No more bad slashes

It’s an Ecosystem cleanup day. Finally implemented a minor fix which I should have done ages ago: you’ll no longer see those annoying extra slashes in weblog names which contain a ‘ character. The code which was sticking them in to begin with is fixed, and I’ve gone back and cleaned up the data for all old entries as well.
If you see anything that looks mucked up, let me know…
-NZB

11/03/03 Results Certified

Well, nobody has posted any complaints here, so I declare it official: congratulations to Mind as this week’s winner of the Showcase.
And for the second week running, the League takes the sponsorship contest, bringing a decisive 72.7 % of their membership to the table.
Thanks again to all who particpated this week. The Showcase will be open for new entries in a mere few hours, and remember: this week, contestants will have the option of submitting their post in either the “political” or “non-political” category. Should be fun!

Preliminary Showcase Results: 11/03/03

It has been a tight race this week for the Showcase, but with Monday morning upon us, Peripheral Mind‘s post Legalizing Illegals is in the lead with 34 links. Not too far behind is ink from the squid, garnering 29 links for investing in the future.
On the alliance front, the Liberal juggernaut appears unstoppable, at least for the moment, with the League holding a solid lead over the Axis and Alliance:
Blogger Alliance: 42 of 89 = 47.2 %
Axis of Naughty: 4 of 24 = 16.7 %
League of Liberals: 24 of 33 = 72.7 %
Feedback / complaints / challenges to these results will be accepted until 5pm PST, after which the results will be certified as final. Thanks to everyone who participated this week!
Complete results are as follows:
Peripheral Mind: Legalizing Illegals
( 34 links)
ink from the squid: investing in the future
( 29 links)
LGF Watch: LGF hypocrisy: Advocating Murder
( 17 links)
the evangelical outpost: The Perfect Post
( 17 links)
Earthly Passions: Bare Faced Betrayal
( 17 links)
Bsurot Tovot: Our Mission
( 14 links)
ProfessorBainbridge.com: Dow 10000, Psychology, and the ECMH
( 13 links)
Dipped in Chocolate The World of Revog: Compliments Wanted
( 12 links)
Electronic Countermeasures: Everyone’s from somewhere.
( 8 links)
Rick’s Cafe Americain: Bush & Baghdad Bob: Bosom Buddies?
( 5 links)
FattySue!: Beautiful Fatty
( 5 links)
SchoolView: What Do They Spend It On?
( 5 links)
My Worst Foot Forward: wait. wait. don’t tell me.
( 5 links)
Damfacrats 2004: CLARK CALLS BUSH PHONY PRANCER
( 4 links)
Spero Speaks: Online Rankings of the Candidates
( 3 links)
Days Go By: I Never
( 3 links)
BoiFromTroy: Heisman Hopeful?!?
( 3 links)
I’ll Talk to Myself: Handbags & Bloodrags
( 3 links)

Ecosystem Rankings: Unique Links

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…