PubSub Sandbox

The initial launch of our community lists was a success. The pages have been increasingly accessed over the past 3 weeks, which has resulted in lots of discussion around our version of list making and blog ranking. However, there have been few comments from various users, one of which I will address here:

1) Why do the linkrank numbers fluctuate so much? - This is the nature of the “blog beast.” Linkranks are, for the most part, based on inlinks, or the amount of links to your blog. Given the size of the blogosphere, it’s only natural that your daily linkrank will fluctuate as much as it does. While it may seem odd that your linkrank jumps over 20,000 spots because of one inlink, it really isn’t. Think of all the blogs that do not get linked to everyday.

That said, we aim to please at PubSub headquarters. In order to not make the numbers jump as much as they do, we can incorporate a 30 day average of linkranks for the community lists, similar to what we do on PubStats. See below:

As you can see, the 30 day rankings do not fluctuate as much as the daily numbers and can be seen by some as a better indicator of influence. Thus, I’d like to pose a question. Which would you rather see on the community lists pages:

1) The daily linkranks, which shows influence on a daily basis.
2) The 30 day linkranks, which shows an average of linkrank over time.
3) Both the daily and 30 day linkranks, similar to the sitestats page.
4) Something else.

Please comment on this blog post with your thoughts or send your comments to feedback@pubsub.com.

On a related note, we are in the process of looking at the number of suggestions for more community lists. If you have sent us a note that you want to be the editor of a list, please be patient. Your call is very important to us…

Steven M. Cohen
Senior Librarian
scohen [at] pubsub [dot] com