The Top 50 Personal Blogs in SF/F, v. 1.0

Because my daughter is home today, precluding me from doing any real writing on the book because she’s all daddydaddydaddydaddydaddydaddy, I thought I’d waste my time and last remaining dregs of youth on the pointless exercise of ranking the the top 50 personal blogs in SFdom, as determined from their rankings in Technorati. Because you know you want to know.

First, selection details and trivia:

* Who was eligible for the list? SF/F writers, editors, agents, publishers, artists and fans.

* I made the decision to not to include “news” blogs or blogs whose material is not primarily personal and/or SF-related. This disqualified high-ranking sites like Boing Boing, Locus Online, SFSite, Futurismic, SF Signal, Emerald City and Meme Therapy, which are ranked by Technorati and would have otherwise been on the list. This also, incidentally, disqualified my own AOL Journal, “By the Way,” which I booted because I write it for money.

* This list is likely less accurate as one goes down the list for the following reasons: Lack of Technorati stats for various sites, Technorati’s “interesting” way of handling LiveJournal (i.e., some journals are ranked, some are not), the compiler being an idiot and missing a personal journal which should, like, so totally be in there, and so on. Consider this a “1.0” product, full of quirks and holes.

* Technorati’s ranking criteria is based primarily on linking, not visitation; so some sites ranked higher than others may receive fewer visitors than lower-ranked sites. Also, of course, a high Technorati ranking (or a high ranking on this list) may not correlate to a quality reading experience. Your mileage may vary, as they say.

* These rankings are accurate — to the extent they are accurate — only for the day they’re posted; Technorati rankings change over time. Indeed, the simple act of linking to the sites, as I will, is likely to change their rankings. That’s the nature of the game.

* For entertainment purposes only. Don’t hate me if I didn’t rank your site, particularly if your Technorati ranking is below 149,618, which was the cutoff here. Alternately, put your site and its Technorati ranking in the comment thread; I’ll keep track of it for the next time I put out this ranking list.

* The listings read: Name of blog — name of author (Technorati ranking as of 7/6/06)

And here we go.

The Top 50 Personal Blogs in SF/F, v. 1.0

1. Neil Gaiman’s Journal — Neil Gaiman (318)
2. Making Light — Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden (588)
3. Whatever — John Scalzi (1,176)
4. Beyond the Beyond — Bruce Sterling (4,798)
5. The Sideshow — Avedon Carol (4,907)

6. Paperback Writer — S.L. Viehl (5,288)
7. Kathryn Cramer — Kathryn Cramer (10,930)
8. Contrary Brin — David Brin (11,470)
9. Charlie’s Diary — Charles Stross (11,540)
10. The Mumpsimus — Matthew Cheney (11,795)

11. Vanderworld — Jeff VanderMeer (11,968)
12. Nick Mamatas’ Journal — Nick Mamatas (16,156)
13. The Early Days of a Better Nation — Ken MacLeod (17,664)
14. They Must Need Bears — Elizabeth Bear (19,322)
15. Tobias S. Buckell Online — Tobias Buckell (22,306)

16. Shaken and Stirred — Gwenda Bond (22,306)
17. Westerblog — Scott Westerfeld (23,731)
18. Nalo Hopkinson — Nalo Hopkinson (26,106)
19. Justine Larbalestier — Justine Larbalestier (26,106)
20. The Slush God Speaketh — John Joseph Adams (28,632)

21. The Prodigal Blog — Charles Coleman Finlay (34,061)
22. Notes From the Labyrinth — Sarah Monette (37,752)
23. Respectful of Otters — Dr. Rivka (39,834)
24. It’s all one thing — Will Shetterly (40,594)
25. Lorem Ipsum — Jed Hartman (42,184)

26. Lakeshore — Jay Lake (43,932)
27. Et in Arcaedia, Ego — Jennifer Jackson (46,797)
28. Robert J. Sawyer — Robert J. Sawyer (48,950)
29. Goblin Mercantile Exchange — Alan DeNiro (50,012)
30. Notes from the Geek Show — Hal Duncan (51,129)

