Referee in a catfight
While some say I don't get a lot of comments, normally I don't mind that as long as the comments advance the post in some way, shape, manner, or form. I have to tell you though that once in awhile it's amusing to be the referee in a catfight, and the comments on my weekend post about Red Maryland being tagged as a spam blog have reached that point.
There was a point that was missed to some extent amdist the comments back and forth, and it came to mind after reading this:
I see your Blog Rankings are more where they should be, #14 in Maryland and # 14 on Delmarva. You must have slacked this week in cross postings?
You know we love ya Michael but this is a reality and IMHO where you should be. With all due respect.
Pardon me, I happen to think top 5 is a little more realistic. But those I'd be behind would be sites like Red Maryland, O'Malley Watch, Hedgehog Report, or even a site from the left like Free State Politics, not a site that barely dabbles in serious political thought but has no problem "borrowing" some when it needs to. (With all due respect.) It is a political influence rating, is it not? Maybe "news" blogs need their own category.
I've not met Brian Griffiths yet, but by reputation he seems like a reasonable person with some writing talent. I think his readership numbers suffer somewhat because he's actually posting on Red Maryland quite a bit - why go to his site when you can read his stuff there?
And I seem to recall a few months back at the start of the year, when Brian was pretty much king of the hill, that there were accusations of him "gaming the system" and how poor the BNN ratings were because of the number of crossposts Brian did. With the shoe on the other foot, suddenly there's no complaints but the comment insinuated that I was a similar beneficiary who fell sharply in the rankings because I didn't have any crossposts last week - as if that were holding me up. Perhaps it was, but the incestuous relationship between the top 3 Delmarva blogs (who are 1, 3, and 6 in Maryland as well) might make one ponder who's gaming who. (Both Pocomoke Tattler and Delmarva Dealings crosspost to Salisbury News, Delmarva Dealings also crossposts to Red Maryland as I do.)
I don't know what the answer is to this issue, but I do know that I have a reader base who likes what I have to say and doesn't really worry about my BNN ranking. I mean, if crossposting is what I have to do to achieve a higher ranking I certainly have places where I've been invited to do so (and did last night.) But it's more important to me to write well for whatever number of eyes read through what I have to say.
On a related note, I do have to give kudos to G.A. Harrison for increasing the participation on the Delmarva BNN network; I've noticed a lot of new sites on the ratings over the last couple weeks. He's also managed to put Delmarva Dealings on four different state/region rankings this week so hats off to him.
Finally, a bit of fair warning: I'm taking a few days off over the weekend. I'm planning to have fresh (to you) content each day but comment moderation will be much more sporadic. I'll bring things back up to speed by next Wednesday.