As the results start to trickle out of the Total Politics rankings for 2010, the inevitable carping and whining commences as to how unfair it is that the ‘same people’ always appear at the top, how it is an incestuous circle of friends who link to each other to keep out the ‘newcomers’.

“And true to form most of those top blogs are publishing the list with links, which means they are pushing those blogs up the rankings and cementing their places at the top leaving the rest scrambling around for crumbs.”

As with most things ‘Internet’, there is an element of conspiracy theory in that remark. A suggestion that there is some powerful cabal that has clandestine meetings to decide who they will promote. I thought I would take a look to see how true that was.

The Total Politics ranking is made up of votes from individual e-mail addresses belonging to readers of Iain Dale’s site. Whether each e-mail address belongs to only one reader is a matter that has been much speculated upon in these days of freely available hotmail and gmail accounts. No matter, let’s not go there. At the end of the day it is a ranking of reader’s choices, and whilst there is a possibility that individual bloggers could be registering multiple votes for each other, it would require a huge amount of effort and remembered passwords to secure a place at the top by this method.

Since Iain requires your ‘top ten’ blogs to form a valid vote, it also requires a huge amount of effort on the part of readers to register any vote. I suspect that most people write out the top five or six quite easily – but how many people even read ten blogs every day? They must scratch around in their memory to fill in the rest of Iain’s form. It stands to reason that the blog you ‘stumbled over’ once, that had something of interest, but when you went back hadn’t been updated for a month, is not going to get a look in.

I read Guido every day, I read Iain every day. I do so because they invariably have up to the minute Westminster gossip. They have up to the minute Westminster gossip because they are physically part of that incestuous village. Hence they will always be ‘top’ of my must read list. If someone else comes along that has the same access to gossip, I will be following them just as avidly. In other words, it is not because they are ‘Guido’ or ‘Iain’ that I follow them, it is their content that I follow.

Now the link ‘obsession’ and Wikio. If I follow up on a story that they have published, perhaps find out more about it, then I credit them as the originator of the story, by way of a link. I don’t want to be accused of plagiarism, no other reason, no secret agreements made in dingy basements! I have linked to Guido precisely twice since I started blogging. Guido has linked to me precisely three times since I started blogging. All three links in respect of the Nick Hogan story, which I trust you will agree was a newsworthy story in its own right. Guido has put a link to other stories of mine on his sidebar – but, and it is a big but, Guido’s sidebar does not go out on his RSS feed, therefore has absolutely no influence whatsoever on the Wikio rating which is comprised of links that appear in the RSS feed. What it does do is drive readers over to your blog to see what caught Guido’s attention – and some of them may like what they see enough to remain as regular readers, who knows, there is no way of measuring that. What I have said of Guido also holds true for Iain Dale, Iain has linked to me precisely five times in the eighteen months since I started.

You can check all this quite easily by going to http://labs.wikio.net/ – there you can look to see who is linking to whom and what articles they are linking to. It is instructive, and may go some way to lancing the boil – I have managed to ‘rise through the ranks’ without being part of any supposed cabal. I have never met Iain or Guido!

Which brings me to the ‘blogroll’ issue. My blogroll has always consisted of those blogs I read every day. As this blog has become busier, I have less and less time to read. Most of my reading is of government documents, court cases, and academic papers. I have less and less time to root around in the blogsphere. Consequently the blogroll is becoming meaningless – and yet every day I get e-mails from people asking me if I would ‘exchange links’ with them on my blogroll. I always hesitate before replying, I don’t want to give offence. I certainly don’t want to appear to be one of the fabled cabal only linking to the top bloggers, and yet, inevitably, that is the way it is becoming.

So.

Deep breath.

