Memoryfest II: Recap
Stats
So I went through all 28 Memoryfest posts from January, counting memories and outside links and taking note of who was commenting in each. Lots of numbers! There is a spreadsheet, which I will not inflict upon you. Now that the data collection is done, we get to play with the results.
Cripes, I knew the email notifications piled up over the past few weeks, but check out the totals:
ii Including people's recent as well as childhood memories, links to other LJs, and my own "extra" memories in threads
iii Including 7 friends-locked posts not linked from my LJ; excluding thewlisian_afer's 31 reposted memories
iv Excluding the top-level memories, which were already counted towards the previous memory total
Stats accurate as of 2/2/07. I would like to go back sometime to reply to unanswered comments and continue dropped conversations. I have read everything, but it seems terribly rude to leave someone's memory up there without a response after inviting them to post.
Countries represented:
Charts and Graphs
Spreadsheets are much more palatable when they're converted to graphs, don't you think? Here we go, then. Click on any thumbnail for the full size image. (Heh. Sorry, day job's showing a little here.)
Participant totals
Full size 715x547
Memories within comments per day
Full size 726x492
These two don't really add anything to the information displayed above, but I made them and they're pretty, so they're going in, dammit.
Daily comment breakdown by participants
Full size 792x500
Participants - percentages of total
Full size 754x510
Analysis
Memoryfest I vs. Memoryfest II
Well, for starters, this year there were more people, which was great, and therefore there were also more comments, which was just as great, but much harder to keep up with each day than last year. We covered a broader range of topics, too, though somewhat at the expense of exploring each one more deeply; by the time I'd caught up on the day's threads-and often before that-it was straight on to the next post.
Another difference became apparent as the weeks passed in the way I wrote the memories themselves. Many of them read more like stories than simple recollections. With a bigger audience, I often felt that I needed to entertain people.
As for participants, some people leapt aboard whom I didn't expect to, and that was wonderful. There were others I'd hoped would join in who didn't. While that's disappointing, I know people have their own reasons for opting in or out-and anyway, there was quite enough action here to keep me occupied during the month!
Did it work?
What I wanted to accomplish for myself through the Memoryfest was to slow down, quiet my teeming brain and think back on when I was growing up. Without getting into too much detail, this desire to wrap myself up in these memories, whether happy or sad or scary or neutral, has to do with the way I've closed off in the years since my parents began their separation and how I've been trying to lower those shields again.
In one way, the project thwarted itself, because all the comments that needed attention didn't leave much time for reflection-or provided a convenient excuse to avoid reflection. However, getting into the habit of thinking up a memory every night, along with reading what people were posting and discussing, did inspire more sustained musings from time to time and an overall sense of nostalgia. Over the course of the month I also started going on these weekly six-hour astronomy lecture/observation trips with my dad, trying for the bonding thing; I looked through several photo albums last weekend; I've been listening to music my mom used to play; and I've been asking more questions of my parents and sister about what they remember of our childhood. Though not as tremendous a result I'd hoped, I'd call that a success.
Community-wise, Memoryfest was unquestionably successful. Twenty-three people besides me posted in all, with five people posting almost every day and six or seven more commenting to at least half the posts. I've really enjoyed hearing these little snippets of your lives, learning more about RL friends, fleshing out the mental picture I have of online friends (including some adorable baby pictures!), and even having my memory jogged once or twice by my sister. Conversations abounded, both with me and with yourselves, spilling over into some of your own journals. With so many more participants this year, and with thewlisian_afer in particular flitting around like a bee pollinating countless threads, I didn't have to play hostess quite so much, which was not only cool but also a relief amid changes in my life that've limited my online time.
A few of you even seized on the 'fest to write about some very personal issues, and that was incredibly moving to witness.
The Wacky
Wouldn't be a Memoryfest recap without a roundup of the tangents we went off on, would it?
This year in comments, we covered such unexpected topics as undersea and alien life, whether it's pretentious or considerate for an American to use "mum" when speaking to a Brit about the latter's mother, caveman slash, dead cats, where we were when the Berlin wall fell and O.J. Simpson got arrested, various wars and conflicts that worried us when we were growing up, piloting small aircraft under questionable circumstances, wisdom teeth, having liberal parents during the institution of court-ordered busing in Texas, the unfair preference given to rural life in the story about the city mouse and the country mouse; the need to read books immediately, whatever's in front of you, and/or textbooks for fun; and the organization of various American, Canadian and Australian school systems.
Things I learned:
*hugs* to all. I hope you had as much fun as I did.
Poll
I can make polls now! And so we present, for your clicking and typing pleasure:
Poll Memoryfest II Participant/Lurker Poll
~ the end ~
So I went through all 28 Memoryfest posts from January, counting memories and outside links and taking note of who was commenting in each. Lots of numbers! There is a spreadsheet, which I will not inflict upon you. Now that the data collection is done, we get to play with the results.
