So there’s was this new “meme” going around called 2000 Bloggers. But, news is its actually *over* due to pressure from Technorati [although it sounds like they have a new algo to filter these kinds of things out] … but I think its its still worth talking about.
The story is that a guy named Tuni Tino (thanks Elaine!) decided, innocently enough, to put up a giant grid, compete with pictures, of a few hundred bloggers. Some were names you know. Then, it added an “add yourself” feature, and where the rest of the 2000 bloggers have since added their names. Oh. And there’s ALSO a way to add a “2000 bloggers” widget type script to your page. This has resulted in many of those 2000 bloggers adding that widget — and subsequently getting linked TO by many of those bloggers.
What’s the big deal? It inflates your link “worth” so to speak. As Webomatic mentions — its basically a linkfarm in new clothes. Imagine you’re a new blog with a few dozen inbound links, and then you’re flooded with almost 2000 of them. Bongo bonanza! People use Technorati for all kinds of things — tracking buzz, is one of them. They also use it as a metric, to measure a blog’s “worth” or “influence” given how many inbound links its got. 2000 new inbound links? Artificial inflation of your Technorati ranking … or, at least, in theory, as Technorati has new algorithms for this kind of thing.
At the end of the day the appropriate people got outraged, Dave Sifry et al. got wind of it, 2000 Blogs got officially taken down, and the whole issue was probably forwarded it to Google who will also make note of it as well. After all, some of those 2000 inbound links are going to be from some pretty high ranking sites, and with the culture of “no Google-bombing anymore, because it makes us look foolish — don’t ask us why *now*”, you can bet someone will be listening.
Now, I like to get worked up over all kinds of things, but I’ll be honest:
This isn’t going to be one of them.
Because at the end of the day some of the most important metrics for “influence” *aren’t* the absolute number of inbound links a site has. Its what those links *do* for you.
If they’re not leading to increased traffic or increased recognition on behalf of the linking blog, then it doesn’t count for squat.
Its that simple.
So let the 2000 bloggers artificially increase their Technorati ranking. Because even though the mainpage is still down, I’m sure people are still linking to teach other. It’ll provide good fun for all those involved. But I suspect it’ll mean very little to the numbers most bloggers are interested in – or even, the effect it will have on their own relative importance to their own corner of the blogosphere. And without those things “2000 blogs” will remain nothing more than a small, but mildly interesting, footnote to blogging’s history as linkfarm’s brief and pathetic return in 2007.
February 6th, 2007 at 1:28 am | Permalink
[...] Additional Reading: Tino, Mike McBride Deep Jive Interests [...]
February 6th, 2007 at 4:43 am | Permalink
MyBlogLog is one of the sites which got hit hard by this scam, and the sad thing is that they still haven’t stopped it. 2000 bloggers is currently listed under ‘hot communities’.
Which reminds me once again how MyBlogLog is susceptible to scamming and gaming.
February 6th, 2007 at 4:48 am | Permalink
And, by the way, John Chow’s tactics of offering prizes to people who join his MyBlogLog community is a good (and obnoxious) example of what I’ve just said.
February 6th, 2007 at 5:16 am | Permalink
[...] A second example is the 2000 bloggers incident, which was covered widely. You can read about it here and here. [...]
February 6th, 2007 at 6:04 am | Permalink
[...] In retrospect, this idea was indeed nothing more than a linkfarm, and Technorati have listened to the rightful concerns of those who petitioned 2000 Bloggers. [...]
February 6th, 2007 at 6:45 am | Permalink
Provides information regarding features of Firefox
February 6th, 2007 at 8:44 am | Permalink
i was a little bemused by the amount of incoming links before i worked out what it was and actually managed to find my smiling mug in the grid (i did not add myself).
given technorati’s inherently broken nature, and the relatively niche area I blog in, i’ve never paid too much attention to its rankings (except to compare with my boss). it’s nice to breath the rarified air, but i’m not too bothered if they can it.
if i were so inclined though, i did notice my “review me” price shot up to $100 a post.
Ed
February 6th, 2007 at 10:01 am | Permalink
MyBlogLog is such a new service that I’m sure they’re going through growing pains and trying to figure out what is gaming… after all, at the loosest definiting, spam can be seen as “just marketing”. But I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt because I love their idea… time will tell though.
