Parade of Nations
First of all, before all [one] of you gets all excited, I'm not back. Really. This is most likely going to be my last post here until about this time next year. If even then. But I just discovered something and absolutely had to tell you about it.
Alright, so I haven't really been on FFN for a while, right? [Right.] So, now that I finally got on, I've started re-exploring a bit, and I must say, I am not happy with all the changes. This is a normal occurrence for me, though, as I am rarely ever happy with change. Especially on websites. Especially when the change is from simple to what-the-crap-is-this-mess?! Sure, it has a lot of new features, but I despise the new setup. Why can't it just stay how it was? (Please don't answer with an aggravatingly sensible response of members losing interest in the old way, or the pros of all the shiny new features. I'm trying to be cynical here. XD ) BUT! there is one feature that I just discovered in the past hour or so that absolutely floored me. The traffic button! With this shiny, impressive new feature, you can view graphs and tables and pi charts and circle graphs and linear charts (slight exaggeration? perhaps. but the first two, yes.) that allows you to view the traffic on your stories and profile. This was enough to impress me (despite the slight intimidation of the smart-looking charts)...until I noticed the one certain chart that shows how many people from what countries view your stories per month. This was what floored me. Altogether, from August 2008 to January 2009, there were people from 52 different countries that have read my stories. In a convenient, alphabetized, irritatingly boring long list, here they are:
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Belarus
Belgium
Brazil
Brunei
Bulgaria
Canada
China
Croatia
Denmark
Fiji
Finland
France
Germany
Hungary
India
Indonesia
Israel
Italy
Japan
Kuwait
Latvia
Lithuania
Malaysia
Malta
Mexico
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Pakistan
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Puerto rico
Romania
Russia
Singapore
Slovakia
South Africa
Spain
Sweden
Taiwan
Thailand
UK
Ukraine
USA
Vietnam
Isn't that just amazing?! I know. Yes, it is. Oh, this just reminded me of a completely unrelated but nonetheless hilarious story from school! So I was sitting there in math class, minding my own business, when the girl in the row next to me asks the girl in front of her if she had voted yet. (It happened to be election day.) Girl #2 responded that no, she couldn't vote because she's not an American citizen. (We have a huge percentage of international students at my school.) Girl #1 asked where she was from. (Here, script form to make it faster.)
Girl #2: The Netherlands.
Girl #1: The what?
Girl #2: The Netherlands.
Girl #1: ...Where's that?
Me: *facepalm*
Boy Next to Girl #1: Oh, cool! So you speak German?
Me: *facedesk*
Girl #2: ...Dutch, actually...
Me: *begs bell to ring*
Fortunately, not everybody at my school is that stupid. Those were the two dumbest people in class. Unfortunately, there are people that stupid at my school. :( Un/Fortunately, that story had nothing at all to do with my post! Whoopee!
Now, let's not forget the real reason for this post. FIFTY-TWO COUNTRIES! SQUEEE! Oh--haha, I almost forget the deep part of this post. I was going to say something along the lines of...We have a bigger influence on other people than what we could ever possibly imagine. I'm not just talking about fanfiction, here--because I'm not silly enough to think that fan-stories about fictional characters are actually to have an impact on somebody's life. But this has made me realize the relation: that our lives do influence other peoples', even people we've never met--even people across the globe. We should always be careful of what we do and say--because other people will see it and judge us by it, and it may influence their own lives. If something as little as a fanfiction story can be seen and read literally around the world, and perhaps change somebody's mood, or better their day...just imagine what something bigger (and actually important) could do. We could literally change the world! So, so easily...if we would just try.
Let's just keep this in mind, for the rest of our day.
Alright, so I haven't really been on FFN for a while, right? [Right.] So, now that I finally got on, I've started re-exploring a bit, and I must say, I am not happy with all the changes. This is a normal occurrence for me, though, as I am rarely ever happy with change. Especially on websites. Especially when the change is from simple to what-the-crap-is-this-mess?! Sure, it has a lot of new features, but I despise the new setup. Why can't it just stay how it was? (Please don't answer with an aggravatingly sensible response of members losing interest in the old way, or the pros of all the shiny new features. I'm trying to be cynical here. XD ) BUT! there is one feature that I just discovered in the past hour or so that absolutely floored me. The traffic button! With this shiny, impressive new feature, you can view graphs and tables and pi charts and circle graphs and linear charts (slight exaggeration? perhaps. but the first two, yes.) that allows you to view the traffic on your stories and profile. This was enough to impress me (despite the slight intimidation of the smart-looking charts)...until I noticed the one certain chart that shows how many people from what countries view your stories per month. This was what floored me. Altogether, from August 2008 to January 2009, there were people from 52 different countries that have read my stories. In a convenient, alphabetized, irritatingly boring long list, here they are:
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Belarus
Belgium
Brazil
Brunei
Bulgaria
Canada
China
Croatia
Denmark
Fiji
Finland
France
Germany
Hungary
India
Indonesia
Israel
Italy
Japan
Kuwait
Latvia
Lithuania
Malaysia
Malta
Mexico
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Pakistan
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Puerto rico
Romania
Russia
Singapore
Slovakia
South Africa
Spain
Sweden
Taiwan
Thailand
UK
Ukraine
USA
Vietnam
Isn't that just amazing?! I know. Yes, it is. Oh, this just reminded me of a completely unrelated but nonetheless hilarious story from school! So I was sitting there in math class, minding my own business, when the girl in the row next to me asks the girl in front of her if she had voted yet. (It happened to be election day.) Girl #2 responded that no, she couldn't vote because she's not an American citizen. (We have a huge percentage of international students at my school.) Girl #1 asked where she was from. (Here, script form to make it faster.)
Girl #2: The Netherlands.
Girl #1: The what?
Girl #2: The Netherlands.
Girl #1: ...Where's that?
Me: *facepalm*
Boy Next to Girl #1: Oh, cool! So you speak German?
Me: *facedesk*
Girl #2: ...Dutch, actually...
Me: *begs bell to ring*
Fortunately, not everybody at my school is that stupid. Those were the two dumbest people in class. Unfortunately, there are people that stupid at my school. :( Un/Fortunately, that story had nothing at all to do with my post! Whoopee!
Now, let's not forget the real reason for this post. FIFTY-TWO COUNTRIES! SQUEEE! Oh--haha, I almost forget the deep part of this post. I was going to say something along the lines of...We have a bigger influence on other people than what we could ever possibly imagine. I'm not just talking about fanfiction, here--because I'm not silly enough to think that fan-stories about fictional characters are actually to have an impact on somebody's life. But this has made me realize the relation: that our lives do influence other peoples', even people we've never met--even people across the globe. We should always be careful of what we do and say--because other people will see it and judge us by it, and it may influence their own lives. If something as little as a fanfiction story can be seen and read literally around the world, and perhaps change somebody's mood, or better their day...just imagine what something bigger (and actually important) could do. We could literally change the world! So, so easily...if we would just try.
Let's just keep this in mind, for the rest of our day.