My Voicesnet Top Ten (as of 14\9\2014)

 

(Picture Credit - Pattra Shuwaswat)



 

Poem Title	Views	Responses	Votes	Points	Added	Last View	Categories
Champion	7264	3	1	5	8/25/2008	9/13/2014	Free Verse - Sports
Dog's Life.	1869	6	2	4	7/28/2010	9/14/2014	Dogs - Free Verse
Seashore.	1476	5	0	0	8/27/2008	9/14/2014	Holidays - Summer
Look Up!	1465	3	1	5	8/23/2008	9/12/2014	Free Verse - Religious, Christian, Jewish, Islam, Baptist, etc.
Our Universe.	1431	6	4	16	1/21/2009	9/6/2014	Free Verse - Religious, Christian, Jewish, Islam, Baptist, etc.
Introducing the Game of Table Tennis	1202	2	1	3	4/12/2011	9/14/2014
Young Chickens	981	0	1	5	4/12/2011	9/14/2014	Birds - Nature
Circles	969	0	0	0	2/22/2011	9/14/2014	Free Verse - Religious, Christian, Jewish, Islam, Baptist, etc.
Jennycat and The Dogs.	911	0	0	0	7/28/2010	9/13/2014	Animals - Free Verse
Nothing Lasts.	883	6	1	3	2/15/2009	9/12/2014	Free Verse - Religious, Christian, Jewish, Islam, Baptist, etc.

 

Comment -  I've no idea why a specialised poem like "Champion" did so well. "Dog's Life" is a big surprise. I do notice an animal theme here. Plus some general Nature and Philosophy with Religion. Table and maybe picture credit to VoicesNet.

15\9 - That's Weird. For many days now on Triond my "Paedo Piece" has been Viewing really well. But today it all stopped! Just one View. "Bullies" got 45 after being eclipsed there for quite a while. "Crake Cake" has 9 Views today - still going. "Triond Views" stopped Viewing a few days back too. Have a blog "Old Untalented and White" in pending now.

18\9 - 27,921 Views for "Paedo" to press, but as I say, Views suddenly dried up. 41,723 Views for "Bullies" now.

Got weird message from Triond today at top of dashboard:

"Increase Your Revenues: Your articles are currently getting traffic with low ad clickthrough characteristics. While your Triond revenues are calculated per views, this kind of traffic generates lower revenues with our advertisers, and therefore impacts your payments directly. Once your traffic returns to having normal ad clickthrough rates characteristics, you can expect payments to be higher."
 

No idea how to make my traffic return to "normal click through rates".

My Triond Viewing Records







 

(Photo Credit - Rohan 810)



(As posted on Triond)

On the 25^th August 2008 I posted my first piece on Triond, a poem called “Hello Reader”. A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then. Here are some highlights.

I have posted poems, stories and “blogs” on Triond since 25^th August, 2008. As the description says, my first posting was “Hello Reader” (poem) which attracted 18 Views and Earned $0.02 from Triond. Then I posted some more poems and a few stories from my computer “stock”. My 2^nd posting was a short story entitled “Beyond the Beyond” which received 39 Views for $0.05. Views remained modest for a while. I received some great comments but soon became aware that VIEWS were what Trionders sought.

So on 1^st March 2009 I posted a blog Love, Sex and…Taglines” in which I tried to attract more views using lots of SEO keywords and tags. Result: 17 Views! On the 3^rd of March I wrote a blog about this and got 23 Views. So much for THAT. Later I tried more keyword packed blogs with similar results.

Maybe I should have written some imaginary but believable stories about hated public figures. Wink, wink.

On 26^th September 2010 I wrote a blog “My Career in the Grimsby Table Tennis League”. Surprisingly that attracted 108 Views (my best then). A minority sport played in a little known town. Strange. And my table tennis blogs have consistently Viewed well ever since.

My Personal Best was again broken on 14^th November 2010 with “Sexy Writing” – 179 Views, which had NOTHING sexy in it. Ha ha. It was just about my writing etc.

