Parableman responds to Deep Calls to Deep regarding blogrolls and aggregators.
Let’s take a look at what Deep Calls to Deep says first.
Another blogger (I forget who) had a post about the new aggregator trend, and mentioned as part of it the use of multiple blogrolls as a way of increasing status at the Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem. I’ve thought for a little while that it’s a bit odd, though it is nice to have more places people can visit you from. In fact I joined the Evengelical Aggregator recently, albeit as a way of protesting against those who would dispute that idetification!
So I popped over to the ecosystem, and compared some of the top ‘christian’ blogs in the ecosystem (i.e. those I could find) with the alternate traffic rankings, the measure of how many people actually visit the blog daily, rather than link to it. (I’m assuming here that people generally block their own visits in their stats). It makes interesting reading to see the differences.
Parableman makes a spirited defense of the practice.
In the job market in much of the world, you present yourself in certain ways, emphasizing the ways you can contribute to the company and allowing the company to figure out any of your weaknesses themselves. Is this lying? It is deceit? I don’t think so. It’s assumed that the only things you’ll talk about are your good aspects. That doesn’t mean you’re pretending you don’t have any negatives. You’re not expected to talk about them in that context, so it’s not deceitful to do so unless you’re asked about them and try to hide them then. A good job search will be able to find out what they need to know, and they’ll know how to ask the right questions anyway. Your job is to make the case that they should hire you, not to give them reasons why they shouldn’t, at least not in most cases. That’s the convention of the job market.
And Smart Christian doesn’t think this practise is manipulation.
Dr. Adrian Warnock defends his blogdom and his reasons for setting it up.
Ironically, one of the reasons that I had for forging the Blogdom of God in the first place was that it seemed at the time that Christian blogs were getting more traffic than links and not sharing their traffic around. It seems that the only reason that the criticisms being raised now are even possible tto contemplate is that as a group we have now become very good at including links to one anothers blogs. Is that such a bad thing?
RazorKiss did a traffic analysis as opposed to a link analysis.
I want to read these through and consult with a web/server expert. I am questioning the reasoning that there is an evangelical ghetto (coined by Dr. Mark Byron) and holy huddles coined by LivingRoom. There has been, and I question whether the new technology is merely creating a bit larger ones.
I have been asked what is wrong with god-bloggers seeking influence and power. Hey, funny question to ask a Canuck eh? But I think that needs to be addressed thoughtfully.
I’ve used the terms ghetto and holy huddle, I need to finish the figures on the God-blog demographics 2005 and get an expert technical opinion.
Search
Subscribe 
You are currently browsing the Bene Diction Blogs On weblog archives.
Related Entries
For blog design, Wordpress themes or blog help, see cre8d design.
Perhaps they do, perhaps they don’t. But who pays attention to the ecosystem? (Or rather, when people check out the ecosystem, is it about ego?)
Rather than overanalysing and critiquing it, just take the ecosystem with a grain of salt – there’s all sorts of measurements and systems in place for blogs and it’s important not to overinflate the value of one of these.
By just looking at traffic, things can be deceiving too. Is that traffic made up of loyal readers who stop and stay for a while and come back later, or is it a busy highway in which people just get a quick glimpse as they shoot on through.
Just my 2c
My traffic has increased as a result of joining aggregators and blogrolls. I think one can separate those along for the ride from those with influence by examining traffic (as you have suggested) and the number of personal blogroll links. Unfortunately, the former is hard because not everyone has public stats that TTLB can access. As for the latter, I’ve visited a number of the blogs that have sent me traffic and most of them have me listed in a personal blogroll in addition to the blogroll through which they found me.
At first, I was skeptical of membership in many blogrolls and aggregators and left comments to that effect at TTLB. Having seen my readership and traffic increase, I’m less skeptical. It certainly still be abused, but it’s also an excellent way to get noticed. The greatest content in the blogosphere won’t help you if it isn’t being read.
We are about to offer an aggregator called the Island of Misfit Believers in Christ. Our purpose is just to be a community, and have a page where we can see all those in the community and what good things they’ve written about. Other than that, we don’t really care if we “nab” a larger share of links or not, or gain more visitors. The original idea was as a spoof against all of the so-called “theological” doctorate blogs.
I guess it’s just going to be a place where those who feel they don’t fit in elsewhere, may feel as though they will here.
Good Hope to you Bene
I’m having trouble proving my point because I don’t believe aggregators are an either/or tool or in 98% of bloggers cases they have a drive for influence and power to be the 20% that get 80% of the attention.
I have no trouble with anyone with a doctorate looking to find others that speak their language, it’s good everyone can find who and what they are looking for. The blogosphere is chaotic, and it’s great anyone entering it can find others of like mind.
I have trouble with inflated and false premises the techology gives, and that is what I’m trying to figure out. I’m having difficulty proving my idea the TTLB Alliance is self-looping simply because the stated reasons it was set up looks okay at first glance. Thats why I’m looking for some technical expertise.
I haven’t seen the growth in the god-blog blogosphere that is being promoted.
