PubSub Sandbox

Yesterday, we launched the Literature Community List. There has been lots of discussion in the community about the list, but what I really like was what Steve Clakson did with the feed we provide which aggregates all of the blogs on the list

Using RSS to Javascript, he was able to copy and paste some code and put it in his blog. When his blog is accessed, the latest headlines from the Literature list is displayed.

Thanks Steve, for a wonderful expression and use of PubSub content.

-Steven Cohen

I’m excited to announce that the latest entry in the PubSub Community Lists project is Literature Blogs.

We’ve teamed up with the folk at MetaxuCafe to help maintain the list.

As always, this list has automatically been included in the slowly growing Reading Lists which Dave Winer so gratiously houses.

Also, we will be releasing 5 more lists over the next 5 weeks. I hope you have an “appetite” for more lists, because you’ll “eat up” what we’re putting out next Monday.

Our 6th Community List is live. We’ve enlisted the help of the folk over at Blogging Systems (Richard Nacht, Paul Chaney, and Chris Bubny) to maintain the list. If you are a Real Estate blogger and can’t find your blog, send a note via the feedback form and they’ll be sure you get added.

We have at least 5 more lists coming over the next few weeks so stay tuned. Also, if you would like to be the editor of a Community List, just let me know

-Steven Cohen
scohen [at] pubsub.com

It is my privilege to introduce our new editor for the Fashion Community List. In the past, I’ve been the editor and there is no way that I could do it justice simply because I’m not involved in the fashion community. But Designer Ella is. Here’s a bit more about our new editor.

“Ella was a casual blogger until winter of 2004, when she discovered blogging about shoes. Before then, she was a student, a graphic designer, a writer of poetry & nonfiction, a big shopper, and a dreamer of designing her own clothing line. Since the start of Kiss Me, Stace, her foray into the fashion blogosphere, she’s more serious about writing, and gets to use her web and design skills. Now, she blogs for business while fully attending college for English. (She even still sketches out fashion illustrations, and perhaps she now also dreams some big company or Daddy War bucks will notice her talent for handbag design, and take Ella to the ball.)”

It’s great to have Ella aboard. Also, if you have a fashion blog that doesn’t appear on this list, let her know (use the feedback form on the Fashion page).

Over the past week, we put the finishing touches on a new community list for comics blogs. A librarian colleague at Temple University, Derik Badman, is one of the many comics bloggers out there and he has agreed to be our editor for this list. He’s blogged about it, mentioning:

“You can set-up ongoing searches for terms within the group of sites. For instance, if I wanted to know whenever someone posted about “Kevin Huizenga” on one of the sites, I could set up a search on his name, and then either 1) visit the site periodically to see updates or 2) subscribe to an RSS feed for that specific search, which would deliver new results right to my RSS reader (you do need to create an account for this feature, but it is free, easy, and spam free).”

The search feature is one of my favorite parts of the lists so I’m glad that Derik mentioned it.

Also, if you have been reading about Dave Winer’s ideas about reading lists, and love the idea (as I do!), you’ll notice that Dave is running our community lists on his community directory. I’m thrilled to be a part of it and we look forward to adding more reading lists to the community.

We’re going to attempt to bring you more lists on a more consistent basis. Also, if you would like to be an editor of a community list, send me a note.

Steven Cohen
scohen@pubsub.com

Today, we opened up a 30 day average on the Community Lists. A 30 day average of LinkRank provides a more stable view of influence over time. Result? The placement of the blogs will not jump around as much and one can get a better view of the top blogs on a more consistent basis.

For example, compare the daily ranks for the PR Community List…

…to the new 30 day feature

We hope that you’ll find this new feature useful.

-Steven Cohen

One consistent feedback message that we have received about the community lists is that they are not searchable. Well, today we’ve added that functionality. Searching within a defined set of similar resources allows for a narrower focus of results. Considering the high volume of feeds we look at everyday, the search function is a worthwhile feature.

After entering your keywords, the normal PubSub results apply. Grab the subscription feed provided. Then bookmark it, put it in your favorite aggregator, or use the sidebar. Whenever the PubSub engine matches your keywords to those on the blogs in the community list, you will be notified. For those that like to create extensive queries, take a look at the boolean help page, as all operators are live for the community lists search.

One more feature. When edit your subscriptions (you can only do so if you have an account), there is one more option available. You can search more than one list (For example, search the Librarian and Law List if you are researching copyright issues).

We are in the process of gearing up for more lists and features. We will be releasing the next feature within the next week. If you have an idea for a list and would like to be the editor, send us a note to feedback@pubsub.com.

-Steven Cohen

If you are one of those SiteStats junkies (if you have to ask, you probably aren’t one) who must know right away if your blog has risen or fallen in the rankings for the previously day, you’ve probably seen a marked improvement as to when your data is delivered. Our engineers have been working night and day to bring your rankings to you (Did you know that you can have them sent to your aggregator? Just click on the Atom button after running your URL.) as soon as humanly possible.

Also, since the Community Lists use LinkRanks, these too are updated just past midnight for the previous day. I can just picture the PR community refreshing their page every 5 seconds after the stroke of 11:59PM to see how they fared. If there is one community that loves the lists, it’s those in the PR industry. And we love that.

Hopefully, by the end of the week, I will be able to announce a new feature for the lists…

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

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