TechMeme Leaderboard Movers 'n Shakers and a Blogging Thought

This week marked the launch of the newest egoboard, the Techmeme Leaderboard. I thought it might be fun to look at the movers and shakers in the first four days since launch. The chart is below. From what I can put together, the big winners so far are Silicon Alley Inisider and NewTeeVee and the big loser is CenterNetworks dropping nearly 20 places!

So one must wonder, how did SAI and NTV move up? SAI is easy: create fake content (see stories on Google at $2k/share and TC selling for $100M) that big bloggers believe is real and you get links that move you up. Then write additional content to lure the big bloggers in for even more links. NTV is part of a "blog network" which can link to itself creating juice on both sides. TechMeme founder Gabe Rivera notes that these blog networks are considered individual properties so when GigaOm links to NTV, it "could" push it even futher in the TechMeme presence rankings.

Erick over at TechCrunch had a rant post today discussing why TC doesn't get much Digg love anymore. Unfortunately the rant has been edited so I can't note it here, but he did say that they love the TechMeme leaderboard. And why wouldn't he love it? They are ranked #1 and got the exclusive. :)

It's important to remember that there is a "ranking factor" that goes into what your mathematical possibility is for getting a lead spot on TechMeme. TechCrunch occupies the best ranking factor currently.

I wouldn't go as far as Dave Winer has in saying that it's a cesspool. He notes, "I'm thinking of this idiotic post (calacanis 3.0) by an idiot (calacanis) who's known for saying idiotic things just to get attention." Some people would say that any of these ranking systems (digg, reddit, techmeme, etc.) lose their ability to show you the best content once people begin to game them.

So many bloggers are worried about what people think that they forget their audience and write stories only to get a push on some leader list. Do the things that got you an audience and your blog will grow. Do you think that because Ars Technica is #1 on most front page diggs, that they are getting more of an audience? No.

Thought for today... when baseball begins a new season, all teams start at 0 wins, 0 losses, the previous season doesn't carry over. Even if the Yankees have 100 wins and the Red Sox 20 in the previous season, both teams start at the same position. How come this doesn't happen in blogging?

Here is the leaderboard: