Thank you, Jon, for being our 300th subscriber

In bowling, 300 is a perfect score. Twelve strikes in a row. Much harder than it sounds, even for professional bowlers that average over 220 a game.

300 subscribers might be tiny potatoes for a blog, but it is a milestone we’ve now passed, thanks to Jons Movie Reviews. I don’t know you, Jon, but thank you for subscribing. And hey, anybody who likes Doctor Sleep is A-OK in my book. I’ll forgive you for digging Ad Astra (I’m teasing).

Last did this at 100 subscribers at the end of November (curious coincidence: that subscriber’s name also started with a “J” — Jerome), so that gives readers an idea of the subscriber growth over time. Here is what our traffic growth patterns looks like by month, for those who care about this meta stuff.

As noted before, I don’t care that much for the term “follower” as that sounds cultish, so I’m using the term subscriber instead. The WordPress plugin and text refers to it as followers, however. Just so it’s clear what’s being discussed.

Want to recognize another reader, one who is active in the comments area, which is greatly appreciated: The Conductor from Lighttrain Reviews. Be sure to subscribe/follow/whatever term you like both these blogs (Jon’s and The Conductor’s), link ’em up and leave a comment once in a while if/when you find interesting what they have to say.

Believe me, it means something when someone leaves a thoughtful comment and/or links in with a pullquote.

When I ran my first ever blog, I personally measured a post’s success by comment activity. Am not sure how relevant that still is in 2020 (social media has spread commenting across multiple different platforms), but from 2003-2009 it sure mattered. Still does for me, so even though the comments area here is moderated — for at least your first ever comment here — I hope some (many!) of you reading will leave comments.

Also, props to Stuart, who likes just about every post made. Make sure to get back over there and recip like a bunch of his. tensecondsfrom now at the Film-Authority blog is an active post liker, particularly posts with reviews (see him out there with likes on plenty of movie review blogs). Thank you!

Just some other random stats here for historical reference since August 2019:

• 471+ total movies reviews
• 40+ TV Series reviews (we’re much more about movies than TV, but there are some really good TV shows worth talking about, watching and reviewing)
• 60+ video reviews (new movies in theaters via YouTube)
• 432+ blog posts

For new readers especially, it’s all good if we disagree on movies here and there. If my wife and I can disagree sometimes — and we’re the best of best friends — than our friendly readers (new, old, passerbys) are welcome and encouraged to disagree sometimes, too.

I enjoy reading others talking about movies they like, even if those movies are ones I didn’t. We all have our own likes and dislikes and there will never be any other reviewer you agree with 100% of the time.

This month of March I’m taking two vacations — both to Las Vegas. First one is over already and the next one begins this Sunday.

Chilling with the Paw Patrol on the Vegas strip (March 2020)

Am renting a car for the upcoming vacation so we can cover more ground. If it’s even remotely TV or movie-oriented, surely it will appear in a post or more here.

Beatleshow is a great show at the Sak theater inside the Miracle Mile at Planet Hollywood Las Vegas

We caught a couple live Beatles tribute shows. Man, there are some talented people with shows in Vegas.

My last meta blogging thought until/if this blog reaches the next milestone: be good to each other out there!