Let me put in the Disclaimer first: I did not have many reads (hardly double digit reads even) onto my posts and i nowhere figured in the first 5 pages of popular lists, so i have no vested interest-at least till now- in posting this comment) We all have spoken about the reads in different strokes. Some have heaved a sigh of relief at its downfall, while some have felt the pace of postings have slackened. While some even felt a possibility of jealousy creeping due to their names not figuring on the Popular list, others feel people are simply trying to hop onto the "top post' bandwagon. Some have even gone on to cite that their adsense revenues have gone up ever since reads have vanished. Beats me, because how does a searcher on google know that reads are no longer present on xomba posts before clicking on the posts ?. And if reads are not being listed does it mean that the Cup Posts are not being read ? There is no limit or restriction on the number sites a viewer can search on the net. So how does removing reads increase or decrease someones adsense revenue ? Does not make much sense to me. Internet is a democratic medium. The more curbs you pose, the less palatable a site gets. Some have also said that reads are important for motivation as well as self appraisal. Well said. Reads are important. No let me put it this way. Reads are vital. In fact they are the heartbeat of the articles and posts. Even Google has systems like page ranks to rate pages. The number of visits (reads) are the sole indicator of web traffic. And web traffic is at the heart of any internet based business and revenue model. I 'd rather have a million reads on a average subject than some hundred reads for an article of an exceptional quality. I am not saying content is not important. But by diluting the web traffic indicator a very important sensing element is lost. As i see it, the moment you remove reads, the posts become dead, the velocity or urgency is lost. I do not see how removal of reads will make good content better. Good content is good content - it will reap reads in any case. And why are we apprehensive of something becoming more popular ? Surely Xomba is not all about Cups. A rational and and even an average web surfer can see that. I mince no words and say that I feel reads are heartbeat of any posts and they should be back. The reads are like pulsating energy of the posts just like heartbeat is for human heart. They bring the post alive. They should be restored back. Popular content is interpolation of reads and that can be held back if it hurts people's sensibilities, or till such time collective maturity dawns upon us. But reads for individual posts is a top priority. (I hope nick is listening). And folks, lastly i want to say only two things: First, I have no intentions to poke fun or mean insult to anyone. Beg pardon if i have bruised anyone's ego. Second, I love Xomba (and the xombies). Just Love it ! kukku

You make some really good points. I think you are right about the most popular lists sometimes turning people away. It would be nice if there was some way for articles to be recognized by quality of writing, not just how many page view they get. I have read some really well written articles that will never get on the most popular list as they are about topics that just do not appeal to the crowd that comprises the audience that generates the most page views. Some categories of articles will never rival Celebrity Gossip for popularity by page views. It would be nice if there were a way to recognize some of those articles with high quality content in some way. 1. So my first choice for something to replace the "Most Popular" blocks would be something that recognized quality of writing and content. Related articles are a great feature, and my income suffered when they were temporarily gone from the site. I would like to see them stay. Perhaps another similar box for "Other Articles By This Author" that allowed the author to choose a number of their own articles to be listed for their readers to peruse would boost reads and encourage better quality of authorship. Readers would not likely choose to read more of an author's work if it was poorly written and contained poor quality content. 2. So my second choice for "Most Popular" replacement would be "Other Articles By This Author" that allowed the author to choose some of their own work to be listed. 3. My third choice would be an "Author's Choice" block where each author could list articles by some other author that they consider worthy of consideration by readers. 4. Since there is now more room on the right nav bar, perhaps we could have listed a longer list of recent bytes and blurbs and comments. That would put more titles out there to peak the interest of readers.... That would be my fourth choice. 5. Fifth would be an "Editors Choice" block for each category, if we had editors for each category. This would allow a category editor to select articles in that category to be displayed in a sidebar, when readers selected some article from that category. Something like related articles with the quality filter of an editor who would have to approve them for inclusion. Those choices are not necessarily in order of importance. Neither are they fully developed concepts.... just infant ideas that need a lot of growth and development. Page views are important... very important, and I cant wait to get them back. However, they should not be the only criteria for recognition.... IMHO Angel

No one *has* to check other people's work and try to beat it. I think some people don't even look at what other Xombies are doing; they're just checking out what's popular on the search engines and trying to jump on the bandwagon. Besides, if a topic on Xomba has gotten a lot of hits, chances are good that the topic is already trending down in the search engines and people who add new posts on the topic may not get as many reads.

and I need to thank Mr. Nick and his team. It would be good for the original writers and would discourage the copy cat syndrome.We can think about some common alternative for counters .