Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Putting Out The Fire Reader Appreciation Contest

I was clearing out my inbox earlier today while waiting for the keynote speaker of a metrology and biopharmaceutical trade show which I was attending when I noticed an email from the good folks at Sitemeter. Normally I don’t pay attention to how many people read this blog unless I’m getting a ton of hate mail which usually only happens when I shine a light on problems facing our beloved synod like the Southeastern district trying to reintroduce Roman monastic practices and the desert father’s brand of mysticism to our daughter churches or, the all time sacred cow it seems: teaching youth to look less like Lutherans and more like evangelicals in how they worship, how they act, and how they talk as is the case nearly every time the LCMS has a national youth gathering. When I’m getting a bunch of hate mail or if synodical and district employees think that they can actually leave anonymous comments without me finding out who they are (newsflash: nothing is anonymous on the interwebs) then... I do in fact have a tendency to pay attention to the little counter that not only tells me how many people are visiting POTF but where they are signing in from and what their IP addresses are. A word to the wise, nothing is anonymous on this blog if I don’t want it to be. Anyhoo…

As it turns out, that little counter at the bottom of the page indicates that in a day or two I will hit the magic number of 100,000 visitors. I never thought I would have seven hundred visitors much less seven hundred posts with what will soon be over a hundred thousand guests here at my little corner of the Lutheran blogosphere.

As a way of showing my appreciation to everybody who reads the drivel I end up writing I’m gonna have a little contest: the visitor who takes a screenshot of the Sitemeter counter when it rolls over to that magic number of 100,000 will win a t-shirt, polo shirt, or sweatshirt with the official Putting out the Fire logo embroidered on it. Just take a screenshot, sign in and leave a message (it's very important that you leave me a message with your name!) and as soon as I verify where you signed in from, and your IP address I’ll get right to work and get you your choice of shirt from the POTF inactive-wear line of clothing. The only limitation is that the shipping address must be in the United States or Canada.

So good luck everybody and thank you from the bottom of where my heart would be if I actually had one for hanging out at POTF and making blogging fun for yours truly

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well done, my fierce green friend. Well done, indeed!

I'm too restless, hosting-wise, to have built up those kind of stats, not to mention the small fact that you're more interesting! ;^)

Frank Gillespie said...

what I may have in quantity, you have always trumped in quality sir!

Jim Pierce said...

Congrats on 100,000!

Jim Pierce

P.S.—I finally took Sitemeter down from my blog, because I think I finally broke an all time high of 2 visitors... I had to look at my blog that second time just to confirm the numbers and wound up messing up the numbers... I had three visitors after that.

/tongue firmly planted in cheek

:)

Scott Diekmann said...

Consider yourself fortunate that your District's officials just leave anonymous comments Frank. One of my posts actually garnered a phone call to my house from a district official. Fortunately I wasn't home at the time, so he proceeded to ramble on to my daughter about the whole thing. Truth makes enemies.

on the Wittenberg Trail said...

Hi Frank, I guess it's official! I won the POTF Reader Appreciation Contest!
I love to read your blog because it is always very interesting.
My favorite is the articles you posted about the Spiritual Transformation Seminar in the SED. Looking forward to getting my POTF sweatshirt. I'll wear it proudly!
Go Green, Go Red my friend.
Claudia
I'll be watching for your next contest for the 200,000 visitor!
Claudia Kuiper

on the Wittenberg Trail said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Steve Martin said...

I think I came in 4th.

I'll get it next time at 200K.

I guarantee it!