I’ve just implemented a fairly significant change to the way rankings are calculated. Previously, the scan routines counted all links to a weblog when determining status in the Ecosystem. Starting today, only the total number of unique links will be counted towards a weblog’s ranking.
What this means is that if a weblog links to the same post on your site twelve times, it still only counts as one link for the Ecosystem rankings.
To be clear: all the links are still being collected, and you can still see them all in your details page. There are now two link-counts displayed: “inbound links”, which is the total number of links you have received, and “inbound unique”, which is the unique count.
Why am I doing this? Pretty much the same logic as I applied in restricting Showcase voting to one-blog-one-vote. Originally, I thought multiple links would provide a measure of the degree of interest one blog was showing in another. These days, however, I’m afraid I see it more as an opening for silliness like this. Or this (scroll down and note the pattern of massively-multiple links).
Sorry to Liberal Linker and Shock and Awe, (particularly Shock and Awe, who is simply receiving extra links) but you happen to be the examples I’ve noticed of a trend: bloggers putting multiple links to a post or weblog for what appears to be the sole purpose of trying to inflate that blog’s standing in Ecosystem (or similar listing) standings. So given this change, nobody needs to bother, ’cause it ain’t going to work anymore.
I’m expecting this might be a somewhat controversial change, but hey, that’s life in the Blogosphere. So let’s hear your feedback: good, bad or indifferent…
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technology meets creativity in a disaster-prone world. confident enough to try; humble enough to learn.