For those who have been under a rock for the last two weekes, 9rules recently opened invitations for round 4.
Many great bloggers made the cut, including Master Punsalan and quite a few others, some 115 out of 700 sites.
However, as is always the case, there is at least one person who takes it upon themselves to try and give everyone a lesson on why they believe 9rules has, or will lose it’s elitist or rather exclusive appeal.
“Personally I think 9rules is soon going to hit the jackpot to reach his limit. And here I mean the ‘exclusivity’ will reach his climax…”
“.. Scrivs and 9rules team, this was no flame, I really like the network you have built up and have discovered some great blogs…”
I’m sorry - actually, fuck it, I’m not sorry, the entire post is equivalent to saying “I think this community is for a bunch of elitist wankers and I’m scared that I’ll not make that list [and be as cool] before it loses it’s gloss or is sold out”.
9rules is a fantastic community that has rippled through the blogosphere, bringing with it a widespread drive to improve content and delivery whilst recognising those who have gained that certain, je-ne-sais-quoi. A number of my daily visits such as ifelse, binarybonsai and now 5thirtyone have all been recognised as bringing that certain something to the blogosphere. Be it themes, exceptional content or just a helping hand - they all speak highly of their authors and show what can be achieved.
They challenge me, daily, to improve on what I do, what I say and how I present myself and the content. 9rules members are to my mind, blogging ambassadors - continuing to drive others to better themselves and their content whilst being recognised for what they have achieved thus far.
Perhaps the Am I Famous Now post was written more out of a frustration in not making the cut, seeing so many make the grade - or just a naivety in believing that 9rules is about being “exclusive and elitist”, rather than an inclusive community of fine content. Ultimately thriving communities grow and that always brings change - but I do not believe for one moment Scrivs and the entire 9rules team as a whole, have lost any value by including a number of fine hypertext purveyors into their fold.
I hope to see a “round 5″ and I hope to see many of the fine up-and-coming bloggers become recognised for what they have achieved thus far.. helping build the amazing community that 9rules has become.
≡ This is a journal entry relating to the topics of 9rules, communities, concepts, internet, noteworthy.
Brendan Borlase is a Systems and Network Administrator living in Adelaide, Australia, having lived, worked and breathed Information Technology for over 12 years. Learn more.
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Jun 6th, 2006 at 8:05 pm
I even didn’t submit my crappy English. Too bad. And sorry if it doesn’t fit the content of your post.
I do love 9rules, have discovered loads of blog at 9rules I would never have heard of otherwise. And I also regularly participated in comments. Besides that 9rules makes me almost daily think about ‘what is a blog’ so if I meant in my post that I think the team has done a great job, they could judge that because they knew I even didn’t participate. I also that to 9rules. But I still think that the amount of new blogs was too big.
Anyway posts like these keep a community running as well.
Jun 6th, 2006 at 11:40 pm
I hardly think 112 out of 700 entries is too much - it’s also, imho, not our place to tell 9rules how they should run their ’rounds’.
The quality of the blogs that made the list (no offence, but have you actually spent time visiting a few of the new blogs added?) is extraordinarily high.
Fair enough that you did not submit your site, however Scrivs and the whole 9rules crew have continued to set a high bar - the numbers accepted in any one round, really are completely irrelevant.
It is the quality of content that sets 9rules apart, not the quantity.
Jun 7th, 2006 at 1:28 am
Yes I I did visit all the blogs who made the preliminaries. And that is exactly where my point comes from. Like I wrote in my post, every single blogs deserves to be there. Me, who prefers daily reading blogs, instead of reading a newspaper from A to Z, sees his feed roll explode and go from 800 (mainly job related) to 911.
Anyway, because this could go on and on, I mainly wrote my post because of a comment somewhere else which could easily be mistaken by the team since the original post was missing at that moment. But I also do think that as a reader (client) I am allowed to express my opinion. Actually, like I wrote in my comment at 9rules, I had planned to write something more in depth, which I will do in the next weeks anyway. Now it all got a little different because I wanted to avoid that a single comment somewhere else got ripped out of his context. I take responsibilities for what I write and not at a comment on someone totally innocent’s blog. ;)
Btw, I liked the tone of your post, that is exactly how I would have written something like that. So… 912 (of course I have seen several comments of yours at Michael’s (BB) blog as well).
Jun 7th, 2006 at 2:09 am
Sure, the number of blogs added is sizeable - but then in context so was the original 700 who applied. My understanding is that is the single largest round, yet.
If 350 folks made round 4, that would equate to approx 57 actually making the grade - which just sounds like a whole lot less. My point is that your post takes the 110+ blogs out of the context it should be in - roughly 16% is quite a small percentage. As Scrivs has already mentioned - it is a similar result to previous rounds.
I can see where you’re coming from - but I’ll agree to disagree. I do not believe the numbers of blogs that make up the 9 rules membership ultimately matters one bit - it’s always been the quality of content that set 9rules apart.. :)
Jun 7th, 2006 at 2:17 am
“it’s always been the quality of content that set 9rules apart..”
I couldn’t agree more, 9rules is the best network out there. ;)