Cripes, I knew the email notifications piled up over the past few weeks, but check out the totals:
- Number of participants: 23 (plus me)
- Comments on memories posted to my LJ: 584i
- Memories posted in comments at my LJ: 264ii
- Outside links: 22iii
- Additional memories in comments to people's linked posts: 19iv
ii Including people's recent as well as childhood memories, links to other LJs, and my own "extra" memories in threads
iii Including 7 friends-locked posts not linked from my LJ; excluding thewlisian_afer's 31 reposted memories
iv Excluding the top-level memories, which were already counted towards the previous memory total
Stats accurate as of 2/2/07. I would like to go back sometime to reply to unanswered comments and continue dropped conversations. I have read everything, but it seems terribly rude to leave someone's memory up there without a response after inviting them to post.
Countries represented:
- U.S.
- Canada
- Mexico
- Australia
- England
- Denmark
- India
- Israel
Charts and Graphs
Spreadsheets are much more palatable when they're converted to graphs, don't you think? Here we go, then. Click on any thumbnail for the full size image. (Heh. Sorry, day job's showing a little here.)
Participant totals
Full size 715x547
Memories within comments per day
Full size 726x492
These two don't really add anything to the information displayed above, but I made them and they're pretty, so they're going in, dammit.
Daily comment breakdown by participants
Full size 792x500
Participants - percentages of total
Full size 754x510
Analysis
Memoryfest I vs. Memoryfest II
Well, for starters, this year there were more people, which was great, and therefore there were also more comments, which was just as great, but much harder to keep up with each day than last year. We covered a broader range of topics, too, though somewhat at the expense of exploring each one more deeply; by the time I'd caught up on the day's threads-and often before that-it was straight on to the next post.
Another difference became apparent as the weeks passed in the way I wrote the memories themselves. Many of them read more like stories than simple recollections. With a bigger audience, I often felt that I needed to entertain people.
As for participants, some people leapt aboard whom I didn't expect to, and that was wonderful. There were others I'd hoped would join in who didn't. While that's disappointing, I know people have their own reasons for opting in or out-and anyway, there was quite enough action here to keep me occupied during the month!
Did it work?
What I wanted to accomplish for myself through the Memoryfest was to slow down, quiet my teeming brain and think back on when I was growing up. Without getting into too much detail, this desire to wrap myself up in these memories, whether happy or sad or scary or neutral, has to do with the way I've closed off in the years since my parents began their separation and how I've been trying to lower those shields again.
In one way, the project thwarted itself, because all the comments that needed attention didn't leave much time for reflection-or provided a convenient excuse to avoid reflection. However, getting into the habit of thinking up a memory every night, along with reading what people were posting and discussing, did inspire more sustained musings from time to time and an overall sense of nostalgia. Over the course of the month I also started going on these weekly six-hour astronomy lecture/observation trips with my dad, trying for the bonding thing; I looked through several photo albums last weekend; I've been listening to music my mom used to play; and I've been asking more questions of my parents and sister about what they remember of our childhood. Though not as tremendous a result I'd hoped, I'd call that a success.
Community-wise, Memoryfest was unquestionably successful. Twenty-three people besides me posted in all, with five people posting almost every day and six or seven more commenting to at least half the posts. I've really enjoyed hearing these little snippets of your lives, learning more about RL friends, fleshing out the mental picture I have of online friends (including some adorable baby pictures!), and even having my memory jogged once or twice by my sister. Conversations abounded, both with me and with yourselves, spilling over into some of your own journals. With so many more participants this year, and with thewlisian_afer in particular flitting around like a bee pollinating countless threads, I didn't have to play hostess quite so much, which was not only cool but also a relief amid changes in my life that've limited my online time.
A few of you even seized on the 'fest to write about some very personal issues, and that was incredibly moving to witness.
The Wacky
Wouldn't be a Memoryfest recap without a roundup of the tangents we went off on, would it?
This year in comments, we covered such unexpected topics as undersea and alien life, whether it's pretentious or considerate for an American to use "mum" when speaking to a Brit about the latter's mother, caveman slash, dead cats, where we were when the Berlin wall fell and O.J. Simpson got arrested, various wars and conflicts that worried us when we were growing up, piloting small aircraft under questionable circumstances, wisdom teeth, having liberal parents during the institution of court-ordered busing in Texas, the unfair preference given to rural life in the story about the city mouse and the country mouse; the need to read books immediately, whatever's in front of you, and/or textbooks for fun; and the organization of various American, Canadian and Australian school systems.
Things I learned:
- Parsley is poisonous to hamsters.
- Rapper sword dancing is not a bunch of sword fighters who rap.
- My parents were not the only ones who walked in on movies at the worst possible time.
- Nonpareil candies always have colored sprinkles in Australia
- elynittria's father and mine have a lot in common. ( here and here)
- Why the show was called Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in the U.K.
*hugs* to all. I hope you had as much fun as I did.
Poll
I can make polls now! And so we present, for your clicking and typing pleasure:
Poll Memoryfest II Participant/Lurker Poll
~ the end ~