The 81 Most-Visited Articles of 2024

Welcome to my fifth annual review of the year that was at The New Leaf Journal. I decided to handle our 2024 year-end review a little bit differently than I did for our 2020-2023 editions. My year-end reviews count down our most-visited articles of the year (see 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 review articles). In this year’s edition, I will work through our 81 most-visited articles from 81 to 1. I settled on 81 because I set a threshold for total number of views for consideration, combined with making the final list divisible by three. Our 81st-ranked article of 2024 accrued close to the same number of views as our 54th-ranked article of 2023, so I decided to make that the cut-off. Although 2022 still holds the mark for our busiest year, 2024 was our deepest year.

I wrote our 2020-2023 reviews as Justin and Justina dialogues (Justin and Justina are our resident fictional dialogue duo; you can see their collected discussions). This year, I decided to let Justin and Justina relax and only call on them to discuss our 12-most visited articles of 2024. I will handle 81-13 solo, and I will also take care of all the statistics so that Justin and Justina can focus on the content (as the kids would say). While these sorts of years-in-review are necessarily self-referential, I expect that even our most-regular readers will come across some articles they may not have seen before. Consider it worthwhile reading if you are a fan of The New Leaf Journal, looking for some fun articles to read to start 2025, or just want to get our fictional dialogue characters’ takes on the top of the list.

Before continuing to the ranking proper, I would like to highlight that the site has undergone some significant aesthetic improvements in 2024. I detailed most of those changes in our August 2024 review, while discussing a few additional improvements in our September 2024 review. I recommend trying our new-and-improved on-site search if you have not done so already. I also re-added our Guestbook, although we have not received any real submissions yet. To catch up on all of our articles published in 2024, you can see our full 2024 archive and our monthly review articles: January, February, March, April & May, June & July, August (see above), September (see above), October, November, and December.

(We also published our 999th and 1,000th articles in May. That is worth celebrating with fireworks.)

Rules for the Ranking

This project mostly speaks for itself – but I will set forth the ground rules for our countdown.

1. I am ranking the articles which received the most page visits in 2024 according to our local, privacy-friendly page-counting solution, Koko Analytics (see my review).
2. We are measuring the total number of visitors the articles had in 2024. There is no handicap for articles published in 2024.

While reading, I will use a few ranking terms which I define below:

• Newsletter Week Top Fives: Our official newsletter (you can sign up or add our RSS feed), The Newsletter Leaf Journal, is published every Saturday. In each issue of the newsletter, I list our five most-visited articles of the Newsletter Week, which runs from Saturday to Friday. I will include Newsletter Week ranking notes when applicable.
• Monthly and 3-Month Top 24s: I publish a month-in-review article every month (or at least I try to). In each of those articles, I list our 24 most-visited articles of the month in question and of the most-recent three-month period. For example, my just-published December 2024 review includes a list of the 24 most-visited articles of December 2024 and also the most visited articles of October-December 2024. Because this is a 2024 review, I will only count the 10 three-month periods which occurred entirely in 2024 (i.e., we begin with January 2024-March 2024 instead of November 2023-January 2024).

This promises to be a long article, so let us wrap up the introduction and get right into the ranking, beginning with the 81synd most-visited article of 2024…

Articles 81-61

81. Installing and Running Bodhi Linux on a 2007 MacBook
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. October 3, 2021.

• Summary: I detailed how I installed Bodhi Linux on Victor V. Gurbo’s 2007-model MacBook from college.
• View Notes: Its best month came in February.
• Possible Updates: There may be a “part two” to this article in 2025, but that is TBD.

80. Why Vintage Guitars Sound Better
    Victor V. Gurbo. January 4, 2021.

• Summary: Our resident professional musician and luthier, Victor V. Gurbo, made the case for the sound quality of vintage guitars (and shares photos of his vintage guitar collection).
• Ranking Notes: Four of its five best months were September-December.

79. An Early Review of Pixelfed – Instagram Alternative
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. November 13, 2020.

• Summary: I wrote this review of Pixelfed, an open source federated alternative to Instagram, after one month of use back in 2020. I still use Pixelfed. While Pixelfed has grown since 2020, my original review is still on point for the most part.
• View Notes: Our top-ranked article of 2020, 6th in 2021, and 11th in 2022 found itself just barely sneaking into our extended ranking in 2024.
• Fun Fact: This article is cited to as a source in the Russian and Finnish Wikipedia articles about Pixelfed.
• Update: I still post to my Pixelfed account. You can also follow Victor.

78. EnBizCard Review – FOSS Digital Business Cards
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. May 12, 2022.

• Summary: My review of a free and open source static business card website generator, along with a discussion of how it can be used with WordPress.
• View Notes: I vaguely recall it having been in the mix for a weekly ranking appearance in the spring.

77. Reviewing “Rashomon and Other Stories”
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. March 6, 2021.

• Summary: My review of the Tuttle Classics Kindle collection of five English-translated short stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa.
• View Notes: It scored an unexpected weekly ranking appearance in Newsletter Week 22 (May 25-31) which contributed to its 20th place finish in May.

76. Grafting a Bird’s Head Cane Handle Onto a Wooden Umbrella
    Victor V. Gurbo. June 8, 2021.

• Summary: Victor V. Gurbo documented his grafting a brass bird’s head handle to an umbrella.
• View Notes: After being a ranking non-entity, this article came from nowhere to secure a dominant first-place finish in Newsletter Week 37 (September 7-13). Based largely on that week alone, it secured a third-place finish in September and three-month rank finishes of 19, 19, and 20 in September, October, and November respectively.
• Update: I can confirm that I have seen the umbrella in action and it is still going strong. Victor should write a more detailed guide on how to make one.

75. Our Town: “Pretty Enough For All Normal Purposes”
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. May 11, 2022.

• Summary: I discuss the “you’re pretty enough for all normal purposes” quote from Thornton Wilder’s classic three-act play, Our Town.
• View Notes: Its top-five months were August-December, making it one of our late-risers.

74. Anime Review: Endo and Kobayashi Live!
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. April 12, 2023.

• Summary: My review of a fun little winter 2023 anime series about two people in the real world interacting with characters in a visual novel.
• View Notes: I did not notice it throughout the year, but it chugged right along.

73. Usagi Drop: A Complicated Anime Pick
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. January 19, 2021.

• Summary: A quasi-review of the Usagi Drop anime, wherein I explained why I did not select it as one of my 2011-20 recommended series for general audiences despite it checking all of my criteria.
• View Notes: January was its best month, but its next four best months were September-December.
• Extra Note: I buried a mini review of the sweet Sweetness and Lighting anime in this article.

72. The Dangers in My Heart S2 Anime Review
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. April 28, 2024.

• Summary: My review of the second season of The Dangers in the Heart anime, which aired in winter season 2024.
• View Notes: It came close to making our August top-24.
• Incoming: I have reason to believe this show will have a featured spot in my two 2024 anime review articles, which will be published in a few days’ time. I also have reason to believe that we will be hearing more from The Dangers in My Heart in this article.

71. Umineko When They Cry Red Truth Guide
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. December 7, 2022.

• Summary: A short leaflet post sharing a link to a “red truth guide” for the iconic Umineko: When They Cry visual novel series. I found the guide useful when I was piecing together the story in the later chapters.
• View Notes: It was in position for a surprising placement in December up until the last week of the month (and year).

70. Surviving Megidolaon Spam in Persona 3 FES
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. September 4, 2023.

• Summary: I shared my recollection of an irritating, terrifying fight against a very enraged AI opponent that I had in Persona 3: FES, back in 2011.
• View Notes: It posted a 13th place finish in September, most likely owed to the September release of a DLC for the new Persona 3 remake covering the parts of the original Persona 3 FES.
• Extra Reading: I was inspired to share this video game spam story by my experience with a frustrating visual novel.

69. Comparing DuckDuckGo Lite and Qwant Lite
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. September 8, 2022.

• Summary: I compared the “light” versions of search engines (or more accurately, Bing front-ends) DuckDuckGo and Qwant.
• View Notes: Nothing too notable.
• Two cents: While I do not regularly use either, DuckDuckGo Lite is still a good choice for certain use-cases.

68. History of the Mario Party Gloves
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. November 6, 2022.

• Summary: I explore the history of a 2000 settlement reached between Nintendo and the New York Attorney General over injuries allegedly sustained from playing certain poorly-conceived video games in the original Mario Party for Nintendo 64.
• View Notes: It earned its first-ever monthly placement in December (only took it 25 months).
• Extra Reading: I also shared my memories of the mini-games which led to the glove-settlement.

67. Bill’s Secret Garden – A Pokémon Generation 1 Urban Legend
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. April 6, 2022.

