h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I recently recorded my second podcast for 365 Days of Astronomy. The podcast was about two massive meteor craters in Germany. Meteor impact craters are relatively rare on Earth, but they are landforms I have always wanted to visit. I travelled to Southern Germany this summer and I spent a day surveying the craters, visiting the museums and gathering as much material as I could. When I got home I started working on the podcast and after a large number of takes and technical tweaks I sent the podcast off to the 365DOA team to have it uploaded on iTunes. I also wrote a blog entry to accompany the podcast. I was all set. The podcast aired on September 5th. All in all, I had put hours and hours into researching, preparing and creating the podcast, and now it was to be broadcasted worldwide.

The reaction was, well, underwhelming. Very few visits to my blog. Almost no feedback. It was going to be one of those things. Move on, nothing to see here.

Then, a few days later, I submitted a blog entry on five things about astronomy that were cool. I had been working, on and off on it for a few weeks. Not a huge amount of time involved. Very little research. Just a few checks on the internet. Most of it just came out naturally. I didn't really think about it too much. I published the entry yesterday with no expectations for it.

How wrong I was! That evening, I checked my email and I immediately noticed that this latest entry had comments against it. Not one, but dozens. I thought it was spam, but when I looked more closely the comments were all legitimate. They were from all around the world and all of them were very complimentary. At the time of writing, I have 68 comments, over 2000 hits and 20 retweets. It turns out that this entry was picked for the front page of Wordpress.com, and therefore it attracted a much larger readership than I have ever had before. It puts any blog entry I have ever created in the ha'penny place. The hits and comments are still coming in.

One entry had a ton of research put in, including an on-the-scene visit and a podcast. The other was just a piece of writing from the top of my head. But the reactions were so different.

You never know, do you?

http://woodpigeon01.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/five-reasons-why-astronomy-is-cool/

http://woodpigeon01.wordpress.com/2010/09/03/the-meteor-craters-of-southern-germany/

will read asap, probably tomorrow, off out now, sorry

I'll read about your Germany trip when I get a few minutes.

I've had a read/listen to them and I wonder if it's due to the difference between gaining information from an article and gaining inspiration from it. The thing about stuff you write off the top of your head is that it tends to be things you've thought about often over a long time and the words flow fluidly from the fingers. That natural enthusiasm shows in your '5 things about astronomy' piece and has clearly sparked people's imaginations.

Whatever, well done with the recognition and responses - even if not generated as you'd expected.

MC

Thanks - I think you're right. There is a big difference between information and inspiration. I didn't go out of my way to write an inspirational post, but looking back at it, and the reaction it has generated, it seems very much that way.

It's still on the front page of Wordpress! Lucky to have hit it on a Friday I guess.