That’s it. The extent of my begging.
Seems this dude, what is matt, has this top 100 Thailand blogs list. We are only #13. Kind of bothers me. So anyway - if any of u give a shit - vote for us. It will help pay the rent.
FYI. America needs some help. Check this article on the BBC.
The latest stick article, with a nod to the Mango, got me thinking. The idea of declaring bargirls unfit for marriage seems way too harsh in my book. Especially with the lines of paid for sex or companionship extremely blurred in Thailand. I am gathering my thoughts and will write about it more soon.
We swear progress is being made.
Done! His own blog is currently on 4th position…..coincidental???
View all comments by Paraquat
“Progress is being made…”
“…Wheelchair accessible”????
Shoot, man, from the state of the place in those photos, I’d say access by horseback is also a possibility…..
View all comments by Old Asia Hand
Done my bit, now how about a nice cold ice cold free beer?
View all comments by auk
Done. I gave you the 5. Tried to push the mouse to the right but couldn’t go further. You’re now number 9 by the way. Owe me a beer.
View all comments by Suk Psycho
I voted aswell
surely i deserve a reward for my efforts?
View all comments by Young Penfold
my vote just tallied in your favour.
i expect some kind of awesomeness when i drop by in a few months… *laugh*
-myrth
View all comments by myrth
I helped solidify you at number 9. Damn, my site didn’t even get a mention in the top 105 currently listed. very sad.
By the way, the mention of the wheelchair accessible bathroom makes me wonder if the new Mango will be using the old door closer from the original Mango toilet… the one that held the door open for as long as it took you to pee in full view of everyone in the bar?
View all comments by werewolf
Actually, I might be mistaken, but looking at the top 100 list more closely, it doesn’t seem to be in numerical order. Maybe it updates and moves position only periodically. If you read the numerical ratings below the stars, it seems that Big Mango is tied for no 1 spot with a 4.7 rating. The other site is Isaan Style.
View all comments by werewolf
Ah… further reading on my part helped. It’s not a simple ranking by vote… it’s an algorithm with many factors. cool.
View all comments by werewolf
Sorry to be like a dog with a bone… just won’t let go… but I just realized that Stickman isn’t on the list either, so I feel much better now. An odd oversight on the part of the creator…
View all comments by werewolf
I voted for ya too - 5 stars. Do I get a little sticker saying “I VOTED” ?
Yeah, Stick wasn’t up there - is his a blog ? Or just a website. I’m thinking his isn’t a blog, so therefore isn’t up there.
It does seem to be in random order - not sure how they choose the rankings.
View all comments by calvin
One more vote. #8. Anything to keep you guys in business!
View all comments by Julian
Did my part to get you to #8.
View all comments by The Asian Badger
Did my bit. Looks like listings are randon and do not reflect rating.
Also rating every other site as 1* helps lower their average rating
Free beer for voters?
View all comments by KTBanker
I didn’t add Stickman ‘cos he doesn’t really have a blog; it’s more of a website. If I add Stickman then I’m going to have to add sites like notstickman, too, which I’d rather not do.
Werewolf, you can go and add your blog now. I fixed the “addurl” page.
Cheers.
View all comments by Matt
Put my vote in, I couldn’t find Dave the R… so I gave yours the 5 Stars instead.
View all comments by Young Royal
If you can’t leave a comment, it’s not a blog.
This site wasn’t on Matt’s original top-100 list either, I had to write it in.
Not sure what qualifies this Matt guy to be the custodian of the top-100 list though - perhaps a desire for lots of traffic?
View all comments by TAFKABBB
tafkabbb: Yup, that would be my vote but I would leave the “lots” out.
The whole thing seems a waste of time to me but it’s not the first time we’ve seen somebody with too much time on their hands. I lost interest when he said he was including the Alexa rating which is a useless rating.
