Is Battle of the Blogs Fair?

onkeypress="keystrokes(this.form)">I am a 50/50 loser for the most part.

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I read it through. I'm new to the botb ... and I've already noticed the points that you made. Its easy to spot and I figured it out virtually immediately.

I'm here for the extra credits ... not that they are doing me much good right now. BE seems to have slowed my traffic to virtually a stop and I'm not the only one experiencing this.

However, I like the added chance to read blogs I don't normally see surfing and to get tips on how to make my blog better.

I like yours ... the simple design catches your eye ... and I like your style of writing.

I suppose I weigh in on the popular blog side. I'm not entirely sure how my blog got so popular in the battles, I think it had something to do with the redesign and then, like you said, people saw the wins and decided I was the more likely winner. I know for a fact I didn't win as much when you won credits no matter who won in the end. I prefered it that way. Not having that to influence people made it more fair.

I was chastied once for taking battles instead of posting them, so I made it a point to post more battles. The problem is, since my blog is intimidating, it can take an hour to have battle taken. Once I went to the grocery store did my shopping for the week and came home and found my blog still waiting to have a battle accepted. Usually it's not that bad- but there is still a considerable wait. If I have a half an hour to battle and I am more likely to win more credits with the more times I battle, I don't want to be sitting there for the entire time doing nothing.

To kind of even things out, I try to not "pick on" the same blog over and over again. Mostly I just take the next battle up- sometimes if it is the same guy (sorry guppyman) I take it for teh sake of taking a battle.

At any rate- I may be winning a blog popularity contest, but I get the feeling it doesn't make me very popular- kwim? Can't really win.

i tend to vote for blogs that have a rant about BotB when I load up the site. *vote*

for me, i vote for what pages load fast, look good, have recent content, aren't a sales pitch, etc. for who i'll challenge, it's more about will i win or will i at least get some traffic in losing? but i do see where certain things get you more votes, like photos and stuff. go figure.

onkeypress="keystrokes(this.form)">Read by a battler and I agree with everything you've said on the subject!
Peace.................

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the way i look at it (and i'm a minnow speaking here) is that no one is really losing anything. you wager 10 credits and get 15 people to visit your site. even if you lose the battle you have already won visitors (which is the whole point of blog explosion, right?) so it doesn't really matter if you "win" the popularity contest....

I just posted much the same on my blog the other day, and today posted a rundown about how I personally vote. Great post!

Blog eat Blog

Some vote for looks, some for writing and some just because they liked you in B.E. shout box.

Yes, there are many who will pick only the battles they know will win but there is no wat to stop that unless B.E adds a twist to the BTOB and makes it a blind competion. By that I mean not being able to see who you are going up aginst until the battle has begun but you still have the people who vote for thier friends over what may be a better blog.

We are in a BTOB now, I figure you to win. I am in it for the traffic, yeah winning is good, more points but I can get more if I win or loose so it dose not bother me.

I actually won a few, finally! I made sure to go up against new blogs or ones with a standard blogger template (as mine is) because the first couple times I entered, I always ended up losing against someone who has all kinds of fancy graphics on their page. I realize that a nice looking site will attract interest, but if you're reading blogs for content, why should that matter? I'm not saying I have the best blog around either but I think I'm at a disadvantage because I don't have a fancy template and I don't chat in that shoutbox, so no one really knows me. It seems that the same people are always in the BotB, so they must all have a bajillion credits stashed away! I have found some blogs from it that are really good though, so that's a plus.

I honestly have to say that I have never voted based on what the popular blog is or how many cute pictures are on the site or what the win/loss ratio is. I'm interested in the actual content.

Interesting article! Maybe BE needs to consider only allowing blogs within a certain percentage of win to accept the smaller fish's challenge.

Blog A has 0 wins, 10 losses and has posted a challenge.

Blog B has 200 wins 25 losses. Blog B would not be able to accept the Blog A's challenge, since they are not in the same ...weight class?

If it's any consolation our site has yet to win a battle in the BOTB!

http://spaces.msn.com/members/bestkoreanrestaurant/

However our restaurant is selling out almost every night and my blog being online for one month today has 3500 hits... :-)

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Not sure what happened here but the first two comments are switched! I wrote the first one ... not the second one and I suspect that the same is true for the second one!

The idea of a weight class or ranking system is probably the only way to regulate this. I would allow it to be at the challengers choice though. If he wants to only battle those within ten wins of his ratio then he/she sets the ratio as such. I would also make the credits progressive so if shark takes up a minnows open challenge they would have to front more credits, 1 for every win they rank above. Make shit really interesting!