31. Arthur D. Hlavaty — Arthur D. Hlavaty (55,145)
32. The Pagan Prattle Online — Feorag NicBhride (56,584)
33. Holly Black — Holly Black (58,064)
34. Anna Louise’s Journal — Anna Louise Genoese (58,064)
35. From the Heart of Europe — Nicholas Whyte (59,661)

36. Notes From Coode Street — Jonathan Strahan (63,319)
37. The Antic Musings of GBH Hornswoggler, Gent. — Andrew Wheeler (66,874)
38. Avram’s Journal — Avram Grumer (68,950)
39. Kool Aid Underground — Jeremy Lassen (73,417)
40. Guano Happens — Maureen McHugh (75,763)

41. Deep Genre — Group Blog (80,928)
42. 14theDitch — Jeffrey Ford (80,928)
43. Chrononautic Log — David Moles (86,593)
44. Cherie Priest — Cherie Priest (92,930)
45. Bluejo’s Journal — Jo Walton (104,231)

46. Roberson’s Interminable Ramble — Chris Roberson (117,901)
47. Web Petals — Marjorie M. Liu (129,028)
48. The Inter-Galactic Playground — Farah Mendlesohn (129,028)
49. Out of Ambit — Diane Duane (142,135)
50 (tie). David Louis Edelman — David Louis Edelman (149,618)
50 (tie). Nick Sagan Online — Nick Sagan (149,618)

There you have it. Discuss amongst yourselves.

91 Comments on “The Top 50 Personal Blogs in SF/F, v. 1.0”

  1. Man. That’s completely weird that the Twilight Universe page is up there (in the Technorati ranks, not your post – I understand what you mean) and the LJ isn’t. Actually, before LJ changed all their addresses to thwart some trolling, I was up around the 4000 ranking there, but there’s no proving it now, alas.

    Even so, after the URL restructuring, my LJ has 607 inbounds as opposed to the 33 inbounds on the twilight universe page. Peculiar!

    http://wicked_wish.livejournal.com

  2. Nice that your Top Fifty has 51 entries. Yet another triumph of statistics over titles. (grin)

    Hey! #47 was in my 2004 Clarion class! Go Marjorie!

    Dr. Phil

  3. Dude, my ranking is 39,119. But I’m also primarily a fantasy writer, so I’ll accept that I might not be what you’re looking for. Also, I’m guessing “Tales of the Plush Cthulhu” skews my results mightily.

  4. Josh Jasper:

    “No Wil Wheaton?”

    Wil’s blog is primarily about his life and acting, and not so much about science fiction. It’s a damn fine blog, however, and Wil knows I’m a fan.

    Jon: You’re just proof the list is a 1.0 release. I’m sure other folks will pop in and say: Hey! I should be in there! as well.

  5. Lacks a lot of the best ones. Props to Mumpsimus for being so high, tho. It’s one of the few must-reads on the list.

    No Bodhisattva? For shame.

  6. William Lexner:

    “Lacks a lot of the best ones.”

    As noted in the article, the list is based on Technorati ranking, not content quality.

  7. No, I’m absolutely positive that Jon’s blog does not qualify for the list, primarily because a) adding his blog will knock mine off the Top 50, and b) see reason a. :-)

  8. Well, my Technorati ranking is: 123,388. oh, wait…that’s right, it doesn’t meet the rest of the criteria, lol.

    I’m glad you posted this, there are several on there I’ve never heard of. Must go check them out.

  9. “Tales of the Plush Cthulhu”
    Jon, not only do you have the coolest plush short story evah, but your infant son is damn adorable too. Congrats.

    I had to investigate the Plush Cthulhu reference because I had a close friend in college who had a pink Gund bear she called Cthulhu. (Yes, I’ve always had supercool friends.)

  10. Well, if I were an SF blog I’d be number 25.

    I do have pictures of cute kids, just like John.

    And when I write about evolution the Right says I’m SciFi and when I write about global warming the Left does the same.

    Does that count?

  11. Hmm. I have been very carefully avoiding getting any information about how my blog is ranked. Now that I have a notion, I can’t decide whether to quit blogging or start posting pictures of my cat.

