Webomatica

 

Opting Out Of 2000 Bloggers

February 5th, 2007

This 2000 Bloggers thing is definitely an inspired idea, a combination of the Million Dollar Home Page and MyBlogLog. Essentially at this 2000 Bloggers site, there’s room for 2,000 blogs to sign up with a photo of yourself, and a link to your blog. The next bit of info is that bloggers can paste smaller versions of this site on their own. As a relatively new blogger with a Technorati rank of 36,000 and 95 blogs linking in – hey, this looks tempting to give my rank some boost juice.

But Zoli Erdos brings up a good point which is calling it what it probably is – just a big link farm. Also, please note Web Strategy and his request to be removed from the 2,000 bloggers website. And lastly, it seems like Technorati is taking a look at sites like this and it’s certainly possible they may choose not to index it – thereby defeating part of their purpose.

As for why this could be seen as “gaming,” here’s an analogy. Imagine you go to a blog and you saw 2,000 links in their blogroll. What would you think? For one, the thought that said blogger literally visited 2,000 other blogs and thought they were all cool, goes out the window. Most likely not much thought went into what blog was added and why. And from a usability standpoint, there’s a critical number where choice becomes overwhelming and people just run the other way. There’s a reason why sites like digg have become popular – to filter down the ridiculous amount of choice on the web and try to quantify it in some way.

Which actually, is the whole reason why Technorati and its rank is useful – to try and assign some criteria of quality as to which what blogs were being read most often based on links.

So I think I’ll sit this one out. Because ultimately, I guess I’m an old school blogger, and like to read blogs where links are mostly based on interesting content – and where the blogger actually read stuff and put some thought into what was worth linking to (//engtech = quality). I’m just suggesting a link should be based on some small amount of merit rather than just jumping on some bandwagon. But ultimately, that’s just what I like to read and what I strive to do when figuring out what blogs to link to from here.

In this very post, I just linked to both Zoli’s Blog and Web Strategy because they had original thoughts that made me go “Hmmmm!”. I like that. So consider me jumping on a bandwagon of two. And I’ll add this link too, since I found it on Technorati: blackrimglasses.

I left out 1,998 blogs, but I just didn’t have time to read them all…

Note: Apologies if you were added to 2000 Bloggers against your will – you were probably popular enough, already!

Update: Looks like the creator of the site, Tino, took it down on his own. Read about it here.

One last comment on this subject – I think bloggers sign up for this kind of stuff because they think the system is broken, or there’s some cabal of 100 A-List bloggers that conspire to keep them out. I almost signed up myself. But I don’t think the system is busted. I’m trying to do my part as a C-list blogger to link to new stuff I find cool. Yes, this takes longer, but I have faith it’s the better way, and ultimately what’s best for the readers.

If you want to find other blogs to read and link to, I suggest signing up for MyBlogLog. Or just start clicking on people’s pictures in the MyBlogLog sidebar widget and go from there. But this is starting to be a whole ‘nother post…

Additional Reading: Tino, Mike McBride Deep Jive Interests, Nick Sanctuary, SplitBrain, Elaine Vigneault

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  • Thanks for this. I'm Checking the official Technorati blog (thanks for link). They appear to be listening.
  • You're welcome... ! I appreciated your new take.
  • Thanks, there's at least four of us on that bandwagon now:-)
  • What's funny is that I joined the 2000 bloggers project. :)


    //el punta de linkos
  • oh man... my image of you is slightly marred... well I'll still leave my link in, because I chose it :|
  • A quick search of technorati last night showed some seriously out of place results all due to the links generated by this 2000 bloggers thing.

    The worst thing of all is that I wasn't on it (sulk) ;)
  • Yeah... I'm sure the intentions were good when the project was concieved of but it might be getting a little out of hand. But I can only choose for myself...

    Hey, thanks for directing me towards this : Disclosure Policy Wordpress Plugin. I was looking for something like it.
  • "It’s called variance and it happens in the blogosphere just as much as it happens in the stock market and in the poker rooms," as I wrote in my piece about this at:
    http://www.elainevigneault.com/2007/02/06/2000-...

    If the Technorati algorithm is so simplistic that it can't account for a temporary jolt like 2000 Bloggers is creating, then what's Technorati worth?

    We are inspired and we will go on! http://www.2kbloggers.com/
  • Hey Elaine - you raise some good points in your post. As I mentioned above, I don't really think the system is broken. But I'll link to your blogpost in mine to get your side of things...
  • Today I opted out of the project, but wish Tino luck.
  • Totally agree: automatically-generated blogrolls are the Mark of the Beast - an almost certain sign that the blogger that is using them is too lazy to go out there and find proper links themselves.
  • I'm wondering what was your original idea when you join 2000 bloggers? It's good in your case that you understand 'gaming' and all those tech words, so probably you know the effect before joining. But for tech morons like me who doesn't understand its effect, it wasn't what was on my mind when I joined. It was more of fun. Only lately I knew of what it was. But I'm not opting out simply because I didn't join for that purpose.

    So what's in it for those self-professed 'gatekeepers' of the blogosphere who run to Google and Technorati to complain? With their actions, it show what they're afraid of. It's pure selfishness and fear of losing out. I think it's all numbers game. RANKS. They think it's only for them. Pathetic.

    Cheers!
  • Hi Ipanema - I didn't sign up for 2000 bloggers although I thought about it. I can totally understand the motivations why someone would sign up - I almost did myself. But it was the post from Zoli that made me think twice.

    Yeah I do think the "gatekeepers" have some motivation as well to protect their rank and position. But personally I've only been doing this blog thing in earnest since the middle of last year and I haven't felt like there's a sinister cabal of A and B list bloggers refusing to link. Valleywag linked to some ridiculous Second Life articles I wrote. Other bloggers I admire like Mathew Ingram, Tony Hung, engtech, Rex Hammock, etc. take note as I link to them and have commented a few times on their sites. It just takes regular effort...

    Maybe I should just write another post about what has worked for me more recently instead of answering comments.

    Anyway, back to 2000 bloggers... the nature of the net is that when one amusing idea goes away another will rise to take its place, so I'm sure something new and fun will come along... meanwhile, I think MyBlogLog is helping me a ton at finding new blogs and posts to link to (gosh I sound like a shill).
  • Webomatica, I DID THE THING YOU ARE DREAMING OF!
    At the day you published this blog, I launched
    my own version of the same idea:

    Personal READ log of MyBlogLog community in the form of
    "Face Ads":
    http://MyBlogLog.Mini-News.com
  • Thats interesting... I'll have to take closer look at what you have done, there...!
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