• Summary: I dated myself and related an old-time Pokémon urban legend that I was told by a classmate in April or May of 1999. It is similar, but not identical, to the more common version of the legend.
• View Notes: My heart was warmed when my nostalgic Pokémon anecdote made an appearance in our August ranking at 21st.
• Extra Reading: This article goes nicely with my Imagination in Pokémon Red and Blue essay.

66. “Uncle Susan is a Wolf” – A Graffiti Photo and Research Project
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. December 29, 2021.

• Summary: I shared a photograph of odd graffiti seen in Gowanus, Brooklyn, and then offered some theories about its true meaning.
• View Notes: It came close to placing in March.

65. WP Super Cache Preload and Lazy Loading
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. April 4, 2023.

• Summary: I troubleshooted an issue I had in the interaction of my page caching set-up and trying to disable WordPress’s lazy loading.
• View Notes: It was relatively consistent while never threatening to land any placements.

64. Searching for School Days’ Nice Boat
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. May 6, 2022.

• Summary: One year after I wrote a review of the School Days anime and the infamous “Nice Boat” meme it spawned, I set off on a short article journey to find the “Nice Boat” which replaced the original airing of its final episode.
• View Notes: No special highlights.

63. Building a Big Joe Williams-Inspired Nine String Guitar
    Victor V. Gurbo. March 12, 2022.

• Summary: Victor V. Gurbo talks about building a Big Joe Williams-inspired 12-string guitar (photos included) while also exploring the life and legend of the musician who inspired his project.
• View Notes: Its best month came in February but its 2-5 months were September-December.
• Extra Reading: Victor had previously published Building an Airline Res-O-Glas Guitar Copy, which made our 2021 and 2022 rankings.

62. “Casey’s Revenge” – Grantland Rice’s 1896 Reply Poem to “Casey at Bat”
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. August 26, 2021.

• Summary: I re-printedCasey’s Revenge, a poem by the legendary sportswriter, Grantland Rice, which was styled as a follow-up to the iconic Casey at Bat.
• View Notes: It was not far off from ranking in October, which was its best month of the year.

61. Bottom-tier Character Tomozaki S1 Anime Review
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. December 29, 2023.

• Summary: I reviewed the 2021 first season of Botton-tier Character Tomozaki-kun at the end of 2023 in order to set up a review of the then-upcoming second season.
• View Notes: It performed best in January-March, which coincided with the airing of the second season of the anime.

Intermission I

Victor’s umbrella article is a true one-hit wonder on the ranking. There were a few articles which made some unexpected weekly placements but missed our year-end ranking. On Barry Bonds’ IBBs in 2006 and 2007 made the Newsletter Week 2 ranking thanks to another article being shared (that story will be dealt with at the top of the ranking) and did nothing else in 2024. My Introducing Pokémon Red Novel Project post, which will tie into our 57th-ranked article below, made Newsletter Week 10. A 2021 post titled Classic Pokémon Strategy Guides from Nintendo Power and Japan very unexpectedly made Newsletter Week 13. My very first New Leaf Journal article from May 2020, Against Half-Way Yogurt Thievery, made Newsletter Week 21. There were other one-hit weekly ranking articles, but these four were true one-hit wonders.

Articles 60-40

60. Japanese Environment in PoL, Lutris, and Bottles
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. June 16, 2022.

• Summary: I explained how to set up Japanese language environments for running Windows visual novels that require them on Linux using three WINE front-ends.
• View Notes: It was steady, but it did not land any placements like it did back in 2022.
• Aside: This article was linked to in a GitHub issue for Bottles, and that link is the source of a decent number of its views.

59. LoveChoice Visual Novel Review
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. February 9, 2021.

• Summary: A review of a three-part Chinese visual novel with endearing visuals.
• View Notes: It had a good February but missed ranking in what was a strong month. It fell off after that before posting its two best-ever months in terms of page views in October and November, earning monthly rankings of 22 and 16 respectively (October was its best month in terms of visits, ranking aside). It also earned the 24th spot in our November ranking. All-in-all, this was its best performance since it came in 13th place in September 2021 against a much smaller field.

58. You Can’t Fix Stupid – King Baby
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. April 15, 2022.

• Summary: I shared “KING BABY” graffiti in Brooklyn that had some commentary added to it in the form of a “You Can’t Fix Stupid” sticker.
• View Notes: It was consistently mediocre until it posted two strong months in November and December, with the latter putting it in the mix for a monthly placement.
• Fun Fact: This is the first time “KING BABY” has made our year-end ranking article since 2021. That year, a different KING BABY article made our ranking in 17th.

57. Pokémon: Pathways to Adventure (1999) Review
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. April 21, 2022.

• Summary: I re-acquired a Pokémon novel/strategy guide that I had read back in 1999 and gave it a thorough review.
• View Notes: After having had no ranking presence for more than two years, it made two consecutive weekly ranking appearances in Newsletter Weeks 30 and 31, which coincided with its 13th and 24th place finishes in July and then August. Its strong summer helped it also sneak into the three-month ranking at the end of August in 24th position.
• Coming Soon: I am almost ready to start publishing my own version of the strategy guide.

56. Reading Tea Leaves: The Symbolism of the Guitar and Other Instruments
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. January 4, 2022.

• Summary: I examined sections of a 1922 book on reading tea leaves which dealt with the symbolism of musical instruments.
• View Notes: Its two best months came in January and October.
• Happy Note: This article is a personal favorite of mine and it narrowly missed our smaller 2023 list, so I am happy to see it take advantage of the extra runway in 2024.

55. Bottom-tier Character Tomozaki – S2 Review
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. April 5, 2024.

• Summary: The second season of Tomozaki aired in the first quarter of 2024. I wrote this review just after it finished its run.
• View Notes: My second-season Tomozaki review ended up out-performing the first season review (as intended). It performed well in its eight months online to make the ranking, peaking with a 23rd place finish in October.
• Extra Reading: I questioned one character’s arguments in Tomozaki Anime and Big Tech Social Media.

54. DecSync Review
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. March 30, 2023.

• Summary: I reviewed an interesting free and open source project that I was using at the time which allows for syncing calendars, contacts, and feeds without a server.
• View Notes: Its best months came in January and June, with the latter resulting in a 19th place month-end finish.

53. Kaga no Chiyo Autumn Haiku on Unrequited Love
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. December 14, 2020.

• Summary: I re-printed and discussed a beautiful English-language translation of a melancholic 18th century haiku by Fukada no Chiyo.
• View Notes: Save for February, its best months came in the second half of the year (with its best being December).
• Historic Notes: It made the 2021 and 2022 rankings at 29th and 40th respectively before narrowly missing 2023’s top-54. It is good to see it return to our year-end party after a one-year hiatus.

52. Iroha Isshiki’s Hair is Brown, as Expected?
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. February 12, 2021.

• Summary: I examined a quote from the My Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong, as I Expected light novel series which strongly suggested that in a world where many of the Japanese high school characters dyed their hair, the brown hair of a certain Japanese high school character was natural. This was the first of what has become a long-running series on interpreting hair color in Japanese anime and related media.
• View Notes: This is my feel-good ranking story of the year because I like this article, it has some significance to the site in that it was the first of my hair color articles, and I like Iroha as a character. Iroha had done little of note since 2021, wherein she finished in 10th place that September and 24th for the year, albeit against a much shallower field than what we have in 2024. After a weak first part of the year which, according to Koko Analytics, included no visits in April, Iroha had a solid September followed by her best-ever month (in terms of visits) in October and a similarly strong November and December. Iroha placed 20th and 19th in September and October respectively and earned three-month placements at the end of November (21) and December (20).
• Preview: I expect that Iroha may receive some related article help beginning in April.
• Extra Reading: Within one month of publishing the Iroha article, I covered the hair color of a more minor character in the same show in Kaori Orimoto’s Hair is Blacker than I Expected. This article actually out-performed Iroha for much of 2021 and came in at 26th place that year.

51. Let’s Look at the Gibiru Search Engine
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. July 20, 2022.

• Summary: A short Leaflet review of Gibiru, an allegedly privacy-focused search tool which uses Google’s index.
• View Notes: This post was a late-riser, posting its best four months in succession at the end of the year. Its September performance left it close to a monthly top-24.

50. Futaba Igarashi’s Hair Is Naturally Green?
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. November 23, 2021.

• Summary: I wrote about the apparently naturally green hair of a very short young woman in an anime romantic comedy with an otherwise real-world setting.
• View Notes: Futaba saw a year in two halves. Her average in the latter six months of the year was about double the first six, but she was already on pace in the first six months to squeak into our year-end article. She did not match her 2023 performance which was good enough to place 30th, but it was a third consecutive solid year for this unassuming hair color study.

