Regular visitors to Twelve Mile Circle may want to skip the article today. I don’t discuss anything geographic. Also there’s nothing mentioned that hasn’t been revealed within these pages previously, the only difference being that every item has now been collected into a single spot. See you in a couple of days.
For the rest of you
I get questions about the site from curious people spread throughout the Intertubes. Lots of visitors arrive at 12MC unexpectedly as a result of some esoteric query entered into a search website. They’re surprised that someone has actually written an article on their curious topic. I know! Crazy. Who would write an article about Pre-Nazi Swastika Architectural Details?
Admittedly, my About 12MC page isn’t very helpful. Viewers want to know more and I do my best to oblige when they contact me by email. I’ve collected some of the more common questions and made up some others, so now I can both add a link to “About 12MC” and send people here directly instead of answering each question individually. I hope to update this post over time, too.
Let’s begin.
Why haven’t I heard of this site before?
Topics here appeal to a small niche of dedicated people. Chances are, those who have an interest in weird geography discovered this site a long time ago. Seriously, I might select almost any other topic in the world and it would have a larger audience. Major search engines work on popularity and send more visitors to popular pages. It’s a vicious cycle. Popularity breeds greater popularity. Obscurity breeds greater obscurity. New readers won’t encounter 12MC unless they happen to hit an exact combination of words or phrases in their search query. I imagine more regular readers (vs. one-and-done readers) probably got here originally through referrals; those rare occasions when 12MC happened to earn a mention on a more popular website.
Why aren’t you trying harder to make 12MC more popular?
I don’t need it to be more popular. I write Twelve Mile Circle for myself, about topics that interest me. I’m glad that others seem to enjoy things I feature and I appreciate the collegial, interactive dialog in the comments. I could write about celebrity gossip or cuddly kittens if it were all about the numbers.
Well, maps are really popular on the Internet and they seem to fit the 12MC subject matter, right? Why not focus there?
That’s true. They get lots of retweets. Aggregator websites love them. Sometimes they even make the mainstream press. In fact, I have made maps and some of them went (quite mildly) viral. The dirty little secret is that aggregators use these maps as free content, often avoiding even the barest veneer of attribution, and then reap the results. The person who created the map gets crumbs if he’s lucky.
How do you come up with topics?
I keep an eye out for things that seem like they might be interesting as I go about my day and I record them on a spreadsheet. It’s that simple. Oftentimes I’ll write an article that leads to two or three additional topics I hadn’t considered before. Readers make a lot of suggestions, too. Inspiration come from a variety of sources.
Such as stories that are big in the news?
No, not really. Plenty of sites do that already. I don’t like writing something unless I think I can add value to the conversation. Anybody can regurgitate the latest “fascinating” map or geographic feature making the rounds on the Intertubes that day.
Why aren’t there more genuinely unusual geographic oddities on the site anymore?
Honestly, there are a limited number of quality oddities. I’m above a thousand articles into this now. I’ve noticed a shift in my writing over the years. Articles used to be brief and focused specifically on geographic features, and the more the unusual the better. Now articles are much longer and go into greater detail, generally with an historical context along with the geographical. They take longer to research and write, and I learn a lot more from them (which is a major reason why I publish this site to begin with). My undergraduate degree was in history, another great interest of mine, so that probably explains part of the gradually changing emphasis too.
You don’t have an article on {a glaringly obvious Geo-Oddity}. Why not?
I’ve become very selective as I’ve drawn-down on the list of noteworthy geo-oddities. I’m probably waiting for my opportunity to visit the feature in person. For example, Kentucky Bend / Bubbleland remained mostly unmentioned on 12MC for several years until I visited it in person during my Riverboat Adventure. I was well aware of its existence and I chose to ignore it on these pages it until the appropriate moment.
When will you run out of ideas?
I don’t know. My spreadsheet always seems to have about a hundred topics on it, year-after-year. I’m not in any danger of hitting the end of the list anytime soon. I’ll keep writing as long as I’m learning new things and I’m continuing to enjoy the process.
Are you from Delaware?
Ah, you made the connection between Twelve Mile Circle and Delaware. Actually no, I’m not from Delaware nor have I ever lived there although I do travel there fairly regularly. I simply liked the idea of an arc as a border. Also I think Delaware may have more geo-oddities per square mile than just about any other place. Something like West Cornerstone may have been a more appropriate name geographically, now that I think about it. Then the site would have to be abbreviate as WC instead of 12MC and that wouldn’t be good.
Why are comments moderated?
Because of blog spam. The beauty of a niche website like 12MC is that I can institute 100% comment moderation and never get overwhelmed by the workload. A comment won’t sit in the queue for more than a few hours at most.
I’m working on {a puzzle, an Internet contest, homework, etc…}. Can you help me?
Probably not. I might reply if I know the answer immediately and it requires a sentence or less. Otherwise I’ll hit delete and move on with my life. Researching my own questions takes up enough of my free time.
Can I offer topic suggestions?
Of course. Many of them will end up as short topics on my occasional “Odds and Ends” articles, with credit to the submitter. Some suggestions are particularly outstanding and end-up worthy of an entire article.
Do you accept guest posts?
I’ve featured a handful of guest posts on exceptional topics from longtime, loyal readers. They’ve been fantastic. I’d be reluctant to accept guest posts that didn’t rise to that very stringent standard. I would never accept a post from a marketing company.
Why does 12MC have advertisements.
To pay for web hosting. Anything extra goes towards further geo-oddity adventures.
What if I have other questions?
Please submit a comment. I’ll update the page if I like it.
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