Adieu, adieu, to you, and you, and you! My daft experiment draws to a close. This is the wrap-up post; the one where I reminisce on the last few months out of a genuine sense of sentiment, and not because I’m explicitly answering a list of predetermined questions.
Improvements
Let’s start, for no particular reason, with what I would improve about my site. Most superficially, I wonder how much better my posts would’ve looked if I’d gone into this with more than, like, five total hours of web design experience. I would’ve loved to work out a proper home page that makes it really easy to access all of my posts. It also would’ve been cool if the header image for each post didn’t take up 99% of the screen.
I also have some issues with my voice. Re-reading my posts can be a painful experience. They tend to come off as too much after I publish them. I have so much fun during the writing process that I have a hard time distancing myself from the product. Sometimes I think it’d be better if I kept it strictly professional. I’m my own worst critic, though, so it’s hard to separate unfounded embarrassment from legitimate qualms. That could be a sign that I should consider some kind of editor in the future. Would you believe that I started this post with a haiku before I came to my senses and deleted it? There’s a demon inside of me.
Promotion
As much as I enjoyed coming up with stupid puns to promote my posts on Twitter, I definitely should’ve taken more control over my hashtags. I don’t think I ever used tags outside of “FDOM” and “TXST”. If I’m being honest, it’s because I was nervous thinking of casting my line into the market. There was an opportunity, for instance, that I could’ve tagged Sonic the Hedgehog when the movie was in the zeitgeist, but I chickened out because I had no idea what manner of Internet cryptid would be summoned to my page. I should know by now that anxiety comes with the territory.
Best Experience
I think my best experience during this project was being able to experiment with my online presence. I understand a little more now how I want to present myself and what kind of content I enjoy making.
These takeaways can benefit me in the future because I know what sits right with me and what doesn’t, in terms of design, voice, promotion, and content. I really might consider an editor if I decide to get really serious about this, not to mention some kind of public relations measure.
Stats
And now for my embarrassing site statistics.

- My most popular week, happily enough, was last week, with a mind-boggling total of four views, three visitors, and one like—the only WordPress like I received all semester. Talk about ending it on a high note.
- My most popular page happens to be my archive page, at three views, which is a little anticlimactic. I’m assuming it’s “popular” only because it’s the default landing page. It’s not even my home page, which is a much more efficient way to navigate my posts—that has one view, like the other 75% of my pages.
- I was surprised and a little confused to find that China accounts for three of my twelve total site views. I don’t really know what to make of that info, but I can officially say I’ve gone GLOBAL.
- I didn’t turn on Twitter analytics, so I’m going off of superficial data when I say this, but my school Twitter accrued a total of three likes across three different posts. Like I said: I could’ve put more effort into promotion. I can’t say I’m surprised, considering I have zero followers.
And there it is. I had a lot of fun acting a fool for a couple months. I have no idea whether this site or any of its offshoots will survive the end of the semester, but I would like to have a window into this time of my life, even if most of it is dominated by quarantine. One last time, this is JJ, amateur webmaster and imbecile extraordinaire, signing off.