Then on 28^th December 2010 came blog “Agnosticism” – 246 Views. Ha yes, religion and philosophy attract good Views. And on 1^st April a blog about Freud and psycho-analysis polled 539 Views. Around this time my poem “Summer” got 180 Views – unusual for a poem – on 31^st May 2010.

My Blog “Single” was my next Personal Record Breaker: posted 3^rd October 2010 on the “Beyond Jane” Triond site it received 827 Views after spending a week on that so important “Most Popular Article” or “Trending” List.

My next “biggy” was my blog “Listen” with 693 Views, posted again on “Beyond Jane” (7^th October, 2012).

Then came my Personal Best: blog “Beat the Bullies…” (19^th November 2012) on “Beyond Jane” with 38,679 Views as I type, for earnings of $7.90. This is still Viewing well every day. 48 today when I last looked. No, 59 now. (2,212 this month).

When I first joined Triond my “Geo Distribution” was about 45% USA, 45% UK, 10% The Rest. Since “Bullies” that has all changed. Today my Distribution is 91% USA, then Turkey, UK, France and Brazil each 2%, followed by 1% Germany and 0.96% Romania. Needless to say, most of my Views came for “Beyond Jane” – until recently.

“Bullies” now has a Challenger: I call it my “Paedo Piece” – a blog on paedophilia, posted on “Healthmad” on 25^th July. It has received 139 Views today and rising. 5,667 or more this month. 14,135 overall.

“Paedo” got 300 Views per day at first (370 on the 29^th). Then on the 30^th it hit the MPA List and scored 3116. The next day it got 4,870. Then 2426 on the 1^st August. At this point it dropped off The List and got 374 on the 2^nd. From then it averaged about 320 for a good while. Recently, however, it has gone tandem with Bullies for a while before surging up again.

It will be interesting to see if “Paedo” catches up with “Bullies”. In the meantime other blogs have scored okay too: “Triond Tragedy” 868, “Freedom in Poetry” 526, “Grimsby TT League season 2013-14” 812…

Frankly I have no idea why “Bullies” and “Paedo” went viral (by my standards) in America. A similar thing happened on my own poetry blog where my poem “Mirror, Mirror” got 7161 Views. Seems with bullying etc. America takes a morbid interest. When I posted a blog about the USA being World Cup heroes I received the grand total of FOUR Views lol. Nuff Said.

PS I just Googled “Why is Bullying such a big issue in the USA?”: there were over a million results. School bullying featured most. But it’s a World problem too. Did the same for “Paedophilia”: 360,000 results with mention of Hollywood… Doesn’t seem to explain my Viewing figures, or does it?

Paul Butters

(Written 15\8\2014)

PPS for My Blog (23\8\14) – Ironically this very piece went viral on Triond. Right now it has had 9,872 Views having just left the “Trifter” Most Popular List. It is catching up with the Paedo Piece (18,974), and Bullies (39,592). It has even had a comment too.

26\8 Update: Suddenly yesterday things changed: Paedo got 264 Views, Bullies 71 and Triond VR 62. Watch this space.

10PM Update: Triond VR 10,384 Total Views, Paedo 20,367, Bullies 40,001.

29\8 - 81 Views today for my brand new Triond post "Crake Cake" - trending on "Notecook" already, as is a post by Rosalie Avin on 9\11 and terrorism! I was expecting mine to be put in Healthmad but 9\11 on a cookery site, oh my.

Paedo has had 364 Views today, Bullies 63 and Triond VR 27 (with "Assertiveness Blog" 1 View - which happens often!). Business goes well. My own Cake Crake blogger blog has drawn 7 Views too.

10\9 - Paedo Piece is forging on at a high rate now. Bullies is still moving too. "Crake Cake" is still going well but Triond VR ground to a halt a few days ago. My poems and stories still do not View however. Withernsea Wanderers AFC story got 6 Views and poem "Quiet" got 4 (but received 229 on "Hello Poetry" website to press after trending there).

