Instigator Blog

It’s been just about a month or so since I switched from Akismet to Defensio.

The Defensio team are good friends of mine - Carl Mercier (uber-developer in charge of things over there) and Mat Balez (as good an instigator as any). They asked me to alpha test their WordPress plugin and I was happy to oblige.

Defensio is now in closed-beta. You can contact them for an invite by visiting the Defensio website.

In January, I wrote a blog post about ways Akismet could be improved. I know Carl and Mat didn’t read that post and decide to build a better spam plugin, but they’ve started to implement some of those ideas in a worthwhile way. They’ve sworn me to some amount of secrecy, so you’ll just have to sign-up for the beta yourself.

In the meantime, the results have been good. It’s not that Akismet does a terrible job, but there doesn’t seem to be much new work being done on it. The Defensio team are committed to making improvements to their existing WordPress plugin, and seeing if they can do a better job of beating spam. Even some of the Administrative interface changes alone make Defensio worthwhile.

Blog spam is a tough nut to crack. Spammers seem intent on making our lives miserable; and it’s frustrating when spam sneaks through, or worse, we find false positives caught in our spam filters. It’s a cat and mouse game that we’ll be playing with spammers for many, many years to come. Defensio may be able to help.

The A-list debate rages on. Every couple of months it rears its head as people argue over whether the A-list exists and whether it remains relevant.

In this latest installment, Hugh MacLeod is arguing that social networks and social networking tools (Facebook, Twitter, Pownce) have given people more power and ability to build their own groups, and not be as reliant on A-listers as hubs of attention. I think blogs already gave people that power; there are plenty of “networks of blogs” and “blog communities” that are thriving without A-list support. You don’t need links from A-listers, nor will they suddenly turn you from a zero to hero overnight. But…

The A-List does exist.

The A-List is relevant.

What people miss (on both sides of the argument) is how the A-list is relevant.

The A-list is made up of tech-focused, early adopters. If you’re in the tech business, running a Web 2.0 startup, hoping to generate buzz and build key relationships in places like the Valley, then being in-tune with the A-list and being able to reach the A-list has value. Having Robert Scoble promote you, your business and your product will help. It’s not the “be all and end all” but it will help.

The A-list, within the tech community, has the power to create lots and lots of buzz.

That can be useful.

But for most people (since most people in the blogosphere aren’t starting Web 2.0 startups) it’s not relevant.

For me, that’s the end of the argument. It’s a question of relevancy. It’s a question of strategic value. Not celebrity, not hero worship, not “who has the most friends in every social network.”

The A-list exists.

The A-list is relevant…for certain people, under certain circumstances.

Where we all go wrong is that too many people believe that being connected to the A-listers will be of real value to them. In reality, it won’t.

In Tony Hung’s world, the A-list matters a great deal. He lives and breathes Web 2.0, reports on it and the relationships he builds with A-listers can help him further his own goals (whatever they may be.) And Tony points out the obvious, which I agree with — some people are more popular than others.

For Brian Clark, the A-list is irrelevant. In his brilliantly titled post, Blogging is Dead (Long Live Value Blogging), he says he’s thrilled that tools like Twitter and Pownce exist, so all the banal “stuff” people want to write about (like what they’re having for lunch, etc.) moves to those mediums, and blogging is left to those that, “…provide true value by teaching, informing and offering unique perspective are thriving.”

Fair enough, I’ll buy that argument. There’s no question that quality blogs are thriving in a huge way, irrespective of social networking tools. And I don’t see a time in the near future where we won’t have quality blogs growing bigger and bigger audiences. No amount of social networking tools will change the value of blogs.

But Brian’s focused almost exclusively on blogging. And in that case, he’s right, you don’t need the A-list for your blog to be successful. On the other hand, if you’re trying to launch a Web 2.0 startup and you’re hoping to get mentioned on TechCrunch, get Jason Calacanis as an advisor, and generate lots of initial buzz, then the A-list becomes much more important.

Some people will always be more popular than others. That’s how the world works. And in some cases it’s worth being buddy-buddy with the popular kids. And in other cases it doesn’t matter. Each of us has to decide whether it’s really worth it or not, and go from there.

Wendy Piersall has instigated a great to-do list project for bloggers called The To-Do Wish List Group Research Project.

She has a list of 31 topics - all related to blogging and helping bloggers - and she’s asking people to pick a topic, research it and write about it on their own blogs. Link love all over the place ensues.

The topics don’t cover just the basics of blogging, but go beyond that into areas of discussion and expertise that few people have explored fully. #10 on the list - how to setup a Google Toolbar button - stood out for me because it’s something I had never heard of before. Wendy points to a basic article on how to create a Google Toolbar button. If / when your button is approved by Google it goes into their Gallery and can be found there. People add the button to their toolbar and it’s one more way for them to find interesting content and remember you’re there.

I created my button and you can add it to your Google Toolbar with a simple click.

I’m interested in quite a few of the subjects on the to-do wish list and I look forward to checking out everyone’s contributions. You still have time to participate as well.

Check out The To-Do Wish List Group Research Project - you’re guaranteed to learn something new.

Technorati just released a new feature.

I went to check incoming links to Instigator Blog on Technorati and found the interface had changed.

You’ll see that my blog has a new score called Authority.

But the number of incoming links has been removed.

My Rank still shows up although it’s gone up quite a bit in the last couple hours from around 1860 to 1808. That tells me Technorati has adjusted their algorithms a wee bit, although I’m not sure how.

There’s no news yet on Technorati’s blog according to Stan Schroeder who also noticed the change.

It’s clear that a higher Technorati Authority is better.

A lower Technorati Rank is also better, which means this concept remains unchanged.

That seems rather confusing, and I’m not sure why I need two scores to generally tell me the same thing - my position within the blogosphere - although I’m sure the Authority rank takes more into account than just links.

It will be interesting to see news break on this further and get some explanations from Technorati on what they’ve done, what Authority means, and how it can be influenced.

Turns out we’ve got a movement on our hands.

I wrote about removing NoFollow from your blog just about a month ago. Since then more and more people have followed suit. I didn’t start the movement, but it’s nice to be a part of it and push it along.

For those catching up, NoFollow is a tag added automatically to URLs input into comments so that those URLs don’t gain any link love / Google juice from you. It was a means to deter spammers from posting comments to try and boost their URLs search rankings. Of course it didn’t deter spammers at all. And people who comment properly and regularly on your blog weren’t getting as much value as they could from doing so.

Removing NoFollow is extremely easy and there are numerous WordPress plugins for doing so.

What’s particularly interesting about this whole thing is the true movement of people making the switch to DoFollow - inspired by others.

Randa Clay has made the move, and on top of that she’s created a cool little icon you can put in your sidebar to let people know that you’ve setup DoFollow.

It’s a nice way for bloggers to show they care about the people who comment regularly and add real value. Plus, it’s a great move on Randa’s part to do a little marketing of her own…nice work Randa!

If you haven’t setup DoFollow yet, go for it. Don’t be shy. You won’t get more spam. You won’t have more work to do. At minimum you’ll be helping others. You may also start to see more comments and interesting discussion take place on your blog, which is what it’s all about.

Added Note: Andy Beard just informed me of his No NoFollow I Follow DoFollow Community setup through BUMPzee. I’ve just signed up to show my support for the cause.