A Small Victory: The Stepford Blogs

I noticed quite a bit of traffic coming in from this site today, from a page titled The Most Influential Reporters and Bloggers. So there I am at number five. Ego-pleasing? Yes. Accurate? Probably not. Look at the top twenty: 001. Glenn Reynolds - Instapundit.com 002. Kevin Drum - Calpundit 003. Joshua Micah Marshall Talking Points Memo 004. Andrew Sullivan www.AndrewSullivan.com - Daily Dish 005. Michele A Small Victory 006. Eugene Volokh The Volokh Conspiracy 007. Tim Blair 008. James Joyner Outside the Beltway 009. Paul Krugman The New York Times 010. Dana Milbank The Washington Post 011. Cory Doctorow Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things 012. Mike Allen The Washington Post 013. Atrios Eschaton 014. Howard Kurtz The Washington Post 015. Daniel W. Drezner 016. Robert Scoble Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger 017. Steven PoliBlog 018. Roger Simon 019. Imao 020. David Brooks The New York Times Hey, I have no last name. Just think of me as the bloggers' Madonna or Cher. No, wait. Don't do that. Elvis? There's just no way in the world I'm more influential than Dave Winer, Cory Doctorow, Atrios, Roger Simon and William Saletan. Hell, out of the 200 listed I can see at least 100 blogs at first glance that I would have guessed would rank above this one. But far be it from me to argue with obvious professionals. Instead, I shall bask in all this glory and hope it brings me new found arrogance, snobbery and untold riches so I can retire to Pismo Beach and be a happy miser. I know, I know. You want to know the secret to our influentialness is (which is not even a word, but us influential people get to make words up). How do we get people to read, to link, to deposit large sums of money in our Swiss bank accounts and to appease us by sacrificing rising bloggers to the flaming pits of the underworld? In fact, you may wonder what the secret "thing" is that any influential blogger has that you don't. It's not talent. It's not skill. It's not even nice boobs or great abs. I am finally going to reveal the secret of Glenn Reynolds, Tim Blair and the rest of the top ten:

ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD!

You had no idea, did you? Just look into his eyes. you will link this post....you will link this post....a small victory is the best blog on earth.....look into my eyes and rub my head.....link...read....

Comments

Hey, you gotta admit, you are more influential than Paul Krugman. And, to Meryle's ongoing point, you are the only female in the top twenty. Unless Atrios...????

Posted by: Chuck | March 16, 2004 10:50 AM

I've never even HEARD of most of the ones in the list, except you, Frank and Glenn, so I guess that makes you influential in my book! Good going!

Posted by: candy | March 16, 2004 10:52 AM

Congrats!

Cold Fury should be #6...

Posted by: Britton | March 16, 2004 10:55 AM

yay! no wil wheaton!

it's kinda sad that there aren't any "social" bloggers on the list. did they only include news/politics blogs? i don't even see chris pirillo on there...

hm.

Posted by: mikey | March 16, 2004 11:12 AM

You're on FY-UH!

Posted by: Allah | March 16, 2004 11:15 AM

Yesssssssss, maaaassssssssterrrrrrrrrrrr Frrrrrrrog...

Posted by: David Strain | March 16, 2004 11:37 AM

Alllll haaaaiiilllll the Hypnotoad. Michele issss godddesssss....

;-)

Posted by: Patrick Chester | March 16, 2004 11:41 AM

Setting the news reporters aside, just looking at the bloggers, I bet this list is "number of inbound links" weighted by "influence" of the blogs.

The math can get tricky. Recursive? But it's a reasonable list, form my perspective.

Also, I think it's based on some recent time period. For example, a couple days ago, you did an excellent, well-received post on Lefties.If that day was included, all the links to that post would boost your score even more.

Re: comment on 'social bloggers.' If most of their inbound links are from other 'small' bloggers, they wouldn't be so heavily weighted. Thus their absence.

Posted by: The Commissar | March 16, 2004 11:42 AM

Okay, I was just fooling. You need to make the eyes spin counter-clockwise for it to work on me. None of this wavy-line crap.

Posted by: Patrick Chester | March 16, 2004 11:48 AM

It's funny how none of those links in the top 10 work...

Posted by: boz | March 16, 2004 12:41 PM

nananananana...Michelle...nanananana Michelle

Michelle is wonderful, Michelle is great, we surrender our will as of this date.

Posted by: Ryan | March 16, 2004 12:52 PM

I knew there had to be some sort of mystical force at work here.
But if Michele is revealing the evil Hypnotoad, she must have an even more diabolical mind-control ploy up her sleeve...

Posted by: MikeR | March 16, 2004 01:21 PM

Funny! Out of the whole list YOU are the only one on my blogroll...

Posted by: mostly cajun | March 16, 2004 01:28 PM

I'm not at all sure that the list is that wrong. I would submit that you, Michele, are a perfect example of the September Twelfth American. Name an issue not related to Sept 11 and I'll probably disagree with you. We stand shoulder to shoulder now. Assuming we both live long enough to see the end of this war we'll again be political opponents, I do believe we'll still have the bridge and the memory of our stand together.
That is your influence, Michele. You and I will again be opponents, after this we can never be enemies.

Posted by: Peter | March 16, 2004 01:58 PM

I've given up trying to figure out how anyone does those things. I'm in the top 25 on Truth Laid Bear, #32 most influential on Blogstreet and #107 overall, and not on this listing at all. Whatever.

Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, guess I'll go eat worms....

Posted by: Dean Esmay | March 16, 2004 02:37 PM