louisgray.com - Latest Comments in louisgray.com: Arrington? Loic? Scoble? Everybody's Right About "Authority".

Re: louisgray.com: Arrington? Loic? Scoble? Everybody's Right About "Authority".

Morgan Brown — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 13:16:41 -0000

Couldn't agree more Jesse!

Re: louisgray.com: Arrington? Loic? Scoble? Everybody's Right About "Authority".

Guest — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 11:52:42 -0000

If there is an authority ranking, anyone who mention what they are having for lunch should be immediately penalized. To wit:
http://agitationist.com/150...

Re: louisgray.com: Arrington? Loic? Scoble? Everybody's Right About "Authority".

Jesse Stay — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 07:06:25 -0000

Not necessarily because no one I'm talking to would be listening to those blogs. I have much stronger audience here. (I realize you were being sarcastic)

Re: louisgray.com: Arrington? Loic? Scoble? Everybody's Right About "Authority".

Jesse Stay — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 07:04:57 -0000

Josh, you're right, but my point is that audience still has to play a part. If that person in the plane crash had no one listening to him, his authority would be un-noticed. For full authority you still need an audience, no matter how large or small. I argue the larger the audience, the louder and stronger that authority becomes. However, at the same time - should Twitter base search on number of followers only? Definitely not. Should they allow multiple options, enabling you to define what you think is authoritative? That would be the ideal solution, and one that neither Arrington, Loic, or Scoble are discussing.

Re: louisgray.com: Arrington? Loic? Scoble? Everybody's Right About "Authority".

Jesse Stay — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 07:00:52 -0000

Thanks Morgan - I enjoyed your comment. Even with distribution, that distribution doesn't become authoritative unless properly utilized. So, as my post says, it goes both ways. You need the followers to have people to listen to you. At the same time, you have to talk, and listen back, to keep those followers listening to you, as well as find new audience.

Re: louisgray.com: Arrington? Loic? Scoble? Everybody's Right About "Authority".

Jesse Stay — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 03:54:20 -0000

No harm taken Michael. I appreciate your support as well!

Re: louisgray.com: Arrington? Loic? Scoble? Everybody's Right About "Authority".

Jesse Stay — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 03:53:06 -0000

Louis, agreed, 100%. I hope that came through, at least somewhat through this post.

Re: louisgray.com: Arrington? Loic? Scoble? Everybody's Right About "Authority".

Louis Gray — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 03:26:11 -0000

Michael, how can you thank me for being patient with one of my most
loyal visitors and commenters? It is you whom I should be thanking. As
always, I appreciate your comments. You are too kind.

Re: louisgray.com: Arrington? Loic? Scoble? Everybody's Right About "Authority".

Morgan Brown — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 03:03:05 -0000

Jesse,

You make a great point that is often under-valued in the blogosphere - distribution matters. Distribution (in Twitter's case "followers") matters because the broader the distribution the more influence you are able to wield (authority).

Distribution is authority because without it, your ideas are worthless (or near so). The more distribution you have the greater your authority. The reach of your ideas and their ability to impact the ecosystem (blogosphere/twitter in this case) creates authority.

Newspapers knew this when they would launch in a new city - the idea was about getting as many eyeballs as possible to build your reputation and authority in the city. Once you had the eyeballs then you had the influence.

Ideas that don't spread aren't authoritative. Authority and distribution go hand-in-hand. (And it works both ways, either as a broadcaster or a listener.)

Great post.

Re: louisgray.com: Arrington? Loic? Scoble? Everybody's Right About "Authority".

Josh — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 02:56:41 -0000

authority != volume != credibility != authenticity

I'm reacting to this statement: "Aside from the fact that I enjoy the team of great writers I work with on this blog, I have a much louder, and because of that, more authoritative, voice here. More people listen with a larger audience than those with a small audience. And like it or not, all bloggers trying to compete play the numbers game - that's simple marketing."

I think the fact that someone has a larger audience doesn't give them any more credibility or authoritativeness than anyone else. I think credibility is the thing that we're all missing here - the most "authoritative" person in a search on a plane crash in Denver would be someone on the plane - and then someone doing the investigation. not who has the most followers. Same for the most "credible". Being loud means people want to listen to what you are saying - a great thing, but doesn't mean everything you say is great or correct. Sports figures are a perfect exemplar of this - millions of people listen to their endorsements but no one considers them authoritative or necessarily credible.

I think the most important thing that comes with a large audience is responsibility.

Re: louisgray.com: Arrington? Loic? Scoble? Everybody's Right About "Authority".