I like your idea, it’s similar to the Unright Christians.:^)
Again a difficulty can be that many bloggers don’t ‘fit’, don’t meet criteria or rules. And I think that’s a good thing also.
The bottom line is linking out and good content, but hopefully not just to your group. We all have to start somewhere.
Funky Dung is somewhat correct in that good content often doesn’t get noticed.
It takes time, and in cyber-space that’s a hard thing to wait for.
I seem to recall someone making this observation a scant three weeks ago. I wish I could recall who.
That was an excellent post Mike.
The big fish in the small pond routine.
It’s well worth a read for anyone particapting in this comment section.
If the alliance isn’t accepting that ranking/hits isn’t translating into the hype from one ranking system and gets defensive when questions are asked, it’s undermining the motive.
Here are a few quotes from Rev. Mike’s post
http://blog.revmike.us/archives/000715.html
**Out of curiosity, I went to TTLB and checked out where I stand in the rankings. If links counted for anything, I would be ranked 495th in the Ecosystem as of yesterday, 467th today. However, in terms of traffic, I am ranked 2,569th based on 48 visits/day, 51 visits/day if you check the current Site Meter data.
So what do all these blogging alliances gain us? Probably not a whole lot. It’s a mixed bag. Every time I have hooked up with one of these groups, my traffic goes up. But doubling nothing still gets you nothing. When the day is done, not too many people find what I have to say about things all that interesting. If ten people comment on anything in a week, it’s been a great week, and there haven’t too many of those weeks over the past six months.**
**So, perhaps Bene’s right. All we’re doing is setting up one more way to sell out to the culture’s values. The Ecosystem — the Nielsen Ratings of the Blogosphere. Determining whose site is worth selling an ad on.
But you say you’re in it to influence the surrounding culture. Puh-leeze. When was the last time Hugh Hewitt blogged anything that significantly transformed anyone’s life? When was the last time I blogged anything that significantly transformed anyone’s life?
There — now THAT oughta get you folks all in a dither! Comment on that!**
re: “When was the last time I blogged anything that significant;y transformed anyone’s life?”
So, why aren’t you writing things that have the potential to do so?
That’s the question – not whether Hugh does it, or not
You and Mike can have a go at that one RazorKiss.
It’s a US issue, Hewitt isn’t known to most of us.
Here is my 2c
You have high expectations for bloggers there Razorkiss.
Why?
Just everyday people aren’t worried about being a professional pundit or evangelizing like a mega church minister.
Many just wrestle with their faith, share, allow God to work in them and don’t count scalps, hits or rankings.
Mike has done a great deal to reach well past his corner of the country, and engage in excellent discussion with ministers and bloggers from other countries. He has made serious attempts to understand the rest of us. He has done a great deal in practising the relational aspects of blogging. It isn’t about winning. Many of us appreciate him for that because we’ve all learned.
We tend not to mistake his modesty for anything less than it is.:^)
“So, why aren’t you writing things that have the potential to do so?
That’s the question – not whether Hugh does it, or not
”
That would be because I save the truly transformative, Holy Spirit-inspired stuff for my paying gigs.
Actually, I cited Hugh because he writes in “In, But Not Of” about blogging as a way of influencing the culture for Christ, and as a result, he has inspired a whole cadre of “blog-children.” Joe Carter at The Evangelical Outpost is one example.
And while I think the medium is a good way to engage people in dialogue about issues, it’s just as likely to be a place where we just air our preconceived notions and debate each other in ways that as often as not result in a net increase in our alienation.
Interestingly, having recently been added to an aggregator, I noticed a jump in TTLB stats. All of the sudden I’m linked by a number of sites I’ve never heard of because I automatically appear in their aggregated blogroll. And though I’m linked by more sites now, I haven’t really logged any hits from these new linkers. And so, at least in my case, the stats hike is an artifice. I imagine that if I joined a number of aggregators, my TTLB status would rise to even greater heights. *shrug* seems a bit cheesy to me.
Well, what seems cheesy is not the aggregators or TTLB, but really just that fact that TTLB seems to matter to some people. I use it as a tool to sometimes find sites that are discussing my articles but don’t have enough traffic to really register on my occasional referral-checking.
Hey The Dane:^) You are expressing what a fair number of people are noticing.
Isn’t this about people?
All the technology is not that useful unless we bloggers actually reach out, post, comment and relate to each other.
I guess when forming the Blogdom, the owner had to pick some technology – so it was the TTLB. N.Z. Bear, like many has provided a service to the blogosphere and he deserves a thank you for all his hard work.
So do all the others that take time to develop the shareware and tools we use.
In terms of blogging about things that change peoples life- how does the simple gospel debate strike you?
Can you define what you mean by simple gospel debate?
Are you referring to your wife’s piece for her church?
The posts going around that have jumped off that original post?
Over on my blog a few weeks back I posted a “simple gospel” definition my wife had given the sunday school. Since then discussion and debate has reverberated throughout much of the christian blogopshere. To track it the easiest thing is to hit “Gospel” on my Post category links, and follow some of the links out.
I think that is certainly a subject that can change peoples lives.