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I always vote for the blog i like the best. and sometimes the *post* i like the best if i like both blogs. Usually when I compete I just set the challenge so someone else can choose to battle me... that way I don't really have a say in it! I do get turned off by blogs that take a really long time to load, though (i am still on dial up at the moment unfortunately).

Great post, very interesting!

Now I better look at the other blog in the battle before I make up my mind :)

Sorry, I voted for the other guy :P
This was a tough one! But the other blog made me laugh out loud, and anything that can make me do that on a Monday is worth a vote.
Your blog is definately worth checking back to however, which I will be doing.
Take care, and good luck!

You are right. In fact, I have my suspicions that most people have made up their minds before they even click on the first "View blog".

I've been given all sorts of advice on how I could make my own blogs more "voteable", and some of the suggestions are valid. On the other hand, if people aren't actually looking at both blogs, it doesn't much matter what it looks like.

I started out as you mentioned, voting for the blog with the highest number in the "win" column. However, I quit doing that and started actually looking at each blog. I've even been known to (gasp) read at least part of the latest article. I noticed that the points I get from voting has actually increased since doing so.

That doesn't save my own blog from the BotB Basement, but it does help me recover the 10 points more quickly. Of course, I'll just waste that 10 points on another BotB fix, so maybe they shouldn't encourage me. ;~D

Well, even though you're whining, you beat the hell out of that silly Italian guy who is afraid of his wife and her romance novels.

If you think that's me whining then it's obvious that we haven't met.

Hi, my name is Deb and I'm not prone to fits of whining.

I was mentioning something that not only I've noticed but many others if you read the comments.

I consider myself a medium fish. I've battled a fair bit, show my battle scars quite happily (thank you again for by burn'd badge, Brad and hey anyone is free to check out my super duper roast at http://blgd.blogspot.com/2005/05/pocketlint.html) and I'm quite happy with my win/loss ratio as I'm the type of attention whore that believes that all publicity is good publicity.

I was speaking out for the little guy. I've got eyes and I've got a mouth and if you read the comments I'm not the only one who thinks the way I do.

Thanks for the compliment too, but I am most sincere in my saying that Tony's blog (that's the silly Italian dude who's afraid of his wife) has quite possibly the funniest blog I have ever read in my whole online experience. If he whips my ass in this I'll still think it's a good day.

I agree with your observations about the battle. It's degraded to a popularity contest, but I think the traffic it generates has advantages to the usual "next blog" surfing. The people voting keep seeing the same blogs, as does anyone not voting but watching, so you have a chance to grow on people. Even if you lose the battle, you've still been seen by as many or more people than if you'd used the credits for normal traffic assignment (assuming you keep your wager at 10-15 credits).

What they really should do is integrate the voting in the usual surf mechanism, so that random surfers are given the chance to vote. And maybe they should hide the win/lose rates. This would make it less of a popularity contest, as you can't control which blog battles you vote on.

These days I just put up a challenge and let the other blog decide whether or not to take it. I took your challenge because we have about the same win rates. Best of luck to you!

onkeypress="keystrokes(this.form)">there is some truth in your opinion.

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I agree with your observations. I've taken your challenge on BE, but would probably vote for yours if I could over mine. I'm not too interested in accumulating credits, just exposing my stuff and seeing what others have. I stay away from the sharks.

I just started my blog in late may. Even so I'm getting at least 350 hits per day now, maybe I'm stupid but I thought that was pretty good. I just started doing battle of the blogs and I loose all the time.
The same group of people vote against me over and over again, no matter who I'm up against. Also, if I vote against someone they always vote against me too, I doubt they even looked at my blog.

It's always a gamble on Botb but like its been mentioned, it's for exposure. I do prefer some blogs and will vote for those no matter who they're against and after that fact, if it loads slow, that's a vote they're not getting from me and then the content and how it looks.

onkeypress="keystrokes(this.form)">Hey, read it! Although I think the statistics should be removed from the battle page, i have had some experience where the statistics didn't mean a thing. Me loosing against a (according to the statistics) loser and winning against a (according to the statistics) surefire winner... so there is hope.

LOL I'm a noob and did my first BOTB yesterday and was thumped. And to add insult to the naivety I actually offered a 30 credit wager because I reckon it is not worth taking part as a voter otherwise. Better to surf. Sillllly me.

I like to read other people's blogs. I also voted for a few inthe BOTB yesterday and I'm aware that some of my votes just fell down to how I felt about this or that type of content.

I don't care for the 15 visitors from BOTB because unless they actually get a feel for my blog they are gone in 1 second.

Lately, I've found that Blog Rocket are serving up some quality visitors rather than the hit counter rush but no real visitors from the past.

