When I started the Newburyport Blog, a local blog, I also started a blog on national issues (as well as an artist’s website and an art blog– a lot of stuff).

The Newburyport Blog ended up flourishing, way beyond my windswept expectations. But that’s not the only reason why the Newburyport Blog gets the most attention from moi.

Way back in the early days when I first had my art website, when maybe 7 people would come visit, and 3 of them happened to be me, I had a faithful visitor who every month would check every page. Who wouldn’t be happy? I was.

Now my stats (statistics) show IP numbers. An IP number is the number of a particular computer. It took me a while to figure out all of this IP stuff out. And then I realized that you could look up IP numbers. Most of the time it doesn’t tell you much, but every now and again, you will get the name of an actual company (as opposed to Comcast or Verizon). And way back when, when there were only 3 or 4 IP numbers a day, it didn’t take much time to give them a gander.

So who is my faithful visitor? Well, after a little IP-ing and a little Googling, I found out that my faithful visitor turned out to be a company used by Home Land Security.

Yikes, and I was pissed. I mean, this was an art website, for crying out loud.

So, when I started the national blog, I put this information, with the IP number and the name of the company on my national blog.

Then my “faithful visitor,” visited me a whole lot more frequently, and I was very freaked. So, I decided to take down the IP number and the name of the company. And yes, you bet, I’m chicken. I decided to concentrate on my own home town community, where hopefully my “faithful visitor” would only see fit to visit me once a month, just like in the old days.

And as a btw… I have no idea how many times these folks now come around, because I’ve long stopped, long since, checking IP numbers. So how often my “faithful visitor” comes a calling will just have to remain a mystery. Which remains fine and dandy by me.

Mary Eaton
Newburyport

(Editor’s Note: O’ you out there in Web Land, if my “faithful visitor” was checking out an art website, one would imagine that they are probably checking your blog or website out too.)