What exactally does the "Blacklist this user" do? I know it blocks the selected user from commenting on one blog, but is that all?

All it does is prevent commenting by the blacklisted on any blog written by the blacklister.

Also, if anybody knows, what drives the statistics visible when i click on "MyBlog"? How does this work?

Witchcraft and random chance. There's really no explanation for how it actually works (the figures have always been all over the shop), but it's supposed to record how many people looked at or commented on an article or the blog as a whole. I wouldn't pay it any attention if I was you.

I wouldn't pay it any attention if I was you.

Since I can't make heads or tails of some of them, I think I'll take your advice Cacto. Thanks.

Blacklisting a user blocks them from commenting on any article you write.

The point system is an arcane mixture of math, the dark arts, and new-age feel-good advice from Dr. Phil. Here are how the numbers generally work:
Home: Number of times your article was viewed from your main blog page (i.e. xythe.joeuser.com)
Selected: Number of times your article was clicked from a link on the site
Channel: Number of times your article was clicked from the "Discussion" channel you set your article to (in this case, Misc)
Replies: Well.. duh

Points: here's the dark arts and chicken soup for the soul stuff. It's a mixture of number of replies, the number of times your article has been read, and how many times users from OUTSIDE of JoeUser came to your article (the referrals at the bottom of an article). I'm not actually sure of the exact weighting, but I do know that the referrals are one of the biggest point-gains. The points are there to show articles that have generated the most interest, and in theory to over time highlight the most popular bloggers on the site. So articles that have a wider interest (such as timely political or current events posts), or that get linked from other popular sites, tend to get the most points. In general, don't worry about the points system. Some users have fallen into a semi-obsession with getting their score higher, and their blogging experience here (and to an extent everyone elses) usually suffers for it. Personally, I wish we had just completely hidden the numbers and never let anyone know how articles or blogs float to the top in terms of popularity. People get way too focused on a little number that really doesn't mean anything.

Witchcraft and random chance.

The point system is an arcane mixture of math, the dark arts, and new-age feel-good advice from Dr. Phil.

Yep, that pretty well sums it up.

Thanks Zoomba. It was just a nag seeing those stats, and not knowing what they referred to...I can be anal I guess The big reason I asked recently, as I have seen one of these stats change by at least a magnitude; "Home".

Some users have fallen into a semi-obsession with getting their score higher, and their blogging experience here (and to an extent everyone elses) usually suffers for it. Personally, I wish we had just completely hidden the numbers and never let anyone know how articles or blogs float to the top in terms of popularity. People get way too focused on a little number that really doesn't mean anything.

Well its not hard for me to see. The second I learned a bit about the scoring and points system, well, it's just human nature to make a competition out of it.

I also can see how destructive it is. Ive see the "points whore" lable being passed out a bit. I see now why I saw some adverse comments here and there concerning my "riddle" posts. I have since deleted them.

I guess now that I know a bit how JU operates, and what a blog actually is, I just want to concentrate on mixing well with the so many talents present at JU.

I studied Geology in college, and was never really trained very well in this kind of writing, so it's pretty challenging for me. I find its a litte rough for me in putting my original thoughts into print. I'm just going to keep doing what I have been the past week or so and hope it improves over time.

Thanks for taking the time to answer this for me, it's appreciated

Lou

see now why I saw some adverse comments here and there concerning my "riddle" posts. I have since deleted them.

I wish you had not. They were not point whoring, and fun, and while only a few of us participated, I think I can say we all enjoyed them.

Not everyone here is a points whore. And those that are can do it all they like. Most of us will play along with one at times, or ignore them. But 90% of us dont care about points. I could not tell you where I was on the list right now if you asked. I can look, but I usually do not. ON a couple of occassions I have looked and been "like wow!", but that was good for a feel good for 5 minutes and that was about it.

Joe User is about what YOU want to post. Jennifer likes the weirds stuff, Question likes to ask question, you had yoru puzzles and Inbloom has trivia. And I have my weird and whacky series. None of them get a lot of points, but each one does it because we like it. Never stop doing what you like because of what others think.