Matt Nisbet recently posted the following message under the title Framing Science Ranked Among Top 15 Science Blogs.
For the fourth straight month, Framing Science ranks among the top 15 science-related blogs, as tracked by Wikio. The position of a blog in the Wikio ranking depends on the number and weight of the incoming links from other blogs. (Blogrolls are not taken into account and Wikio only counts links from the last 120 days.)I submitted a comment in which I noted that several famous science blogs such as Bad Astronomy, The Panda's Thumb, and RichardDawkins.net are not included in the Wikio rankings.
Since this has been discussed many times on the blogs, it's safe to assume that Matt knows about it. I think he understands that his ranking among the top 15 blogs is not quite what it seems. So I asked in the comment whether he was deliberately trying to deceive his readers or was this an example of framing?
Unfortunately, my comment must have gone astray in the ether since it didn't survive moderation. Isn't that strange?
10 comments :
And unless you & other bloggers dutifully tag all links to him with rel=nofollow then all of the flame wars and vituperation directed at his "framing" posts just serve to boost his page ranking. Perhaps some blogs link to Matt to cite some positive, constructive insightful post that he made but in most cases it seems people link to condemn some act of foolishness or trollbaiting that Matt has posted.
It's worse than that: my blog is 29, and I'm a bleeding philosopher!
Bleeding philosopher? I thought it was the aim of philosophers to make others bleed ... specifically from the eyes.
How exactly are they defining "science blog"? io9 ranks number two and that's a science fiction blog.
Tyro poses a very good question. Nisbett is often linked to in order to better criticize his inanity. If Wikio does not discriminate according to the intent of the link, and I don't see how it possibly could, the results could very well mean the very opposite of what Matt says he thinks they do.
That's not framing; that's advertising. It's perfectly OK in the advertising world to lead off your pitch with, "Scientists say" without mentioning that they're the two guys who sat with you at lunch last week.
Hi Larry,
Just in response to your comment - Bad Astronomy does feature in our rankings for Science; The Panda's Thumb is, as far as I am aware, a blog based in Australia, which is why it does not feature on the .com rankings (of course reserved for US sites), and RichardDawkins.net, again as far as I am aware, conflates news stories from numerous places rather than blog about Science in the way that most of the blogs in our rankings do - it is for that reason that he does not appear in them.
Hope that makes sense. And in relation to the comments above from tyro and valhar2000, the purpose of the rankings is to ascertain reference... whether of positive or negative intent, so if you link to someone, whatever you say, you are referencing them, and that thus contributes to their position in the rankings.
Also, peggy, the io9 question we've been going over for ages, but I agree with you and it will not appear in the Science rankings from now on.
Regards,
Dan Levy
Wikio
Dan Levy says,
Just in response to your comment - Bad Astronomy does feature in our rankings for Science;
It ranks 28,428 in the "General" category. As far as I can tell it is not listed in the "Science" category.
The Panda's Thumb is, as far as I am aware, a blog based in Australia, which is why it does not feature on the .com rankings (of course reserved for US sites),
It is news to me that your science blogs won't include anything with ".com" in them. And the reason for that is ... ?
It is also news to me that The Panda's Thumb is based in Australia.
Oh, by the way, your number one "science" blog is "/blog.wired.com/wiredscience/" owned by the same company that publishes the commercial magazine WIRED.
... and RichardDawkins.net, again as far as I am aware, conflates news stories from numerous places rather than blog about Science in the way that most of the blogs in our rankings do - it is for that reason that he does not appear in them.
I see.
Why is my blog listed under "General" instead of under "Sciences"?
How come A Blog Around the Clock ranks 2092 under science? This seems very strange for one of the most popular science blogs, don't you think?
There are at least a dozen science blogs that aren't even on your site in any category. Why is that?
Heh.
I could point out to Matt that my blog consistently ranks around #6 or #7, and I have yet to crow about it. :-)
Framing Science is the new science of persuasion. Issues at the intersection of science and politics, such as climate change, evolution, and embryonic stem cell research, receive considerable public attention, which is likely to grow. Journalism reviews about regular "Science and the Media" column for to strategic communication at the popular blog Framing Science.
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Tanyaa
Social Marketing
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