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I vote for what I see as the best blog. Slow, cluttered graphics always are a negative, as is stale content. I look for an original voice, or something that is adding something, rather than just a copy of a bunch of other blogs that are alread out there.

I don't really care if I'm voting for the blog that is going to lose. I figure I'm better off voting for the blog I would rather spend time reading.

I agree with you completely.

I don't get it really, because the credits you get from voting are negligible in comparison to the credits you can get in the same time surfing. Oh well, I'll just keep losing. And voting for my friends, good blogs, n00bs, and the underdogs. Never voting AGAINST anyone though, which I suspect some people do.

I have to admit that I only do BOTB to get credits. It has unfortunately turned into a popularity contest. You are dead on with this post.

i agree with everything u said

I find that since BotB has ractcheted up in use, people have stopped using the regular surfing functions - spending 30 seconds on a blog seems like too much. So, with BotB, you click, take a quick pulse of the two and vote. Rarely do people read through - it's all about visuals. I also find that if I post a picture, and its a good one - or just one of a scantily clad individual that looks good, you get more wins. Just a theory. Anyway, it gets traffic, but rarely result in loyal readership.

Am I the only one who cares less about HITS? I'd much rather gain a reader who will come back instead of gettin' 15 hits. I noticed on my stats MOST of the voters stay 0-5 seconds.

I agree, some people "pick" on others by taking advantage just to win and keep their name at the top ... and some ppl pick the same ppl many times - I think it sucks but I still play :)

I've lost to some that made me think "OMG I lost to their blog?" and I've won to some that shocked the sh!t out of me... it's all a matter of who's on and who's voting.

My ratio isn't bad, I just discovered I'm in the top 50 but that isn't because my blog is one of the best, just matter of a vote.

When I vote I vote on load time, looks, then content.... I don't go by ratio or just to win credits - actually, the last 6-8 battles I voted on I didn't win anything. LOL

I just wish more ppl took time out to comment... feedback is always good. I try to comment whenever I visit someone.... unless I'm short on time.

onkeypress="keystrokes(this.form)"> I would like to see a minimum viewing time set, something as big as a minute or two. There are a lot of really awesome blogs here; but you have to read them to know it. They may look plain and simple, but have great things to say. People just click past them looking for some thing cool to look at for 7 seconds till their attention is lost to something else.

Then there are blogs that are profesionaly disigned, look awsome because the owner paid someone to do it for them; but have crap for content. Some of these are the ones with the huge win ratios. Its sad for guys like me that are just starting out.

onkeypress="keystrokes(this.form)"> I go against the blogs I think I may have a chance of winning against. I usually lose anyway. And I vote, generally, for the better one, unless it's my close personal real-life friend's blog, in which case I always vote for it b/c if I don't, she'll punch me.

Sometimes it's really, really, really hard to decide.

If the blog credits going up are 15+, I may vote odds over substance, bc (as i lose all the time) I'm usually desperate for credits. But if it's the usual ten, I could care less about picking the winner. That's what i go to the racetrack for.

This made some of the most interesting reading I've seen in ages :-) Personally I vote for the blog I like best, regardless of the credits - sounds incredibly naive when I read all of this, but then I'm an incurable idealist *lol* And as somebody said above, regardless of whether you win or not, you're still getting visitors to your blog.

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I read it ;) ...... I agree with what you are saying about people waiting and the pouncing on the ones they will win against .Sad really .I vote for who I like ..Like Pure I go on load time ,look sometimes ,and content .I have voted numerous times for a blog with a basic blogger template over a designed one though . I Do wish poeple would stop and comment more though :)

I read this stuff...and for the record, I am one of the underdogs that you have voted against more than once today.

And yet you don't give out the name of your site so that I can tell you why I voted against you.

I would have probably cared more if I knew who you were.

My bad...I know my blog is nothing too spectacular...but do I think I am worse than everyone I have gone up against?? No...

The first time I saw your blog I saw your kids behind bars.

The second time you were talking about when you and your significant other met and I was fighting with mine at the time. I was not sympathetic to your plight of picking the right date.

Scrolling down further I see your son sitting on a toilet.

I don't really like the colours of your blog. All that green just puts me off a little.

Those are my reasons.

I saw that toilet pic too. Discusting. Besides if it was my kid I wouldn't post a photo like that online where a pervert could get a hold of it.

I run a political blog and haven't done a BotB in a long time, because, I know that those who agree with me will vote for me and those who disagree will vote against me.

As fast as the voting goes, I don't see how anybody is looking at much besides the design and a glimpse at the first post to see what kind of blog it is. I'm a professional webdesigner and my site is a template I made from stratch. After the first few times I lost to somebody with a tired and overused blogger template. I decided there were better ways to earn credits.