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

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

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

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

No worries anyway.
View all comments by Matt

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’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

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

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 smell a rat.
View all comments by smitty