In a year full of big stories, what were the BIGGEST Orange Juice stories of 2008? To answer that question I turned to Google Analytics, which collects readership and traffic data regarding the Orange Juice. We started using this program in May, so I cannot account for the first quarter, but let’s take a look at the rest of the year.
- Our top story was the “New SAUSD Corruption Open Thread.” This story continued the saga of corruption that began at our old blog. Thanks to our blogger Red Vixen we were able to salvage the comments from the old blog and continue with new ones. Today this post continues to get hundreds of hits every week and it is up to 951 comments. This year, at least as of May, this post got 16,022 hits – and over 12,000 of those were unique IP visits!
- Speaking of Red Vixen, her post “Dominionism, Sarah Palin & the Christian Taliban” was number two this year with 7,868 visits!
- The Palin family was a popular topic on the Orange Juice this year. Our next big post was “Bristol Palin: The real life Juno from Juneau,” by El Luchador. This post got 1,947 visits – and it is still being read today.
- And now a post with a happy ending! My post “Orange regulates massage parlors and spas instead of banning them” turned out to be a massive hit with our readers. It currently has 1,564 visits – and it is still getting hits today. It turns out that a lot of folks in Orange County google the phrase “massage parlors in Orange County with happy endings.” And then they find my post about how the City of Orange regulates massage parlors to PREVENT happy endings. Talk about Internet karma! This post also featured our funniest picture of the year (seen above) depicting a cat giving another cat a nice massage.
- Our blogger Larry Gilbert has been prolific this year – never missing a chance to tweak Frank Ury and the other corrupt politicians in south Orange County. But his biggest post of the year was “Fact or fiction. Joe Biden to step down to make room for VP Hillary on Oct 5th.” That post ended up with 1,524 visits – and as we all know now, Biden stayed on as VP and Hillary is now Obama’s Secretary of State. All’s well that ends well…
- Sometimes our pictures end up being more popular than our posts – and that was the case with “NRA going after unconstitutional gun laws all over the country,” which featured a picture of an attractive lass in a pink bikini, holding a handgun behind her back. That picture is STILL being downloaded today!
- The Obama family also was a popular topic this year on the Orange Juice. My post “Will American voters embrace Michelle Obama?” continues to get hits today. To date it has had 1,245 visits. As for Mrs. Obama, she very well might set a new standard for First Ladies!
- El Luchador struck again with “Levi Johnston-Palin’s last MySpace Post,” a wickedly funny satirical take on the poor guy who ended up married to Sarah Palin’s daughter (he was in the news again this month when his mom got arrested on drug charges!).
- I have written dozens of posts about crime in Santa Ana this year, but “Santa Ana shooting victim’s killers arrested” got more hits than any of them, with 1,223 visits.
- Prop. 8 was a huge topic this year, and Vern Nelson’s post “Prop. 8 Update – Not Lookin’ Good for Hate!” was our biggest one on this subject, with 1,190 visits.
- I wrote dozens of posts this year about the Trannies, but the one that blew up was “Was Dina Nguyen’s brother arrested in a huge international drug bust?,” which ended up with 1,166 visits.
- Republican consultant Jeff Flint has done a lot of bad things in his life, but heading up Prop. 8 was by far the worst. My post “Red County blogger Jeff Flint is the Prop. 8 consultant,” will haunt him for the rest of his misbgotten life! So far it has had 1,024 visits.
- In a year full of posts about Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido, the one that blew up was “Is Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido salvageable?” So far it has had 966 visits.
- Rounding out our Top 15 posts of the year, “In Memoriam, Henry Sanchez & Penny Avila” got 958 visits as our readers shared in the sadness of the tragic death of Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez’ brother and his longtime friend Penny Avila.
We had a lot more huge posts this year. Below is a graphic depicting some of them and their hits. Thanks to all of our bloggers and our readers for a great 2008!
I have to think the fair ticket scandal and the mission viejo rose parade float float stories were some of the biggest in terms of social justice and I’m happy to see that the SAUSD Corruption thread is being viewed by more than the commenters. The busty waterbra dust-up resulted in busty’s removal from the DFEH board so his sexist attitude can’t continue to pollute that body.
I think its interesting which stories are viewed the most but those are not necessarily the most significant IMO in terms of effect, and isn’t that what its all about, kicking over beehives?
#1,
Good point! Most viewed does not equal most relevant. Perhaps I will have to do another post…
Art these end of the year posts can stimulate some interesting discussions. What do you think about predictions for 2009? The menagerie of miscreants attracted to this blog ought to be able to come up with some good ones.
Mine is that a national discussion about discrimination will happen in the wake of the numerous Prop 8’s around the country and that by the end of the year the US Supreme Court will settle the question of when discrimination is discrimination and when it is merely preference once and for all.