February 6th, 2007 at 10:04 am | Permalink
Sorry Tony - you are not only waaaaaaaay off on this one .. This only proves how FU***ed up Technorati is.
But don’t worry, I never got any benefit from them - as Technorati STILL continues to ban me They refuse to list me
February 6th, 2007 at 11:21 am | Permalink
[...] So its finally gone. What appears to have been one of the largest link baiting scheme 2000 bloggers has finally bitten the dust. Tony at Deep jive interests “What’s the big deal? It inflates your link “worth” so to speak. As Webomatic mentions — its basically a linkfarm in new clothes. Imagine you’re a new blog with a few dozen inbound links, and then you’re flooded with almost 2000 of them. Bongo bonanza! People use Technorati for all kinds of things — tracking buzz, is one of them. They also use it as a metric, to measure a blog’s “worth” or “influence” given how many inbound links its got. 2000 new inbound links? Artificial inflation of your Technorati ranking … or, at least, in theory, as Technorati has new algorithms for this kind of thing” [...]
February 6th, 2007 at 11:43 am | Permalink
Link farm aside, it was still a fun idea to show the “face of the blogosphere”.
Similar photo montages have been done before for 9 Rules blogs.
February 6th, 2007 at 11:52 am | Permalink
You know, I’m not going to get worked up either. But there are some disturbing trends (all of which BTW in my mind create opportunity):
— useless linkfarms to increase rank (such as that noted above)
— MyBlogLog is turning into a spamfest. Yesterday I checked my stats and found that there were many views of the page wowfreeipods.com on my site. Uhhh, that’s not me! I’m thinking this user named ipodkid must have been spoofing an index of mbl IDs as a way to get people to come to his site. Ughh.
— paid posting, with compensation tied to your PageRank, Alexa and/or Technorati rank.
The value of the inbound link is clearly being diluted, and this is a force the major indexes/engines will have to defend against for a long time. We’re in the renaissance of personal publishing, where anyone can contribute to the Web and so many of them are struggling for visibility. The blogosphere is desperate for a platform that allows them to promote themselves in a way that is accepted/encouraged, not fought.
February 6th, 2007 at 7:02 pm | Permalink
Frantic — no question that MBL is susceptible. They are making strides against that though.
I tried to put the risk of gaming a social network into mathematical equation — and even used MBL as an example. The post didn’t get a lot of pub because, it was quite frankly long and rambling (as is this response).
http://www.deepjiveinterests.com/2007/01/04/understanding-how-social-networks-get-gamed/
Cheers
Tony
February 6th, 2007 at 7:04 pm | Permalink
Jordan,
Great thoughts — I suppose it is a time of opportunity for the less scrupulous. At the end of the day if you can’t leverage that potentially ill-gotten traffic into a sustainable readership it doesn’t mean squat.
I guess its kind of like Digg that way ;)
Cheers
Tony.
February 6th, 2007 at 7:07 pm | Permalink
Engtech — I agree it was fun… and I don’t think Tino’s intention was to “game” anything, but for it to *be* fun.
But its interesting how something benign can transform into something less so, isn’t it? :) I think it may be a footnote in blogging history if other less scrupulous individuals try and use a similar mechanism to artificially improve their SERPs or Technorati rank … although I’m sure that they both have algo’s in place to watch for this very thing now.
Cheers
t @ dji
February 6th, 2007 at 7:10 pm | Permalink
Hart,
I’m waaaay off on this one? How so? :)
BTW Technorati gave me a hard time for months as well — i.e. they didn’t recognize my pings. They’re customer service was absolutely abominable in terms of how long they took to get back to me. But I pestered them until they did … if its a big issue you could try and emailing Dave Sifry (email’s on his blog, I think) … apparently that’s a quick way of getting things solved.
Cheers
Tony.
February 6th, 2007 at 7:15 pm | Permalink
Webomatica — time will indeed tell. As the popularity of any service goes up, the chance that people will look to exploit any weaknesses for their own good also goes up.
Cheers
t @ dji
February 6th, 2007 at 9:27 pm | Permalink
[...] Tony Hung writes on the dangers of linkbait. [...]
February 7th, 2007 at 9:32 am | Permalink
Tony, as always, thanks for a great post. I was already writing about my inflated Technorati ranking when you post cam across my reader yesterday. So thanks.