I am giving serious consideration to ditching the blogroll altogether. I am also giving serious consideration to ditching my ‘Saturday Evening Posts Worth Reading’ feature in its present form – since that, inevitably, is only sending out links to those I am reading, a smaller and smaller circle. What I would like to do, and here you all have to play your part – why should I do all the work around here? – is to give you an e-mail address – annaraccoon.newshound@gmailcom – and invite you to send me in links every week to the pieces you have found on the Internet that you have most enjoyed. You are the ones with the time to read the lesser known blogs. You are best placed to decide which blogs should be getting a wider audience.  That way my Saturday night feature will be a cross between the Total Politics vote registering readers interest and will bring the lesser known blogs a Wikio registering link from me.

Let me know what you think, let me know if you can be bothered to do this!

PJH August 29,
2010 at 12:43

but how many people even read ten blogs every day? They must scratch
around in their memory to fill in the rest of Iain

john malpas August 29, 2010 at 00:46

please dont ditch SEPWR – I like reading it.

permanentexpat
August 28, 2010 at 14:50

I have a short list of ‘must read daily’ blogs, among which is this one.
Like another commenter, I probably arrived here from a link from a link etc.
& am very happy that I did.
Reading blogs is a form of growing-up
process factored by a wealth of items…and many that interested me when I first
got into it I now find boring, self-serving &, sometimes, plain bad.
I
would not like to see you change your format in any way but, I hope that I’m
as much a realist as yourself…nothing good can simply stand still & with
increased readership (which surprises me not, congratulations) & limited
time, some things must inevitably change.
Although you have made the point,
may I reinforce it: Don’t neglect the only life you will ever have ….for any
reason.
Many thanks for occupying a small part of my day
)

Longrider August
28, 2010 at 08:36

Anna,

I think the question is; does any of it matter? I’ll write what I want to
write and link where there is a relevance. People came and read it if they
find it interesting. Sure, it’s nice if someone links and people pop along as
a consequence, but the for most part, it’s a blip that passes.

To link or not to link, that is the question. The answer is probably; do as
thy will.

Weggis
August 27, 2010 at 21:28

Wow, your link has certainly given my Site Meter some unaccustomed exercise
today. Thanks.

Subrosa August 27,
2010 at 20:09

Anna, don’t make more work for yourself. Keeping a blog running on a daily
basis is very hard work as we know. These days I don’t get round to reading
many other blogs, although I do my best, but I rely on my readers to highlight
some which may be of interest.

I will keep my blogroll because it is a speedy way for my readers to visit
other blogs. Unlike you I don’t have daily requests asking me to exchange
links, although I did initially. Naw, make life as easy as possible for
yourself. Your Saturday night post is your selection because it’s your blog.
My weekly list of good posts is the same, for whatever reason the post took my
eye. You’ll end up with spending hours reading emails which suggest other
blogs and then having to check them out.

Forget about the clique issue. It will always be there as Jill says. I know
I don’t belong to a clique and if some think so then it’s their problem, not
mine.

Anna
Raccoon August 27, 2010 at 20:28

Subrosa,
Lately I have been getting requests from some very strange
blogs too……based in the Ukraine, with an unhealthy interest in women’s
underwear…why they think I would want a reciprocal link with them I cannot
imagine…….and as for the Turkish goat farm, well!

Kingbingo
August 27, 2010 at 20:31

You did not mention they were quite ‘that’ intriguing.

Mummy x August 27,
2010 at 18:14

Lesser known blogs?

Those will be those lesser known blogs that made the mistake of linking to
you and sending their readers on to you.

Thanks Anna

Mummy x

Anna
Raccoon August 27, 2010 at 19:08

I hardly think you qualify as a ‘lesser known blog’ Mummy X.

Joe Public August 27, 2010 at 16:27

Why change the way you operate, just ‘cos 1 or 2 other Bloggers comment
about cliques?

Carry on doing what you want, for the reasons you decide.

Your avid readers will keep you up there with the best of them.

Jill August 27, 2010 at 11:59

Cliquiness seems to be an almost inevitable part of human behaviour, and it
seems magnified in the interweb’s prism (is that a mixed metaphor?). People of
like minds naturally associate and the busiest (not the best) become most
influential. And then mutual (but genuine) backslapping becomes an external
problem; it’s not just blogs, it’s consumer review websites, forums,
everywhere. It’s somewhat amusing to see libertarian blogs plagued by it
though and I do take the piss out of Obo for it on a regular basis.

