Footprints in the butter

There has been evidence of a visitation.

Some chap called 'Tom Bailey' left a comment on my Auden post on this site the other day.

This is a spooky moment. It is the first time I have encountered a commenter who is not known to me as a friend. Although I know this blogsite is open access, available to the whole world (or, at least, to those privileged segments of the world's population which enjoy [uncensored] Internet access), I tend to think of this as a 'private blog'. I thought only a few dozen drinking buddies, pen-pals, and other assorted hangers-on were reading this.

I notice that the number of my 'profile views' here on Blogspot is now nearly 160. I ponder the possible significance of this. I think I have, in fact, announced the existence of my blogs to very nearly that many people. Certainly, if you count a few 'second order referrals', friends-of-friends, the total should be around that, maybe even a little higher. And doubtless some people will have checked it more than once, to see if I've made any changes - added a photo or whatever. Heck, I have myself clicked on it quite a few times, just to see if it is displaying properly - I suppose all of those 'views' have been counted too.

That figure, then, is not any convincing evidence of there having been any casual visitors as yet.

Indeed, I'm not sure how anyone would ever find this site. I have been doing my best to register it on various search engines; and I have - finally - been starting to return some results for unique or distinctive phrases used on Google searches (not very consistently, though). But I really don't think I'm very 'visible' as yet.

I mean, I've tried Googling Auden, the name of the poem, and phrases from the excerpt I quoted - but I wasn't showing up in the first several pages of results.

'Tom', how did you find me?

Are any of my friends going to own up to having 'introduced' him??

Not that I object.

Well, I don't think I do. I suppose I do have slightly mixed feelings about it. I profess to a curiosity to see how far I can promote this site by 'viral marketing' (not vanity, I hope - just curiosity!); I would like to see the traffic stats on a steadily upward trend.

But that's not really happening as yet. So, the first 'unknown visitor' produces a strange sense of shock and discomfort - rather as though I'd suffered a very trivial species of burglary: someone making themselves a cup of tea in my kitchen, perhaps, without disturbing anything else; or even, just my noticing that someone had turned a page of my newspaper or magazine while I'd gone to the loo and left it unattended on a table.

Yes, yes, I'm odd, I know.

If I start getting hundreds of random drop-ins, I'll start to think of this site as a public meeting place rather than an intimate little salon. Perhaps that transformation has begun....