February 7th, 2007 at 9:35 am | Permalink
[...] Then I read Tony Hunt’s “‘2000 Bloggers’ is Over - An Exercise in Link ‘Building’ At Its Most Useless and Pathetic. Tony writes that 2000 Bloggers is actually ‘over’ due to pressure from Technorati. He goes on to say: What’s the big deal? It inflates your link “worth” so to speak. As Webomatic mentions — its basically a linkfarm in new clothes. Imagine you’re a new blog with a few dozen inbound links, and then you’re flooded with almost 2000 of them. Bongo bonanza! People use Technorati for all kinds of things — tracking buzz, is one of them. They also use it as a metric, to measure a blog’s “worth” or “influence” given how many inbound links its got. 2000 new inbound links? Artificial inflation of your Technorati ranking … or, at least, in theory, as Technorati has new algorithms for this kind of thing. [...]
February 7th, 2007 at 10:05 pm | Permalink
Marketing your blog will gain you readers, but content will keep them. Time will tell if these exercises are worthwhile and blogs will naturally adjust their rankings over time. I don’t think they are useful or pathetic… I’ve been introduced to many more readers and read many more blogs having participated in these memes.
February 7th, 2007 at 11:04 pm | Permalink
[...] Tony Hung [...]
February 8th, 2007 at 10:02 am | Permalink
[...] Yesterday I wrote about my experience with the 2000 Bloggers meme, in which I cited Tony Hung’s ‘2000 Bloggers’ is Over - An Exercise in Link ‘Building’ At Its Most Useless and Pathetic. My post and some great comments have created quite a buzz. Now I don’t think that 2000 Bloggers, or any meme is pathetic, or even useless. But I do agree with some of Tony’s points. What I question is the point of using memes to inflate my Technorati ranking. I simplly don’t know what the point is. If you read what Doug Karr wrote in 2000 Bloggers Gaming Technorati? Waaaaah!, you’ll see he’s not apologizing for how memes are helping grow his blog. He says memes are… …absolutely no different from sharing your blogroll, trading links with someone, giving away merchandise for mentioning your blog, linkbaiting, “Make me a Technorati Favorite” button, ‘optimizing’ for search engines, Digging, …. or even BUYING your Technorati rank by advertising on other sites. John Chow, for example, continues to utilize any and all methods to give his rank a boost. [...]
February 9th, 2007 at 10:26 am | Permalink
I can’t help but think of the similarities between artificial linking and, well…cancer.
As Michael Wesch’s video illustrates, the links that make up the web have a certain similarity to our own body and mind. And in my last post on my own blog I pointed out that the connections throughout the internet are really similar to the connections in our own brains.
But it’s not just in our brains, our bodies are created and defined by all of the relationships among all of the different parts- hormonal, structural, electrical, sub-atomic, etc.
This situation works well as long as the connections have meaning and the functions that result are helpful to the overall body.
A cancer grows when it starts manipulating the body’s resources for its own gain. Blood vessel growth and sugar intake are increased solely for the good of cancer.
Isn’t that kind of similar to this 2000 bloggers thing? And, I suppose, the other kinds of linkbaiting and buying of links that are referenced in these comments?
But before we get too worried about the health of the blogosphere, I think the response from the blogging community has been instructive.
Cancer arises in your own body every day. Millions of times per day, in fact. Your immune system simply finds it and kills it. End of story, until your overall health is depressed enough to let it grow. Or until a cancer comes along that is particularly aggressive.
It seems to me that the self-regulation of the internet (consider the success of Wikipedia) is working well, and it is another indication that what we are building on internet servers around the world is getting more and more alive by the minute.
February 10th, 2007 at 4:57 pm | Permalink
Hallo, the 2000 Bloggers is continuing here: http://www.2kbloggers.com/
I was until yesterday (or may still be) the very last blogger on the photo-montage, having joined only after it stopped being a good thing in terms of Technorati ranking. I can understand the upset of the A-list bloggers at seeing people who hadn’t ‘worked’ for their links shooting up the rankings; however it’s a bit unfair for anyone to suggest that the 2000 joined up with this in mind, as many had no idea that a better Technorati ranking would be a consequence. I joined in the hope of finding some new readers and because it IS fun to check out the sites behind the faces. My technorati ranking has fallen since I signed up yesterday, but it was dropping anyway as I don’t have many inbound-links, so it may or may not be a consequence. It would be great to have a higher ranking, of course, but I’m more interested in the social side of blogging - having people check out my blog in the hope they might come back is more important than ranking, and I have had many more visitors than usual. Well, just to point out to some critics that we’re not all ’scammers’ or whatever non-complimentary things they might like to think or say.
