TOP 10: The Rest of the Best of 2024 (Part 2)

 ...continued from Part 1...

As we delve deeper into the site metrics the answers become increasingly cryptic, and we begin to suspect we may as well be consulting a Magic 8 Ball as Google site analytics. Our list of the Top 15 most-read stories published in 2024 is pretty solid, both in terms of gross readership and ranking, but once we get past 15, we begin to see really contradictory results depending on which report we view. Assigning relative rankings to stories therefore becomes difficult, and sometimes the difference in ranking between one story and the next is a matter of a single tick on the reader counter. We suspect there is some interaction between the site analytics and Google’s use of cookies, but what that interaction may be is undocumented, and therefore remains a mystery.

For example, on one report Made in DNA’s 2023 story, “The Shrine Keeper,” shows up prominently in the 2024 Top 20, while on other reports, it doesn’t show up at all. Even though the story was published in 2023, it continued to rack up a sizable number of page reads throughout 2024—until September, when we published “Fathom,” also by Made in DNA, and then readership of “The Shrine Keeper” tapered off. 

For another example, “Pink Marble,” by Zoe Kaplan, lands in the Top 20 on most reports, but we can’t tell if those are actual readers or something else, because the story has also become a spam comment magnet. In case you’ve wondered, we do read and moderate all comments on this site, and unless someone objects, we will continue to block and delete all comments that are actually advertisements, even if they are for really nice companies that only want to offer you the best deals on imported Mediterranean marble, limestone, and granite tiles and paving blocks.

Comment moderation is an issue for us, but it’s an erratic one. E.g., at one time we actually had to unpublish and hide “King of Chrome,” by Travis Burnham, because it was drawing thousands of spam comments. We did eventually republish the story, once the spambot activity died down, but this is the reason why strict comment moderation remains in effect on all older posts and stories.

With all those caveats in place, here is our list of the 2024 Honorable Mentions: those stories that drew a lot of readers, but not enough to place in the Top 15. We won’t assign relative rankings to these stories, either because of ambiguity in the site metrics or because the difference between one story and the next is so slim that your reading one now and not another would change the results. 

Enjoy!

~brb

“The Six Stages of Grief,” by Christopher Degni

“The First Seed on Mars,” by Logan Thrasher Collins

“The Fine Art of Spellweaving,” by Catherine Tavares

“Wielder of Wit,” by Ian Li

“Then Beggars Would Ride,” by Fred Waiss

“Arrivals at Hope Station
Have Been Indefinitely Postponed,”
by Warren Benedetto

“Today in London History,” by Judith Field

“Familial Fragments,” by Arnoldo Millán Zubia

“The Offs,” by Ted Macaluso

“The Captain’s Mistake,” by Kai Holmwood

“Dust Bunnies,” by Vaughan Stanger

“Getting Sponsored,” by Eric Fomley

Categories: Showcase