    Hmm. Someone with too much time on their hands could study the top twenty for how long they’ve been on the web, how often they use photos and what their usual subjects are, how much they talk about family, how much they talk about projects they’re working on versus projects that are being released, whether they have active comment threads and answer commenters quickly–

    See? It is bad for me to think about readers.

    Maybe if I took a picture of Emma in a corset with a cat–

  12. If you put a cat in a corset with Emma, one of them is going to get scratched.

  13. Bruce Sterling?? Hmmmmm… I thought he might have jumped the shark when he moved to the west coast. Yes, I know that a big part of the reason was his annual cedar fever attacks, but I still tend to find him increasingly less relevant.

    Oh well, that’s just me and what do I know?

  14. I published my first sci-fi story this year, and I’m ranked at 8,559–that would already make me one of the top ten SF writers on the blogopshere! Woo hoo!

  15. I am honored, but I also feel I am there under false pretences. I mean, how much do I really say about sf or fandom? Unless you count observing BushCo. as dystopian specfic….

  16. Hmmm, I’m at 6,637; but I only post about SF/F about once a week (though other geeky stuff almost daily), and I’ve never been paid for my fiction (just non-fiction and poetry).

    S’okay, I’m a minarchist geek military political gun sex blog… though I s’pose you could call THAT category a “Heinlein blog” considering.

    Oh and I wonder how well TTLB ecosystem stats match up with the technorati stats here (I’m in around 800-900 in there but NZBear has so many bugs in the code some days I’m in the top 500 and some days I’m over 1000).

  17. Avedon:

    “I am honored, but I also feel I am there under false pretences.”

    Three Hugo nominations argue otherwise.

  18. Dude. Seeing my name there was totally unexpected, but very nice. Of course, now I feel pressure to be a better blogger. Darn you! Darn!

  19. Excellent list, Patrick.

    NB: Chad Orzel — I had him not on the list because he’s already on the list of 50 Most Popular Science Bloggers, and I didn’t want him to get a big ol’ head.

    As an aside, I’m deeply stunned MT didn’t hold a post with that many URLs for moderation.

  20. I think James Nicoll‘s journal must have suffered a terrible accident (but with an amusing anecdote to go with all of the pain and suffering)…

  21. I note that the address for Steven Brust is out-of-date. AFAIK, he never updates the blog on the Dreamcafe site anymore, and instead has been assimilated into LJ.

  22. I note that the address for Steven Brust is out-of-date. AFAIK, he never updates the blog on the Dreamcafe site anymore, and instead has been assimilated into LJ.

  23. “Respectful of Otters” is SF-related how? I adore Rivka, but I can’t think of the last time she alluded to SF.

  24. John, I just checked my blog’s rank on Technorati, and it says the rank is 63,099. I believe that would put it at #36 on the list.

    Not that I understand what the number means, mind you….

  25. Would you mind explaining how you determine if the blog is SF?

    I don’t read Making Light anymore because there wasn’t SF on the blog often enough (aka ever when I was reading) to make it worth slogging through the political and societal commentary.

    Although the Atlanta Nights stuff was fun.

  26. I’ve only vaguely heard of Technorati and have no idea what I’d rank on there (probably down in the 500,000 area if the ones you mention are 135k and up), but I am surprised by the diversity of people in the list. Some are very widely known authors, while others are, well, pretty darn obscure, comparatively speaking. Possibly it has to do with fandom connections?

  27. Possibly it has to do with fandom connections?

    It certainly has to do with being a part of fandom, yes. Most of the people I think you are referring to would not be considered “pretty darn obscure” in fandom circles. Many of them are quite well-known there. Even I, only glancingly involved in fandom though I may be, have heard of most of them, and read (or, at least check in on) many of their blogs.

