Ledger

Yes, Australian actor Heath Ledger is dead, possibly from a drug overdose. So now it’s time to collect all the jokes, ‘cos he can’t sue you for libel. Please add them in the comments.

Tasteless? Yes. Exploitative? Probably. Too soon for this? Yeah probably that too.

So why do it?

It’s an experiment…

Read the rest of this entry »

A Crikey-led traffic burst

24 June 2007 in Blogging by Stilgherrian | No comments

Writing for Crikey this week triggered an interesting burst of activity.

  • Website traffic doubled for a couple of days.
  • I was blogged about by Tim Dunlop over in Murdochland.
  • People from my past emerged from the woodwork — including Keith Conlon, the man who first taught me broadcasting.

Weird coincidences upped the traffic too:

  • Interest in Australia’s new ambassador to Italy, Amanda Vanstone, led more than 400 people to read my posting about Boost juice bars.
  • 200 people looking for live TV coverage of the space shuttle landing found my post about the previous shuttle touchdown.

But I’m still getting plenty of folks looking for those goddam Steve Irwin jokes , or discovering how to spell Vodafone.

Yesterday’s disposable post about disposable pop singer Anthony Callea has already generated comments from two newcomers. Please, don’t let this be a repeat of the flood of comments about Steve Irwin! Please, Gentle Readers, comment upon some of the more substantial pieces, like this one or this one or this one or this one. Explore. Comment. Please.

13 May 2007 by Stilgherrian | 5 comments

Odd ideas about “Freedom”

30 September 2006 in Politics by Stilgherrian | 3 comments

This is what George W Bush said at the Bob Riley for Governor lunch in Alabama yesterday:

There is an Almighty, and a gift of that Almighty to every man, woman and child on the face of the Earth is freedom.

And this, apparently, is part of his argument for legislation which intends to legitimise evidence gained through torture, create “military commissions” where hearsay is admissible as evidence and other “tools necessary to protect the American people in this war on terror” and keep people like David Hicks imprisoned without charge or trial for another four years.

Ah yes, freedom…

The whole speech is worth reading because it’s a fine example of how to do propaganda. And perhaps I’ll write more about that another time, if anyone’s interested?

Or would more Steve Irwin jokes be more suitable?

Steve Irwin still can’t beat the drugs

24 September 2006 in Blogging, Human Nature, Internet by Stilgherrian | 2 comments

Searches for “steve irwin jokes” or variations currently represent 67% of all search-generated traffic to this website. But that still doesn’t match the overall traffic levels when drugs spiked my website. What does this say about human nature?

More Steve Irwin jokes

11 September 2006 in Humour by Stilgherrian | 52 comments

A clown in life, Steve Irwin has inspired more jokes since his death — not just that first one I posted last week…

[Update 23 January 2008: Since Steve Irwin jokes are very popular on this website, you might also want to start posting Heath Ledger death jokes. Just as mindlessly tacky.]

  • Steve wouldn’t have died if he were wearing sunscreen, it would have protected him from harmful rays.
  • Q: Why is Trudie Styler like Steve Irwin? A: Both have been penetrated by Sting.
  • Steve Irwin asked for a certain song to be played at his funeral: Don’t Stand So Close to Me by Sting. (Alternatively, Dead Heart by Midnight Oil, and selections from Queen’s Sheer Heart Attack.)
  • Q: What do Steve Irwin and Indiana Jones have in common? A: They both have a hol(e)y chest.

And if I hear any more, I’ll post them here as comments.

Oddly enough, another “Australian icon” died last week: legendary racing car driver Peter Brock wrapped himself around a tree. And yet he hasn’t spawned a series of jokes. Why is that, I wonder?

Scroll down for more Steve Irwin Jokes in the comments.

[Update 19 April 2009: I'm closing comments on this post. The few comments which have been posted in recent months are mostly from people who can't seem to see beyond an overly-simplistic "He's a hero" or "You're lame". Very few of them can even spell properly. And none are adding anything positive to the discussion. Time to move on.]

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