please empty your brain below
What is the basis for hypothesising that the lack of kittens is responsible for the relative low number of female readers? This makes stereotypical assumptions both about gender (men and women) and about kittens. Everybody likes kittens. Your readership would improve overall if you did more kitten stories (with photos).

Antipodean | 05.03.10 - 2:43 a.m. | #

Missed the survey by *this* much. Drat. Never mind, I'll continue to enjoy your blog, reading it via the blogger interface. It's an interesting result about the decline in ongoing blogging amongst your readership. It's not something I'd want to give up just yet, in spite of the time pressures. However, microblogging is sometimes easier...oh, and I certainly also enjoy your ever-so-cynical Twitter updates.

Thanks DG.

Rose | 05.03.10 - 2:56 a.m. | #

Hmmm... "or maybe I'm still not posting enough kittens" is probably not the kind of thing that attracts a female readership and might explain your male to female ratio somewhat.

M | 05.03.10 - 3:54 a.m. | #

after reading for so long, i've switched from the 'global' to 'london' categories and back again. i wonder how many of your 'global' readers have ties to london that keeps them coming back for posts on random neighborhoods.

veronica | 05.03.10 - 5:38 a.m. | #

Hmmm... "or maybe I'm still not posting enough kittens" is probably a joke?

Alex | 05.03.10 - 7:26 a.m. | #

I had to think whether to tick web or mobile; am about half and half (on mobile now) but went for web as that was what I was on at the time. I think you're right that it will rise a lot, it's going to be a massive part of the interweb in the future!

SELondoner | 05.03.10 - 7:26 a.m. | #

In case you're interested - overall, cyberspace isn't male dominated in the UK. Men and women and just about as likely to be online as each other, and the majority of bloggers are female.

Mark Pack | Homepage | 05.03.10 - 7:49 a.m. | #

I ticked RSS reader because that's where I first come across each of your posts, but the fact is that quite a lot of the time I then go and read them on your site proper. The poll was no different because I immediately realised I wasn't seeing it properly in the RSS reader.

Stefan | 05.03.10 - 8:43 a.m. | #

See, its all about the kittens.

Debster | Homepage | 05.03.10 - 9:06 a.m. | #

I've been reading since 2006/07, and the posts are just as good now as they were then. Keep it up, DG! :-)

Andrewh | 05.03.10 - 10:21 a.m. | #

So I am not entirely typical - a new reader last year, over 60, with my own blog (which I also started last year, though it's far from being in your league: about 50 to 100 people read it a day, and each post gets two comments on average. I started it because I was asked, in an emergency, to take over as administrator on another blog, and thought I should at least put a toe in the water myself first (lest I make embarrassing screw-ups in public). So I will probably stop blogging fairly soon. Really I do it to practise my polemical skills. I don't think we are really in competition!

Peter Cameron | Homepage | 05.03.10 - 11:10 a.m. | #

Have you thought of asking how people came to be readers? Random link, recommendation etc., or what particular subjects/posts brought them in? Pretty sure I came via Granny Buttons when he mentioned you, so it was probably something canal-related, and I've been a regular daily reader ever since.
Another kitten-despising female...

Sarah | Homepage | 05.03.10 - 11:17 a.m. | #

I think you should explain that it does`nt involve shoving little cats through letter boxes

jerym | 05.03.10 - 11:48 a.m. | #

Young man and cat has millions of followers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOHvZjiDANg&feature=channel

You're missing a trick there DG.

B | 05.03.10 - 12:00 p.m. | #

As the poll was only available for 1 day before these results were taken, isn't that biasing the results for the "How often do you read DG" question? Presumably, only a few "occasional" readers would have gotten to enter the survey..

dg writes: Yes, agreed. But I've asked the same question four surveys running, so the bias should be the same each time.
'Daily' is up from 52% to 68%, and 'occasionally' is down from 14% to 5%.

magnus | 05.03.10 - 1:30 p.m. | #

Being an ex-pat ex London cab driver almost everything about London interests me , especially dg's blog.

ColininThailand | 05.03.10 - 3:09 p.m. | #

i like kittens too... and i'm male... and i'm 30s... but i can't go a day without reading the thoughtful words of dg...

tim... | 05.03.10 - 3:56 p.m. | #

Regarding the number of readers who write blogs: Perhaps it is simply that in the old days reading blogs was mainly the province of that merry band of people who wrote them; a tight-knit community. These days blog-reading is more mainstream.

Given the overall rise in readership over years, how has the absolute number of blog-writing readers changed?

Chris | 05.03.10 - 4:26 p.m. | #

I'm an ex-pat Londoner too. Your blog keeps me from getting too homesick, and out of the loop. One day I will return. I feel like a fish out of water living in the States!

CornishCockney | 05.03.10 - 5:14 p.m. | #

Can't help being moved to remark that, though female, I am really more of a dog person.

Kathryn Edwards | 05.03.10 - 5:35 p.m. | #

Although I'm female, I tend to be allergic to cats and would much rather have a dog and a good geeky computer magazine. Love your blog, will keep coming back for more as long as you feel like writing.

Josie | 05.03.10 - 6:24 p.m. | #

Since you're counting...4 more sleeps until your birthday!! :D

kabinga | 05.03.10 - 10:54 p.m. | #

DG: regarding the one day long poll:
I guessed you would say that.

How about running the poll for one day and taking a snapshot of the replies to compare with the previoud year... but then leaving it running for another couple of days .. See how many occassional readers you get then.

Jon Allen | Homepage | 08.03.10 - 11:35 a.m. | #











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