  28. I enjoy The Mumpsimus, but it’s not what I myself would really classify as a “personal blog” — I think of it more as a kind of review/news/industry blog. Ditto sites like Lorem Ipsum, Deep Genre and Slush God. (No David Gerrold?)

    coffeeandink on LJ consistently writes a lot of really good reviews of sff. I’m also bepuzzled by the omission of Peg Kerr’s LJ (pegkerr) — how did she get missed? There’s Marissa Lingen (mrissa on LJ), cassandraclare, Suzette Haden Elgin (ozarque), Caitlin Kiernan (greygirlbeast) and others, too….coalescent (Niall Harrison) doesn’t post much on his LJ anymore, but his omission is odd.

    It’s v odd Cherie Priest’s blog is on the list and her LJ wicked_wish isn’t, since I thought wicked_wish had a lot more readers and links. However, LJ has screwed up a lot of URLs recently. That, plus the lack of some popular LJs noted above, makes me wonder how Technorati is handling LJ URLs.

    I’m surprised Poppy Z. Brite wasn’t on the list, unless it’s because she doesn’t write horror anymore (she’s also on LJ — as docbrite).

    I like Patrick Nielsen Hayden’s list quite a bit.

  29. Thanks for the mention, corpuscle; apparently I’d be #7, although perhaps a different number after all those other folks are included. I believe Patrick meant to refer to Amy Thomson, not the extremely popular, but non-existent (as an sf writer/fan) “Amy Thompson).

  30. Heh! My technorati rank is 113,054. It would be higher, but technorati screws up ranks for LJ yadda yadda…

    OTOH, I am guessing that fixing John’s list to bring in the SF-related blogs with higher ranks will push anyone with less than a 50,000 right off the top. There are so many!

    Question for John: When you did the searches, did you use the technorati site tags? If so, did you search for ‘science fiction’; or did you also include ‘sciencefiction’, ‘specfic’ and ‘sf’? (All tags I have seen used.)

    Another question: What is ‘primarily personal and/or SF-related’? I am guessing that my blog might not qualify because I post SF-related stuff only about one tenth of the time; with the rest being mostly geeky stuff, space, futurism, and politics. But I don’t know if you have a scientific criteria you are applying, or if it is entirely subjective. (Note: I am fine with it either way, it’s your list! But I am curious.)

  31. A comment on Patrick’s (excellent) list: It is downright scary how many of those people are on my LJ friend’s list and/or people I know personally…

    More proof, if such were needed, that LJ is becoming the biggest gravity well in the digital skiffy universe. With Seattle (where so many of those people either reside or have resided) being the physical gravity well…

  32. Note to Dave Sorgen: Bruce Sterling still lives in Austin. At least that is his permanent address, he is always travelling, or doing short stints at various universities, so that may be why you think he moved to the left coast.

    However, he *has* visited Seattle on multiple occasions. Many people who come here more than three times end up moving to the Emerald City, so he may leave Texas yet…

  33. See now this is one of the reasons I love your blog John; so far we’ve got comments from the following folks whos work (including editing) I have physical printed copies of on hand

    You
    Cherie Priest
    Patrick Nielsen Hayden
    Ryk E. Spoor (loved Digital Knight btw)
    Diane Duane

    More generally this is one of the reasons I love SF/F and parts of fandom; because the authors as a whole are so much more directly involved with their readers and fans than in other genres.

  34. I read about half of these blogs daily already, excellent!

    I’m an utter n00b nobody on the scene (at least so far, he said valiantly), but my blog Velcro City Tourist Board (www.velcro-city.co.uk) has a fair bit of SF content along with science/tech news, and I am published (if only as a book reviewer)!

    Maybe next time you do this list I’ll qualify; I’d be in the bottom 5 here by T’rati ranking, but if you count traffic too, I’d be off-the-scale subterranean! ;)

    Nice round-up list, though; clued me in to some new material. Keep on blogging!

  35. Consider this a “1.0” product, full of quirks and holes.

    this must be comersial ware…open source would be like .00583v47b beta or something

  36. Now I really have to figure out how to get my blog on that Technorati thing.

    If only to find out that the 8-10 people who keep commenting are the only ones who read the blog. :)

  37. This reminds me I should get around to installing Sitemeter on my own blog, so I can find out just how little traffic the site actually gets. (Thanx for the mention in SUBT#4, by the way.)