View all comments by pmmp
“with the lines of paid for sex or companionship extremely blurred in Thailand”
Look forward to reading what you have to say on this topic. My guess is that you refer to the customer perceptions as opposed to the providers - something sellers hope to achieve and buyers beware.
Maybe that is why Stick thinks prostitutes unfit for marriage.
May also explain why guys spend thousands to come here for holiday too.
View all comments by Professor
matt just opened his site to advertising. this seems to be a straightforward effort to drive traffic through the site. If BBB can determine the top gogos on his site i reckon matt can be blog-god; that’s the beauty of the internet.
View all comments by werewolf
@ww:Yeah, but I never ran my own gogo bar.
A Thailand blogger running a “best Thailand blogs” list is kind of like Angelwitch running a “best gogo bars” list…
View all comments by TAFKABBB
hummm - I just voted and it is now 11 - so it seems to be slipping - thats one helluva ‘cool algorithm’ if it takes little account of the public vote
View all comments by doctorbond
(In my best Homer Simpson voice):
Hey! Werewolf’s Lair just hit #41… WOOO HOOO!!! Pass me another doughnut.
View all comments by werewolf
I gave you the 5 stars but you remain at 11.
View all comments by hanuman
Hey, Vote for me.
View all comments by Keith Summers
a lot of the blogs look like they are just cut and paste from other web sites, mainly bangkok post or nation. Credit should go to those with original content.
View all comments by MSB
Pass another doughnut! Werewolf’s Lair crept up another notch to #40.
Seriously, Matt’s comments on his site:
indicate that many votes and a solid star rating will be moving up the rankings.
FARANG speaks 2 much had 131 votes a few minutes ago. ON a quick scan, the next best number was 41 for Absolutely Bangkok.
Fs2m scores 4.4 on the star rating. Among sites that have received 10 votes or more, only Absolutely Bangkok (4.5) scores higher.
Matt’s stated goal is to drive traffic into the site. Presumably he would want many voters to be a key factor in moving the site up the rankings.
The results argue that this is not really the case.
View all comments by werewolf
ww - for the record I think voting is a lame way of doing this since one could just focus a campaign on getting users to vote. We could have used our email and list so get tons more people. So voting to me is not a good indicator. Yes - I am also confused the relationship between the amount of votes and how little movement.
I smell a rat.
View all comments by smitty
“The results argue that this is not really the case.”
Not at all. But the metric still takes into account the other factors. If it’s based solely on user voting, then sure, this blog would be first place, but it’s not.
However, when you’re competing with blogs with Page Rank 5 and Techno ranks much higher than this one, user rating will only do so much. that being said, some blogs have jumped 20+ places after user voting.
This blog still moved up, but that movement isn’t based on the sheer number of votes.
There is no rat. This is a script with a metric. Really, it’s not worth spending so much time thinking about.
View all comments by Matt
“I think voting is a lame way of doing this since one could just focus a campaign on getting users to vote. We could have used our email and list so get tons more people.”
Sure you could, but even with a five-star rating you aren’t going to be in first place. User voting is only part of the metric. You have, after all, 100 more votes than everyone else, but you’re not in first place because of the other factors. 1,000 more votes wouldn’t change that, especially in the top 20 where its much more competetive. Plus, I have no control over rankings, which seems to be what everyone is accusing me of.
View all comments by Matt
Heh.
I’m glad someone found a use for Pagerank, Technorati and Alexa rankings. Because most people who take the internet seriously certainly haven’t.
That said, I’m not sure a purely vote-based system would be entirely fair either - that would just result in the most-read site being the “best”.
Is there any objective way to rank 100+ blogs on wildly varying topics?
Probably not.
