Sunday, November 2, 2008

Freep a poll - minor league edition

I took an excursion to BlogNetNews today to see how influential I was last week (ha ha - don't believe it). Once again, not even a bridesmaid, not even Avis - third and holding.

Then I took a look at blog ratings and found myself in poor company. The junior freepers at New England Republican (no link) had a rating of 10 (highest), while I was rated 1 (lowest). There is no zero, and the amp doesn't go up to 11 even for those guys.

Our two wildly divergent blogs were the only ones rated this early in the week, which seemed unlikely to be coincidence. Those guys must be pleasuring themselves again. Yes, you can rate yourself at BNN, a process with about as much objectivity as dating services.

What the heck, I thought (yes, I do think, unlike certain people), I'll try a small experiment. So, I gave the opposite ratings and refreshed the page. VoilĂ ! Both ratings became 5.50, the average of 10 and 1. There have only been two ratings, so you know how valuable they are.

Now, of course, there are four junior freepers at NER, so they can freep this poll better than I can all by my lonesome. The numerical kind is the only superiority they have, so I will generously accept that, instead of wasting time deleting cookies or changing IP addresses or whatever.

The upshot is this: If you see my rating at 2.8, (10 + 4) / 5, or theirs at 8.2, (40 + 1) /5, you'll know what's going on, and you can have a big laugh at them. Losers.

I suspect that BNN's influence ranking gives points for being rated at all, even down-rated. If so, I just helped them for this week. Of course, the four of them down-rating me helps me even more. If that's true, I'd call it just punishment.

Update (11/16): True again this week. I don't know why this cracks me up so much. Maybe it's because it mirrors how Republicans think about counting votes. Or maybe it's because it mirrors how Republicans think about perception and reality. Or maybe it's just that simple arithmetic keeps catching someone at an infantile trick. In any case, it's always good to have a laugh at their expense.

No comments: