November 26, 2004
The people have spoken!
The "People Have Spoken!" in our LLama Poll over which blog would be the first to, err, mount on top of Wonkette in the TLLB Ecosystem. The polling (conducted by our trusted friends at Dieboldaburtondeathstar Inc.) was supervised by the public integrity division of the New York Times, in conjunction with the ethics in accounting department of the United Way.
While there was no surprise that "Penicilin" came in first, our congratulations go out to Ace of Spades HQ for winning the overall balloting. Personally, I'd pay for the Spectravision showing of it all, as I'm pretty sure they'd do a reasonable interpretation of the duet from "Paradise by the Dashboard Light."
Runner up award goes to My Pet Jawa---runner up in the polls, but let's face facts: Rusty's going to win this, umm, "prize."
Why? Because of fearless and peerless reporting like this.
Addendum:
Something must be screwy with TLLB these days because this CAN'T be right:
Let me say for the record: the Comrade is a genius, INDCent Bill is a triple threat talent, but we're just hacks.
Posted by Steve at November 26, 2004 11:39 AM | TrackBackWhat was that, like 10 links in a single post? Keep this up and I'll be 'on top of' Wonkette in a few days!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Rusty at November 26, 2004 12:10 PMYeah, something's wrong with the Ecosystem. It shows me with over 500 inbound links (placing me in the low 200s among Large Mammals), while Technorati only tracks 215 links from 174 sources for INCITE.
Posted by: Beck at November 26, 2004 12:13 PMBeck,
Both TTLB abd Technorati only track links from participating sites. Hence, if you register your site at one but not the other you will get a different number of links.
I hate to point this out, but you are also getting dangerously close to "mounting" #73 in the Ecosystem in that picture.
(Think I'm going to throw up now.)
* There is an error. There is also a consistent error in the function of the TLB that Tim Worstall has researched which involves multiple sites and self-linking (I believe). It is possible to game this system, even inadvertently.
* Besides that consistent error, random glitches take place which remove or add 300 links in a given day (as in my case on that latest snapshot - I believe I should be at 1200 or so, unless 300 people somehow got annoyed with my Thanksgiving post and delinked me in 24 hours). The Truth Laid Bear fixes these glitches but doesn't explain much, so it's all a black box to us.
* As a result, the basis of your latest poll, and consistent earnest monitoring of the TLBE is a flawed exercise. The TLBE is a useful approximation, when it's working, but it's got glitches, which is unfortunate. I wrote a post about why I swore it off like 6 months ago.
* Traffic is a more reliable indicator.
* Technorati is more consistent on links.
* The most practical measure of influence would combine both measures (links and traffic).
* As it is, you guys apply too much faith and micromonitoring to the system. A chagrined example is the fact that Wonkette's power and influence are understated by her TLBE rank, compared to the number of people that read her. To truly "mount Wonkette," one needs to yank in about 70k readers a day, or roughly 10x my current sitemeter.
* Triple talent? Only three?
Posted by: Bill from INDC at November 26, 2004 08:12 PMBottom line: I understand you guys are having fun, but I wouldn't monitor the rankings so closely. It's like people that watched pre-election polls with such obsession - useful approximations (when they are designed right), but there is a margin of error.
Posted by: Bill from INDC Journal at November 26, 2004 08:16 PMOr, quite possibly it is that we're making fun of people who monitor these things too closely..... after all, banish Jack Falstaff, banish the world.
Posted by: Steve the Llamabutcher at November 27, 2004 12:12 AMBill--are you calling into question the public integrity omsbudsman of the New York Times, or the accounting department of the United Way?
HOW DARE YOU!!!!!!
This...this....this....this would be like calling into question the journalistic veracity of such a venerable institution as 60 minutes!
The nerve of some people.
Posted by: Steve the LB at November 27, 2004 12:38 AMSteve busts out the "it's a joke, it's a joke!" strategy, when we all know he checks the TLBE with the frequency of a dateless high school girl checking her voicemail 2 weeks before prom.
You can't fool me.
Lying Llamas.
Posted by: Bill from INDC at November 27, 2004 09:41 PM