Views and Comments for my poem "Communication"

Picture Credit - Writingismyhobby by Publishing Guru)

Yesterday I posted my new poem “Communication” on four websites at once and monitored their progress re Views etc. The four sites were “Hello Poetry”, “VoicesNet”, My Own Poetry Blog and “Poemhunter”. Here are the results:

	HELLO POETRY	VOICESNET	MY BLOG	POEMHUNTER
12\7 at 3.06 PM	11+2 Likes+1Repost	8	8	4?
3.45 PM	21	8	8	5
5.30 PM	29+4L+Trending	9	8	7?
8.25 PM	124+6L	12	9	7
11.10 PM	143+8L	14	9	8
13\7 at 10.30 PM	178+9L+2Reps	24+3 Comments	9	9
1.30 PM	182+10L	24	9	12

Any surprises to me? Well no. My own blog is not a community as such so I have to work harder for my Views etc. All these views are from Google and the like.

It is (still) disappointing that Views are so low on Poemhunter these days. However, their “league tables” show that generally viewing figures are at a low, especially compared with a few years ago. The site was badly hacked two or three years ago and I suspect that scared people away. It is a desert now.

Hello Poetry has been a big source of joy for me recently. However, the comments have dwindled: something to ponder on.

VoicesNet continues to View and Comment well and I expect Views on this poem to carry on ticking over there for a fair while.

I no longer put poems on Triond as the Views there for poetry and fiction are paltry.

My highest Viewed poem remains “Mirror, Mirror” on my poetry Blog at 7158 Views.

Paul Butters

Update 14\7\14 AM - My latest poems on "Hello Poetry" - "Ancestry" 171 Views, "Space" 214, "Communication" 219, "Force" 48 in 18 hours and should have trended by now really.

11.15 PM (14\7) - Ancestry 173, Space 216, Communication 227, Force 230. My poet friend Liz Squires (Australia) tells me "Force" started trending about this afternoon. Clearly trending counts.

Slight correction - Force started trending around 11.30 AM according to HP Notifications.

15\7 Latest for "Communication": HP 228, V 29, P 13, Blog 9.

16\7 Latest on "Hello Poetry": Anc 175, Space 221, Comms 247, Force 258, "Love Poem" (new) 224. This is pleasing because Love Poem was experimental. Nice to see the Views are rising each time I post.

23.45 - Just to say that Liz reposted my poem "Just Me" (formerly "Internet Prose Poem") recently and it shot up to my "mid-table" from 49 Views to 74. The Power of the Repost. It did not "Trend" however.

23\7 - Latest Views on ScribeSlice: "Marinia 7 Pt2" 253, "Marinia 7" 73, "Afterlife" 198, "Wormhole" 72, "Paradise Found" 59. Worth continuing.

29\7 - Liz Squires recently got me to join ScribeSlice, Wattpad and StoryStar in order to post my stories. Been interesting. Oh, and 529 Views for my "Paedophile" piece on Triond. Not even trending yet great Views. Almost NO Views on PoetFreak I see.

31\7 - Paedo Piece - 1850 Views yesterday and now on Most Popular List!

31\7 - 16.00 BST - Paedo Piece: 2,359 V today, 6,098 V Total!

Bullies now 36,393 Views (48 today). 91% American readership now. 2% UK.

1\8 - Paedo 10,168 V, 1,700 today.

8\8 - Paedo 12,269, Bullies 38,042. Total Triond Views 29\7 - 370 (typical then), 30\7 - 3116, 31\7 - 4870, 1\8 - 2426, 2\8 - 374. Average about 320 per day since then. That surge was when Paedo trended on "Healthmad".

This month - 5382 V for 23 cents on Triond. AdSense counted those as 7V, 0 Clicks, 0 Earnings.

18\8 - Let's try this - http://trifter.com/practical-travel/my-triond-viewing-records/
- link works if you persist and refresh.