49. Outline Guide to Persona 3 FES The Answer
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. February 8, 2024.

• Summary I first played The Answer chapter of Persona 3 FES all the way back in 2011. I wrote a guide for a friend who was playing the epilogue after me. I happened to still have that guide, so I decided to share its wisdom in light of the 2024 release of a Persona 3 remake.
• View Notes: Like my Persona 3 spam story, which came in at 70th on this list, this post had its best month in September (23rd). While it did not peak as high as the lower-ranked Persona 3 post, it was more consistent throughout the year.

48. Shin Iryū’s Hair Color in A Sign of Affection
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. March 1, 2024.

• Summary: I examined the changing hair color of a young apprentice hair-stylist in the A Sign of Affection anime. This, remarkably, was my fourth article about hair color in the show.
• View Notes: Shin placed in our June ranking at 22nd and made the three-month rankings at the end of June (24) and July (22). Not too shabby for an article about the hair color of the 5th or 6th most important character in a show very much focused on the two most important characters.

47. The Last Stand of Constantine XI
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. May 30, 2020.

• Summary: Just over one month after we went live, I wrote about the last stand of the last Eastern Roman Emperor, Constantine XI in Constantinople.
• View Notes: This was a rough year for an article that had achieved top-10 placements in 2020 (2), 2021 (8), 2022 (7), and 2023 (10). Constantine XI looked to be on pace to make it five year-end top-10s in a row with a strong January (its January numbers were good enough to place in any other month), but it faded after January, only securing one placement in April.
• Extra Reading: I published two follow-ups in Constantine and the Last Vespers at Hagia Sophia and The Golden Eagles on Constantine XI’s Shoes. Also of potential interest is Who Was the Last Western Roman Emperor?

46. Using an Amiga OS-Inspired Window Theme In XFCE With XFWM4
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. January 2, 2022.

• Summary: I wrote about a fun AmigaOS-inspired XFWM4 window manager theme that I was using with the XFCE desktop environment.
• View Notes: Its best month was January and it strongest stretch was the first quarter. 2024 is its third consecutive top-50 after finishes of 23rd and 31st in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
• External Reading: One blogger found my AmigaOS XFWM4 post helpful.

45. A Sign of Affection Ep 7 Hair Color Notes
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. February 20, 2024.

• Summary: My third of five A Sign of Affection hair color ideas is the second to appear in the ranking thus far. As the title suggests, this one discussed what we learned about the hair color of key characters in the show’s seventh episode.
• View Notes: This article appeared in four monthly rankings: March (21), April (20), May (9), and July (24). This translated to three 3-month ranking appearances in May (17), June (20), and July (21). It also made a single weekly top five in Newsletter Week 19 (May 4-10).
• Extra Reading: Anime hair color scholars should enjoy my take on another hair color in two other 2024 shows: Hair Color in Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night and Aesthetics and Hair Color in Gimai Seikatsu.

44. A 2021 List of Alternative Search Engines and Search Resources
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. June 13, 2021.

• Summary: My now-outdated 2021 look at alternatives to the Google-Bing duopoly.
• View Notes: It was in the mix for a placement in April and for a weekly top-five in May, but was otherwise fairly consistent month-to-month en route to its fourth consecutive year-end placement: 2021 (12), 2022 (29), 2023 (45).
• Notes: I should probably do a new version of this outdated article, but I need a new angle to approach the subject from.
• Extra Reading: Although my 2024 article Search Engine NLJ Domain Search Test is not a general search engine review, it includes some updated notes and comments about search engines I looked at in 2021 (as well as some engines not included in the 2021 review).

43. A Look at ProxiTok, a TikTok Frontend
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. May 14, 2022.

• Summary: I reviewed a free and open source privacy front-end for TikTok despite the fact that I had (and have) never used TikTok and think TikTok should be banned.
• View Notes: Its best three months by a good margin were the first three months of the year – which resulted in placements in January (22) and March (24).
• Question: Would a TikTok ban (fingers crossed) help my ProxiTok review?

42. How to Find Substack RSS Feeds and Other Notes
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. June 19, 2021.

• Summary: I explained how to find RSS feeds for Substack blogs/newsletters.
• View Notes: It had a strong January and February before settling into a more pedestrian pace for the rest of the year. This article has fallen from it peak 2021 finish of 7th, but it continues to have its moments and, unlike some of my other tech posts from 2021 (see e.g., our 44th ranked article above), is just as relevant today as when I first published it.

41. Searching for the Figure Behind the Blob Dylan Tags in NYC and Florida
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. October 24, 2021.

• Summary: After documenting an instance of “BLOB DYLAN” graffiti seen in Bushwick, Brooklyn, I undertook an investigation, inspired by a reader email, into the shadowy figure behind the BLOB tags.
• View Notes: BLOB peaked at the end of the year, notching its only monthly placement of the year in 20th place in December.

Intermission II

A few articles in the 60-40 set are part of “Collections.” The hair color articles are linked to from my new Hair Color in Japanese Anime, Manga, and Games collection post. Meanwhile, the BLOB DYLAN survey is included with other articles about the BLOB in BLOB DYLAN Articles. You can find my growing list of collections (I plan to prioritize adding more in 2025) on our New Leaf Journal Collections page.

Articles 39-25

40. Familiar song in Angel Next Door anime
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. February 6, 2023.

• Summary: While watching the simulcast of The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten in 2023, I noted to myself that its ending song sounded familiar. That led to an investigation.
• View Notes: I figured that this article, which finished 40th in 2023 when it had the benefit of the anime it was attached to airing, would have faded in 2024. Against my expectations, it improved in 2024, notching two monthly placements in July (21) and August (23) and coming close to a weekly top-five in that stretch.

39. Peekier Search Engine Review
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. February 26, 2022.

• Summary: A review of a Bing-based search tool called Peekier. While this was relevant when I wrote it, Peekier was discontinued in early 2023.
• View Notes: Peekier finished 3rd overall in 2023 despite having been taken offline at the beginning of the year. It continued its strong performance in early 2024, coming in 15th in January and 21st in February and finishing 24th in the first 2024 three-month ranking at the end of March. While reality finally caught up to it after the first quarter of 2024, it performed well enough for the rest of the year to finish much higher than an article about a dead search tool probably should have.

38. Hair Color in The Apothecary Diaries Anime
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. November 15, 2023.

• Summary: A study of hair color in the first season of The Apothecary Diaries anime, which ran from fall 2023 through winter 2024, while the first season was in progress.
• View Notes: I wrote this article when The Apothecary Diaries began in 2023, but fortunately for the article, the show aired through the first quarter of 2024. Its best months came early in the year, finishing 19th in February, 16th in March, and 23rd in April, which translated to three-month rankings of 23rd in March and 18th in April.
• Possible Revival: The second season of Apothecary Diaries begins in a few days, so I would not be surprised to see this article show some signs of life in the first quarter of the new year. (Note that I ended up being less-than-enthralled by the first season.)

37. Review of the Teracube 2e Smartphone
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. November 19, 2021.

• Summary: An early review of my Murena Teracube 2e smartphone written two months after I started using it in 2021.
• View Notes: Its best month came in January and it had a solid, albeit still non-ranking stretch, from June through September.
• Update: The Teracube 2e is outdated (it was not exactly top-line hardware in 2021 either), but I still use my phone as a Syncthing node and occasional MikroTik router remote.

36. Kaori After Story – Visual Novel Review
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. December 31, 2022.

• Summary: Kaori After Story is a spin-off sequel to a longer visual novel by the same developer called ACE Academy. Having reviewed ACE Academy in detail, I then tackled Kaori After Story.
• View Notes: This was (to me, at least) one of the biggest surprises of 2024. After a slow start to the year, it posted three monthly placements in June (21), August (14), September (22) before turning in its best performance by a wide margin in terms of views in December, which translated into finishing 11th on the month. Its December finish was powered by a strong run from December 28 through the 31st, which included some of the best days of any article in 2024 and helped it pick up several positions in the final days of the year. It placed in the three-month rankings at the end of August (21), September (22), October (21), and December (22). It also became the first of many many visual novel articles to achieve a weekly ranking placement, coming in third place in Newsletter Week 32 (August 3-9).
• Extra Reading: Kaori After Story depends on ACE Academy, so if anything it is the extra reading after my ACE Academy – Visual Novel Review article.

35. Using Web Archives To Get Around CAPTCHAs
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. August 12, 2022.

• Summary: A guide to using the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to circumvent annoying CAPTCHAs (I dare say this is one of my most useful guides).
• View Notes: It was one of the more consistent articles of the year, peaking in September where it came close to making the monthly ranking.

