2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 7,500 times in 2010. That’s about 18 full 747s.

 

In 2010, there were 14 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 49 posts. There were 7 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 529kb.

The busiest day of the year was November 5th with 58 views. The most popular post that day was Naruto card maker.

 

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were cambiacartas.com, tradecardsonline.com, search.conduit.com, miniaturetrading.com, and networkedblogs.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for naruto card maker, naruto card creator, card maker naruto, naruto cards, and naruto card.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Naruto card maker October 2009
13 comments

2

Automatic image generation for dream cards April 2009

3

New match search option October 2009

4

Search by card number October 2009
1 comment

5

CCG-style business cards March 2009
1 comment

Earn points and reach higher levels!

To reward and reflect users’ participation in our site, we are now giving out Merit Points so that others can see how much they have contributed to our community. Most things you do on the site will give you points that will let you reach higher Experience Levels. Your Experience Level is shown next to your user name and it’s a quick way for others to determine how much you have worked on the site.

We have also defined Trader Levels and Player Levels that indicate how much experience someone has trading successfully on this site, and how good they are playing collectible card games.

Every user has now a Merits Card that shows the number of points they have earned and the different levels they have currently reached.

The card is shown on your web page and on the contact form to send private messages.

You can read more about Merit Points and how to earn them and about the three different Levels on our help page here.

We have already granted Merit Points to all users for all their activities since they joined in, so you may already have a high Level if you are an old-standing user or have participated actively on our site.

So keep on participating and contributing to this community and keep upgrading to the next Level!

Comment your votes!

After multiple requests for this feature, we have finally added a text input to the voting interface so that you can include a comment with your vote to justify it.

Furthermore, this comment is compulsory if you want to cast a maximum or a minimum value vote. This is to make sure that others can understand why you think such a high or low vote is warranted.

New trades search and sort options

Based on users’ feedback we have added a new search option when looking for trades so that you can now check also for matches with the cards in your private collection (in case you may consider trading them for something you want badly).

We have also added a sorting option so that you can decide how to sort the results of your search. You may want to see first those users with more references or who have been registered for a longer time. You can do that and more now.

Become our fan on Facebook!

We have now a Facebook page.
Check it out and become a fan!

You will stay updated of everything that happens on our sites and can also contribute your ideas and suggestions.

And remember you can also follow us on Twitter:

Access your favorites

When viewing Card Reviews, Decks, and Dream Cards, you can now get a list of your favorite ones with just a click. The new option lets you list those contributions that you have given a high rating (you have voted them with a 4 or a 5). This way you can easily go back to your favorite reviews, decks or dream cards at any moment.

Favorites option on the search form

So, keep voting for your favorite items and come back to them often to discuss them with others!

More realistic trade binders

When browsing your trade and collector binders the amount and name of the cards are shown below the actual cards. I have now added the option to hide this info so that there is more space available for the cards themselves and so that the binder looks even more real.

An example of a trade binder of Magic cards with card names hidden

Cleaner look

I have slightly changed the look of the sites. It’s not a big change, but it’s a tiny bit more colorful and cleaner, and internally more standard so that in the future will allow for the addition of different graphical themes for the users to choose from.

Before and After

Updated Trading Guidelines

I have updated our Official Trading Guidelines to include the use of the new Tracked Trades service. Together they give you the highest protection available online. Always use them when trading, buying or selling cards or miniatures on the web.

New tweets

I have added new tweets that are sent when the Card Reviews, Decks, and Dream Cards of the Week get selected, and when the monthly tournament winners are decided. Check http://www.twitter.com/TradeCards