In the course of year a few posts attract an exceptional number of readers, whether by arousing a passionate discussion that generates a lot of comments, or through a link from on a site with a large following. “Sowing Dragon’s Teeth,” a response to Mike Resnick’s Universe editorial unfavorably comparing Worldcons with megacons, topped the year’s hit list because it received so many comments.

Fans also paid serious attention to stories dealing with issues about changes to the Hugo Awards, especially Hugo Administrator Vincent Docherty’s valuable post about how some of the changes (now ratified) will work.

1. Sowing Dragon’s Teeth
2. Joe Haldeman (tag)
3. Omnivores Not to Blame for Mammoth Extinction?
4. Chuck Crayne Dies Suddenly
5. Not J.R.R. Bond
6. Fans Converge on Glendale Bookstore for an Escape From Hell
7. Forrest J Ackerman (tag)
8.  Vincent Docherty Discusses Online Hugo Eligibility
9. YA: Bad for Hugo?
10. Yes on Dropping the Semiprozine Hugo

There are four stories that really benefitted from links on other sites. Joe Haldeman’s lengthy hospitalization made news all over the internet. The reason his the tag — not an individual story — ranks so high is that James Nicoll used it as a link on his widely-read LiveJournal. My mammoth extinction post was linked to by CNN for a few hours — which was all it took to collect several hundred hits. And links from Jerry Pournelle’s Chaos Manor site elevated Chuck Crayne’s obituary and also the post about Mystery & Imagination Bookstore’s Escape From Hell launch party. Jerry especially liked John King Tarpinian’s photo of Niven and him signing.