Birthday Musings

As this blog celebrates its third birthday today, let me offer you a bonus in the form of a – not so serious – list of commented key figures.

250 000

Approximate number of page views so far. A fairly impressive but somehow profoundly uninteresting number. Admittedly, I just cited it to have one really big number in my list.

1470

Number of pageviews of the most popular post ever published on this blog – a summary of G 1/08 (“Leave Mendel Alone”). Funny that what I call a “catholic” post (i.e. one where you are told what the original text says, without actually reading it) should be the most popular on a blog of more “protestant” outlook (where you are invited to read the original texts).

1001

Number of posts published so far. Better known as the number of nights during which Sheherazade told her stories to King Shahryār. I guess she would not have survived had she chosen extracts from the case law of the Boards of appeal.

997

Number of comments left so far. The technically competent among the readers of this blog will confirm that this means that there was an average number of about 1 comment per post. In other words, my readers are not only competent but also taciturn – two qualities that often go together.

950

Estimated number of decisions reported so far. If you are a reader of this blog since its beginnings, you have read more BoA decisions than the average attorney reads in his whole career, I would think. But then, maybe the average attorney is right.

458

Number of pageviews of the most popular post of this third year, a post presenting statistical data on the 2012 BoA decisions. I intend to publish an update in early 2013. Unless the end of the world takes place on December 21, that is.

319

Number of active e-mail subscriptions. I never figured out why anybody (except perhaps Robinson Crusoe on his island) would want to have an e-mail notification from a blog that publishes daily, but the number of subscribers proves that there must be some good reason to do so.

200

Approximate number of on-line visitors per day. Leonidas had his 300, I have my 200. May my end be more peaceful than his.

6

Number of posts per week. As a rule, there is one post per day, six days a week, but never on Shabbat or Sunday. I let you figure out how that can be done.

4

Number of countries that provide more than 10% of the on-line readers of this blog: the Netherlands (all people connecting from the Office appear as Dutch), Germany, France and the UK. The presence of Brits was on the rise recently – which, in European undertakings, is a sign that the end is near.

3

Number of years of existence of this blog. Less than the age of reason, but perhaps more than what would have been reasonable.

2

Number of official languages of the EPO from which I translate into English. I sometimes have the feeling that most of my readers do not need translations, aber vielleicht sind ja doch nicht alle des Deutschen fähig, sans parler de la langue de Molière – allez savoir.

1

Number of contributors to this blog. Not ideal, because there is nobody else to blame.

0

Number of quid I earned with this blog. Great-uncle Shmuel always told me I was not good with the money. How true.