Comments on: Resist The Rankings

By: Designing Better Libraries » Thanks But No Thanks Salem Press

Designing Better Libraries » Thanks But No Thanks Salem Press — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 18:06:30 +0000

[...] be invited to nominate blogs they think are worthy of attention. Or let’s just not bother. As I’ve written before, I think the best job of promoting librarian blogs is the annual “Blogs to Read” list [...]

By: ts;db

ts;db — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:22:07 +0000

[...] Here’s the first point I’m trying to make: good, thoughtful prose is valuable no matter where or how it’s published. Grigor Perelman posted his groundbreaking work on the PoincarÃ© Conjecture on the free, web-based arXiv.org in November 2002, March 2003, and July 2003, a repository that at the time was considerably easier to post to than ACRLog is now. Even though it has since introduced an endorsement system, arXiv.org remains close to barrier free—and full of indisputably valuable work. Committee members making tenure decisions, just like scientists making arXiv.org endorsements or mathematicians awarding the Fields Medal, are cheating everyone when they take shortcuts in deciding whether someone’s work has value. Peer review plays an important role in numerous situations, but there are times it is neither necessary, as with Perelman, nor sufficient, as with Sokal’s “Transgressing the Boundaries.” At the same time, you may be cheating yourself and your readers if you reserve your best work for peer-reviewed, subscription-only journals. Eventually, people will be rewarded for publishing good work online, and not just with popularity badges. [...]

By: brian

brian — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 17:29:27 +0000

My blog has really tanked this year. I guess I should return to being a little controversial, because sharing experiments doesn’t get you anywhere in terms of ratings.

By: stevenb

stevenb — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 15:56:05 +0000

Just by coincidence I find that Blake over at LISNews has just put out his call for our suggestions for his yearly “Blogs to Read” list. Now you can make your own personal commitment to resist the rankings by letting Blake know which blogs you find most valuable – the ones you think others should be reading. While it’s not quite the “blog honors” – with distinctive criteria – that I suggest in the post – it’s a start.
http://lisnews.org/node/28540/

By: Bill Drew

Bill Drew — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:51:14 +0000

I got the same message. The funny thing is my blog is ranked number 38 on their website, not in the top 20. It is a scam that stinks to high heaven, in my opinion. I will not put the badge on my blog.