Sometime in the last 24 hours, Via Meadia passed an important milestone: the blog has had more than one million hits.
When I started to blog last fall, I had no idea whether these essays would find an audience. I’ve been more than gratified by the response, and thanks to all the visitors, regular and occasional, who helped us get this far.
I’m particularly pleased that the site has had an international audience from the beginning. About 85% of the hits come from the United States, the rest from all over the world. Some of the usual suspects are well represented: we have flourishing groups of readers in Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. But there is a significant Via Meadia readership in much of the world — with even a few hardy souls checking in from Greenland.
One of the strongest features of the site that took us all by surprise has been the comments section. Overall, we seem to be attracting comments from strong minded people of many different points of view who are generally committed to the idea of civil if sometimes sharp discourse.
We aim to keep it that way and will continue to edit comments for civility and, occasionally, rationality. In particular, I’d like to remind readers that the audience for Via Meadia is international. Readers in Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Iran and many other countries who may never encounter each other in person can meet here — and are all welcome.
In continuing to curate the comments, the team at The American Interest is going to be especially vigilant about ensuring that the conversation remains civil, understanding that the standards of civil discourse vary from region to region around the world. On the topic of religion, it is especially important to remember that communicating across regional and cultural boundaries can be difficult. I hope that the comments can continue to feature vibrant debate and serious discussion about the place of religion in the world and about the relations between the world’s religions. But that kind of discussion is not as easy as it seems, and comments that seem appropriate in one setting create misunderstanding in another.
In any case, thanks to all those whose support has brought the site this far. I hope we stay together for another million.