  38. I agree with Avedon in feeling that Sideshow is there under something like false pretenses. (Please don’t remove it, however.) Sure, she has superb fannish/s-f credentials & writing skills (which I wish she’d exercise more extensively), but that _blog_ is a Political one (and the best I know of in the Pointer subset of that category).

  39. Patrick sez: “Technorati rankings definitely don’t track traffic. We’re above you, and I’m pretty certain you get more traffic than we do.”

    This is my problem with using Technorati as a gauge of… well, of anything, really, aside from what Technorati thinks you should be ranked.

    Technorati is entirely self-selecting, and the times I’ve tried to use it, it doesn’t want to be used. (“Buggier than Maine in June,” is the technical phrase.)

    I could make a connection to Jim Fallows and horrible campaign coverage (that it’s easier to cover campaign contributions than to cover actual, you know, campaigns, and numbers are Holy), but that’d probably be rubbing it in.

  40. Patrick sez: “Technorati rankings definitely don’t track traffic. We’re above you, and I’m pretty certain you get more traffic than we do.”

    This is my problem with using Technorati as a gauge of… well, of anything, really, aside from what Technorati thinks you should be ranked.

    Technorati is entirely self-selecting, and the times I’ve tried to use it, it doesn’t want to be used. (“Buggier than Maine in June,” is the technical phrase.)

    I could make a connection to Jim Fallows and horrible campaign coverage (that it’s easier to cover campaign contributions than to cover actual, you know, campaigns, and numbers are Holy), but that’d probably be rubbing it in.

  41. Patrick sez: “Technorati rankings definitely don’t track traffic. We’re above you, and I’m pretty certain you get more traffic than we do.”

    This is my problem with using Technorati as a gauge of… well, of anything, really, aside from what Technorati thinks you should be ranked.

    Technorati is entirely self-selecting, and the times I’ve tried to use it, it doesn’t want to be used. (“Buggier than Maine in June,” is the technical phrase.)

    I could make a connection to Jim Fallows and horrible campaign coverage (that it’s easier to cover campaign contributions than to cover actual, you know, campaigns, and numbers are Holy), but that’d probably be rubbing it in.

  42. Says Jonquil: “‘Respectful of Otters’ is SF-related how?”

    Says me: John Scalzi said he was exclusively listing “SF-related” sites, exactly where?

    In fact, John never said any such thing. As he explained quite clearly, it’s an attempt at a list of blogs by people in the SF community. Some of those discuss SF a lot and some don’t. Evidently quite a few commenters in this thread find that difficult to understand.

    Speaking for myself, I’m flashing back to arguments decades ago with people whose brains simply couldn’t comprehend why one might want to be in fandom, might value fandom, might even read a lot of SF, and yet publish a fanzine that rarely (or even never) discussed SF. Back then, I didn’t understand why those people didn’t understand, and today I don’t understand how so many people could read John Scalzi’s entirely clear criteria and still protest that this or that doesn’t belong on the list because it’s not about SF.

  43. John, and Patrick, thanks for all the links. There are a lot of interesting ones in there…

    I’m curious about one thing, though. Patrick, why is Schneier on your additional list? I admit that my interest in him is strictly from the cryptography and computer security angles, so I might have missed other areas over the years, but I never heard of him being involved in SF&F, not in the “well-known SF fans’ and pros'” category… ?

  44. This is such a great resource; thank you! (I don’t know why I can’t get HTML tags to work on the site, so no live links below.) I’m blogging it at the Feminist SF blog, which is at blogs.feministsf.net,

    A couple of additions:

    Laurie Edison’s and my Body Impolitic (www.laurietobyedison.com/discuss) is at 43,175. Like Avedon and others, we don’t discuss F&SF, but we do have impeccable credentials.

    More to the point, the person I dropped in to point out is Liz Henry (http://liz-henry.blogspot.com), who blogs all over the place in various modes. The one listed above is the one most likely to have SF content, and its rating is 35,236.

  45. “Says me: John Scalzi said he was exclusively listing “SF-related” sites, exactly where?”

