Amalaric and BrosFate battle to be top New Post of 2020

The list this year is dominated by Amalaric (6 posts) and BrosFate (3 posts). It was their battle for the top spot that prompted me to re-examine my methodology (again!).

Total Hits v Hit Rate

Under the old original and simple 'Total Hits' method BrosFate-3 would have romped away with the title this time. It scored3407 hits in the year wresting the all-time record for this particular measure from 2019's top scorer 'Milking Factories 4' with 2820. In second place, a long way behind on 2103 hits, was 'Art of Amalaric-1'. However this post was only published in August and if that time period was factored in by using the new 'Hit Rate' measure introduced last year, it scored an annualised 5950 views pa compared with Brosfate-3's 3838.Amalaric-1 did not quite manage to match the previous all time 'Hit Rate' record set by Wrestling Arsenal in 2018 (an exceptional 9195) but it did beat the 2^ndhighest - IFNB(3096 in 2018) and last years winner, Milking Factories 4 (2949). In fact the top 11 posts on 'Hit Rate' this year all beat IFNB's score, despite overall visitor levels dropping slightly (a phenomenon I will discuss next time).

On the 'Hit Rate' measure BrosFate-3 was actually pushed down into 7^thplace by several other late autumn articles which made substantial scores in a very short space of time. This didn't seem a very fair result to me and other worthy articles suffered a similar downgrading. As a result I modified the methodology again to strike a balance between 'Total hits' and 'Hit Rate'. In the results table above the posts are sequenced in an order which combines both these measures. Columns 3 and 4 show the ranking position for each separate measure. 

The methodology is explained in more detail at the foot of this post.

The Winning Articles

'Art of Amalaric-1' emerges as the overall winner by virtue of coming second on both measures with BrosFate-3 as runner-up, a fairer outcome, I think. Amalaric's Art still dominates the rest of the list and this is an appropriate reflection of the profound effect his images and writings have had on my own thinking and creative processes this year. It's inevitable that the opening article in the series is top scorer, since I guide new readers to start there. Only 2 of the 8 articles published so far are missing from the list (No 4, 'Ritual of Undressing' and No 6, 'Cruel Justice'). The most recent (No 8, 'A Slave's Life') actually topped the 'Hit Rate' table but it was published too late in the year to register a big number of 'Total Hits' and only just beat 'the cut' which was 33^rd place (see Methodology below). There are more Amalaric articles to come in 2021 and it won't be possible to assess them all properly until this time next year.

As consolation for BrosFate, all 3 of his articles got into the top 20 at 2, 9 and 19. I was surprised that BrosFate -3, a 'round up' article (3838 hits) did so much better than my own favourite, BrosFate-1 (Captured Soldier) with 1848 hits. He'll get more recognition for that big score in the 'All Comers' list for 2020 which I will publish shortly.

Priapus of Millet is a long-time favourite at this blog (and with me!) so it's no surprise to see the two 'Shooting The Past' articles well placed at 5 and 13. The imagery in this series is remarkable with subtle, erotic undertones that peak in Part 2, which explains the greater interest there.

There's been no shortage of other surprises this year, notably Ehrlik who isn't really a gay artist at all, but his two domination images certainly struck a chord with my readers to come in at 5 and 12 (and even higher on 'Total Hits' alone). I confess I have little interest in women but I do enjoy see them dominating 'straight' men as long as they don't dominate the imagery itself. I think it's a shame that such pictures are rejected by many due to the female presence, but most of my readers seem open to the sight (in moderation).
At least, I've had no complaints about it!

Surprise No 2 is the appearance of DooSoo's 'Humiliation Floor' at No 11. It's top quality artwork with an evergreen, forced undressing theme at it's core, but I hadn't expected it to attract quite so much interest. It's 831 hits in just 10 weeks would have propelled it into the top 5 in most recent years. By contrast 'The Bondage Art of Black Prof' (another non-gay artist) aroused only modest interest on publication. The timing in early May was not so good and the dwarf-like characters it features as villains caused me a bit of politically correct soul-searching. It got a late surge of interest in the autumn and I'm pleased to see it sneaked in at No 18. Tentakun at No. 20 makes up a varied trio of Asian artists who are new to this blog, a result of a resolution I made this time last year to focus more on 'new' Art.

There are a clutch of articles this year which I had a hand in creating myself. My own drawings rarely turn up in these lists but I try not get upset about it! The two 'Crazy Cop Captions' at 10 and 17 are slight pieces in comparison but it's nice that readers like them. These are the only articles based on photographs this year, unless you count Amalaric's manips in that category. I also did some colouring and slight image alterations for the ObiKumKenobi, Milking Factory - 7 post which, at 16, has modestly emulated the success of it's predecessors. The popularity of that series probably accounts also for the presence of last years 'Most Popular Post' article at 14. I'd like to think it's my writing that attracts visitors but I suspect the main draw is the headline image by Sarander, which I cropped for this article to create a greater impact.
Looks like it worked!

Even with the changes in methodology, no posts from 2019 made it into the top 20, victims of a late surge in visitors. A couple just missed the cut (and would have just made it into the old-style 'Total Hits' top 20). These borderline posts suffer from multi-part articles crowding them out of the top 20, so I've prepared a supplementary table of the next 10 or so articles who might have found a place if I only allowed the top scoring article to represent any series. These also-rans are shown below in the sequence they would occupy if they were all admitted to the table, which would also require a change to the admission 'cut offs'.