Announcing the Ecosystem Changes
N.Z. Bear tells me he has unveiled the Ecosystem changes that he has been working on during the past couple weeks. If the Ecosystem and “inside blogging” interest you, the post is well worth a read. There may be some updating yet before positions all settle out, but it seems to be getting there.
In short, though, blogs are now ranked by a score, rather than raw number of links. All links will be viewable via a link in the details page for each blog, so bloggers may review comprehensively.
Links with a “nofollow” attribute, which is what any inline trackback should have by default, will not even be reflected in the raw link count. Based on Bear’s statement of the Ecosystem philosophy, this actually makes sense, not merely for curbing trackback fest abuse.
There are also limits on number of links from one blog to another, and on blogs that have outlyingly large numbers of external links, so some links that used to count no longer will. Links between sister blogs in blog networks are ignored, since they are not indicative of popularity as the Ecosystem strives to measure it.
Another thing I had already noticed, which affected positions of blogs higher up, is that the lowest rank is populated exclusively by blogs with zero links. That makes sense; get a link and automatically graduate. It will relegate spam blogs to the lowest category exclusively.
Anyway, check it out and see what you think. He’s interested in feedback. Note that there is an Ecosystem FAQ, and it has been updated in accordance with the latest changes.
I actually moved up!
Posted by caltechgirl on 12/05 at 04:19 PM
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