Comments

Congratulations Tom and to everyone at the tompeters company. The sky is the limit ; )

Posted by Noel Guinane at August 18, 2005 3:18 PM

Thanks, Noel. If we could just get as popular as the people who blog about gadgets, we'd be happy indeed.

Posted by cathy at August 18, 2005 3:30 PM

I suspect happiness is just around the corner : )

Posted by Noel Guinane at August 18, 2005 5:11 PM

Cathy, one day people will be as awed by the people who make gadgets as they are with the gadgets themselves. Until that day, human endeavor will unfortunately be overshadowed by things in plastic casings. Perhaps we should encase ourselves in some funkily designed plastic suits and people will take more notice of the "I" in "IPod", the leaders of creativity and innovation, the people like Tom Peters, et al.

I really do believe that it will happen though, and human thought will outpace production some day. I look forward to seeing your site climb to the top. The largest flowers in the world started off as seeds.

Posted by Tom O'Leary at August 18, 2005 5:27 PM

Well, you (we) scored higher than the Evil Genius Chronicle and the Harry Potter Automatic News Aggregator, so there may be hope for humankind yet.

Posted by Mike at August 18, 2005 9:07 PM

Just a small note of controversy: is it really all about being biggest or the most read or the most "popular" (whatever that means)? Is biggest really best?

I like this site for the quality of the postings and the fact that (me apart) there don't seem to be too many twerps writing on it. It's nice to know the site is popular and that must be a great feeling for all involved but let's focus on quality and let the ranking take care of itself.

Posted by Mark JF at August 19, 2005 2:53 AM

Mark, I agree with you. I don't understand the focus on links and feeds too well, but then I haven't got my own blog, at least not yet. Personally, I couldn't give a brown banana for a blog's ranking. It's what people debate that's more interesting and the quality of that debate. And tompeters in my opinion is a lot more interesting than many others who for the moment have got much higher rankings. I suppose it would be nice though if lots of people subscribed to my blog if I had one, but I agree that it's the quality of debate that should matter more.

Posted by Noel Guinane at August 19, 2005 4:53 AM

Congratulations Tom, Cathy, and the entire blog team. I stumbled across the blog more than a year ago through a link and have gotten so much from it. The great entries and great comments from fellow readers have really improve my professional and personal life.

Placing in the top 500 blogs is certainly impressive and while the desire may exist to be #1, the quality of content and audience here is an order of magnitude better than what one sees at a really mass market blog. That being said, I agree with Noel that this is only the beginning for this blog!

Posted by Kurt Wendelken at August 19, 2005 7:13 AM

O'Leary - perhaps we should plastic enclose you for the Bellingham weather - although the Seattle weather lately has been perfect according to my extended family there.

Posted by Sean at August 19, 2005 8:28 AM

Sean, because I'm coming from Ireland, I have a closet-full of water-repellent plastic wear already...unfortunately. Poor Seattle gets bad PR about the rain, but I've seen statistics showing that it actually gets less annual rainfall than New York? Having grown up in New York, I don't remember it being a very rainy place. Go figure.

Also, Birch Bay (north of Bellingham) supposedly gets 25% less precipitation than Bellingham?! I suppose it's like Victoria BC somehow.

Posted by Tom O'Leary at August 19, 2005 3:32 PM

Kurt,
Good to see your name in our comments. The rankings are a really controversial topic. A lot of people agree with those of you here who are saying "who cares?" and "what are they counting anyway?" You can tell from my confusion in the post that I'm not really sure, either. There was a lot of discussion at the BlogHer conference that ranking in categories would make sense. Then sites would be "competing" against others in their same class. More of the grassroots types--the ones on the fringes who help to make blogging as vital as it is--would get recognition that way. But do they want it? Need it?

The ranking may mean something, maybe not. We love the acknowledgement either way. It does indicate we have some following, and that's why we said thanks. It's thanks to all of you who read this, visit here, subscribe to our RSS feed, and keep our discussion going strong.

Posted by cathy at August 19, 2005 7:55 PM

Tom O', that's true. London also gets less rainfall than New York (it also gets less sunshine!). It rains less frequently in New York, but when it rains, it pours.

Posted by Noel Guinane at August 20, 2005 4:00 AM

You are wonderful!

I couldn't agree more with Mark and Kenjimori and I am especially enjoying what I have read in this post so far. It's understandable to have been brainwashed with hitting top marks, I rather prefer to focus in high standards and quality performing, then the top marks may or may not come, no my business :-) It will be cause of worry to hit top marks and do it quick according to such principles, don't you think?

Cathy, I ignore what are the appreciations of the rankers are re. freshness and, honestly, I don't mind; I just can tell you that to me this blog is very refresing!

And also, has been a beautiful surprise to me finding out an Art related blog in the 2nd position of this rank: it's something to celebrate by everybody and gives me lots of faith.

Cheers!

Posted by Omara at August 20, 2005 6:33 AM

My only suprise is that TP Blog is not TOP of the league!

Well done Cathy and all

Posted by Trevor at August 27, 2005 6:30 PM