34. Fixing Refresh Rate Issue on 4K TV Monitor
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. July 26, 2024.

• Summary: I described how I fixed an issue where, when using my TV as a monitor for a mini PC with the KDE Plasma desktop, I was stuck at a refresh rate of 30 Hz at 4K resolution despite my TV’s specs indicating that I should be able to set up 60 Hz at 4K.
• View Notes: This is the most recently published article in the top-81, making our list despite only being online for five full months. It is here almost entirely because of November and December, wherein it finished 5th and 2nd respectively. Its November-December run translated into three-month rankings of 18th at the end of November and 3rd at the end of December. It made the weekly top five in five out of the last six weeks of the year and scored consecutive first-place finishes in Newsletter Weeks 50 and 51.
• Extra Reading: Help! I Think My TV Is Watching Me.

33. Examining Whether Defense Wins NBA Championships
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. July 9, 2024.

• Summary: I examined the relative offensive and defensive ratings of the last 51 NBA champions to determine whether the old saying defense wins championships is true of the NBA teams which actually won championships.
• View Notes: One spot ahead of the most recently-published article in our top 81 is our second most recently-published ranking post, this one also from July 2024. Despite this NBA statistics survey having nothing at all in common with my TV monitor troubleshooting, it followed an eerily similar ranking trajectory. It began doing well a bit earlier, making three monthly rankings instead of two: October (12), November (4), and December (4), which translated into three-month placements of 11th in November and 6th in December. It made four Newsletter Week rankings in weeks 46-47 and 48-49, earning a first-place finish in Week 49.
• Extra Reading: My final article of 2024, Best Record vs Best Net Rating in 51 NBA Seasons, is a follow-up.

32. Persona 4 Golden Digital Artbook Review (Steam)
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. November 15, 2020.

• Summary: A review of the Persona 4 Golden digital deluxe edition artbook, which comes for a small additional fee with the purchases of Persona 4 Golden on Steam (note: the “book” is a PDF).
• View Notes: This is one of our strongest all-time articles, having made every year-end ranking this far: 2020 (6), 2021 (4), 2022 (14), 2023 (18). It ranked in February (12th) and March (21st), making three-month rankings in March (21) and April (16). It also performed well in January and August.
• Aside: This had been our second most-visited 2020 article in 2021-2023. This year, it finally takes the crown for most-visited article published in 2020.
• Extra Reading: My Review of the Original Persona 4 Artbook is more interesting (in my humble opinion).

31. My Logitech Washable Wired Keyboard K310
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. January 20, 2024.

• Summary: I reviewed by Logitech K310 keyboard, which I had been using for more than a decade (I retired it a couple of months later).
• View Notes: It performed well out of the gate and ranked in August (11), September (12), October (17), and November (14), which translated to four three-month placements in September (16), October (12), November (13), and December (16). It also made a single newsletter week ranking appearance in Week 36 (August 31-September 6).
• Update: I still use it as a backup keyboard. It is fine save for its loose E-key.

30. Review of /e/ – An Android Alternative For Mobile Phones
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. November 21, 2021.

• Summary: My early review of /e/ OS as used on my Teracube 2e phone. /e/ OS is a fork of LineageOS, which in turn is a fork of Android. This is our most-read article of 2022 and of all time thanks to Hacker News.
• View Notes: It placed in four months: January (18), February (23), June (20), and July (19), also netting three-month placements in June (21) and July (20).
• Update: Having noted in my comments on our 37th-ranked article that my Teracube 2e is still in semi-active service, I add here that it is still running /e/ OS (and receiving updates).

29. Performing Site-Specific Searches With DuckDuckGo
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. August 8, 2021.

• Summary: I explained how to conduct site-specific searches in DuckDuckGo, using Project Gutenberg and some random online magazine called The New Leaf Journal as examples.
• View Notes: Its best month by a wide margin came in January (19th position), but it also placed in February (20), April (21), and September (19). It placed in the three month rankings at the ends of March and April (22), September (24), and October (23). It oddly made its first Newsletter Week ranking since 2021, coming in fifth place in Newsletter Week 33 (August 10-16).

28. Understanding Hair Color in the Kimi ni Todoke Anime Series
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. August 19, 2021.

• Summary: A 2021 study of hair color in the first two seasons of Kimi ni Todoke, which aired from 2009-11. Note I wrote this before it was known that Kimi ni Todoke would receive a third season, which aired in August 2024, more than 13 years after the second season.
• View Notes: This article had performed respectably in 2021 and 2022, placing in both year-end rankings at 43rd and 42nd respectively despite being about hair color in an anime that had concluded more than a decade earlier. It saw an unexpected spike in January and February of 2023 thanks to the show being added to Netflix and Netflix’s announcing that there would be a third season, and it finished 23rd in last year’s final ranking. The third season was made available in August, which likely spurred this article to the top finish in Newsletter Week 32 (August 3-9) and a third-place finish overall in August. It also appeared in the Newsletter Week 33 ranking and achieved monthly placements in April (23), June (18), and July (12), which translated into three-month placements in July (18), August (8), September (10), and October (16). It did not quite match its 2023 performance, but it was close enough to only drop five positions in the 2024 ranking.

27. The Story of Billy Possum, President Hoover’s Pet Opossum
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. November 30, 2021.

• Summary: I learned about former President Herbert Hoover’s pet opossum while putting together research on the pet raccoon of Hoover’s White House predecessor, Calvin Coolidge. Once I learned that Hoover had an opossum, there was only one thing left for me to do.
• View Notes: My Hoover article entered 2024 with a head of steam after a very surprising third-place finish in December 2023, which helped it shoot up to 15th on last year’s ranking. Its best month in terms of visits was January, which yielded an 18th place finish, and it also placed in February (19), March (17), August (20), and November (15). It had spots in the three-month rankings at the end of March (19) and April (23).
• Fun Fact: This article is cited to in the English Wikipedia article on Billy Possum. It was the second article to appear in an English Wikipedia footnote (see the first).
• Extra Reading: Meet Billy’s predecessor in When President Coolidge Spared a Raccoon From Thanksgiving Dinner.

26. Installing Non-Listed Programs in PlayOnLinux
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. July 8, 2023.

• Summary: My good friend and colleague Victor V. Gurbo was having trouble navigating PlayOnLinux on his Bodhi Linux-powered ancient MacBook (see our 81st-ranked article). That inspired me to write a guide to using PlayOnLinux (and perhaps by extension, its PlayOnMac sibling).
• View Notes: Another steady-but-unspectacular performer, it achieved five month-end placements in April (16), August (22), September (21), October (13), and November (19). It was in our three-month ranking at the ends of June (23), August (22), September (21), October (18), November (17), and December (19). It made a single weekly top-five in Newsletter Week 42 (October 12-18), coming in third.
• Aside: I am surprised to see this here because I think when I saw the “PlayOnLinux” article on Koko Analytics, I usually thought of the article that came in 60th.

25. The Dangers in My Heart S1 Anime Review
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. December 28, 2023.

• Summary: The first season of The Dangers in My Heart aired in spring season 2023. I had no plans to review the first season, which missed my year-end top six shows for 2023, until I saw that the second season was airing in winter 2024. I decided to review the first season at the end of 2023 to set up a review of the second season.
• View Notes: This review had its best months when the second season of The Dangers in My Heart was airing, beginning the year with four consecutive monthly placements in January (24), February (17), March (10), and April (17). It declined after that and did not make any additional monthly placements. It ended March (18), April (14), and May (15) in our three-month ranking. Finally, it earned a singly weekly placement with a fifth place finish in Newsletter Week 14 (March 30-April 5).
• Notes: While I had mixed feelings about the first season of Dangers, the second season is excellent, so I suppose I have to affirmatively recommend the first.

Intermission III

Our 33rd- and 34th-ranked articles placed impressively high in the final ranking when we consider that they were both published in the second half of the year. It can be hard to predict which articles published late in the year will go on to be successful – for example our bronze medal finisher in 2024 (I will not spoil it here, but you will find it later in the article) was certainly an unexpected success story. We did have a few post-July articles to appear in monthly rankings. Click Switch: FOSS Android Game Review made the September ranking not long after it was published, although that was most likely attributable to its being shared by the developer of the game. Halloween in Japan: Through English Sources, which required the most work of my 2024 articles, fittingly made the October ranking despite only being online for two weeks. While it did not carry that success into November and December, I hold out some hope that it will do well in the long run. Finally, 54 Things I Learned in 2024 made our very competitive December ranking despite only being online for two weeks in 2024. I am not sure whether this one will continue to do well, but I plan to build on the things I learned project in 2025. While I am sure other late 2024 articles will show life in 2025, I will make an easy prediction that Days With My Stepsister: Anime Review (September 27) will make next year’s ranking based on the general trend in my recent anime reviews.

Articles 24-13

24. Reviewing FrogFind: A Search Engine For Vintage Computers
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. July 24, 2022.

