Well it seems that yesterday’s ‘Behaviors of the Blogosphere’ Study Results have ruffled a few feathers in the past 24 hours with a number of bloggers pointing out some of the problems, inconsistencies and biases in the study. Not the least of these is Jason Calacanis who whilst maintaining he’s Nick Denton’s ‘pal’ also points out multiple times that his said pal paid for the report which should cast some doubt over it’s results (see Jason’s posts here, here and here).
Jason also points out the inaccuracy of the figures in the report that point some pretty massive blogs (including his own) below Gawker blogs in the rankings.
I think Jason has the right to be a bit peeved about the results – after all there is quite a bit of money at stake at the top of the entrepreneurial heap. If I were in his position I’d probably jump up and down also.
Having said that I hope that the squabbling doesn’t take the focus away from some of the findings that illustrate the growth of blogging readership and the incredible potential that blogs have for reaching such a large proportion of the population.
I’m not really wanting to get drawn into the fight – I’ve got blogging to do – but if you’re interested in reading more you might like to head to Rick’s clarification of the Research, Overstated’s opinion, Business Week, Jeff Jarvis and the Young Manhattanite’s thoughts.
“I’m not really wanting to get drawn into the fight – I’ve got blogging to do”
I think this is the perfect response and it’s why I like reading blogs like yours, and have absolutely no desire to read Jason’s (or others) that are squabbling and complaining. In fact I read the ‘here, here and here’ links you put up and I’m just thinking ‘get over it’. I won’t be going back – not that one lost reader is a problem when you have millions, whether or not you are above or below or wavering around some other big sites that maybe are losing their personality…
Bitter? Sounds like it doesn’t it? I’m not really, I just get frustrated with all these supposedly ‘big names’ in the blogosphere that are supposedly the ones to watch/read/listen to – yet I am left cold by them. To be honest, I hadn’t even heard of many of these people until they were talked about in a negative sense. Maybe I should understand the blogosphere a little more … or maybe I’m just a lot more interested in the ‘little guys’ that are writing interesting, witty, challenging stuff and not bitching about other people in the top 0.001% of the blog universe that supposedly everyone visits.
Anyway, ahem. I’ll stop now. I’m losing it :)
There’s a great deal of merit in Andy’s approach, and Darren’s preference for staying out of the flame wars. I’ve been studying the A-list bloggers for a while for a secret little project, and while it’s fair to say that these people have not got where they are by being dummies, there’s something terribly incestuous about the circular arguments and napalm attacks that go on between them and the outer fringes. Blogging as arm-wrestling is just not very interesting.