Michael Fidler — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 02:55:19 -0000

Louis, I appreciate the reply. Jesse has my complete support. and I hope he knows it. That's one of the reasons I subscribe to SocialToo. Another reason I subscribe is, I find it to be a very useful service. I hope that he knows my comments were only meant to be lighthearted.

On another note, let me take this opportunity to thank you for being so patient with me over the last six month's. I feel I have learned so much from you, and others in the community. For some reason though, your opinion matter's to me. There aren't many people I can say that about. I look forward to this coming year and all that you have to share. lol

Re: louisgray.com: Arrington? Loic? Scoble? Everybody's Right About "Authority".

Eric Rice — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 02:48:57 -0000

Hey, Jesse, you should have posted this on Perez Hilton's blog! Or even Paris Hilton's. Now THAT would be some authority!

/me looks around nervously.

Re: louisgray.com: Arrington? Loic? Scoble? Everybody's Right About "Authority".

Ash Tapia — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 02:18:36 -0000

Agree.. but I don't think we can accurately measure 'authority' just by looking at number of followers. We have to remember that PageRank also does not work merely by virtue of pageviews :)

I think the ranking should be based by way of interactions and the number of replies one receives. This too is not the most perfect way but it is a step in the right direction, IMHO.

Re: louisgray.com: Arrington? Loic? Scoble? Everybody's Right About "Authority".

Louis Gray — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 01:07:12 -0000

I think the conversation exploded beyond its original intent. I think
offering the option to rank by # of followers should absolutely be
enabled. That's not the be-all and end-all of rankings, but there's no
reason it should not be developed.

Re: louisgray.com: Arrington? Loic? Scoble? Everybody's Right About "Authority".

Louis Gray — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 01:06:11 -0000

One of the reasons I asked Jesse to write here was because he has such
good knowledge from a geeky development side on Twitter and Facebook.
That he happens to run SocialToo as well is a bonus. He knows his
product better than anybody, so I have no issues with his mentioning
it, with disclosure, of course.

Re: louisgray.com: Arrington? Loic? Scoble? Everybody's Right About "Authority".

AdamSinger — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 14:18:40 -0000

While Loic Le Meur may be right, regardless of anything else he needs his ego knocked down to size. There is a right and a wrong way to say things, imo. He needs to learn a bit of tact.

Re: louisgray.com: Arrington? Loic? Scoble? Everybody's Right About "Authority".

Jesse Stay — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 05:27:25 -0000

Asfaq, I agree. In the end it's about building the most personal experience you can around the individual. That involves both sides of the coin and enabling the user to make their own choice.

Re: louisgray.com: Arrington? Loic? Scoble? Everybody's Right About "Authority".

Jesse Stay — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 05:27:11 -0000

Thanks Michael. I figured since that is a major part of our service I needed to chime in. :-)

Re: louisgray.com: Arrington? Loic? Scoble? Everybody's Right About "Authority".

The Comic Project — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 05:24:46 -0000

http://www.thisisgoingtobeb... says "We need a relevence filter... and we're getting that--it's in our own head"

The stars authority based ranking is nothing but demanding their pound of flesh for making a service popular. There's nothing wrong with that though as they are investing their time and energy. I read Scoble say that what matters is who you follow and not who follows you..But follow too many people and you get lost in the chatter.

Maybe a "favourites" feature rolled out to anyone with more than a certain # of followers/following will be "reward" for being active while the rest of us can play?

In the long run, it makes sense to eat what you can digest.

Re: louisgray.com: Arrington? Loic? Scoble? Everybody's Right About "Authority".

Ash Tapia — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 04:53:19 -0000

Personally, the ranking idea makes sense to me. Why should a network not reward a person for spending more time on their service? Having said that, following people on Twitter and FriendFeed (irrespective of them following me back) has helped me derive valuable insights into social media and the internet - among other things.

Therefore, I think both sides of the coin are equal.. irrespective of where you are coming from.

Re: louisgray.com: Arrington? Loic? Scoble? Everybody's Right About "Authority".

Michael Fidler — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 04:45:24 -0000

Nice Job. Thanks for putting all or this together. I wasn't about to read three blogger's opinions on this subject. I thinks you summed it it well. And you only plugged SocialToo twice. Nothing wrong with a little Self promotion:-)

Re: louisgray.com: Arrington? Loic? Scoble? Everybody's Right About "Authority".

sean percival — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 04:10:00 -0000

I wish twitter would further develop summize, stability is great now guys, time to let in just a little feature creep

Re: louisgray.com: Arrington? Loic? Scoble? Everybody's Right About "Authority".

Louis Gray — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 03:33:00 -0000

Post by Jesse Stay: http://www.friendfeed.com/j...