Just last September, we passed the 27,000,000 mark and we just hit 28,000,000 views. As our site motto states, “the thing speaks for itself” and that is certainly true of our success. The success of this site is due to this entire virtual community at RIL. We continue to rank in the top legal blogs in the world and we are continuing to see a growing international readership. It is a great privilege to host this forum with so many interesting and passionate voices on contemporary issues. While we often disagree, the vast majority of comments remain civil and substantive. While we just did our end of the year wrap up, we often use these milestones to look at the current profile of the blog and its supporters around the world.

As always, I want to offer special thanks for our weekend contributors: Mike Appleton, Larry Rafferty, Darren Smith, Kimberly Dienes, and Cara Gallagher. I particularly want to thank Darren who has continued to help manage the blog and help out folks who encounter posting problems.

So here is our current profile:

Over the last 365 days, our ten biggest international sources for readers (after the United States) have been:

1. Canada
2. United Kingdom
3. Australia
4. Germany
5. France
6. India
7. The Netherlands
8. European Union
9. Philippines
10. New Zealand

Welcome to all of our new readers from those countries. I have always found our foreign commentators particularly valuable in giving us an insight from beyond our borders — and domestic media coverage.

The top ten posted in terms of readership in the last 30 days:

1. Suspending Students For Odor Of Marijuana On Their Persons Problematic In Legal States
2. Ted Cruz, Dominionism and Jesus
3. Sisters Wives Case Goes To The Tenth Circuit [Updated]
4. Germany Cracks Down On Anti-Immigration Speech
5. 10 Reasons The U.S. Is No Longer The Land Of The Free
6. University Professor Removed After Asking Students To Agree To Use Of Profanity In Class
7. Newly Released Email Shows Clinton Instructing Aide To Strip Header and Send Information Over Unsecured Lines After Objections Over Security
8. The Cosby Charges: When Silence Speaks Loudly
9. Inspector General: Clinton Emails Contain Special Access Material Above The Top Secret Level
10. Consumer Protection or Product Disparagement? The Secret To KFC’s “Eleven Secret Herbs and Spices” Is That There Are Only Four Not-So-Secret Ingredients

The most frequent commentators in the last 1000 comments were:

Paul C. Schulte
issacbasonkavichi
Karen S
po
BarkinDog
Nick Spinelli
tnash80hotmailcom

Thank you to all of our regular commentators. We remain an extraordinarily broad and diverse body of commenters from different parts of the world and different political and social backgrounds. Thanks again.

We are also about to pass 20,000 folks on Twitter. That hardly puts us into Trump or Oprah territory, but it is an impressive following for a legal blog. It actually puts us at near the top of legal commentator twitter accounts.

I hope that, despite the heated rhetoric of some comments, we can continue to recognize a shared interest in discussing contemporary issues and controversies as well as an occasional bizarre or funny story. It is possible to learn even from those with whom we disagree. What is most interesting to me about this blog is how smart people can look at similar cases from vastly different perspectives. That does not mean that everything is relative or that there are no true answers. Rather it can help us better understand the motivations and perceptions of people on the other side of these issues. Many of the issues that are raised in posts have people of good-faith on both sides. It is neither fair nor productive to attack them personally. You do not have to agree with each other, but the participation on this blog reflects an interest in exchanging different views and values. I hope that that can continue and that this forum can remain a pluralistic and open forum for mature people to engage in mature discussions.

Thanks again everyone and congratulations on the latest milestone.