• Summary: FrogFind presents DuckDuckGo search results in a very lightweight, minimalist way that works with stripped down or outdated web browsers on under-powered hardware. I was looking at many different search engines and front-ends of the time, and this looked like a fun review topic.
• View Notes: FrogFind had a break-out month in December, posting its most views by a wide margin and making our monthly ranking in 10th. It had previously notched four monthly placements in April (14), June (15), September (24), and November (20). It earned three-month placements at the ends of May (20), June (16), July (24), August (23), October (24), November (23), and December (14). It posted a single weekly placement, finishing runner-up in Newsletter Week 18 (April 27-May 3).
• Thoughts: This could be an article to watch for 2024. If a review of Peekier, a similarly niche (albeit different niche) project, could come in third in 2023 despite being offline for more than 90% of the year, I think my FrogFind review has room to grow in 2025.

23. Tiki paralogue trick in Fire Emblem Engage
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. February 3, 2023.

• Summary: I began playing Fire Emblem Engage very shortly after it was released in January 2023. I discovered what I thought was a clever trick for dealing with a difficult stage while being under-leveled.
• View Notes: This article finished runner-up in the 2023 ranking. It unsurprisingly dropped off as we moved further away from the release of Fire Emblem Engage, but it still had a very good year, all things considered. Its best month in terms of views was January, and it notched five monthly placements in January (13), February (15), March (19), May (22), and then, surprisingly after a long monthly ranking break, December (19). It also made two three-month rankings at the ends of March (15) and April (19).
• Personal Notes: (Whispers) I still need to finish Engage.
• Extra Reading: Fire Emblem fans may enjoy My Glass Cannon is Tankier than Expected: Lysithea-Fire Emblem Story.

22. The Nice Boat: A Look Back at the School Days Anime
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. May 6, 2021.

• Summary: School Days is an anime adaptation of an eroge visual novel of the same name which gained some degree of fame or infamy for being an utterly ridiculous show and having what was supposed to be the initial airing of its final episode replaced by documentary footage which featured a very nice boat. I reviewed the anime and the memes it gave rise to. (My article about the “nice boat” came in at 64th place on this ranking).
• View Notes: School Days came in at 21st and 24th in 2021 and 2022 respectively before having something of a breakout year in 2023, earning a much sought after (in New Leaf Journal circles) single-digit ranking of 9th. 2024 saw it return to something more closely resembling its 2022 form. It made half of the monthly rankings, placing in January (16), May (24), June (20), August (17), September (11), and October (15). It made just over half of our three-month rankings, placing in July (23), August (18), September (15), October (14), November (15), and December (24). While the School Days anime is not known for steady consistency, its 2024 performance recalled its 2021 and 2022 equilibrium.
• Extra Reading: I reference a friend of mine in the article who had a positive view of School Days. While I was not persuaded that he was correct about the show as a whole, he did convince me that it has one well-written character.

21. Ghostwriter Markdown Editor Review
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. October 7, 2021.

• Summary: I reviewed my go-to markdown editor on Linux. Coincidentally, I am drafting this entire article in Ghostwriter, so it suffices to say that it still earns my highest recommendation.
• View Notes: It had no major highs or lows, keeping a good pace en route to its third straight strong year after finishing 17th and 20th in 2022 and 2023 respectively. It earned monthly placements in March (18), April (19), May (21), June (17), July (20), October (21), November (21), and December (18). It featured in the three-month rankings at the end of April (17), May (18), June (17), July (19), August (21), October (21), November (22), and December (17).

20. Hair Color in Raven of the Inner Palace
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. November 15, 2023.

• Summary: I was reviewing hair color in The Apothecary Diaries, which was then an ongoing show, in November 2023 (that review ranked 38th on this list). Writing that reminded me of hair color in another anime court drama called Raven of the Inner Palace, which aired in 2022 and earned a fourth-place ranking in my 2022 anime review. Thus, I published not one but two articles about anime hair color on November 15, 2023.
• View Notes: When I published this article and my Apothecary Diaries reviews on the same day in November 2023, I expected The Apothecary Diaries article to perform better on account of the fact that it was (and once again, is) an ongoing show and, insofar as I can tell, more popular than Raven of the Inner Palace. Imagine my surprise then when Raven posted big visitor numbers in January to make our Newsletter Week 4 (January 20-26) in third place. Raven flew (pun intended) into 10th place in January, which stands as our second busiest month on record, and what was at the time the best month for an anime hair color article in terms of visits. While it did not again reach the heights of January, it continued to perform well throughout the year, placing in our monthly rankings in February (24), March (22), May (19), June (11), July (19), September (20), and December (15). December was its second best month in raw views thanks to a surprising second weekly top-five appearance in the penultimate Newsletter week of 2024, number 51. Raven appeared in several three-month rankings, checking in for the periods ending in March (19), April (24), May (22), June (19), July (16), August (20), and September (23).
• Food for thought: I doubt Raven will get a second season, but if it did…

19. How the Forget-Me-Not Flower Found Its Name
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. March 11, 2021.

• Summary: A charming 19th century poem on how the forget-me-not flower earned its name led me on a search to learn the true story behind the name of a hard-to-forget flower.
• View Notes: While this article has nothing in common in terms of content with my School Days review, it has followed a similar popularity trajectory over the years. It placed in 22nd and 20th in 2021 and 2022 respectively before having a mini-breakout last year on its way to finishing 12th. It did not quite match its 2023 showing in 2024, although it came closer to doing so than School Days. It earned monthly placements in January (23), March (13), April (8), May (12), June (12), July (19), and November (24). It performed best in the spring in 2022 and 2023 – so that does seem to be the trend for it. It placed in the three-month ranking at the ends of March (20), April (13), May (11), June (10), July (12), and August (16). It also made two Newsletter Week rankings in Weeks 12 and 18, finishing fourth on both occasions.
• Extra Reading: This goes well with my springtide reader, New Leaf Spring Content, New and Old.

18. Dragonair Safari in Pokémon Yellow
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. October 5, 2023.

• Summary: I told the story of how I once battled very long odds to capture a Dragonair in the Safari Zone in Pokémon Yellow and then worked through the math behind those odds.
• View Notes: I did not expect my Dragonair article to do much of anything, much less become one of our best-performing articles one year after I published it. It showed its first signs of popularity in May when it posted a 14th place monthly finish. Dragonair would not be seen again in the monthly ranking until September, when it landed in 15th. But it made its move up the charts in the next three months, posting ranks of 7th, 9th, and 8th in October, November, and December respectively. Its strong finish can be seen in its three-month ranks, which it made at the ends of September (20), October (11), November (9), and December (7). Its December performance was particularly strong and responsible for its jumping up several spots in the final ranking, as indicated by its only two weekly ranking placements in Newsletter Weeks 49 and 50 (covering November 30-December 13).
• Looking Ahead: I collected research for a follow-up article on additional things I learned about Dragonair’s programming in Pokémon Yellow. Of course, I did that over the summer and still have not finished the article. Coming soon in 2025.
• Extra Reading: I told another Pokémon hunt story in Searching for Caterpie in Viridian Forest.

17. A Sign of Affection – Anime Review
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. March 28, 2024.

• Summary: The A Sign of Affection anime aired in the winter 2024 season. While it was airing, I wrote five articles about the myriad hair colors of the show’s characters. When the show was done, there was only one thing left for me to do.
• View Notes: I had high hopes for this article performing well after seeing how my articles about hair color in the show were doing. Not only did its performance leave me satisfied, but the review ended up out-performing the hair color articles in the second half of the year (which is what was supposed to happen, but as we will see later in the ranking, things do not always go as planned). I have described some articles as being consistent. Try this article’s monthly rankings on for size: June (9), July (6), August (7), September (10), October (8), November (8), December (8). Its three-month rankings tell the same story: June (14), July (8), August (7), September (7), October (7), November (7), December (9). Its performance has actually changed – its best two months in terms of views were December followed by November, notwithstanding its drop in the three-month ranking. While it was more steady than anything, it landed in seven Newsletter Week top fives in Newsletter Weeks 26, 34, 40-41, 44-45, and 47.
• Extra Reading: I published Additional Thoughts on A Sign of Affection.

16. The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten – Anime Review
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. March 30, 2023.

