Meet the New CommLawBlog, NOT the Same as the Old CommLawBlog
Introducing some changes AND a new CommLawBlog contest!
As longtime readers have doubtless noticed already, CommLawBlog looks different. That's because, with the help of our friends at LexBlog, as of June 25 we have upgraded ourselves in a number of respects, some obvious, some not so. The content, of course, hasn't changed. It's all there, going back to our earliest posts from 2007. So don't worry on that front.
But you will notice, most obviously, our new sans serif typeface. The experts assure us this is friendlier to readers. We'll take their word for it - they're the experts. So kiss good-bye to outgoing typeface Georgia and say hello to Proxima Nova. There are other, less obvious but ideally useful changes - including quicker access (in the top bar for desktop users and through the menu button for mobile users) to our links to FCC resources and various search options.
Readers who subscribe to our email notification system will also notice that, rather than receiving a new email every time we post new content, they'll receive a once-a-day email listing all new posts since the previous email. Our RSS feed will supposedly be updated every 30 minutes, so email subscribers may want to sign up for the RSS feed to be sure that they're getting the latest news.
If you prefer to read the blog on your mobile device, there's more good news: we're now using a "responsive design" that adjusts what you're seeing on the screen to the particular screen you happen to be seeing it on. This is intended to improve the mobile reader's experience. We're all for that. Grab your device and check out for yourself how the new design is working (but not while you're driving, please).
The move to "responsive design" is not entirely altruistic on our part. The folks at Google have tweaked their search engine algorithm to favor sites that are mobile-friendly. In other words, thanks to our new design and Google's tweaking, we should show up higher in search results and, as a result, get more hits (or, in LexBlog's more genteel terminology, "visits").
Which brings us to our latest CommLawBlog contest!
In the greater scheme of things, the number of hits (um, we mean "visits") we get here in the CommLawBlog bunker really doesn't make much difference to our readers. But the hit totals do reflect whether we're being read (and, we assume, appreciated), so we keep an eye on them, mainly to make ourselves feel good. And what do you know - between 2008 (when we signed on with LexBlog and they started keeping track of that kind of thing) and the end of this past May, we'd had more than 960,000 total "visits"; we're over 970,000 right now.
If you think like the Blogmeister and the Swami (not something you may be comfortable admitting), you'll know where this is heading.
We're fewer than 30,000 hits shy of the 1,000,000 hit mark.
Now 1,000,000 hits is small potatoes to lots of Big Boy websites, who probably get that many on a slow Tuesday afternoon. But 1,000,000 is a big round number to us, and we're happy to view it as an excuse for celebration. It also gives us an opportunity to express our sincere appreciation to our readers, who are really the raison d'itre for our efforts here. Thanks to all of you.
So the question for you is: When are we going to get to Hit Number 1,000,000? We're asking you to take a guess as to when that 1,000,000th visit will show up on our stats page. You can submit your entry via email (address it to CommLawBlog@fhhlaw.com) or through our twitter account (using the hashtag #Commlawblog1million). Just tell us the date and time (hour and minute). In the event that two or more identical entries are submitted, the first one we receive will be the winner (but we'll try to find something nice for the runner(s)-up). If nobody gets it exactly right, we may go all "Price Is Right" and give it to the nearest guess that doesn't go over the correct answer. Or not. We'll see.
Why would you bother to venture a guess? How about a pair of CommLawBlog sunglasses! A special CommLawBlog corkscrew - just like the one we use here in the CommLawBlog bunker! A CommLawBlog lanyard! An invite to any celebratory party we may end up throwing! And if we have some t-shirts printed up, you'll get one of those, too. Plus, we'll put up a post announcing your winner-ship! And if all of that doesn't get your attention, how about this: if the winner sends us a photo of him/herself wearing our shades, we'll figure out a way to work that image into a graphic that we'll use - tastefully, of course - to illustrate an upcoming post.
A couple of hints. Of late we've been getting about 12,000-15,000 visits a month, but that was before our "responsive design" upgrade. The smart money around here figures that the Big Day will be sometime in August. FWIW, the Swami's got dibs on August 26, 2015 at 1:22 a.m.
Good luck.
[Fine print disclaimer (you had to see this coming): Our contest is intended to be an amusing diversion, not a source of angst. We here in the CommLawBlog bunker will determine who wins and who loses, and our decision will be final.]