"I tend to look at them, and my eyes cross!"

Tiny and Baby feel about their food bowls the way Teresa of Technicalities feels about blogs: They should have "lots of content that is updated frequently . . . all day."

"I am astounded that they have forsaken one of the biggest draws in blogdom -- lots of content that is updated frequently . . . all day . . . ON THE FRONT PAGE!" writes blog buddy Teresa of Technicalities, expanding upon our previous post re the uses and misuses of vibrating PJs and the trouble with Pajamas Media:

Unfortunately, in an effort to be a portal rather than a blog -- they are neither.

So what needs to be done? Well, I can only tell them what would get me back on a regular basis -- say several times a day.

Besides the need for frequently updated content, there's the problem of those long lists of unannotated blog links favored by Pajamas Media in their lead posts:

I tend to look at them, and my eyes cross! There are so many . . . thus making me think I won't go read any -- it's too much. I'm not sure how to make it better, but at the very least, they could give a line from each post to draw readers into clicking through.

They remind us of those content-free lists of blog links called "open trackback posts" -- blogged here -- used by some bloggers to elbow to the front of the line. Their artificial distortion of blog rankings caused New Zealand Bear to tweak the logorithm of TTLB Ecosystem in order to filter them out the other day. We're not sure whether he's through with his work, but we can't say we're entirely happy with the results so far.  As usual, his mysterious machinations have taken us -- and the immediate blogosphere -- on a rollercoaster ride, our rank in the clicking order dropping precipitously from somewhere in the high 600's to a glamorous #262 for a couple of high-flying days last week and then back up to #494 today. We're trying to be philosophical about it, drawing moral courage -- not to mention a great refresher course in the various ranking tools of the blogosphere -- from our friend, the eminently philosophical Barry Campbell of enrevanche:

A lot of people are up in arms about this (see the comments to N.Z. Bear's post) even though it's far from clear that the refining and the shakeouts are complete, but we're not worried.

First of all, and I truly mean this -- I don't blog primarily to bring in an audience, though that's a happy side-effect. I blog because it's cheaper and more effective (for me) than psychotherapy . . .

Technorati [another ranking tool] tells me that we're getting noticed by the right people.

Since I started blogging, I have followed a very simple formula. I write about what interests me, and I put it out there.

As we blogged the other day, "Don't waste a single post on something that isn't, in La Shawn's words, 'for the joy of it.'" Still, there's nothing like that rush of dopamine every time you see your name up in lights.

Update:  Speaking of the thrill of seeing your name up in lights, be sure to check out this week's Cotillion Ball.  It's more of a tea dance, exclusive and very elegant, hosted by Darleen of Darleen's Place and cross-posted -- where else? -- at The Cotillion.

Technorati tag:  pajamas media

Comments

[Teresa]

WooHoo! MY name in lights *grin* thank you m'dear. I didn't want to be too harsh... but I have been surprised at the type of problems that have cropped up at the beginning of this venture - every business has problems but the presentation problems really surprised me. I'm still in the wait and see mode as far as whether it will fly or not.

As for rankings... I've dropped down to Marauding Marsupial from Large Mammal. Lest anyone think that this is bothering me... I know that I am only ranked as highly as I am because of being on Munu - all the munu blogs link to each other. I certainly don't have the number of readers to put me up there! (not to mention I didn't even notice this until you blogged about the ecosystem yesterday) I still have to find out why my munu blogroll doesn't show on my front page... *sigh* fun and games with blogs.

[Donna B.]

I can understand about the open trackback posts, but I don't understand why I lost almost 40 links when I don't participate in them.

I do not understand the concern about the inline trackbacks, as those simply reduce the need to click to see who is trackbacking. It makes the conversation part of blogging easier to utilize.

Whatever the Bear wants to do is fine with me since I'm not paying for the service, but I'm not sure whether I'm seeing improvement or simply change.

[Darleen]

I'm getting my highest traffic ever, between 2500-3000 visits daily. Yet I dropped to Maurading Marsupial, too.

I'm at a loss at how the ecosystem is tweaked.

[Teresa]

Holy smokes! Do you think they actually took my suggestion about a line or two from each blog??? Or maybe someone else suggested it... anyhow - I hit one of the links from Instapundit today and all the links in the post had a little blurb from each blogger!!! Much Much MUCH better reading.