smackfoo.com | I find your lack of faith disturbing.

It seems my recent post on proxy Technorati pinging has received a response.

It does appear however, that my primary thought behind the initial response has been misread, or not clearly defined. Writing isn’t my strongest trait, a little ironic for a blogger perhaps, however my desire was to point out some simple flaws in the idea.

Ed has covered numerous points, but I will highlight the one that caught my attention most:

“..Am I inflating Technorati’s data or correcting it by bringing missed data to their attention? Getting proper credit for what I’ve earned is simply smart marketing.”

.. and there in, is the point. It’s smart marketing. Of course it is — artificially boosting Technorati results will boost traffic, increase advertising revenue and increase exposure. This is all being done under the guise of “fixing the results on behalf of someone else”. Is that “proper credit”, or simply taking advantage of a fellow blogger’s work?

I am well aware that Technorati needs a “bump” occasionally to help it catch missed posts, or to keep the results “fresh”. What I do not consider healthy, or wise, is artificially “bumping” on behalf of a fellow blogger. It smacks of gaming and is again, a great way to gain popularity (not to mention possible ire within the community), all at the expense of others.

I would strongly advocate, for anyone thinking this is an excellent idea, that you “share the wealth” of traffic, exposure, possible revenue streams and of course, the most important resource; visitors, with your fellow bloggers and seek to educate your fellow blogger — get them hooked into Technorati.

You get the same result, with the potential to gain additional linkage and exposure for your fellow blogger, as well as further relevant links on Technorati, without resorting to gaming the system.

Their is an apparent belief within Ed’s posts, that one is “owed” the link. The Internet does not “owe” one patronage, it does not “owe” one incoming links, in fact, it does not “owe” one any real form of dues.

Is it “right” for us to inflate statistics based on what we believe is our due? I can’t help but see similarities between this and recent “outings” of business and blogger’s gaming Google’s Adsense and PageRank to better their slice of the internet pie, be it for profit, or simply foot traffic (behaviour of which is often universally rebuked)..

A successful blogger earns the respect and patronage from both his or her fellow bloggers and visitors alike. Not from artificially gaming ranking engines to inflate ones on sense of self importance or out of a feeling of “right”.

The comments are open — I would really like to hear thoughts on this. If there is anyone at Technorati who happens across this post, I would be particularily interest to hear any thoughts you may have.