Paging Lisa Renee: Stop Whining (Great Job With BNN by the way)

Uh oh, time for a post where I stop biting my lip, and let loose how I really feel.

Glass City Jungle. Sometimes I love reading Lisa Renee. At times she can present well thought out posts, articulate discussion, and a great perspective from an area that's as screwed up as Toledo. At other times her commentary is flamingly idiotic. For example:

I do stop by and read what is posted over on Buckeye State Blog from time to time, despite the fact that Jerid doesn’t seem to feel the same blog love given he’s never updated the new URL for GCJ that has been in place for almost a year or congratulated us for our success in the BNN ratings. I should point out that GCJ is number two, sandwiched in between RAB (Right Angle Blog) as one and BSB as three this week, which given GCJ is a personal blog and they are forums with more than one poster (not to mention we are frosty ad free here) shows that we here in NWO rock, not to mention in a rare egotistical moment how many weeks Glass City Jungle had the number one spot as the most influential political blog in Ohio, despite Jerid’s last comment here on the blog that he had issues with BNN that he was going to share and either did not share or I missed; and those who purposely rated this blog as “terrible” just to make GCJ drop in rankings. I believe it is our awesome discussion factor here on GCJ that is unparalleled when it comes to the majority of other blogs out there that earns us a top ranking spot week after week.

First...STOP WHINING. Whine whine whine whine. Just stop it. How many times have you emailed me asking me to update your link (if the magic number is zero, you may just want to think before you start talking next time; if you have emailed me, please realize that a lot of stuff comes through my inbox each day and stuff gets lost)? Ugh.

...And then her piece continues to whine about how Ohio state house candidates are talking to this blog instead of hers. Whine whine whine. Jeez. Once again, try dropping an email my way Lisa instead of going all crazy online. I'd love to share what I'm hearing with you. I share with plenty of other folks out there And guess what, I've been to Toledo a few time. Believe it or not, some of BSB's readers are from Toledo. When you don't have your head up your ass (and you're not ceding points to the Republicans on things like, oh, the Democrats position on protecting homosexuals) you run a great blog. Stop with all the possessive stuff and get your eyes back on the ball, taking Wagoner's seat. At least that's my goal, we're action oriented over here. But to each his own.

Secondly, blognetnews. I haven't congratulated Lisa on her status as the big top dawg #2 position on BNN? Well, don't hold your breath there Lisa. The concept behind BNN is great. Folks want an all Ohio aggregator. I'm all for that, put righties and lefties together in one feed so we can see what's going on with everyone. Great. good. I've even spoken with the folks over at lefty blogs with suggestions they put out an all blog feed so I don't have to use BNN's. However, the problem is when BNN starts measuring influence.

What is a measure of a blog's influence in Ohio? How many readers it reaches in a given week? How much real political capital it amasses in 7 days? How much of an actual impact it has on Ohio's political sphere? These are the sort of things that a formula, namely the formula BNN uses, can't calculate. They're intangibles. For example, I think at the OH-2 blogs hay day, it was one of the most "influential" district blogs in the nation. Additionally, Jill runs one of the most interesting policy discussion boards around ("influential" who knows? But sure, we could say that). Blue Bexley has a great local vibe around the Columbus area, even though he's restrained on his posting abilities. But how can I say any of these are the most influential? I can't. And neither can BNN. Instead, BNN should announce what it's influence rankings really are... a formula based off four factors.

1. The number of different incoming links from other blogs in the same Ohio network.
2. The rating amassed at BNN's proprietory page
3. The "click throughs"on BNN's proprietory page
4. The frequency of posting

From these four all knowing, comprehensive factors BNN produces their weekly "influence" ranking. Yea, sure, it's great. And to go out on the vanity limb, the only week I'll ever claim BSB should've been number #1 in any influence ranking system of any kind (swear, we've got some great blogs in Ohio and BSB is never the only pony at the show) was the week we broke the Romney video, the Romney letter, and the news that an Ohio Congressman might me a little frisky. BSB was credited for video footage on three national cable stations, mentioned in plenty of publications, and had traffic near 100,000 impressions on one day. That week we were ranked #4 in influence by BNN.

And while she's busy lauding herself, I wonder if she's actually every questioned what the larger purpose behind BNN could be? Well, it's run by Dave Mastio...a former George Bush speech writer. It regularly over values Republican blogs in it's ranking system. And it doesn't tally up all the comments and other factors going into it's rating system for some larger Democratic blogs (in Ohio progress ohio has had trouble getting it to pick up all of it's comment feeds, they don't pick up my comments, and plenty of other Democratically leaning blogs across the nation have had problems with it). Infrastructure controls everything. If you can say who's the best, you can influence who everyone thinks is the best.

I for one don't want a former Bush speech writer telling me who the best is. But you're welcome to make that own decision for yourself.

So yea Lisa, way to go on that BNN stuff. Stellar.