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Saturday 11 January 2020

Priapus of Milet becomes All Time Most Popular Post in 2019

Priapus of Milet - Antechamber
A scene from 'Antechamber' by Priapus in which a husky, red head explores a post-holocaust labyrinth
 and is taken captive by robot-skeletons with a taste for tormenting human men.
Here they escort him to his next experience.
See the full series at Telemachus12

~

According to my Blogger 'hit stats', out of all the mitchmen articles published to date, 
those registering the most hits since publication were as shown below.


Table 1 mitchmen Articles With Most Hits Since Publication to end 2018

Posn
(last yr)
Title of Post
(& link)
Year of
Pub'n
2018
Hits
2019 Hits
1 (2)
2012
23787
30906
2 (1)
2010
24020
26717
3 (6)
2008
16830
23837
4 (5)
2009
13786
17666
5 (4)
2010
14385
16033
6 (18)
2017
5817
15238
7 (-)
2018
2519
14184
8 (6)
2009
11600
12849
9 (7)
2010
9500
11071
10 (10)
2009
6878
9814
11 (9)
2009
7284
8676
12 (8)
2012
7430
8410
13 (17)
2015
5946
8202
14 (10)
2012
6878
8059
15 (12)
2010
6442
7569
16 (-)
2009
4162
7460
17 (-)
2009
5618
7240
18 (14)
2009
6098
7122
19 (-)
2018
974
6929
20 (13)
2011
6145
6926


A couple of years ago I was gloomily pondering the rather static nature of this annual survey. How different things look now! Several recent articles featuring modern art styles have raced up the rankings and there are now 4 in the top 20 shaking up the order and dislodging old favourites such as (this year), Mahoney and Michael Mitchell (no relation!).

This year Priapus of Milet – 1 which arguably started the 'new wave' revolution way back(!) in 2012 finally dislodged A-Z of Fetish Artists – Mike Carcel from the No 1 position and has already established a commanding lead. With this artist regularly producing stunning new work over at Telemachus12 (see header picture) it's hard to see anyone catching him soon.

Mike Carcel on the other hand seems to have stopped publishing. Nowadays it's getting harder to find appropriate hosts for his rather demanding subject matter and his position in this survey is in danger of being taken over by A-Z of Fetish Artists – Cavelo next year. 
But both these artists are themselves under threat from behind.

Beyond these three leaders, the main action is the arrival of 'posts of the year', The Milking Factory and IFNB – A Fantasy World of Bodybuilder Morphs at 6 & 7 respectively both having risen dramatically this year (64 places for IFNB!). A second Milking Factories – 3 article also sneaked into 19th place in an equally astonishing rise from nowhere last year, others seem to share my view that the lead image in this article (by Cupcakes666) is magnificent. These posts have yet to prove their longevity but it seems likely that one of them will be challenging the top 3 next time despite the huge gap of over 8,000 hits to be bridged. It's an exciting change to the established order.

The two arrivals at 6 & 7 have split a gaggle of A-Z artists who have juggled positions this year (as usual) but continued to maintain significant hit rates, even after 10 years on the blog. Most of them have been pushed down a place or two by the upstarts but A-Z of Fetish Artists – Jotto (up 1) and A-Z of Fetish Artists – The Hun (no change) managed to resist the tide of change better than the others with Jotto recording a significantly increased hit rate, up by a third. Not to be dismissed just yet!

In these circumstances I am delighted (as you might expect) that my own 'A Christmas Criminal' story rose a creditable 4 places to 13. Admittedly, I do advertise it continuously in the blog sidebar but it is a piece I'm proud of. If 8,000 men have read it and enjoyed it, I am highly delighted.

Further down, two more 10 year old articles, A-Z of Fetish Artists – Julius and A-Z of Fetish Artists – Kalabro entered the top 20 for the first time. Julius' cause has probably been helped by my comprehensive revision of his original A-Z article and my occasional posts of 'doctored' frames from his stories, although I haven't done one for a while to give him more impetus. Kalabro has been hovering just outside the top 20 for a while and I have no doubt that the runaway success of the Milking Factory has given him added impetus. That first article was based on a group of pictures by him and it was they which inspired the whole series. So take a bow Kalabro!

For comparison, my 'Index of Artists' page reached 40807 hits at the end of 2019 (up from 26846) which would have earned top spot in this ranking if I counted it as a post. It shows the tremendous interest in artists who work in our field.


Years not presently represented in the survey

Average hit rates

The total cumulative hits method of assessing popularity is obviously biased towards older articles so it's interesting to compare average hits per year since publication - see table below. In this list, multi-part articles are represented by the highest scoring individual post only and I have left out 2019 posts which don't even have a full year yet and are covered by a separate table. (If I had included them they would have bagged many of the top 10 spots!) I've included 5 extra articles as well, to counterbalance the preponderance of 2017-18 articles

Table 2 Articles with the Highest Average Hits per year Since Publication
Article
Published
Hits per year
Position
(& last year)
'Total Hits' position
2018
7820
1 (-)
7
2017
5317
2 (2)
6
2012
4010
3 (1)
1
2018
3871
4 (-)
35
2010
2810
5 (3)
2
2008
2507
6 (4)
3
2017
2103
7 (7)
43
2015
2038
8 (5)
13
2017
1954
9 (6)
14
2009
1858
10 (9)
4





2018
1776
11 (-)
88
2010
1686
12 (8)
5
2009
1352
13 (10)
8
2018
1223
14 (-)
111
2014
1189
15 (12)
22

Last year the usual suspects still bagged most of the top spots, but this year the challenge from the newcomers, two of whom are already in the top echelons, is clear.

This method tends to benefit popular, newer articles in the short term and there are some other interesting beneficiaries this year just outside the top 10 - The Art of Sparkieshock and Tentacles in action. Historically these articles disappear just as quickly as they appeared if they do not keep up their high initial hit rates (remember Woodunart?). However there are signs of 2 'middle aged' posts consolidating a more permanent position in the top group as their average gradually becomes 'less dilutable' by the passing years, namely A Christmas Criminal at 8 and Bound & Gagged Magazine – 4 at 15. I suspect Chirenon's A New Life For Our Air Force Boys which has remained in 7th place despite the influx above it may also fall into this category.


I'm gradually revising and extending my oldest A-Z entries, the main beneficiaries this year were (with latest and previous positions) Brick 71 (83), RJ Blake 121 (-), Turquine 59 (59), Hasegawa 195 (-), plus late in the year I did Kaarlo who is presently not qualified for the table (887 hits). Also in December, the articles on Manflesh 27 (22) and Facchini 79 (89) were augmented by the transfer of galleries from the old Yahoo! Group but too late to affect this years figures.

The articles I post to this blog are very much based on my own interests and fancies but the results of this survey do help me plan future offerings. My readers preferences doesn't always match my own (where are Les, JoeT and Link?). Nevertheless it's gratifying to see such interest in the great artists who often have a fairly low visibility on the web.

Remember, this comparison is only made for entertainment, since I don't really know how accurate Google's stats are, I suspect they don't even count people who just browse through the blog roll.

Thanks to all of you for your continuing interest and support.

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