Vote for David Gray for Top WordPress.com blog today

It’s unfortunate that those of us who use WordPress but but install it on our own host don’t have any equvilent to the WordPress.com blog list.

I guess we can always show off our blogs in the WordPress support forums.

You’re not boring, I’m far more boring than you and I do not even blogg. You blogg therefore you “are” (“I Blogg therefore I am”).
Kinda like two guys arguing about who is the ugliest. Niether one is ugly. The dialog proves they are self assured and it becomes a game of joust amoung other Alpha’s. No, you are not boring, just becoming a silverback like the other inner circle crew. Right Chris? Don’t trust anyone over 80 lol.

Just wanted to let you know that I was not trying to make you out to be unworthy of being on the list all the time. You are an “A-List” blogger and deserve to be there.

I just want some way to have others that are not quite “A” list to get some recognition for a good post or something that is worthy to be there as well.

BTW I did not write the post for my own benefit either. But thank you for reading the post and seeing the point I was trying to make.

The paradox of mainstream media.

One of the great things that have always attracted me in both blogging and podcasting was the fact that the means to make the cut where the same for everyone. In the beginning you would need an publisher to get your message in the paper , get a book out or whatever. You used to need a radio station to get your voice heard and you would have to sleep with the producer to get on the tube.

All of that has changed thanks to the power of the internet . Now think about it : Everybody could be somebody. Everybody had an article , everybody has a voice and everybody has equal access to the masses.

But the maturity of the internet has taken its tole. Even in cyberspace we are becoming aware of what can only be called “mainstream media”. In our little microcosmos we have our own celebrities. Rest asured : mentioning their names to the average joe on the street will probably get you a “huh?-and-a-shrugg” but to us cybernauts ringing names like Scoble, Dvorak, Curry, Lewis and others are as common as apple pie in Alabama.

Somehow sites like Digg, delicious and others that are the “lords of the lemmings” drive the droves of socially bookmarked surfers towards these mainstream lanes of Top-bloggers, Celebrity podcasters and unintentional amateur pornstars (hello Ms Hilton). So somehow I wonder if the single voice of the average Joe can still be heard.

And what about the average Joe ? An interesting discussion lately presented me with the following dilemma. Would you bend your words, twist your tongue and flex your ideas in order to be popular ? Or would you rather speak from the core of your soul to ten people who appreciate what you are doing.

I (for one) have made up my mind. With an itti titty podcast reaching some 150 people a week. My blog gets hit about 80 times a day. And you know what ? I don’t mind. Once in a while one of my regular listeners or readers drops me a comment, taps me on the shoulder or even walks up to me at work and says : Great post ! I love that . I appreciate the small crowd more then the large amount of people that will probably never really care what I say , but just hit my blog cause “everybody does” or cause it was at the top of some list.

But in fear of being branded as “Sulking blogger with digg-rank-envy” let me reply that one of the greatest pleasures of writing is not being read, but to write. One of the joys in podcasting is to create from the core of my soul and not molding my content to appeal to the masses. I wouldn’t mind 50 000 people to FIND my site , I would just feel weird having to write for all of them on a daily base. Somehow all these eyes or ears would change the acoustics of creativity. Would I create just like that , or change my content in order to remain popular ?

So let my tree fall in the forest , I don’t really care if somebody hears it or not. The joy is in making unique stuff that is read by unique individuals. If somewhere around the world ONE person smiles when reading this .. i’m satisfied. Because the reward of creativity is the creation itself.

Isn’t it outrageous that you have to do something whacko to be DUGG and climb up the ladder? I have always seen the most bizzarre posts gettting DUGG and shoutwired, than the best ones. Its really time some one found a way out to let quality content ride up rather than the ones which shocks but seldom does anything else.

I like what WordPress has done to shake up the Hot Posts/Hot Blogs lists on WordPress.com.

Now they take from a pool of blogs, instead of the actual one in place. I’d like to see that for Top Blogs, Top Posts on the dashboard as well.

Anyone who’s had the Top Posts Of This Blog widget knows that it’s self-reinforcing and that once it goes up, people click on those posts to the exclusion of worthy others. I took it off, although it was great for page views, because those aren’t the best posts on my blog, but the hit gap between them and the others was widening massively.

The same thing happened with the Top Posts and Top Blogs on WordPress. Now, they’re good posts and good blogs, but so are lots of others, as you point out, and if the list never changes it loses utility.

I won’t compromise myself to be featured on any stinkin’ list, or to be featured on Digg, or whatever. If I get a surge and get featured only once, it would be nice, but it would be because I didn’t compromise myself, my writing, or my audience.

It’s gratifying that today the top post on my own blog is one I put up ages ago just because I found video of Crutch Master and thought he was cool. Apparently the movie about him is out this weekend, so my post got a boost. That’s the way a meme should work, rather than “I’ll put this on my blog and people will make me famous” which is tempting but sordid.

Great Stuff, I like it.