• Summary: The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten aired in winter 2023. I wrote an article while it was airing (see our 40th place article) which did unexpectedly well, so I was inspired to write a full review of the show after finishing.
• View Notes: This is our top-ranked anime review of 2024 (it also held the honor in 2023), but it was out-performed by my A Sign of Affection review (in 17th position, above) for much of the year. Where my A Sign of Affection review as a model of consistency, Angel Next Door followed a different path. It ended 2023 with a first-place finish in our final weekly ranking and carried the momentum into 2024. Its January performance was one of the best months of the year, which it carried into a third place finish. It also placed in four of our first five weekly rankings (Newsletter Weeks 1-3 and 5) and it would have likely had first place finishes in the first two weeks but for the good readers of Hacker News. Things looked bright, but after its anime review record-setting January, it reverted to its mid-2023 form. It placed in monthly rankings in February (18), April (19), May (16), June (23), July (11), August (19), October (24), and November (22). It earned three-month placements at the ends of March (12), April (20), May (19), June (18), July (14), August (15), September (18), October (20), and December (23). It was still clearly our second-best performing anime review after A Sign of Affection found its footing in June, but it dropped off significantly after January. Some of it likely has to do with our moving further away from the airing of the first season. There may also be another article which played a role, but we will reserve that discussion for a while longer.
• Prediction: While my A Sign of Affection review has had the better of my Angel Next Door review for eight months, I think that Angel Next Doorwill flip the script down the line whenever the promised second season of Angel Next Door receives an air-date.

15. The Last Nintendo Wii Games
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. August 1, 2023.

• Summary: The Nintendo Wii had a long life-span. An article made me interested in figuring out the identity of the last-released Wii game. The answer turns out to be a a matter of perspective.
• View Notes: This article made the first 10 monthly rankings before missing the last two: January (17), February (13), March (12), April (6), May (17), June (7), July (7), August (16), September (17), and October (10). While it missed two monthly rankings, it went 10/10 in 2024-only three-month rankings: March (14), April (11), May (12), June (9), July (9), August (9), September (12), October (13), November (14), December (21). It notched four Newsletter Week placements in Weeks 16, 25-26, and 29, with 25 yielding its highlight of the year in a first-place finish for the week of June 15-21.

14. Height differences in anime romances
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. March 22, 2023.

• Summary: I read about an upcoming anime in March 2023 which made me think about height differences in romance anime. One thing led to another and eventually I was writing about shoujou heroine tropes.
• View Notes: I did not write this article with the expectation that it would be popular, but it surprised me in 2023 when it scored a dominant first-place finish in the July ranking and carried the momentum to an 8th place finish on the year. Its views were fueled by the fact that the anime which inspired me to write the post, My Tiny Senpai, aired in summer 2023 (I did not end up watching the show). While this article did not reach its 2023 heights, it performed far better in 2024 than I would have predicted. Congratulations to the first article thus far in our ranking to make every month-end top-24: January (14), February (16), March (15), April (15), May (19), June (13), July (16), August (9), September (8), October (9), November (12), December (14). It logically follows that it also made the 10 three-month rankings: March (16), April (15) May (16), June (15), July (13), August (13), September (9), October (9), November (10), and December (11). It added Newsletter Week rankings in weeks 34 and 36 for good measure (pun unintended).

13. Heights in “The Dangers in My Heart” Anime
    Nicholas A. Ferrell. April 2, 2023.

• Summary: The Dangers in My Heart, which is the subject of articles which appeared in 72nd and 25th place on this humble ranking, had just started airing in the spring 2023 anime season. I had recently published an unrelated article about height differences in anime romances (see above) when I watched the first episode of this new show. I noticed a rather dramatic height difference between the boy and girl at the heart of the show. I decided a short-form Leaflet post was in order.
• View Notes: This Leaflet post (it is not a full article) had a big 2023 thanks to the popularity of The Dangers in My Heart (Note: I had no idea that the underlying manga series was apparently popular or that the anime adaptation would be a big thing when I wrote this post). It nearly snagged the top ranking in June 2023 and despite losing steam as the year wore on, it finished a more-than-respectable 11th in the final 2023 ranking. Its trajectory changed dramatically in 2024 when in January it blew away its excellent June from 2023 and would have had the top-article-of-the-month crown in narrowly missed in June 2023 if not for Hacker News (we will discuss that at the end of this ranking). It placed in the months of January (2), February (8), March (4), and April (15). That was it. It had one of the best months of any article in January, very strong performances in February and March, a decent enough April, and then it disappeared from our ranking. To be sure, it still had some decent months, which it needed in order to rank as high as it has, but it would have ranked 18th based on its January-April numbers alone. Its three-month placements tell the story even more dramatically: March (3), April (7), May (10) – and that is all. During its great run, which coincided entirely with the airing of the second season of The Dangers in My Heart, it made nine Newsletter Week top Fives in weeks 2-6, 8, 12-14, and it took the first-place ranking in Newsletter Week 4 after having very narrowly missed a top-weekly finish on multiple occasions in 2023.
• Prediction: I expect that there will be a third season of The Dangers in My Heart within the next few years. If so, this Leaflet could rise again, but I would prefer to see more of my Dangers visitors go to my actual reviews of the two anime seasons.

Intermission IV: Enter Justin and Justina

(Note: The events of the following dialogue take place on New Year’s Day.)

Nick exits stage right to enjoy his New Year festivities. Maybe he will go for a walk. Maybe he will configure his new OpenWrt-powered wireless access point. Or maybe he still has to format this article even though he is yielding the floor to Justin and Justina. Justin and Justina are sitting in The Emu Café enjoying New Years, just like they did in 2021-2023.

“So how many idiots do you think went to Times Square to watch the disco ball drop in the rain?” asked Justin.

“I’m OK with the ball drop,” replied Justina, “but not with the rain.”

“I know that well.”

“But do you know what I’m not OK with?” asked Justina.

“What’s that?” asked Justin.

“The bird. Why is it here every New Year?”

Justina was referring to The Emu, the Proprietor of The Emu Café. To be sure, she has always raised questions about The Emu. Her questions go unanswered. The Emu placed a coffee and pancakes in front of Justina.

“Wow, she’s as disagreeable as ever, is she not?”

The Emu nodded.

“You two are communicating again,” grumbled Justina.

Justin dug into his soba soup. “I can’t believe you didn’t get the soba this year.”

“I wanted pancakes!” yelled an irritated Justina, willfully.

“You could have at least gone for the buckwheat pancakes,” chided Justin.

The Emu stood and watched.

“Do you have something to say, bird?” asked Justina.

The Emu had nothing to say.

“So what do you think of the ranking so far?” Justin asked Justina.

“Well, I’m glad I don’t have to listen to you blubber about that Constantine XI guy like you did the last four times we did this. He’s off the board! You were tearing up again though.”

“He’s just such a hero,” Justin hands The Emu a tissue.

“The bird too!” yelled Justina. “But I’m concerned.”

“Why is that, Justina?” Justin asked his friend, who has a tendency to tell, rather than show, what she is feeling.

“First it was anime hair color in 2021. Then height last year. The problem is getting worse this year. How many hair color and height articles have there been already?”

“Let’s see” said Justin as he began going through the list, ignoring the fact that having to go back and count to find the answer highlighted Justina’s concerns. “Seven hair color and two height articles” said a voice that was neither Justin or Justina.

“Wow, thanks Emu! That’s right.” said Justin with genuine gratitude.

“I’m going to ignore the TALKING BIRD and give you a warning.”

“I’m ready,” replied Justin.

“If there’s another height or hair color article, I quit.”

“Got it. Anything else before we start?”

“No, you and the BIRD can do whatever while I enjoy my pancakes.”

Articles 12-4

The Emu handed Justin an envelope, which he opened and reviewed before beginning to read off the 12 most-visited New Leaf Journal articles of 2024.

12. Itsuomi’s Hair Color in A Sign of Affection

Itsuomi’s Hair Color in A Sign of Affection
Nicholas A. Ferrell. February 5, 2024.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
1-Mo	N/A	1	2	13	8	14
3-Mo			5	2	7	11

	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1-Mo	15	15	X	X	X	X
3-Mo	11	14	17	X	X	X

Newsletter Week Placements: 6 appearances (Weeks 7-11, 13) and 3 top placements (Weeks 7-9).

Justina stared blankly at Justin upon learning that the 12th-ranked article of 2024 is the eighth hair color article to be revealed in the year-end ranking right now.

“You’re just staring. You need to tell us how you feel about this.”

“I’m not happy but I’ll finish my pancakes,” Justina said, apparently going back on her threat to “quit” if another hair color article appeared in the ranking.

“So get this. There’s this multi-lingual dreamboat in an anime about a cute deaf girl falling in love. He has silver hair, right? But then we see a family picture in his apartment. He has black hair in that picture. What do you think we just learned, Justina?”

“That he dyes his hair?”

“Bingo! Nick really did some thorough research here.”

“Are you kidding me? That’s it?”

“Yeah.”

Justina sighed.

“Do you want me to set you up with him?” Justin showed Justina a screen capture of the dreamy 2D anime boy, Itsuomi Nagi.

