That euroblogger influence survey (updated)

Imported from the Blogactiv.eu blogging platform, closed without warning in 2021. Links, images and embeds not guaranteed, and comments not displayed.

Hmm, any survey which lists my blog as a Top 20 'influential' blog (see Stuart's post and interview with the authors, and Jon's post) must be either very generous or not have more than 20 blogs to work with, given that I post rarely, haven't posted in months, always post too long, cover a subject of interest to a microscopic number of people, and seek to influence noone (until just now, my blog has basically been me figuring a problem out in public, asking for help as I go).

Most of the bloggers cited and rated (and plenty that weren't!) were pretty critical about the whole exercise, particularly those - like me - that didn't attend (see Twitter). Jon Worth did attend - his post (get the study there) is the only other post on it I've seen, and was more balanced.

[Update: Just saw a devastating demolition by Eurogoblin, which no post on this subject can ignore.]

I was one of those sniping via Twitter from afar, possibly because the authors sent me and a few others to the wrong address. Upon reflection, however, I remembered something:

Everyone's a critic

It's just so much easier to criticise than actually doing something, isn't it? After all, if this survey has to scrape the bottom of the barrel to find 20 blogs to rate (and it must have, given that I'm rated), then that's because there are still so few quality blogs covering EU affairs out there.

One has to take a long view - people criticise Blogactiv for not being better than it is, but at least it's there, making it easier for new bloggers to find their first audience. So while it's definitely very easy to criticise this survey - EN only (huge problem), hence very Brussels bubble (I suggested the #BxlBbbl hashtag), and a very debatable order of influential blogs - it's a start. It just might stimulate more and better analyses of EU social media by more people. And that will help grow the EU social media ecosystem further. Which has to be a good thing. Every Bit Helps. As I said previously, I'm trying to keep my post-length down, so I'll take a closer look at the results in a future post.