    That would be here:

    “Wil’s blog is primarily about his life and acting, and not so much about science fiction.”

  46. That’s an inconsistency in application, not an announcement of criteria. John’s stated criteria were very clear.

    Really, it’s silly to get bent about, but I remain amazed that we’ve reverted to arguing that it’s not a proper fanzine if it isn’t about SF. Next: Staple Wars!

  47. I didn’t know that… Thanks.

    As for the amusing arguments about the criteria, application does count. Especially in the same page stating the criteria, by the same person stating the criteria. Because application is perceived as examples for proper interpretation of the criteria.
    If a person sees a rule, and an example to the rule, and the example seems to violate the rule, the assumption will usually be that the rule wasn’t stated accurately enough, and not that the ‘offical’ example really violates it.

  48. Umm, Patrick:

    “I made the decision to not to include “news” blogs or blogs whose material is not primarily personal and/or SF-related. This disqualified high-ranking sites like Boing Boing, Locus Online, SFSite, Futurismic, SF Signal, Emerald City and Meme Therapy, which are ranked by Technorati and would have otherwise been on the list.”

    That would seem a clear indicator that John was looking for blogs that do talk primarily about esseff, though “personal” covers a multitude of sins.

  49. It’s not that “‘personal’ covers a multitude of sins.” It’s that John was at pains to write “personal and/or SF-related.”

    I persist in not understanding why, this being the case, more than one person in this thread has leapt up to say “Why is such-and-such on the list when it’s not about SF?” Are we perhaps unclear as to how “and/or” functions as an operator?

  50. Also, while Martin Wisse claims that John was clearly “looking for blogs that do talk primarily about esseff,” in fact John described himself up front as engaged in the “exercise of ranking the the top 50 personal blogs in SFdom” and went on to explain “Who was eligible for the list? SF/F writers, editors, agents, publishers, artists and fans.”

    In other words, when John said he was trying to rank the top 50 personal blogs in SFdom, he actually meant he was trying to rank the top 50 personal blogs in SFdom. Which is to say: personal blogs, not necessarily blogs about SF. In SFdom, i.e., blogs by people in the SF world.

    I have said that I’m fantasted by the extent to which some people don’t get this. I’m fantasted because it’s a perfect modern-day analog to the nitwits of old-time fanzine fandom who yammered that fanzines like Hyphen or A Bas or Innuendo weren’t real authentic fanzines because they talked about jazz or politics or the amusing behavior of their friends instead of reviewing SF. Of course, Hyphen and A Bas and Innuendo were phenomena of the SF world, fully part of it, root and branch. But there are evidently always people ready to vigilantly defend SF’s purity-of-essence from the Pollution of its Precious Bodily Fluids.

  51. (And incidentally, I would have included BoingBoing in the list. It’s an awkward fit because only one of its editors is really part of the SF community, but given the stated criteria, it seems even more awkward to exclude it.)

  52. Yeah, I was on the bubble with it, and that’s part of the reason why I noted it and other “news-like” blogs with their own links.

  53. According to technorati, I am at 96,984, which would put me just above Jo Walton. Which seems a little odd, since she’s a published novelist and I write reviews which only two people get to read (three, if I count myself).

    I imagine her ranking will increase as soon as people outside the reviewosphere see FARTHING.

  54. John, the text for my link has my blog name, but the link is to my personal journal. I’m not sure that either one belongs on the list – but whichever one you meant to include, the link and text should probably match.

    Jonquil, I went back and checked through Respectful of Otters for SF mentions. I found: a mention that I’m an SF fan in a post about Bush’s ill-fated Mission to Mars; a mention of Kornbluth’s Marching Morons; a disparaging bit about Orson Scott Card; a post mentioning that I was on my way to Worldcon; and a post saying that I had been to Worldcon and met other bloggers there. I agree that this total seems a bit low.

  55. Hee! Thanks (belatedly) for the list.

    (This parenthetical paragraph is a test to make sure I understand your preview function before I post a long comment.)

