The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

The ‘Too Good to Check’ Glitch

Posted on | July 23, 2012 | 48 Comments

Doug Ross compiled a list ranking the Top 150 Conservative Web Sites and, in the first version he posted, TheOtherMcCain.com was ranked #34 — ahead of such powerhouses as Ace of Spades HQ, American Thinker and Twitchy. Both Paul Lemmen and Evil Blogger Lady put up blog posts congratulating us on the strong showing, but I knew that something was clearly wrong with the ranking.

Bigger than Ace? No freaking way.

Doug updated and explained that, in compiling the list — based on Alexa traffic rankings — he accidentally looked at the wrong data set, and in the corrected ranking, we’re at #67, whereas Twitchy is #29 and Ace is #32. So it was good that I resisted the temptation to think I’d suddenly pole-vaulted to über-blogger status.

Frankly, I have profound skepticism even about the revised list: Does our traffic actually outrank, inter alia, AnnCoulter.com, Hannity.com and the Media Research Center. I don’t think so.

Traffic has been good lately, but not that good.

 

 

Category: Blogging

Comments

48 Responses to “The ‘Too Good to Check’ Glitch”

  1. richard mcenroe
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 3:04 pm

    Well, I don’t know famous you are, but I haven’t paid much attention to Ann Coulter or Hannity lately.

  2. Dave
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 3:09 pm

    Oh well. Still, you can keep my tweeted ‘gratz, 67 ain’t chopped liver.

  3. JackieLynn
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 3:12 pm

    Still fabulous 😉

  4. Zilla of the Resistance
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 3:20 pm

    Congratulations, but EBL, Evil Blogger Lady, everyone’s favorite Conservative Cow, is not me, so you need to make a correction to your post.
    For some reason, people have confused me for her and her for me, and verse visa, in a few different blogs.

  5. smitty
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 3:22 pm

    @rsmccain You just can’t do a post about a mistake with errors crepeing in.

  6. Zilla of the Resistance
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 3:28 pm

     LOL!
    Please make the correction though, Ms. EBL deserves credit for her linky love, you know how sad it makes her when her linkery didn’t get int he FMJRA in the past (because the WordPress hate Blogger/Blogspot).

  7. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 3:33 pm

    Zilla is far more attractive than I am, so I am not sure why the confusion (I am a cow).  But I think we all are impressed by your showing on this ting (however flawed it is).  

  8. K-Bob
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 3:37 pm

    Exactly.

    Hannity is too much work.  You can only take so much of being firehosed with talking points.  He’s still “one of us,” whatever that means.

    OTOH, Coulter is too much of “a piece of work.” You can only take so much of someone who talks right and jumps left.  (Yes it IS a generalization.  Hey, I’m comfortable with it.)

  9. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 3:40 pm

    I managed recognition a few weeks ago, even if I never actually got the award.  But the recognition was enough.  I am no longer sad.   I live with it sort of like Stacy lives with his BlogCon shame.  

  10. K-Bob
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 3:41 pm

    Great stats! But now I have to read your site after it’s already been through a bunch of other people’s eyeballs.

    (Terry Pratchett joke)

  11. Red
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 3:44 pm

    Loving that typo Smitty. Yeah, I’m ‘that person’.

  12. Red
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 3:44 pm

    LOLZ

  13. robertstacymccain
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 3:46 pm

    Error corrected. Also, I fixed the part where I misspelled “accidentally.”

  14. Red
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 3:48 pm

    Eh, quit yer bitchin’ Rockstar. Corndog remains in the double-digits. ::but only because I ran out to get more spicy mustard:: I’m back now 😉

  15. Red
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 3:55 pm

    Hannity is an ass.

  16. K-Bob
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 3:56 pm

    I think there definitely needs to be a name for that, just like the “Godwin” stuff.

    It’s almost a given that in some flame-cluttered thread, the guy who goes for the “brass ring” of calling out someone on spelling or grammar, will do so in a comment that has either spelling or grammar mistakes  (or both).

    I see this so often I feel like it has to be a phenomenon of groups. (Sort of like, no matter how hard you try to avoid it, someone has to be on the edge of the herd.)

  17. W. J. J. Hoge
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 4:01 pm

    Congratulations on making it into the top 100 with an Alexa rating of 59,192.

    Over at Hogewash! I’m plugging along at 1,270,126. I’ve got some catching up to do.

  18. Zilla of the Resistance
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 4:23 pm

     Ha ha ha.
    You know what would be really funny (well for me, anyway) is if you accidentally stuck some random link to my blog in there for no particular reason at all. A comedy of errors (that gets me traffic)!  😉

  19. For That Cow | Zilla of the Resistance at MareZilla.com
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 4:36 pm

    […] The Other McCain – It’s all his […]

  20. Zilla of the Resistance
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 4:41 pm

     I got a post just for you over at my place, EBL:
    http://marezilla.com/2012/07/for-that-cow/
    Who loves ya, baby?

