Locus Online’s traditional April Fools gag blew up the internet and scorched the editors on the same morning, none of them having eyeballed in advance Lawrence Person’s attempt (as “L. Ron Creepweans”) to parody feminists and Islam alike. When Locus Online tried to calm the waters by taking down the post, Person billboarded it on his own site still festooned with the Locus logo. Thousands rushed to see, like the folks who spot an orange cone on the highway and slow to look for bodies.

The Hugo nominations, which are ordinarily the top story of the month they’re announced, couldn’t compete with that.

Neither could the murder conviction of Christian Gerhartsreiter, aka Clark Rockefeller, who killed LASFS member John Sohus in 1985.

Here are the Top 10 posts for April 2013 according to Google Analytics:

1. April Fails Day
2. Terry Pratchett’s Coat of Arms
3. 2013 Hugo Award Nominations
4. Christian Gerhartsreiter (tag)
5. Seen Nick Vanover?
6. John Sohus (tag)
7. Ellison Recovering From Spill
8. Ed Kramer (tag)
9. Roger Ebert (1942-2013)
10. Fox News on Kramer’s Jail Stay

If the Gerhartsreiter/Sohus duo and the two Kramer items are counted as one, two more posts move into the Top 10 — Allyn Cadogan Passes Away, and SF Writer Stamps Delayed.

Terry Pratchett’s Coat of Arms is one of my evergreens – for the sake of keeping the Top 10 interesting I usually skip it unless the numbers are extraordinary. March was one of those months because somebody posted a link at Reddit. A little bit of interest from a big fish made Terry the runaway #1. 

Next to that, Andrew Porter’s obit for one of the giants of the fanzine field, Richard E. Geis, deservedly received a wide reading.

Here are the Top 10 posts for March 2013 according to Google Analytics:

1. Terry Pratchett’s Coat of Arms
2. Porter: Appreciation for Richard E. Geis (1927-2013)
3. Wright Is Wrong?
4. Christian Gerhartsreiter (tag)
5. Ellison Coming To The Simpsons
6. Corflu Bid From the Mysterious East
7. US Schedules Stamps of SF Writers
8. A Short History of Porter Tuckerizations
9. Parisian Worldcon Bid
10. Book of Me

News about Dragon*Con co-founder Ed Kramer’s extradition to Georgia to face long-standing child molestation charges sparked new calls for economic action against the convention, from which Kramer continues to receive a share of proceeds. Kaja and Phil Foglio are perhaps the best known people to announce they will boycott this year’s Dragon*Con.  How many fans have been searching out information about Kramer’s case and history is visible in the post rankings below.

In other stories, there was a balance of bad (the passing of jan howard finder) and good (Stu Shiffman’s continuing recovery), along with the bizarre (a writer opposed to libraries) and silly (Scott Shaw’s peanut butter cosplay of 1972.)

Here are the Top 10 posts for February 2013 according to Google Analytics:

1. Foglios Boycott Dragon*Con
2. Ed Kramer (tag)
3. The Comics Hugo
4. Dragon*Con Addresses Kramer Connection
5. jan howard finder (1939-2013)
6. Scott Shaw! Deuce of Deuces
7. Ed Kramer Petitions CT Supreme Court
8. Free John Carter
9. Stu Shiffman (tag)
10. Terry Deary Disses Libraries

There was widespread interest in Dragon*Con co-founder Ed Kramer’s failed last maneuver to avoid extradition, immediately followed by news of his arrival in a Georgia prison, presumably to stand trial at last on charges that have been pending since 2000.

In other stories, TAFF proved it is always good for a shot of adrenaline, cosplay got some surprising bad press in San Diego, and readers kept clicking away at File 770’s report of Baen’s new Amazon sales connection (last month’s top post).

Here are the Top 10 posts for January 2013 according to Google Analytics:

1. Ed Kramer (tag)
2. Theresa Derwin Enters TAFF Race
3. Ed Kramer Petitions CT Supreme Court
4. Looking Good In San Diego
5. Con*Cept To Liquidate
6. Baen Announces Amazon Relationship
7. Is Your Club Dead Yet?
8. Teed Off
9. Hamit Does First Virtual Signing on Espresso Book Machine
10. A Century of Snapshots

I’ll bet even infrequent readers of this blog can guess the top stories of 2012 – those stories were the reasons they visited.

What does it mean to be safe at an sf convention, how do working writers define their participation and set boundaries there, and how harassment policies are devised and enforced, were issues demanding attention after Genevieve Valentine protested her treatment at this year’s Readercon.

Exchanges about Readercon also set up a conflict over different generation’s attitudes (or at least the men of different generations) about harassment as revealed in an online exhibit from the 1962 Worldcon which included a letter proposing that Isaac Asimov talk about “The Positive Power of Posterior Pinching” – see “Monsters of the Idway” below.  

Then, the day after Ray Bradbury died a surge of interest online yielded huge numbers of hits – from Japan! — on File 770’s features about two birthday parties he attended at Mystery & Imagination.

Before any of these stories broke, we were marveling over the comic potential of Robert and Leslyn Heinlein’s entry from the newly-released 1940 Census records. It bears no resemblance at all to the Heinleins we know – was this Leslyn’s idea of a joke?

Here are the Top 10 posts for calendar 2012 according to Google Analytics:

1. Readercon Bans René Walling for 2 Years
2. What the Heinleins Told the 1940 Census
3. Baen Announces Amazon Relationship
4. Jim Young (1951-2012)
5. Ray Bradbury’s 90^th Birthday Party  
6. Monsters of the Idway
7. Ray Bradbury’s 89^th Birthday Party
8. Readercon Updates
9. Harlan Ellison [tag]
10. SCA Will Pay $1.3M To Settle Abuse Case

A month rarely passes without a salute to a departed fannish friend, and December was no exception. And there were serious things to report in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

Still, the holidays put their usual imprint on the topics covered by File 770. There were sleigh-fulls of snark about The Hobbit. And fans were amazed by the does-Macy’s-tell-Gimbel’s? news flash that sf ebook pioneer Baen will begin selling through the Amazon Kindle store, too.

Here are the Top 10 posts for December 2012 according to Google Analytics:

1. Baen Announces Amazon Relationship
2. Porter: Gryphon Books Collection Destroyed By Sandy
3. Vanessa Schnatmeier (1954-2012)
4. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Nausea
5. BSFS Decorates the Dalek  
6. Film Adaptations Writers Hate
7. Gwynplaine MacIntyre in “Baby Peggy”
8. Snapshots 97 Ho Ho Ho
9. Baen To Kindle More Sales?
10. Hobbit Twacks!

The big date is coming: the fifth anniversary of this blog. On January 15, 2007 I made my first post to the electronic File 770.

Do you want to contribute to the celebration? Let me know.

Something I’ll be doing ahead of time – on January 1 – is update the theme. You’ve been warned. So don’t go into shock when Big Blue switches to something new…!

There was a balance of cheers and mourning among the Top 10 posts for November 2012.

The posts are ranked based on statistics from Google Analytics:

1. Edith Stern Wins Kate Gleason Award
2. Apex Magazine Mediates a Conrunning Crisis
3. Vanessa Schnatmeier (1954-2012)
4. Ellison’s Big Pair 
5. Claude Degler Found in 1940 Census
6. Anthony Burgess, Fibber
7. Fanartist Alan Hunter Dies
8. Captain Pike Signs
9. Pam Fremon, F.N. Passes Away
10. File 770 #161, #162 Available