World's Oldest Author and Poem

 

(Picture Credit - G Salahuddin)

 

 

The other day a lady on a poetry forum asked a good question: what is the oldest poem ever? I Googled “oldest poem” and got 14,800,000 results. This led me to some fine “contenders” and also arguably the oldest written author.

The other day I Googled “oldest poem”, with 14,800,000 results. There were indeed many websites on this. Many sites claimed that “Epic of Gilgamesh” (a Sumerian work) was the first epic poem. It was written about 2000 BC. Yep, 4000 years ago. Others, however, asserted that the Egyptian “Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor” (C 2,500 BC) came first.

Let’s not forget, though, that the very first poetry was purely oral: passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. Whether any of that material reached being written, nobody knows. It had to be memorable of course, so techniques such as alliteration, assonance and rhyme were probably employed. Then the words were recited or sung, over and over again. Such words were about historical events, genealogy and laws mainly.

Finding written poetry was not too easy either. Archaeologists have spent many years discovering and interpreting various stone tablets, papyrus scrolls and seals etc. I will not bore you with all the ancient written languages that have been uncovered. Let’s not forget that the earliest writings were produced in The Bronze Age. Need I say more?

The ancient kingdom of Sumeria was a very interesting place. Some claim it was the “cradle of civilisation”, building the very first cities. There are of course counter claims from Egypt, India and China (to name a few). It is said that the Sumerians invented the 24 hour day!

By most accounts the first ever known named woman and “published” author was Sumerian: the High Priestess Enheduanna who lived in the city of Ur around 2,500 to 3,000 BC. (My spellcheck does not like her name!). She wrote many hymns which were recorded on stone tablets, two seals and some alabaster discs. Not quite E-books.

Here’s the opening of one hymn:

  “Nin-me-sharra. The exaltation of Inanna.

1-12Lady of all the divine powers, resplendent light, righteous woman clothed in radiance, beloved of An and Urac! Mistress of heaven, with the great pectoral jewels, who loves the good headdress befitting the office of en priestess, who has seized all seven of its divine powers! My lady, you are the guardian of the great divine powers! You have taken up the divine powers, you have hung the divine powers from your hand. You have gathered up the divine powers, you have clasped the divine powers to your breast. Like a dragon you have deposited venom on the foreign lands. When like Ickur you roar at the earth, no vegetation can stand up to you. As a flood descending upon (?) those foreign lands, powerful one of heaven and earth, you are their Inana.”

 

I have resisted the urge to reformat this into verses here. It is beautiful nonetheless. What more can I say?

For the record, here’s the opening of “Gilgamesh”:

“He who has seen everything, I will make known (?) to the lands.
I will teach (?) about him who experienced all things,
... alike,
Anu granted him the totality of knowledge of all.
He saw the Secret, discovered the Hidden,
he brought information of (the time) before the Flood.
He went on a distant journey, pushing himself to exhaustion,
but then was brought to peace.”

“The Tale of The Shipwrecked Sailor”:

“Speech of an excellent follower:

May your heart prosper, my master. Behold, we have reached home. The mallet having been taken, the mooring post is driven in. The bow-rope having been placed on land, thanksgiving and praise to god are given. Everyone is embracing his companions. Our crew returned safely; there was no loss to our army. We have reached the end of Wawat; we have passed Senmut.”

 

More of a play or story this one. Much shorter than Gilgamesh. Must also mention “The Vedas”, written 1700 -1200 BC, another classic. All these works probably predate “The Iliad” (1194-1184 BC by the Greek Homer).

Listverse dot com is a very interesting website. Amongst many other things it cites the very first “chat up line” as being:

“The oldest love poem in the world is only slightly younger (than Gilgamesh etc.). Written on a tablet about the size of a cell phone, the 4,000 year old Sumerian ballad also contains the oldest recorded chat-up line: “You have captivated me, let me stand trembling before you; Bridegroom, I would be taken to the bedchamber.” It seems the last several thousand years has seen the quality of propositions heading in the wrong direction.”