Having said that, most people are lazy and only the clique will send you
links, so the ones you get will be just as incestuous. You’re probably wasting
your time, pure though the idea is. Sorry!

Mick Turatian
August 27, 2010 at 11:53

I wouldn’t give yourself the extra work: blogs should make their own way in
the world.

There’s a comparison to be drawn with David Miliband underpinning Diane
Abbott from which I shall delicately refrain.

Kingbingo August 27, 2010 at 11:49

“I am giving serious consideration to ditching the blogroll altogether. I
am also giving serious consideration to ditching my

Anna
Raccoon August 27, 2010 at 12:01

Kingbingo – you are missing the point. I would love to link more, I don’t
have the time to search around for the new blogs any longer. In common with
most bloggers, I have a life as well, and as I try to concentrate on
original material rather than a one word comment on a pararaph clipped from
a newspaper, I run out of hours to do the reading.
Perhaps I could have
worded the post better, but I was trying to get across that rather than
imagine there is a conspiracy to keep people out of the loop, bloggers might
recognise that a busy blog takes up a lot of time (I’ve lost count of the
nights I have spent solving techie problems as my readership has increased)
and do more to bring themselves to the attention of those they might
appreciate a link from rather than just sending in e-mails demanding to be
‘put on a blogroll’ and then getting in a huff when they are not!
The
only links which actually count on Wikio – (which was the subject of the
latest whine) are those from the RSS feed, and you will only get one of
those if someone has actually read your post and linked to content in it –
not from a blogroll. I will only get to read it if it is on my blogroll –
and that is too long to read sensibly every day as it is!
Do you see the
problem now?

Kingbingo
August 27, 2010 at 14:13

Kingbingo
August 27, 2010 at 14:19

That is unless you don’t want to of course.

You do us readers a wonderful service. One of the tiny few on the
internet I would be willing to pay for to subscribe too. It

Dick the Prick
August 27, 2010 at 11:20

I genuinely wouldn’t bother. I think you’re being..err…far too polite. I
like the fact that people have blog rolls as some days (weeks, months) there
really is nothing much going on and it’s nice to just have a look around and
see what random folks are up to.

Perhaps there does come some responsibility with popularity but, as you
mentioned, it tends to be because people have their own interests. I think
people like this blog, OH & Dick Puddlecote etc because there’s a slant on
the news that is utterely non MSM.

I don’t want to accuse you of naval gazing (do Raccoon’s have navals? —
probably not) but I don’t think it’s incumbent on you or any in the list, to
push/ promote blogs. I think we all know a Lithuanian Plumber is awesome but
none of us voted for him because (well, me anyway) it seems much better that
it’s quiet.

Hmm..dunno, terrricckky one. But I do defo think you’re being incredibly
polite.

Anna
Raccoon August 27, 2010 at 11:50

Dick,

It’s not that I feel it is ‘incumbent’ as you say to promote any blog, it
is just that I recognise that the circle of lbogs that I link to is becoming
smaller and smaller owing to pressure of time – so this was a way of saying,
this isn’t as a result of any ‘clique agreement’ merely time – and that is
something you can all solve.

Or put another way – don’t whine about it, do something about it! (That
is not directed at you by the way!)

Demetrius August
27, 2010 at 10:47

Interesting. Basically there are three types with a fringe. One the
professionals, often media or connected etc. Two the representatives, people
who belong to one organisation, interest or movement or another. Three are the
independents and there are a few and this will include a number with bees in
their bonnets. To avoid being too dogmatic we must allow a fringe of all sorts
that do not fit into any category. I represent the aliens posted from the
Horse Head Galaxy to see what is going on and am far from happy with what I am
finding.

JuliaM August 27,
2010 at 10:16

Sure, I’ll be happy to contribute. I often find excellent posts through
Twitter, on blogs I’d never have found otherwise.