February 10th, 2007 at 8:36 pm | Permalink
Whats the big hooo harr all about?
Which Product?
February 11th, 2007 at 11:27 am | Permalink
I just want to clarify that Technorati didn’t “pressure” anybody to do anything. No 2000 Bloggers were penalized or threatened or otherwise pressured. In being public with the change in our indexing, we wanted to be transparent so that folks who
1) were concerned about the integrity of the ranking system and it’s measurement of links as gestures of attention
2) were reveling in newly found rank elevation
that we’re sticking to our original premise that links that are cut-and-paste sets of links aren’t applicable for rank. More typical links that represent replies and citations are meaningful when links are used to measure attention but the 2000 Blogger links didn’t seem to fit that criteria and it was skewing the ranking system (notably, *not* for the A-listers but way down in the middle). Technorati rank is calculated by counting the unique set of blogs linking to another blog in the trailing 180 day period. It’s that simple.
The indexing change was not intended to protect any established blog’s ranks or any individuals nor was it a disparagement of the face collage and the community emerging around it. You may find a lot of FUD posted around the blogosphere making some pretty outlandish leaps of faith along those lines but I can assure you, there’s really no heavy hand, nefarious agenda or coercion at work here.
Have a great day,
-Ian
February 11th, 2007 at 12:52 pm | Permalink
Ian,
Thanks for stopping by. I should put pressure in quotes, as in “pressure”, because I know that no one on Technorati’s behalf put the screws to anyone’s thumbs.
Rather, the very fact that it was noticed and blogged about on the Technorati blog was “pressure” enough for Tino et al, so that it was enough validation that what they were doing, although initially was for fun, was now a suspect activity.
Technorati should be applauded exactly for the things you mention — transparency, and a willingness to adapt the algorithms to take into account link farms/ exchanges/ whateveryou-wanna-call’ems.
Cheers
tony.
February 11th, 2007 at 3:40 pm | Permalink
Ian,
I’m a huge fan of Technorati. However, I would still submit that ‘meaningful’ is a totally subjective term. Meaningful to whom? If it’s to the blogosphere, perhaps a cut & paste list is VERY important and meaningful. In this case it’s meaningful to the 2,000 bloggers on the list and every other blog that posted about it.
I’m a fan of John Chow as well. John pays for Adsense advertising to bring attention to his blog, he has give-aways for people who mention his blog, and he trades links for people who write about his blog… simply to keep up his Technorati ranking. Is that ‘meaningful’? I don’t believe it is within your definition but I like what John Chow does. I don’t believe it’s ’skewing’ the system. He’s simply promoting his site. Blogs will rise and fall eventually based on their content. Regardless of whether or not they are on a cut and paste list.
With Respect,
Doug
February 11th, 2007 at 6:23 pm | Permalink
1) FACES are the most attractive feature of 2000 bloggers.
That’s the key factor behind fantastic popularity of the blog.
2) UNLIMITED number of images is the second factor.
Faces are everywhere, filling up all the screen area.
If we combine these two factors in a creative way, there can be interesting results!
Unfortunately, advantage of the factor (2) tends to became the major disadvantage:
2000 bloggers page is almost impossible to load!
And thus, it nearly UNUSABLE for many savvy or simply impatient users.
Last version of 2000 bloggers limits the number of images, but doing that it … immediately looses the initial appeal.
My own solution has a form of the free news service for MyBlogLog users, where number of photos can be controlled by visitors:
http://MyBlogLog.Mini-News.com
February 11th, 2007 at 6:39 pm | Permalink
It’s the same thing with EG http://b5media.com .. (Rank: 2,031 - 31,849 links from 840 blogs) .. If you go to technorati and scroll through some of these 840 blogs that gives them 31,849 links - well, I gave up after page 21 me and I STILL DID NOT find a blog that wasn’t “owned by b5media” linking to b5media.
