How To Make Your Way To The Top. But Why?
06. Nov, 2007 
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If you agree that your fellow blogger is not your competitor, then what’s the origin of this need for rankings and hierarchies which makes us develop ranking tools for (maybe) intentionally left unranked services? Yes, this is about the urge of improving StumbleUpon, by putting together a ranking tool which gives users the possibility to see the top 100 StumbleUpon members, ranked by several criteria, such as number of stumbles, number of fans, or number of videos.
Ranking instruments can be highly motivational, people trying to figure out ways to become one of the top members of such communities. Some of them misunderstand the meaning of owning the community, making a hobby out of adding friends to their account only to spam them beg for their attention afterwards.
What are social networking sites? Thanks to Lyndon Antcliff, who was kind enough to post this paper on social networking sites to Sphinn, we can find out that
We define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system.
No word about articulating a list of Power Users of the service. (May this be the reason why the post stalled two days until hitting the front page of Sphinn? Or maybe that’s just because it goes in deep details, spread on several pages – too much for this world in a never ending rush)
Again, coming back to blogging and readers, a recognized sign of appreciation is to display the Top Commenters list. Readers appreciate the feature, and some of them may even search for such blogs with good PR and low number of comments, so they can easily make it to the top. On very popular blogs, they spend hours every day, trying to conquer and maintain one of the top positions.
Is it true that playing only for the sake of the game is not giving enough motivation to keep us moving? If we strive hard to achieve, it may occur that we forget to enjoy the journey. Why would somebody want to be called a Top Stumbler? Will his stumbling experience be enriched by this tag? One of the most beautiful things of StumbleUpon was exactly the lack of hierarchy, the feeling of a community where no member is better than the others, where the idea of “better” applied only to web pages, or photos, or videos, not to persons, where you could send your friends a page without worrying that they might think you are a spammer (because the whole idea of StumbleUpon is to show web pages to its members).
Now, when we know there is a top, will my friends think that I’m sending them pages only because I want to be on the list? Maybe not, but I still have this feeling that StumbleUpon was a better place before being discovered by internet marketing experts. At least, it was for me. What are your thoughts about this?
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I think the whole thing is more primeval. It’s about showing the tribe that you are the one who brought in the most mammoth that month.
It’s mostly irrational, but as soon as I saw people I know ranking ahead of me I had to work harder. At the end of the day it’s not simply been counting, there are powerful psychological aspects at play here.
Our desire to be number one is what drives us to improve.
In the words of the great American leader, “Bring it on”.
Nicely put together and well linked. You just got a new RSS reader. This competitive urge is human nature, more prevalent in certain character types and all search marketers
Yes, Lyndon, that was exactly my point. Without the biggest mammoth of the month (which many multinational corporations value and promote – I worked for such a monster for about 5 years), life wouldn’t be so challenging. This is probably why I find myself every now and then, taking a peek into Muhammad’s list, to see who’s there.
Brian, I’m a search marketer myself, and although I’m new in this business, I can see that search marketers have something in common: this need to be the first (which is normal, since we are all fighting for the first place). I’m glad to have you as a loyal readerr, and I hope our content will keep you alert for a long time.
I didn’t fancy Stumblerank too much when it was put up because of the competition involved. It’s good for users to discover other users so I’m only supporting it as a socializing experience for all.
People want to be No.1 because it gives them something that anything else can’t give. Nobody remembers who came in 4th at a swimming meet. They’ll remember the winner though.
A little different with social sites though, sometimes you don’t need to be No.1 to demonstrate authority or influence.
I think we all just want to appreciated and sometimes the only way for that to happen is to get to the top of whatever lists you participate in.
Maki, thank you for your thoughts. Competition is good, because it generates progress, but sometimes life feels better without the urge of being No.1. At 20 years of distance, now I don’t remember who was the first in my class at school, but I remember very well all the mates I shared the desk with along the time.
Andrew, you are right. Appreciation feels good and this is a way to get some. Your observation makes me think that maybe I ought to appreciate more a lot of people out there, without waiting to see them on such a list in order to give them a bit of attention.
Wow. Sounds like someone caught wind of this article http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/magazine/15-11/st_essay I agree with that article and with your own conclusions. Life in general is in many ways looked upon as a game. The game of being the top commenter, the game of being at the top of the rankings, the game of having the most diggs or appearing on the front page of digg the most.
It’s sad yet that’s the way it is. I also agree with the fact that when SU was just a directory of cool websites that people have found, it was great. Now with these ranks and top stumblers, SU has turned into a game. One I don’t have time to win.
That’s an interesting article, Jeff. If I think that before getting into this blogging, social media and all that jazz, I used to play computer games for many hours a day. It seems that they’ve been replaced by the new hobby. Even the wish to play has disappeared. I suppose checking stats in the new game for me
Like many other things, blogging is a blissful passion. You can compare it to your other hobbies, the only difference is, this hobby impacts all people connected to the internet.
I think if you have a catalog this could be a pretty good way to get some business. great tip, thanks for sharing.
Lol that’s one way to look at it