Tuesday, August 23, 2005

So, What's Up With TTLB Ecosystem

There's been some questions going around about the Ecosystem rankings. First, Michelle Malkin displaced InstaPundit for a couple of days at the top. That got some folks talking. Then, several blogs, including this little one and some others with whom I have off-line communications, dropped suddenly.

Now, I've picked on NZ Bear a little bit from time to time, mostly in fun. Because I really do respect what he does and how much he contributes.

Most of the time, what I've written has had to do with this little blog's surprisingly high ranking in the Ecosystem. When I write about that, some people take it that I'm looking for compliments. I'm not. But I am amazed that this little blog is as successful as it is.

The Ecosystem, based upon links to blogs, is the preferred method of ego-stoking for many blogs, including this little blog. And when, for a short period of time, we reached #18, I was amazed. Naturally, it didn't last and we dropped to #120. But we've been climbing again, and cracked the top 40. Now a small drop of 17 spots has hit. And others have lost links in the middle of the day. And some wonder why.

Now, I don't know for sure, but I've had some experience in gathering data and working with databases from large pools of information. And, that essentially what NZ Bear is doing with TTLB Ecosystem.

Here's what I think has been going on. Now, it's just my opinion, and I could be wrong, but I suspect I'm close to correct.

With the large number of blogs that Bear has to count, he can't count them all at once. So, I suspect he counts different blogs at different times of the day. And quite possibly, not all on every day.

When he counts the data on the blogs, I understand he only counts the data on the front page. And many blogs keep either a certain number of posts, or a certain number of days worth of posts, on the front page.

What all this means is that when he counts the links on the blogs, he can't have up-to-the-minute information. There's just too much to count. But, he counts them on a regular basis and gets as close to real-time data as he can.

This means that early in the morning, we might be #38. But later in the day, when he's updated info from certain sites that used to contain links to us, those links have dropped off, and the updated info shows us at #55.

Now, again, I'm not sure about all this. But I think it's a good idea about how it all works and why things suddenly change in the middle of the day.

It's an enormous undertaking that NZ Bear is operating. And he does a heckuva job. So, this little blog being ranked as high as it is, is not a problem with NZ Bear. It's with some crazy bloggers that for some reason think this little blog is worthy of linking.

Thank goodness for crazy bloggers. They rock!

8 comments:

  1. Sounds reasonable to me. But then again, only important people like those from FAT Alabama visit me LOL ;)

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  2. moehawk:
    Thanks. And glad to have you back!

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  3. Jo:
    Well, I'm not important. But I did help Alabama make the list!

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  4. I don't know about all that but I will say this ... TTLB has not updated my site in almost a week.

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  5. Thoughts On TTLB

    Yesterday I was a Mortal Human, and today, I am an Insignificant Microbe. How the heck does that happen?

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  6. My TTLB stats have been flat for several days. This seems unusually long, even for the Bear.

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  7. Well, he has been busy with the Blogging For Katrina thing and all.

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