“He’s not bad looking but not my type,” replied Justina as she looked at the picture while cutting a piece from her pancakes.

“I follow you. Not everyone is ready to go out with a 2D person. Society has a long way to go.”

The Emu stared blankly at Justin.

“What? Was it something I said?” asked Justin.

“I don’t like having to agree with The Bird, but sure – the whole 2D thing is an additional issue,” clarified an exasperated Justina.

(Emu’s note: There is one additional article about Itsuomi’s hair color which did not make our year-end list.)

11. Installing GrapheneOS on a Google Pixel 6a

Installing GrapheneOS on a Google Pixel 6a
Nicholas A. Ferrell. May 15, 2023.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
1-Mo	8	7	8	7	13	6
3-Mo	9	9	9	8	9	8

	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1-Mo	10	12	14	16	23	23
3-Mo	10	10	11	15	16	18

Newsletter Week Placements: 4 appearances (Weeks 11, 16, 25, 30).

Previous Year-End Placements: 2023 (15th).

“Again, why doesn’t he just get an iPhone? They’re good. No effort needed. Let Apple handle everything,” said Justina as she waved her iPhone with the Instagram app open in Justin’s face.

“Sorry Justina, we like free and open source operating systems here. When Nick wrote this review, he was just installing GrapheneOS on a Google Pixel 6a for someone else, but now he is daily driving his own Google Pixel 6a with GrapheneOS. Clutch play.”

“Daily driving?” asked Justina.

“Using it as his main phone.” replied the Emu.

“Oh right, he’s still using that Teracute phone from before, right?” Justina asked Justin, ignoring that it appeared to the The Emu who answered her question.

“Teracube but I’m surprised you remembered that.”

“I’m paying attention!”

“Don’t forget his Droidian-powered Pixel 3a XL.”

“I’ll try not to remember it.”

10. Installing LineageOS on a 2013 Nexus 7 (Wi-Fi)

Installing LineageOS on a 2013 Nexus 7 (Wi-Fi)
Nicholas A. Ferrell. July 28, 2021.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
1-Mo	11	19	11	10	4	3
3-Mo			13	12	6	6

	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1-Mo	5	8	18	14	11	16
3-Mo	4	5	8	10	12	13

Newsletter Week Placements: 13 appearances (Weeks 1, 12, 17, 19-20, 22-24 27-28, 31, 33, 46)

Previous Year-End Placements: 2021 (49th), 2022 (22nd), 2023 (19th).

“Although LineageOS discontinued support for the 2013 Nexus 7 tablet in early 2024, Nick’s 2021 article on installing it had its best year yet, posting its first-ever year-end top-10.”

“So you can’t even use this thing anymore?” asked Justina.

“Well you can, it just won’t receive updates. However, you’ll be relieved to know that Nick installed a LineageOS ROM which is receiving updates.”

“I’m not relieved to know that,” replied Justina blankly. “There better not be any more outdated tech articles.”

The Emu looked straight ahead, said nothing, and handed Justin the next envelope.

“There is going to be another, spill it, Bird!” yelled Justina with a hint of panic.

“Well…” said The Emu.

9. Yuki’s Hair Color in A Sign of Affection

Yuki’s Hair Color in A Sign of Affection
Nicholas A. Ferrell. February 2, 2024.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
1-Mo	N/A	3	1	1	7	10
3-Mo			4	1	1	7

	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1-Mo	8	13	X	18	17	17
3-Mo	7	12	13	17	19	15

Newsletter Week Placements: 14 appearances (Weeks 7-19, 29) and 6 top placements (Weeks 10-14, 16)

“Are you kidding me!? Again with the anime hair color?”

“Here I thought you’d be happy it wasn’t another outdated tech article,” said Justin.

“My concerns in that area did not negate my concerns about the HAIR COLOR,” responded Justina, admittedly entirely fairly.

“This is the same show as Itsuomi. Here, the main heroine, Yuki, has strawberry-colored hair. Anime being anime, you’d think maybe there’s no deeper meaning, right? But then we see a flashback to her childhood and a year earlier in high school – you’re not going to believe this.”

Justina says nothing.

“She had brown hair.”

“Wow,” said Justina without a hint of emotion.

“Nick explored the significance of her dying her hair in the context of her character.”

“Did he find anything?” asked Justina, hoping that there was at least some point to this.

“I think his conjecture was good.”

“Alright fine. It sounds a little higher-effort than the Itsulami one.”

“Itsuomi,” said a mysterious voice which may or may not be The Emu.

“I don’t care, I already rejected him,” said Justina.

“Wow, it’s as if you think any 2D boy you don’t want to go out with isn’t a flesh and blood human being. I’m a little hashtag-triggered right now.” said Justin while pretending to shudder.

Justina stared blankly at Justin, then returned to her pancakes.

8. The Pokémon Special Split in Generation 2 – Statistics and Analysis

The Pokémon Special Split in Generation 2 – Statistics and Analysis
Nicholas A. Ferrell. January 18, 2022.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
1-Mo	7	4	7	11	10	X
3-Mo			7	5	8	12

	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1-Mo	22	18	9	4	10	9
3-Mo	15	17	14	8	6	8

Newsletter Week Placements: 9 appearances (Weeks 3, 6-7, 9, 11, 18, 40, 44, 48)

Previous Year-End Placements: 2022 (12th), 2023 (4th).

“Wait when was ‘generation 2’,” asked Justina, with a distinct hint of suspicion and hostlity.

“1998 in Japan, 2000 in the United States.”

“This is more outdated tech!”

“No no. The old Pokémon games are beloved to this day. Nick is even playing one now.”

“That doesn’t make it not outdated.”

“I’ll have you know that the stat change introduced in generation two affects more than 100 Pokémon to this very day in generation 9.”

“Wait, they never went back and reassessed that?” asked Justina, who had noticeably calmed down.

“Right, they only tinkered with the stats of a few older Pokémon.”

“But isn’t that unfair? So the new Pokémon get thrown in while the old ones were designed for a 1990s environment?”

“You know… you may have a point there, Justina.” replied Justin, nodding.

“And isn’t Jigglypuff one of the old ones?”

“I do not appreciate your aggressive form of question, but it is, yes.”

“So it is also being discriminated against.”

“Wigglytuff, its evolution, got a small stat boost later on, but yes, it is.”

“Unbelievable. I’m boycotting Pokémon,” said Justina.

“You never played despite my entreaties,” replied Justin.

“For good reason I see,” said Justina right before she took another bit from her stack of pancakes.

7. Broken Optical Audio Cable Door “Fix”

Broken Optical Audio Cable Door “Fix”
Nicholas A. Ferrell. September 16, 2023.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
1-Mo	9	11	9	12	23	24
3-Mo			10	10	13	13

	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1-Mo	17	5	3	3	2	6
3-Mo	17	11	5	3	2	3

Newsletter Week Placements: 14 appearances (Weeks 16, 24-25, 38-41, 43-46, 48-49)

“Wait, what’s an optical audio cable?” asked Justina.

“It carries sound – Nick uses one to connect his soundbar to his TV,” explained Justin.

“A what? His TV doesn’t have sound?” asked Justina.

“No, most built-in TV speakers are bad, so he uses a soundbar,” explained Justin.

“I don’t know. Mine work fine.”

Both Justin and The Emu looked at Justina sadly.

“What!? They’re fine!”

“Say no more, we’ll get you a better set-up for your birthday,” said Justin.

“I’m fine!”

“All of that aside,” Justin continued, speaking to the audience, “this is actually a neat little DIY trick, so be sure to give it a read if you use optical audio cables in your sound set-up.”

6. Installing Ubuntu Touch on a Google Nexus 7 (2013)

Installing Ubuntu Touch on a Google Nexus 7 (2013)
Nicholas A. Ferrell. July 5, 2021.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
1-Mo	5	9	6	4	3	4
3-Mo			8	6	4	4

	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1-Mo	4	6	7	5	6	12
3-Mo	3	4	6	6	5	10

Newsletter Week Placements: 20 appearances (Weeks 1, 4-5, 10, 15, 17, 20, 22-25, 27-28, 31-32, 37, 41, 43, 45-46) and 2 top placements (Weeks 5, 22)

Previous Year-End Placements: 2021 (9th), 2022 (5th), 2023 (5th).

“Funny enough, Ubuntu Touch discontinued support for the Google Nexus 7 tablet earlier this year,” said Justin.

“What did I say about outdated tech articles!?” said Justina with some irritation. “Why are both of these tablet articles ranked so high!?”

Neither Justin or The Emu had an answer to this question, especially since the Ubuntu Touch installer no longer as an option for installing the last-supported version of the operating system on a Nexus 7.

