Who are the stealth readers?

I like numbers, as the title 7 Days and Counting might reveal. The reoccurring prime number seven, in particular, is my favorite. The simultaneous simplicity of it combined with the promise of several, sets seven apart from other one digit prime numbers, and makes it unique. Five comes close, but it is reduced to playing a second fiddle to a boring round number ten, and five ends up being just the “half”. I like any patterns seven is involved in, even arbitrary ones, such as a week, which makes the number seven even more appealing.

Still, even I’m surprised, how fascinated I’ve become of the blog statistics. In April I noticed that over one hundred people had read the beginning (7DP01) of 7 Days and Counting, but I only know a few of them. Now, I’m curious who the stealth readers are, particularly the ones who have taken the time to crack the weak password only to read the ending of the outdated blog version.

Then again, it could be that the persistent stealth readers would have liked to read the complete story, and in the order it was intended, but the blog doesn’t make it exactly easy. As the latest post is always listed first, it is difficult to follow a story, especially this one that unfolds forwards, backwards and then forwards again. The PDF version takes care of this problem, but introduces another. I don’t know who to send it to. If I post it on the blog, the stealth readers might download it, but most likely I would never know if they read parts of it, all of it or none of it. The blog statistics are hazy at best, but still at times they provide invaluable real-time feedback of the reading patterns that help me to find problem areas in the story.