I Never Thought I’d Live to be a Million

Gates of Vienna just passed an important milestone: a million visitors have been logged on our site meter. The lucky 1,000,000th man or woman to pass through these gates was from the ISP Millenium Digital Media, in Seattle, Washington, at 12:55 am.

It happened a bit earlier than we expected, for two reasons. First, Tim Blair linked us last night and boosted our overnight traffic with a lot of additional Antipodean visitors. Welcome, visitors from Oz!

Secondly, just to complicate matters, we got an Instalanche late last night, and we had to rush this post to the printers so they could set the type and roll the presses by morning. Welcome, Instapundit readers!

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Actually, we must have passed the million mark a while back, because Dymphna and I were too dim to put a site meter on our blog until five or six months after we set up shop. I know we had at least a handful of visitors back in those early days, because some of them left comments.

But we’ll celebrate today, anyway.

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For our newer readers, Dymphna and I are a husband/wife team who took up blogging almost two years ago as a way of doing our small part against the Great Islamic Jihad. We live in Virginia, have a son in college, and are doing this even though we are old enough to know better.

Dymphna had the bright idea that we should interview each other for this occasion. Each of us made up five questions for the other, and here the results are below.

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Dymphna’s Questions for the Baron

You were the one who started this blog. What motivated you?

I knew that you were a really good writer, and wanted you to have an outlet for your writing. I also though it be therapeutic for you, a way to help you cope with your daughter’s death.

What was your greatest fear about beginning this project?

First it was that we would have no commenters.

Then I was afraid of being flamed or ridiculed by our commenters. We have been blessed by very little of either.

What have you come to like the most?

Making the images, and writing the rants.

When I found the “Ranting Man”, it was an ideal confluence of both these impulses. It’s a lot of fun to write all those rants and tirades.

What has most surprised you?

The amount of traffic, and the number of links we get. I thought we would always be a small blog, one of many occupying a counter-jihad niche.

What made you most excited?

The day we got our link from Mark Steyn. Which happened to be last Saturday!

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The Baron’s questions for Dymphna

What were your goals when you started blogging?

Not to fall down in public and make a spectacle of myself.

What has been your most exciting moment?

The day I saw “Gates of Vienna” on Belmont Club’s blogroll. Remember how excited I was when I called you at work?

Also, the time I was interviewed by Norm Geras.

Who were your role models?

Wretchard’s analyses and synthesis, and Shrinkwrapped’s careful deliberative prose.

When do you think we’ll pass the two million mark?

Sooner than I’d be willing to guess. This seems to be an exponential process, at least for now.

What are you most grateful for about Gates of Vienna?

A place to write, to be read, and to receive feedback.

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We owe a big debt of gratitude to the people who helped give us a leg up. We couldn’t have made it to a million hits without encouragement (and links) from Wretchard, Roger Simon, Charles Johnson, and Norm Geras. We owe a special thanks to Fjordman, whose guest-posts have brought in many readers we wouldn’t otherwise have had, and who introduced us to all our delightful Scandinavian commenters.

Dymphna particularly wants to thank the Watcher of Weasels and all the present and former members of the Watcher’s Council for helping her find an audience.

And we’re grateful to all our readers, especially the ones who come to the comments to inform, argue, and discuss. In a civil and temperate manner, that is.