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Old 10-06-2002, 04:40 PM   #4
the_logos
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Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Mill Valley, California
Posts: 2,305
the_logos will become famous soon enough
I think you're drawing unwarranted conclusions about what the list means. The list cannot be skewed by any means I'm aware of, since it is set up to measure one thing: Number of unique IPs sent to the site, with a single unique IP able to be registered successfully only once in a 12 hour period. I think Adam may count certain IP ranges as a single IP also, to prevent AOlers and others with dial-up dynamic IPs from disconnecting and then reconnecting to get a different IP and vote again.

The ranking list is basically the same thing as a banner exchange. The more people who you bring to the banner exchange via clicks from your site, the more exposure you get for your site. So from that perspective, which I believe is the objectively accurate perspective, insofar as it describes what is actually being measured, there is no way to skew the site without figuring out a way to somehow scam Adam's software and vote with the same IP multiple times in 12 hours. I'm sure that sort of nonsense would be caught right away though, and it's explicitly against the rules anyway.

To summarize, I don't think it really matters how you get people here. The system is set up to measure the fact that you do get people here, and that's all it measures. It's a you-help-me-I-help-you arrangement with topmudsites that also happens to benefit every mud on the list because it encourages muds to send as many people there as possible, thus exposing other muds to as many people as possible, as many times as possible (which are key metrics in advertising: reach and frequency).

I can understand why people impose secondary meanings on the list, but I think it's a mistake to do so, as they're arbitrarily imposed meanings.

--matt
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