Mark Twain popularized this quote in his autobiography when he wrote: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.” Though he attributed the quote to Benjamin Disraeli, there is no evidence the quote originated with the prime minister.
I’ve never liked statistics. They are so often misused and abused – mainly because those who use statistics as a bully pulpit often leave out the fundamental assumption of statistics – “with all things being equal.” If you haven’t discovered by now, life isn’t always an equal playing field. So statistics can be a great guide and give insight on what is going on, but always be a bit suspicious of them and take a look at what is behind the numbers.
That being said, I started looking at the statistics of my blog this year. I was looking to see what kind of posts you readers were the most interested in. Did you like the “how-to” articles, the fiction or battle reports? I did find many positive things about what I’ve been posting, and one thing that kind of – well, it’s kind of disturbing to me.
I started posting in 2011 and since then I’ve written 157 posts that have been viewed 62,656 times by 19,404 visitors to my blog at the end of 2017. Here are the top 10 posts:
1 – Painting American Indians, Part 2
This post appeared in 2012 and has been view 1,284 times through 2017. Even now, it gets 2 or 3 views a week. What is sad is that I still have a mountain of unpainted American Indians to paint and the Old West is one of my favorite genres. I need to update this series. I showed how I painted horses and skin tones, but I need to write one or two more about clothing and war paint.
Painting American Indians – Part 2
2 – Coming Soon: Colonial Adventures Gaming
This one is a surprise. The second most popular post is simply one where I was excited about being invited to play colonials with a group of local gamers and I had ordered and received my first batch of African Amazons. The post has been viewed 1,192 times and someone views it about once a week.
Coming Soon: Colonial Adventures Gaming
3 – About
I guess people want to see if I’m real. The third most viewed post on my blog is the About post where I have an old picture of myself and a brief blurb on how I got into this hobby. Anyway, the Floozy’s image has been viewed 953 times.
4 – Painted Gladiatrices & a Comic Book
There is a tie between the 4th & 5th posts, both posts have garnered 673 views. This post featured female barbarians and gladiators from Bronze Age Miniatures. It also had a link to a comic found on the Deviant Art website.
Painted Gladiatrices & a Comic Book
5 – Painting American Indians – Part 1
Painting American Indians was done in 4 parts in 2012. I’m flattered as to how popular they have been. The 4th part of the series was barely edged out of the top 10 posts.
Painting American Indians – Part 1
6 – Painting American Indians – Buffalo Hump
Maybe it is an omen that I should be doing more Old West posts. Or maybe folks are a bit stymied when it comes to painting plains Indians. Anyway, I wrote a 5th post in 2012 on the subject and it has gotten 640 views by the end of 2017.
Painting American Indians – Buffalo Hump
7 – Menalippe’s Bestiary – Nymphs
This is a relatively recent post from 2016. I finally painted all of the Foundry Nymphs in my collection. I’ve deliberately chosen to paint elves and nymphs with darker skin tones. It doesn’t make sense to me that a being who lives out doors would have lily-white skin.
8 – A Valley Too Far
For those who love the Amazons, this battle report from 2012 takes the 8th spot with 613 views. The most memorable part is after the battle when the Asterian general gives the defeated Amazons of Nycenae the choice of becoming slaves or returning home with a broken foot. The general became known as Phoebe Foot-Breaker.
9 – Thigh Shower
A bit of Greek fashion history and its application to fashion in fantasy miniatures. This is another popular post from 2016. It was a fun post to write and reminiscent of various skirt length controversies in my own lifetime.
10 – Roasting Woman
The lesson for me from this post is to never turn a rant, no matter how small, into a post. I wrote this to blow off steam about a gamer who chose not to rescue a woman being roasted by cannibals so he could go to the next objective. Nearly every day since this was posted, someone clicks on this link to view a poor hapless woman roasting over a fire. Nearly every day I consider removing this post – but, hey, it brings traffic to the blog – just means some of you guys are sick puppies! 
Conclusion
This brief look at my blog’s statistics was enlightening. For one, it shows that I need to post more often. How-to posts and posts that illustrate rules are a bit more popular that posts with stories. And it was a wise choice not to post a lot of poetry.
The most views recorded in one day was on March 7th 2015, the day after I posted the photo gallery of African Warrior Women which includes some of my favorite photos.
I’m always open to suggestions to make my blog better. I feel I still have a lot to learn about sharing what is fun in this hobby of miniature gaming. Now, I need to get back to writing. Buy a copy of Piathoe’s Peaks if you haven’t yet and let me know what you think of the rules.
Atomic Floozy Adventures 
Just wanted to add something: You’re disturbed because you see the views on the roasting woman entry and automatically assume they go see it because they get some kicks from that.
That is a mistake.
You neglect to consider the vast amount of us that would amply share your opinion, but that have to, you know, read it to know what was that about. I have the suspicion that if you put the average player in that situation, almost all would gladly rescue the woman. I know I would at least (and probably die trying as i still suck at wargaming but oh well). And most of us would also look at that guy who didn’t as That Guy(tm), and stop considering him as a teammate.
Don’t always assume the worst. Bad people evidently exist, but are in general a minority.