  56. Here’s the rest of my comment:

    I occasionally wander by Technorati to look at who’s linking to me and what my ranking is; when I do, some of the things that surprise me are:

    (a) how often spam blogs are included in the list of blogs linking to me

    (b) how often blogrolls are included (though that doesn’t seem to be happening at the moment, so maybe they fixed this)

    (c) how few links it takes to get a relatively high ranking (Technorati currently knows about only 101 links to my journal over the past 7 months, which is enough to put me in your top 25)

    (d) how often other weirdnesses show up (like multiple copies of the same link from the same place, or links from my own journal to itself)

    (e) the number of blogs that aren’t listed with Technorati and so don’t get counted

    All of which is to say, I’m of course pleased to show up on your list, but I distrust Technorati’s ranking system nonetheless. (I initially wrote “deeply distrust,” but then realized I don’t care enough about it to deeply distrust it.)

    …Semi-unrelatedly: On a quick skim through the links to my journal that Technorati knows about, I think I can tentatively conclude that the most likely thing to bring in links for me is posting interesting and/or entertaining non-personal content: my infodumps piece, calls-for-subs, links to funny stuff, etc. Neither my personal entries nor my state-of-the-magazine entries seem to get much linkage, which makes sense when I think about it; people link to things because they think those things will be of interest to others.

    So my advice for those who want to move up in the rankings: post entertaining content that will make other people want to link to you. I know that sounds obvious, but I think the non-obvious corollary is that people who are “just” blogging about their lives may have huge and devoted readership but relatively low Technorati rank.

    (Also, avoid linking to anyone else, ’cause if you do, then they might move up in the rankings and take your rightful spot.)

  57. (That last paragraph was meant to be in strikethrough style. So much for my clever attempt at HTML.)

  58. Technorati’s changed something in the last week. :-/ My rank’s suddenly 63,790.

    I’ll be switching to my own site soon, though, so all that’ll be gone. :-)

  59. Thank you for doing this. I entirely enjoyed it. I even enjoyed working out how to get Technorati to rate my blog and discovering my rating is a tad higher than I thought. I would have been in your original listing but I suspect not in a revised one taking into account all the blogs mentioned in the comments.

    For your personal delectation, Subterrranean Magazine #4 hit Australian letterboxes today. My mother subscribes and had to ring to tell me.

  60. It’s the new pictures!

    Heh. Well, there weren’t any links due to them on the day I posted. They probably do account for my rank going to 57,707 now, though. ;-)

  61. One of the comments above was correct: Posts on my own books or writing are pretty much ignored, but something funny, wacky or interesting gets lots of links and comments. Hence, my latest post is on how to stalk Ben Elton ;-)

    That’s a useful list of blogs, by the way. Plenty of good reading.

    Incidentally, my Hal Spacejock blog is now at position 135,784 on technorati

    (Hal Spacejock is my SF/Humour series, published by FACP & distributed in Australia by Penguin, and soon to hit US shores as an import.)

    Cheers
    Simon Haynes

  62. Wow, numbers for me to crunch! Fantastic!

    (And I’m stunned to have made it onto the list either time. I doubt if Ryk included me in his “pretty darn obscure” category, since he’s been reading my blog since soon after I started it, but I’m still surprised to rank above some people on the list).

    Highest climbers on the new list:

    Anna Louise Genoese has gone up 24 places, from #34 to #10, and Jo Walton has climbed 22 places from #45 to #23. But several of the new entrants have climbed further: Gary Farber, Irene Gallo, George RR Martin, Holly Lisle, James Nicoll and Elise Matthesen at least, all of whom are now at #26 or above.

    But you can crunch different numbers using the Technorati figures. Diane Duane has leapt up that ranking by a much greater absolute step than anyone else, shedding over 100,000 places to rise from 142,135th to 39,788th. (Though it is certain that most, if not all, of the new entrants on the chart have gone up by at least that much, since the difference between the lowest-placed this time and the lowest-placed last time is already 90,000.)

    Great fun, thanks for doing this.

  63. Huh. I guess I don’t make the cut. I’ve never heard of Technorati until I read this, and I only read this after seeing Diane Duane mention that she made the list.

    *shrug* Whatever.

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