5. The Mystery of Sōseki and Tsuki ga Kirei

The Mystery of Sōseki and Tsuki ga Kirei
Nicholas A. Ferrell. March 14, 2021.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
1-Mo	12	6	14	2	5	8
3-Mo			11	8	5	5

	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1-Mo	3	10	2	6	3	6
3-Mo	6	6	4	4	4	4

Newsletter Week Placements: 21 appearances (Weeks 6, 15, 17-18, 21, 23, 27-28, 30-31, 35-39, 42, 48-52) and 6 top placements (Weeks 6, 17-18, 21, 38-39)

Previous Year-End Placements: 2021 (2nd), 2022 (2nd), 2023 (1st).

“Wow, what happened with this this article? It was higher before, right?” asked Justina with a hint of concern, as if the world as she knew it had changed.

“It definitely had a weak 2024 compared to 2021-2023, but when your ‘weak’ year lands you in 5th place, ‘weak’ may be more of a compliment than anything,” replied Justin reassuringly.

“I’m not so sure,” said Justina.

“It did perform best in the last quarter, and the investigation into the (almost certainly invented) story of Sōseki’s translation of I love you into Japanese is timeless, so I expect it will return in 2025 with another high placement.”

Justina did not look convinced.

4. Recommended F-Droid FOSS Apps For Android-Based Devices (2021)

Recommended F-Droid FOSS Apps For Android-Based Devices (2021)
Nicholas A. Ferrell. November 28, 2021.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
1-Mo	4	5	3	3	6	2
3-Mo			6	4	3	2

	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1-Mo	2	4	5	11	13	13
3-Mo	2	3	3	5	8	12

Newsletter Week Placements: 28 appearances (Weeks 1-5, 7-9, 12-13, 15-17, 20-21, 23-30, 32, 35-37, 42) and 1 top placement (Week 15)

Previous Year-End Placements: 2021 (14th), 2022 (4th), 2023 (6th).

Justina glared at the “2021” in the title.

“Look, I know what you’re thinking. Yes, it’s outdated. No, it should not be the 4th most-visited article. But look, most of the app recommendations are still solid. Nick really should make a new F-Droid article though…”

Justina said nothing and returned to her pancakes.

“Sometimes silence speaks louder than words,” a soft voice from the general direction of The Emu rang out.

Intermission V

“So you know how you love the out-dated tech articles,” Justin asked Justina.

Justina glared at Justin.

“Nick wanted everyone to see that his outdated devices are alive and well. See below.”

Justina stared blankly at the photograph.

“On the top we have Nick’s two Google Nexus 7 tablets. The left one is open to the Ubuntu Touch home screen. The right one is the LineageOS Nexus 7 with F-Droid open to the DecSync app – recall that Nick’s DecSync review landed in 54th place. As you can see if you zoom in, DecSync CC has not been updated in three years. On the bottom we have Nick’s Logitech K310 keyboard, which is still washable and sometimes used as a backup. On the number pad is the Teracube 2e open to the /e/ OS app store, so you can see his is still running /e/. He said he took this photo on December 30, 2024.”

Justina shook her head.

Articles 3-1

3. Planning and Angel Next Door Season 2

Planning and Angel Next Door Season 2
Nicholas A. Ferrell. November 5, 2023.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
1-Mo	X	X	X	X	2	1
3-Mo			X	X	14	1

	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1-Mo	1	2	6	2	7	3
3-Mo	1	1	1	2	3	2

Newsletter Week Placements: 28 appearances (Weeks 19-35, 38-45, 47, 51-52) and 11 top placements (Weeks 23-24, 26-31, 33, 41-42)

“Is this more hair color!?” Justina said while glaring at Justin.

“It’s even worse,” replied Justin.

“Oh, ok. Carry on.” (Apparently there is nothing worse than more hair color.)

“Nick wrote his review of the first season of The Angel Next Door Spoils Rotten, which finished 16th this year, before a second season was announced. After a second season was announced, his review started attracting more viewers. He had predicted that there would be a second season, so he wrote an article about having had good foresight to review the first season.”

“So this is entirely self-referential?” asked Justina.

“More or less,” answered Justin.

“So… why is it here?” asked Justina.

“That’s a good question,” said Justin. It broke out in May, was our top article in June and July, and held the top three-month ranking at the end of four consecutive months from June-September. I guess people search for information about the second season and this ranks?”

“So what you’re telling me is that Nick wrote this article as a joke and Google took the joke seriously so now it is somehow a resource about the second season being announced?” asked Justin, who is following this issue surprisingly closely.

“So it seems,” nodded Justin, impressed that Justina was engaged.

“So why is it doing better than the actual review of the first season,” asked Justina?

“That is also a good question. It is most likely because more people search for information about the second season, but Nick concedes it is possible this article cannibalized his more substantive article. On the flip-side…”

(The Emu flaps, as if to emphasize Justin’s saying “flip-side,” Justina is too focused on what Justin is saying to notice, however.)

“…The review is linked prominently in the joke article, so for all we know the joke article is actually helping the review,” explained Justin.

“I see…” said Justina.

2. An In-Depth Look at Norton Safe Search

An In-Depth Look at Norton Safe Search
Nicholas A. Ferrell. October 18, 2022.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
1-Mo	6	2	5	5	1	5
3-Mo			2	3	2	3

	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1-Mo	9	1	1	1	1	1
3-Mo	5	2	2	1	1	1

Newsletter Week Placements: 34 appearances (Weeks 6-11, 14-15, 19-22, 24, 26, 33-52) and 13 top placements (Weeks 19-20, 34-36, 40, 43-48, 52)

Previous Year-End Placements: 2023 (7th).

“Oh great, the review of the search engine no one actually uses did even better. Wait, how is it not number one? It has been the best article for five months in a row?”

“Indeed – Nick’s review of the search engine that no one uses rose from 7th in 2023 to the runner-up position in 2024, and as the above tables indicate, it was the strongest article for much of the year.”

“Should I ask why?” asked Justina.

“Let’s say yes,” replied Justin.

“No,” said Justina, curtly.

“So since you asked…”

“I did not ask!”

“Nick suspects there are two possible reasons the review does well. Firstly, Norton customers may see the search tool and wonder what it is. Secondly, Norton may have some Black Friday sales which explain its success in the fall – although its best month in terms of views was actually February.”

Justina sighed.

1. Cycling Doping Fallacies

Cycling Doping Fallacies
Nicholas A. Ferrell. January 5, 2024.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
1-Mo	1	10	X	X	X	X
3-Mo			1	21	X	X

	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1-Mo	X	X	X	X	X	X
3-Mo	X	X	X	X	X	X

Newsletter Week Placements: 5: appearances (Weeks 1-5) and 3 top placements (Weeks 1-3).

“How is this number one!? It disappeared entirely from the ranking after April!?” asked a confused Justina. “Oh wait, is it that thing that happened in 2021 and 2022?”

“It is! Thanks to the Browser newsletter and Hacker News, Nick’s essay on placing doped cycling results in context is the most-visited article of 2024.”

The Emu applauds.

“There is something kind of funny about this article being in first-place,” said Justin.

Justina, apparently not interested in doping in cycling, returns to her pancakes.

“We can think of Hacker News as doping, right? So this article came out of nowhere and put up big numbers thanks to Hacker News-EPO. Then it was caught in a drug test and reverted to form. Its trajectory makes a ton of sense when we think of it like that.”

The Emu nods. Justina stares blankly and returns to her breakfast.

Conclusion

“This wraps up our fifth annual year-end review, although I suppose we did not have to do too much this year,” said Justin, referring to the fact that the esteemed Administrator and Editor of The New Leaf Journal handled 69 out of 81 articles before turning things over.

“Thank goodness,” replied Justina. “But I noticed another problem with the ranking other than the ones I already complained about.”

“What’s that?” asked Justin.

“Where are our dialogues!?”

“I agree with Justina. For those of you who do not know – which is probably most of you given the evidence in the ranking, Justina and I have a long-running New Leaf Journal dialogue series. You can find descriptions of our 55 regular dialogues with links in the Collected Justin and Justina Dialogues archive.”

“I expect to see them on the ranking next year,” said Justina to you (she is staring straight into your soul).

“I personally recommend starting with our recent 2025 additions, Free as a bird. Free as in bird. and Justin and Justina Ikea Seat Cushion,” opined Justin.

“Please start with An Abyssinian Guinea Pig Birthday Present and Merry Christmas and Who checks the mail these days? instead,” countered Justina.

“That last one is infuriating,” Justin warned.

The Emu nods.

“Not as infuriating as A Christmas Present Struggle,”countered Justina.

The Emu adopted a contemplative posture as if he was trying to decide which of the two admittedly infuriating dialogues was more infuriating. With that, the trio enjoyed their New Year’s Day.