Blogebrity
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Blogebrity was an internet project which was born in May of 2005 as a contest entry, and nevertheless managed to have a real-world impact upon the blogosphere.
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The site
The website purports to be a sneak preview of a magazine that may be launching in the fall of 2005 which would focus upon the lifestyles of bloggers. The most controversial aspect of the project was an inclusion of a list of A-list, B-list, and C-list bloggers.
This list proved to be very controversial among bloggers. Many of the bloggers named on the list discussed acknowledged their status on their own blogs, often using a tone that mocked the concept while still expressing pride in their own inclusion. Many consider it absurd to dedicate a glossy print magazine to the lifestyles of such non-glamorous (and in some cases, non-photogenic) subjects.
One reason that it received such scrutiny may be because there is not yet a reliable metric for measuring the popularity of blogs, akin to Nielsen ratings, Bestseller lists, or Box office weekend champions. While sites such as Technorati.com or Alexa.com provide some indications of relative popularity, there doesn't yet exist an authoritative ordinal ranking of blog popularity. (Part of the problem is that many blogs do not have their own domain, and many ratings services do not track popularity at the subdomain level.) For many of the bloggers name-checked, this was the first time they had been included on such a list, and they reacted (some say overreacted) accordingly.
In June, Contagious Media (the group behind the infamous 'Black People Love Us' website) revealed that the project was created by both Kyle Bunch, and Jeremy Hermanns, with editorial direction provided by Greg Johns, as their entry in a competition to determine which Internet meme could generate the most web traffic without any advertising. By targeting bloggers for attention, many bloggers ended up linking to their page, helping their prospects in the contest.
Although Blogebrity only ended up in fifth place, because of its subject matter, it ended up receiving attention among opinion-makers and early adopters disproportionate to its actual significance. It also won the coveted "Technorati Prize", achieving more links during the competition than any other entry.
Even though the list was largely subjective in construction, and was designed to gain attention rather than to provide objective information, it still is useful as a snapshot of who the most popular bloggers were in May of 2005. Although many of the bloggers on the list would disagree about who would really qualify as an A-lister, there is a consensus that the list does represent many of the most popular and influential figures in the blogosphere.
The lists
This is not an inclusive list of every "Blogebrity". Rather, it is a list of the bloggers they cover that have pages on Wikipedia, or who are closely associated with a website that has a page on Wikipedia.
A-list bloggers
- Eric Alterman (Altercation)
- John Amato (Crooks and Liars)
- Chris Anderson (Wired magazine)[1]
- Heather Armstrong (Dooce)
- John Battelle
- Duncan Black (Atrios)
- Sean Bonner (Metroblogging)
- Zach Braff
- Veronika Carrera (Blogimodo)
- Tom Coates (Technologist)
- Jessica Coen (Gawker)
- Ana Marie Cox (Wonkette)
- Mark Cuban
- Adam Curry
- Drew Curtis (Fark.com)
- Anil Dash
- Jason DeFillippo (Metroblogging)
- Nick Denton (Gawker Media)
- Hossein Derakhshan (Hoder)
- Cory Doctorow
- Matt Drudge (Drudge Report)
- John Dvorak (technology columnist)
- Brad Fitzgerald (incorrectly named, intended to refer to Brad Fitzpatrick)
- Mark Frauenfelder
- Neil Gaiman
- Dan Gillmor
- Seth Godin
- Ben Hammersley
- Matt Haughey (Metafilter)
- Aaron Hawkins (uppity-Negro.com)
- Hugh Hewitt
- John Hinderaker
- Meg Hourihan
- Arianna Huffington
- Joi Ito
- Xeni Jardin (Boing Boing)
- Mickey Kaus (Kausfiles)
- Jason Kottke
- J.D. Lasica
- Lawrence Lessig
- Bob Lutz (Fastlane)
- Rob Malda
- Michelle Malkin
- Josh Marshall (Talking Points Memo)
- Paul Mirengoff (Power Line)
- Markos Moulitsas (Daily Kos)
- Craig Newmark
- Chris Pirillo
- Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit)
- Blake Ross
- Joshua Schachter
- Robert Scoble (Scobleizer)
- Doc Searls
- Clay Shirky
- Choire Sicha
- David Sifry
- Bill Simmons (The Sports Guy)
- Roger L. Simon
- Elizabeth Spiers
- Andrew Sullivan
- Phillip Torrone
- Mena Trott
- Wil Wheaton
- Evan Williams
- Dave Winer
- James Wolcott
- Matthew Yglesias
- Jeffrey Zeldman
B-list bloggers
- Aaron Bailey
- La Shawn Barber
- John Perry Barlow
- Belle de Jour
- Alex Blagg
- Chris Bowers
- Jerry Brown
- Marc Brown
- Marc Canter
- Juan Cole
- Marc Cooper
- Matt Craven
- Brian Crecente (Kotaku)
- Mike Davidson
- Paul Davidson
- Kevin Drum
- Esther Dyson
- Stephen Elliott
- Warren Ellis
- Henry Farrell
- Seth Finkelstein
- Luke Ford
- Jesse James Garrett
- Philip Greenspun
- Robert Greenwald
- David Heinemeier Hansson
- Jon Hurwitz
- Charles Johnson
- Dave Johnson
- James Joyner
- Phillip Kaplan
- Larry Kudlow
- Jim Kunstler
- James Lileks
- Christopher Locke
- Tristan Louis
- Manhattan Transfer
- Tucker Max
- Ross Mayfield
- Moxie
- Matthew Mullenweg
- Dave Navarro
- Dave Navarro
- Chris Nolan
- Montagu Norman
- Slugger O'Toole
- Matthew Perpetua
- Jerry Pournelle
- Daniel Radosh
- Duncan Riley
- Alex Ross
- Scaramouch
- Catherine Seipp
- Dave Shea
- Harry Shearer
- Paul Shirley
- David Sirota
- Kevin Smith
- Joel Spolsky
- Carl Steadman
- Bruce Sterling
- Terry Teachout
- Tom Tomorrow
- Joel Veitch
- Eugene Volokh
- David Weinberger
- Fred Wilson
- Jeremy Wright
C-list bloggers
- Dave Beckwith
- Mike Bell
- Russell Brown
- Margaret Cho
- Brad DeLong
- Guido Fawkes
- Brian Flemming
- Chris Franklin
- Steve Garfield
- Matthew Good - Singer from Canada, who was lead singer of Matthew Good Band
- Francis Heaney - Author of Holy Tango of Literature[2]
- John Hill
- Dennis Hollingsworth
- Molly Holzschlag
- Dave Hyatt
- Matt Jones - of blackbeltjones.com
- Steve Jurvetson
- Gordon Keith
- Mike Kelley
- Jason Kenney
- Harry Knowles
- Tommy Lasorda
- Kevin Lynch
- Tom Maguire
- Robert May
- Piers Morgan
- Rosie O'Donnell
- Phil Plait
- Liza Sabater of culturekitchen
- Jonathan Schwartz (Sun Microsystems)
- Jessica Stover (Jessica's Crush on AOL)