But, we all do that with our own little networks (mine included). But I should add a disclaimer - David Sifry himself called me a splogger and removed my information from their index last year - and I am also on that 2000 blogger list. Yes .. it’s mind boggling to hear them say they never “pressured” Tino to do anything yet outright call him .. something .. for “skewing the ranking system (notably, *not* for the A-listers but way down in the middle)”
As for the new 2kbloggers site .. in my offseason I plan to go out of my way and if I have to manually input all 2000 links into my wordpress links or write a post and ‘manually’ include them or reply to them or cite them .. then I will.
WTF .. talk about a joke. GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER TECHNORATI! I’ve got over 40 blogs and half of them haven’t been updated for over 1-year by technorati, and 2 actually apparently for 38,411 days
February 13th, 2007 at 9:24 pm | Permalink
You said, “Because at the end of the day some of the most important metrics for “influence” *aren’t* the absolute number of inbound links a site has. Its what those links *do* for you,” and I wholeheartedly agree.
I’m carrying the torch for the 2000 Bloggers Project over at http://www.2kbloggers.com and I’m manually going through each and every blog requesting to be added and I’m putting them in the photo montage. I am not a programmer. I am a blogger. I think the project is fun, cool, and interesting.
To Technorati and Ian:
“cut-and-paste sets of links aren’t applicable for rank”
Please don’t tell me these people don’t deserve their links because they do. I go to their blogs, I read their blog, I find their photo, I copy their photo, I crop the photo, I add it to the montage and I ATTRIBUTE their photo to them in the manner accepted by the web: a link.
Anyone else who uses the same image should also attribute the image to its owner. It’s just giving credit where credit is due.
It’s NOT the same as cut and paste link sets because these are PHOTOS, these are photos of our FACES, plain and simple.
February 14th, 2007 at 2:25 pm | Permalink
By the way, his name is Tino, not Tuni. Perhaps next time you decide to bash a bunch of people and gain hate traffic from them you could at least bother to get their names right.
February 14th, 2007 at 2:35 pm | Permalink
[...] I wrote this in response to 2000 Bloggers is Over - An Exercise in Link Building at it’s Most Useless and Pathetic: “You said, “Because at the end of the day some of the most important metrics for “influence” *aren’t* the absolute number of inbound links a site has. Its what those links *do* for you,” and I wholeheartedly agree. [...]
February 14th, 2007 at 6:34 pm | Permalink
Elaine, Elaine, Elaine … ;)
I do apologize, but don’t take it personally (or, perhaps, “Tino, don’t take it personally”) — because I get all kinds of people’s names wrong.
As for “bashing people”, I believe that I took exception to their *actions*, and the mistaken belief that many of them held (if many of them did hold them) that participating in the 2000blogs exercise would be a “link building” exercise, because I don’t believe that it legitimately is one — if all people are doing is adding themselves to a large link list without bothering to cultivate those relationships … or really make something out of those links.
Cheers
tony.
February 15th, 2007 at 1:09 am | Permalink
Juliet/Elaine,
I want to apologize for referring to 2000Bloggers in my previous comment as a “useless linkfarm”. I’ve learned more about this effort, your comments resonated with me (at least enough to give your site a fair look), and then I went to your site. I’m sucked in … I get it now. And I think I can help with this community.
Now I don’t frankly know what it worse — using Tony’s blog post to explain my gesture of support, or adding to the self-promotion fracas by posting a link here. I’m thinking the link is better, and more respectful of Tony. So Juliet/Elaine and other 2000 Bloggers supporters, I invite you to http://kickstand.typepad.com/metamuse/2007/02/i_was_wrong_abo.html.
Peace.
July 20th, 2007 at 2:23 am | Permalink
[...] defense of 2000 bloggers A conversation has been brewing about the 2000 Bloggers project. It has been called a link farm and an attempt to [...]
January 7th, 2008 at 1:44 pm | Permalink
[...] Deep Jive Interests » “2000 Bloggers†is Over — An Exercise In … That’s the key factor behind fantastic popularity of the blog. 2) UNLIMITED number of images is the second factor. Faces are everywhere, filling up all the screen area. [...]
May 24th, 2008 at 5:36 am | Permalink
Tony, as always, thanks for a great post. I was already writing about my inflated Technorati ranking when you post cam across my reader yesterday. So thanks.