(This was by Shin-Rai-unninni on a tablet)

When I was doing A Levels I studied Milton’s epic, “Paradise Lost”. It was mentioned that there had been earlier epics such as “The Iliad” and “The Aeneid” (Roman Virgil 19 BC). “Paradise Lost” was first published in 1667 by English poet Milton: a relatively modern poem. Here’s a sample:

“Him the Almighty Power
Hurled headlong flaming from th' ethereal sky,
With hideous ruin and combustion, down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In adamantine chains and penal fire,
Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms.
Nine times the space that measures day and night
To mortal men, he, with his horrid crew,
Lay vanquished, rolling in the fiery gulf,
Confounded, though immortal.”

The subject here is The Devil, who is clearly given “the treatment” by God. “Bottomless perdition” – so memorable! Indeed all these poems utilise a “higher” language than mere prose. Okay, so maybe “Tale of The Shipwrecked Sailor” is more prosaic. Yet so began that age-old debate, what is poetry? These ancient scripts are certainly poetic to me. A great source of inspiration.

 

Paul Butters 





My Top Ten on Hello Poetry

(Picture Credit - Google)

Here is my current top ten on the “Hello Poetry” site:

1)     “Excitement” (posted 22\1\2011) 1,100 Views

2)     “Circles” (29\3\11) 1,000

3)     “Frenetic Genetics” (22\1\11) 880

4)     “New Eden” (9\9\12) 806

5)     “Fear” (18\9\13) 741

6)     “Mother Nature” (11\9\12) 583

7)     “Remember” (15\6\14) 573

8)     “Champion” (23\1\13) 566

9)     “Cyberspace” (5\9\11) 488

10)“Paradise Found” (25\5\14) 454.

Love this site.

Paul Butters

PS My latest poem there - http://hellopoetry.com/poem/758357/for-myself/

Then - http://hellopoetry.com/poem/763092/internet-prose-poem/

Update 28\6 - latest story posting - concentrating on "Booksie now"

http://www.booksie.com/science_fiction/short_story/paul_butters/marinia-7-part-2

Poetic Form

(Picture is Clipart "Computer User")

Have just posted a comment on the Poemhunter Forum but it has vanished. It roughly ran: “How is a stanza different from a paragraph? Ignoring the two sentence rule etc., both are essentially blocks of writing.

A verse is merely a line of writing in which the writer decides the length of line, traditionally by counting syllables. Poetry may be written in any form, including verse, prose or ‘concrete’.”

Right now I am typing in prose form. “Microsoft Word” is putting the words in 

THERE (!) – a new line – lines for me. To go onto verses I

Simply press “Return” and

Start a new line. 

I prefer to start each “verse” with a capital letter.

That’s my choice.

Some websites of course “scrunch” all the verses together into prose form. When that happens, you can see what is lost. Length of line matters. A short line like

This

Is very dramatic or sharp.

Lines of many syllables provide a more serious, thoughtful, formal tone.

Look at Madonna’s “Vogue”:

“"Vogue"

Strike a pose
Strike a pose
Vogue, vogue, vogue
Vogue, vogue, vogue

Look around everywhere you turn is heartache
It's everywhere that you go (look around)
You try everything you can to escape
The pain of life that you know (life that you know)”

Contrast line 4 (3 syllables) with line 5 (12)!

Have seen some really “rappy” lyrics with up to 16 syllables.

Just increase your lines from 8 to 10 syllables and you move from more emotional (or funny) verse to formal, “grand” writing. Of course, that’s where “metre” becomes an issue, but that’s another story.

Personally I like to vary the length of line. I’m all for flouting those old rules and being free.

But that’s me.

Paul Butters

PS My original query eventually appeared on that forum and was "answered". I was advised to read a "stanza" then a "paragraph” aloud to tell the difference. My point is, they are still both blocks of words whether poetic or not.

Update (15\6\14) - My latest effort - http://hellopoetry.com/poem/747860/remember/