The latest attempt to quantify which Russia Blog is the biggest, bestest and most popular is underway at Krusenstern (the original post is in German – a machine translated English version of the page is here), and predictably provoking controversy beyond belief.
Here are the top five – see if you can guess why I like this ranking method better than previous attempts… 
The list covers the “Top 50 blogs”, in both English and German, and there are some interesting blogs out there – including a few I hadn’t discovered before. Krusenstern’s post is well worth a visit, if only to browse the list and discover a few new blogs.
Some interesting debate in the comments, too, mostly involving La Russophobe.
One particular point, which I hadn’t considered before, covers whether blogs should publicly release their Sitemeter data. The potential problem with this is that it also displays quite a lot of information about the site’s visitors, including (partial) details of each visitor’s IP address. I think, over the next few days, I’ll need to consider whether it is appropriate to keep this data publicly available. In the meantime, any thoughts welcome.
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The question of visitors’ privacy is exactly why I decided not to publicly release sitemeter data for my blog. I tried it for a day and was quite surprised when I actually looked at how much information about my visitors was being released. So down it came.
As I’m new to the blogosphere, maybe I don’t understand fully the purpose of publicly relseasing sitemeter data. It seems to me that the main function is to say, “Hey, look at me! Look at me! No, over here! Look, I’m number one! (or in my case, 31, apparently) Look how popular I am! Look at all the people reading my blog! Aren’t I important and influential?”
Ultimately, I’m not willing to sacrifice my readers’ privacy for the sake of publicly stroking my ego, because ultimately these things just become, well, you know what kind of contest… If I want an ego boost, I can look at my stats privately and feel good about the number of people I’m reaching.
Just my $.02
-R
It’s good that we look for solutions for this problem. Especialy for Russia-Blogs, which write about sensitive topics. My suggestion: We publish only the sum of unique visitors in our Blogs. You will find a selection of sum counters in http://www.sitemeter.com/?a=counterstyles
@ Rubashov: This Ranking is not only a goody for your Ego (smile). You will find also new Russia-Blogs and – competition always improve the quality. If we want a society without competition, we turn back into the ??????…
But I realize: For some American Bloggers like LR a Swiss goody ist not sweet enough. They prefer self-satisfied … ehm … self-baked goodies (smile).
But I realize: For some American Bloggers like LR a Swiss goody ist not sweet enough.
Ja, wär’ hats nu erfunde ? Wär hät das Kuchakäschtli erfunde ? Die Schweizer ! Ha !
Swiss goodies are great ! Particularly those with the numbers
Andy:
As is, ther’re some cyber spooks who attempt to attack some of those posting comments at blogs.
I’ve a list of IPs having attempted such.
Reader beware.
Such stats can be broken down and broken up in all sorts of ways.
Good point Rubashov and Andy re: privacy and IPs. I hadn’t thought to seriously about it myself until I read your mention of it. I think I will close mine down for public viewing since some rather heated debates have blazed on my site.
“Good point Rubashov and Andy re: privacy and IPs. I hadn’t thought to seriously about it myself until I read your mention of it. I think I will close mine down for public viewing since some rather heated debates have blazed on my site.”
*****
Like the false and unsubstantiated hacks attacks against Serbianna, The Tiraspol Times and myself. This coming from the same people who readily accept the misinformation put out at some more well established venues.
On a related note, a QT recipient sent me this link:
http://www.transdniestria.co.uk
There has yet to be substantive criticism of my articles at TT, Serbianna, JRL, AUR, The NYT and Intelligent.ru. Instead, unsubstantiated talk of “sock puppets”, my using looser language at more informal venues (Lavelle and Ames have done the same) and bogus claims made against Serbianna and TTT.
Forgot to mention Eurasian Home.
On the last posted link of mine, I’ve an interesting relationship with Edward Lucas, which includes an appreciation for him. This doesn’t mean that I agree with everything he says (the same goes vice versa as well).
I would like to see my blog in top50
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