View all comments by TAFKABBB
Hmmmm…. I’m thinking that I’ve already invested more time in this discussion than it’s worth, so surely other people are bored to hell with it, but…
I don’t think that Matt is deliberately manipulating the ratings. I think his only motivation for running this new section of his blog is to drive traffic (which is a motivation I applaud, by the way). If he wants to encourage voters, which means encouraging traffic, then the number of voters and the rating should have a very strong impact on the movement of the site up or down the chart. To see the Fs2M site move DOWN in the rankings as it was accumulating more votes and high star ratings seems to argue that the ranking system does not support the goal of increased website traffic over the long term.
I have no reason to complain… my site moved from #107 to #40 like a bullet, so obviously votes have a place in the ranking system. If Matt hadn’t said in his comment section that, “I can’t emphasize enough how big an impact user voting has on the rankings” I probably wouldn’t have even commented on this. My comments aren’t an attempt to say that the results are manipulated, only that they aren’t consistent with Matt’s emphasis on the impact of voting.
For smitty & TAFKABBB who seem to think that a Bangkok blog shouldn’t be running the voting for the best blogs in Bangkok, I understand the point in theory, but really — who else would possibly do it? Does any blogger take himself so seriously that he thinks we need ‘integrity’ in something like this?
View all comments by werewolf
I see what you’re saying, but you forget that people are voting for other blogs too. And people can also vote blogs down. The system isn’t perfect, but really, it’s as good as it can be. And you’ve seen with your own blog how voting can shoot you up the table past the lower-down blogs. Against the higher blogs it is more difficult.
No worries anyway.
View all comments by Matt
Okay, absent something provocative, this should be MY last word on the subject.
Matt: I’d suggest that it may be useful to publish the basis of your metric for ‘transparency’ and also to aid people in doing what you invited them to do — specifically “So, tell me what you think, tell me what you’d like improved” (which seems to run counter to your most recent comment on this blog which tells us that “really, it’s as good as it can be”).
You’ve got something new, and personally I think it’s a good idea and a creative effort. If you really think that it’s as good as it can be already, then so be it.
On the other hand, if you really want people to tell you what they think and what they’d like improved then my feedback is that blog movement on the list should be more sensitive to voters and less sensitive to Google Rank based on the results I see.
This is based on the notion that you want to drive readers to the site, which means they need to be rewarded for their efforts to keep them coming back. If that’s not your primary goal, then the feedback is less germane.
Also, things like Google Page Rank are fairly entrenched numbers, not likely to be highly responsive to noticeable changes in blog quality (up or down) while readers are more fluid (though decidedly less objective) which seems like it would keep your list ‘fresher’ and more meaningful.
Okay. That’s it. I’m done. Sorry. Have you seen the doughnuts around anywhere?
View all comments by werewolf
“the list should be more sensitive to voters”
Maybe. But then blogs like this one will rank number one while Bangkok Pundit and others will sink to the bottom.
You can see the code for the script if you like. What you’re suggesting would give certain blogs an unfair advantage though. Some bloggers simply won’t call on their readership for votes. This evens that out.
Alexa rank, although not totally reliable, would be a decent stat to factor in, but I need to upgrade my PHP before can use it.
I’ve searched for other top 100 lists one that is the most successful and the most accepted by the bloggers on that list (man of whom are pro bloggers) is the one at 45n5.com
That list uses PR, Techno and Alexa. What else is there to use?
View all comments by Matt
So he said this site would be number 1 if it was down to user votes…cool
I just finished a very interesting book called “Freakonomics” by Steve Levitt & Stephen Dubner. There’s a bit in there that says some American parties paid people to vote 5$, 10$ or the payment could be Keg of Whiskey and in the 1890 New Hampishire Congressional Race a “Live Pig”. Maybe this inspired Thaskin maybe not but how about a Vodka and Coke for my Vote Smitty?
View all comments by Young Royal
yr - make it to the grand opening party. Something will be for free - just not sure what.
I was not looking for the votes - just letting people know about the list and that people can vote. My guess is this site introduced people to matt’s site and his list - people who did not know about it before.
So all is good. I have said my peace.
How was the book?
View all comments by smitty