April Fools’ on Mix?

The Mix traffic stats from today show more than double the pageviews (8,200) and visits (1,000) we normally get.

These numbers are as of an hour ago, so they will continue to climb slightly as the day comes to a close. They are the highest that I can recall since we launched at OpenWorld in November of last year. We did switch web analytics a month ago, so it’s not an easy apples-to-apples comparison.

One thing is easy to compare. The New Members widget that shows the most recent 25 new people who have uploaded a picture, has completely cycled today. Normally, it takes a few weeks to cycle, since it only captures first-time logins that immediately upload a profile picture, in case you were wondering.

Mix has 500 or so new users today, which is more like a weekly total. Activity has picked up a bit too, i.e. new ideas and questions, and commenting; not as much as I’d like, based on the other numbers, but at least people are browsing Mix.

I don’t care about driving traffic to Mix, and frankly, I’m in a Catch-22 position when we get more users, i.e. the more people use Mix, the more our thin resources are stretched to meet demand for new features and bug fixes.

Believe me, we want to fix bugs and make enhancements, and I’m being totally honest when I say “soon” and “on our list”. The stark reality is that we can’t keep up with too much demand.

That said, it’s great to see Mix grow. I just have no idea why it’s booming today. Does anyone know?  Did we get covered on Slashdot or TechCrunch, and I somehow missed it? Must be something else.

Someone clue me in to this.

Update: Mystery solved. Rich clued me in; apparently, Justin included a piece about Mix in his latest OTN TechBlast. I think our last spike, after OpenWorld, was also attributable to a TechBlast. So, thanks to Justin for spreading the Mix love.