AWmusic

Anyway, currently and perhaps temporarily the Hype Machine, has chosen to include only the Top 100 on their front page. Sorry had to make that clear, there’s only so much one can include in a title. Specifically on the Elbo.ws forum where there was speculation on whether this was true (AND whether this is right), Hype Machine creator Anthony said and a We Are Experimenting Post:

The issue is that when the group of blogs on the front page is large, the page scrolls too fast and that traffic-grabbing bullshit gets more attention. The monoculture of remixes and electro actually gets perpetuated in a stronger way too.

This is really counter-intuitive, I know. Try out both of the pages. If you could only have 100 blogs on the front page (vs the total ~1300), how would you pick them? (not a rhetorical question, what do you really think?)

It’s fairly obvious which side of the fence I’m on. AWmusic.ca isn’t a top 100 blog, we recently changed domains (early December) and lots a lot of our “counting statistics” (namely Technorati and the outdated/seldom used Delicious) are lower then the sum of our total when using our old domain (music.allansworld.info). While I’m pretty peeved at the idea, let’s look at the big implications and the ultimate goal (while trying to be somewhat unbiased but you know where I stand).

The goal: The Hype Machine and like Elbo.ws are now more mainstream then ever. Both sites are filled with remixes and the occasional post on U2 and Britney Spears. It’s very different then this summer or perhaps further back, a year ago. The increase in number of bloggers (and traffic probably) has made the some of the websites a little difficult to constantly read (I keep up with Hypem and Elbo.ws less and less). Probably a lot that has to do the decision… Anthony is unhappy with how the front page is. A lot of the traffic whores also get a lot of attention from posting the same stuff.

Is this the right way of going about it? No, No and No. I don’t think you can simply partition the blog content to a biased section of the content (e.g. the top 100 blogs). I’ll keep this short, this has been a HUGE debate on the Elbo.ws forum and both the Hype Machine blog.

Why is it bad for the consumer? Simply put, you are suggesting that some consumers in your eyes are not good enough. The top 100 blogs deviates too much that the dedicated users who did like the front page for better or worse, are being left out of the picture. Hype Machine is basically saying we don’t want you, we’d rather have a different set of people.

They clearly want an environment to attract a certain type of new user but these are not the right means to the end. I think you cut off way too much for the consumer as he or she ultimately decides which blog to favorite and/ or visit. The great thing about Hype was that it was random, and everything you found was by chance. It’s not about missing out because if you tried hard enough, you would find something you liked. With just top 100 blogs, you have people that have a less likelihood of finding something they like (by decreasing the diversity) and it makes very little sense as to why this is being done.

Why it sucks for the producers (bloggers): Simply, some bloggers out there will be good excluded that deserve the traffic, exposure compared to the larger sites. Larger sites already have the base traffic, and don’t necessarily rely on Hype to be self-sustaining (they can live without it) while other sites, can’t. It makes very little sense to give the people who already have the audience even more of an audience then say the rest of the crowd.

Granted some of the bloggers are to blame for the poor content on each site, but excluding good people because the bad ones ruin it for the rest of it is not fair. Systematic injustice? The gap could also widen between the two sets of blogs (let’s not exclude how influential the Hype Machine has been). The top blogs, always get it better, financially (you don’t see me getting a paid trip to Texas like Frank – sorry Chromewaves has been very supportive in this) and while I won’t say they didn’t earn it, it’s just giving them more and more luxuries for the sake of already having luxuries other blogs don’t. I guess to be fair it’s always like this, bigger audience, better contests, more concerts one is invited to but the Hype Machine was always fair. Whether it was Joe Blow to Chromewaves, it gave Joe Blow a real chance to have some ground work for an audience. Yes some people exploited that but where would I be without that opportunity? Probably still a sports writer.

In simple terms with rambling, it just simply isn’t fair. Yes life isn’t fair yadda yadda, but I can still tell you that it’s not fucking okay to just do that. It’s simply become a that’s unfair argument vs “deal with it”. However, the solutions for just deal with it, I already accomplish or attempt to try each and everyday. Why should I continue to see the top 100 blogs gain benefits by just being a top 100 blog and not having to work extra hard to try to get to where they are (granted the work was done but they weren’t disadvantaged by other blogs when they rose to the top). Some people just should not be arguing FOR this, especially the haves, it’s like saying I’ve got a $1 million bucks and there’s a raise in taxes for the poor and the middle and I’ve getting a tax break as well, should I have the right to say: It’s not a big deal? Deal with it? I’ve seen a few of the bloggers argue for this and I can’t help but feel a little peeved.

Simply, there are better options out there which makes me strongly protest a decision that goes to a “top x number blogs on hype”. Smaller random sampling on the front page and the full scroll on a second page? You could go on forever.

What would I do?
Fuck them all. Make your front page something else. Splash page? Remixes here, covers there, top 100 blogs section there, an all scrolling page there, and a page that is filtered. At the very least, you could have a random sample (random being the key term here) set on the front page representing a random sample from ALL bloggers and push off the more dedicated users to other sections of the website without A) pissing them off and B) overly reducing your content to a certain set of people. Let the consumer decide what he or she wants in the end if that means making them go through one extra, so be it that’s better then their current proposition.

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