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April 2, 2000

Ten Thousand Visits

In the past week the Nitpicker's NetGuide reached two important milestones. First, April 1st was the six month anniversary of the site launch. Six months on there's still plenty to do in existing sections and plenty more bubbling behind the scenes to keep it going for quite awhile longer. Second, and perhaps more importantly, the NNG has now had over 10,000 visits.

Now, we all know that web statistics aren't exact. For the NNG specifically, I didn't start counting from day one and thus had to estimate the traffic during the first month based on the rate of visitors within the first few weeks of counting. And then Site Meter suffered a database crash at one point that meant I had to estimate another week's worth of visits back in early December.

Yet even if the NNG hadn't had those problems, we all know that counters vary considerably in what exactly they count and how they track visitors. Site Meter allows me to see how many pages someone views during a single visit while still only counting that person once in the overall count, and thus it's better than many counter systems, but it certainly isn't perfect either.

So until someone does comes up with the perfect tracking tool, we'll settle for what we can. Regardless of when the actual ten thousandth visitor came by the site, or even what the true number of individuals is who have stopped by (discounting repeat visits), I'll still take it as an indication that folks are finding the site enjoyable and/or useful.

In other words, I appreciate all the support and the interest you've shown. I hope that I can continue to provide information, ideas, references, and resources that will help and entertain the SG-1 community. Here's to the next six months and the next ten thousand visits!

-- Meli

The Book Nook

This month we have two wonderful science fiction novels that I've enjoyed reading and re-reading. Neither is directly related to Stargate SG-1, or even to the general concepts within the series, but both are destined to be considered classics. They do well what great fiction of any genre does--capture our attention, keep us entranced, and make us think about our history, myths, current society, and where we go from here.

The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers (April 2000)

An ancient Egyptian sorcerer, a modern millionaire, a body-switching werewolf, a hideously deformed clown, a young woman disguised as a boy, a brainwashed Lord Byron, and Professor Brendan Doyle, all amazingly woven through an award-winning time travel novel.

Ace Books / ISBN 0441004016
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (April 2000)

Virtual reality, Sumerian myth, pizza delivery, and the race to uncover the source of a new computer virus that is striking down hackers everywhere--all set within a bizarre, outrageous, and completely plausible future America.

Bantam Spectra / ISBN 0553562614