banksy is a little tatty
It’s like climbing into the Wayback Machine and hitting “Random,” doing another of these. I haven’t done a tag/meme/questionnaire like this in literally years, and became somewhat notorious for getting tagged and giving a world-weary shrug and a heartfelt, “I’m so sorry. I’ve made it a policy not to do these; I just get so many requests, you see” which, I’m sure, earned me quite a tongue-lashing once I was good and out of earshot, and truly it was no more than I deserved.
An Internet Celebrity is the servant of her commenters, after all.
But I’m pressed for time lately, I just returned from a 60 minute walk/jog and I have my link rounups to do and then have to wake up and go to work again in 7 hours, so what the hell: it’s an easy post!
Thanks(?) to TeamOyeniyi for tagging me.
Most Beautiful Post
Then vs Now: the Decline and Fall from an Equine Perspective which is a little meditation on the way in which humanity expresses itself in the way it sees animals. And the ways in which that has NOT improved since the Romantic Era.
I remember at one Northern Voice party, everyone was invited to stand up and read out their best posts. I couldn’t read my best post, because I believe there are only 17 original-to-me words in the whole thing, counting the alt text. If your best post can be read aloud and not lose anything, you’re not blogging: you’re writing radio scripts. Later, one of the organizers said I should have stood up and said that instead.
Most Popular Post
Hmmm, depends how you analyze this. The Mummified Fairy post has over two thousand comments. The Fart Tax post was named “Best of the Web” by the Guardian in January of 2007 (it wasn’t an annual award, it was just “what’s cool today” but GOD DOESN’T IT SOUND FANTASTIC?). My About Page is the most popular thing this week, for no known reason. For a long time I was #6 on Google if you searched for Beaver Shots (mother would be SO proud). Banksy Strikes Again got more hits than any other post ever in one day: 22,000.
Most Helpful Post
Helpful. “Helpful.” I’m not quite sure what this word means, but if education is helpful I guess you could say I schooled the Albanians in the comments thread here: Review O’ The Day: AA Gill on Barnes Grill.
A Post whose success surprised me
The Banksy in Birmingham post. Whodathunk something about transgressive street art would oust Britney Spears Sex Tape as the #1 post on my blog?
Most Controversial Post
Hmm, depends if you’re Albanian or not. The only two times I got requests from lawyers to take something down were a request to remove someone’s name and address in my mirror of the LA Fitness shooter’s diary, and in a post called UK News: How to Get Away With Blowing Up Three Cars in a Huge Fireball Without Being Suspected of Terrorism. Since the fireball apparently never happened, nor the explosion, and there was no point leaving an innocent man’s name up there to draw hatred and death threats, I complied with the requests to remove the name and although I didn’t remove the second post, I did update it and make a new one explaining what really happened.
A Post that Didn’t get the Attention I felt it deserved
Ekranoplan: World’s Strangest Airplane. Okay, not everyone’s into aeroporn, but this thing is AMAZING and it was kept a complete secret until the space program found this enormous, mysterious thing that moved…but it couldn’t be a plane…but it was enormous…but how? Why? How long had these things been around? How did they move? What were they FOR?
Post I’m Most Proud Of
Date with a Devil: my account of meeting serial killer Willy Pickton. I’ve come under relentless pressure not to tell this story, from all kinds of people you’d think should support me, and I’m proud not to have been silenced. I have the right to testify to what happened to me, and if you or metafilter doesn’t like it, well, no wonder you’re Forever Alone.
Tagging Five
Oh god. Virtually anyone I tag will have tagged me at some point and been turned down. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, start your Schadenfreude. I tag TedMorrison, MomFog, NedHepburn, NecroticHijinks, and the Manolo.
raincoaster 
capital letters are overrated…
EEK. I missed your Willy Pickton post the first time around. Well done, and a good job too talking back to the trolls. I’ve done some research and a lot or reading on serial killers over the years, and I’m also shamelessly addicted to forensic crime shows as well as Criminal Minds. I saw the episode the latter did based on the Pig Farm, but didn’t know when I was watching it that based on something real. Glad your sixth sense kicked in that day you met him. Shudder. Going to hide under the bed now.
Sarah – me too! I actually end up watching Criminal Minds on the computer because I inveriably miss it on the TV! Love it!
I have a post about the “Cadborosaurus” that has gotten recent traffic shooting up into the stratosphere for some unexplainable reason. I don’t know what relevance this has to your blog (thought I just commented on your “overlooked” post a few days ago…), except to say that people love monsters and I think I’ve been hacked…
People DO love monsters and you haven’t been hacked: you’ve probably been Stumbled or G+’d. Nobody knows how a viral link from Google+ shows up on the dashboard yet, remember.
I went from dozens of hits a day to hundreds, so either I’ve been hacked, Google+ is serious voodoo, or people are f-ing mental about monsters. Perhaps it’s a combination of all three?
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Someone’s shared your post and they have social media heft. Google + is SERIOUS VOODOO, trust me.