  21. Dave
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 4:44 pm

    dude, i just checked the alexa rankings of hannity, coulter, mrc and yes, you are beating them in 3-month.

  22. Peter Ingemi
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 4:51 pm

    As I’ve finally made the list for the first time (#139) let me congratulate you.  You should give some credit to your Kimberlin series, it was an Instalanche machine

  23. Red
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 5:08 pm

     I don’t do it to win arguments. I typeset for a living. I can’t un-see them. Ever.

  24. DaTechGuy on Da Top Conservative Blogs list at #139 » Datechguy's Blog
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 5:13 pm

    […] saw his ranking at Doug Ross he didn’t believe it not even after a correction dropped him to #67 from #34: Frankly, I have profound skepticism even about the revised list: Does our traffic actually […]

  25. Bob Belvedere
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 5:21 pm

    How do you think I feel: on the original list I was #127; now I’m no longer in the Top 150.

    But that’s okay…I know I’m chopped liver and chopped liver has no feelings.

  26. Bob Belvedere
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 5:28 pm

    I should have known something was wrong when I saw my site at #127 on the original list.

    You see, I saw it when I was riding in my chariot and this slave jumped on it behind me and started whispering in my ear: ‘Remember, thou art mortal and all fame is fleeting’.

    Ah, well…

  27. Adjoran
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 5:43 pm

    We used to call it Snedeker’s Law, after Walt, who I believe first observed the phenomenon back in the last millennium.

    http://po.st/5uel29

  28. Adjoran
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 5:46 pm

     They aren’t real blog spots anyway, are they?  Coulter writes a column or maybe two a week, Hannity doesn’t use it except as a promotion for his radio & TV shows, and MRC has a very narrow (although important) focus.

  29. Adjoran
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 5:50 pm

     Congratulations to you, too, then!

    Stacy’s got the framework of a book in his “Brett & Friends” series.  It would be pretty cool if it were released on the day they frog-march the lot of them.

  30. Wombat_socho
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 5:59 pm

    I knew it was too good to be true when we showed up just four slots behind Rush Limbaugh. :/

  31. K-Bob
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 6:06 pm

    Having played in bands for most of my life, I used to have the same problem when listening to music. Then a friend of my son’s (a fellow so awesomely gifted as a musician that he’s now music director of Taylor Swift’s tour) pointed out that he’s happy playing music with folks who’s talent is little more than “making a joyful noise.”

    That’s one way to stay happy in the music business when you are highly talented, and have to work with folks less gifted. It’s a great lesson for me, because my musical performance skills are mediocre, but I have such highly trained ears that I notice everything possible to notice in the audio spectrum.

    I now appreciate amateurs playing whatever, just to have fun, and even folks who are getting paid, but aren’t ever going to be recognized as “good.”

    I can’t thank the man enough.

  32. scarymatt
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 6:22 pm

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry's_law

  33. K-Bob
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 6:28 pm

    That’s hilarious! I love it.

  34. K-Bob
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 6:34 pm

    That was like, a whole millennium ago. Who could remember that far back?

  35. Dai Alanye
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 7:10 pm

    I see no reason to be surprised at beating Coulter. She doesn’t allow comments nor respond to emails, considerably decreasing the interest in her columns.

    In addition, since she backed Romney I no longer look at her. Hope she’s noticed the loss.

  36. smitty
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 7:19 pm

    It’s who I am; it’s what I do.

  37. PaulLemmen
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 8:55 pm

    I still congratulate you Stacy & Co., you’re still one of my favorite reads on a multi-times daily basis. Your showing is still light years better than my Alexa Ranking of  313,064

  38. McGehee
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 9:01 pm

    I know that I come to TheOtherMcCain.com a whole lot more often than to Coulter, Hannity, or even MRC.

  39. Zilla of the Resistance
    July 23rd, 2012 @ 10:55 pm

     I don’t know how the rankings work, but I think mine looks pretty bad:
    US rank: 162,683
    Global rank: 728,125I don’t know if there are separate lists for conservative bloggers. I do know that my old blog had better rankings though, but by leaving Blogger, it caused the internet to really hate me. My subdomains where i have blogs I don’t use anymore might be dragging me down too, I dunno.

  40. Red
    July 24th, 2012 @ 8:49 am

    I can extend that occasional courtesy to folks who fail at spelling and I’m not exactly a grammarian but I cannot give a pass to folks who are stuck on ALL CAPS or folks who argue a point based on someone else’s hurried typo.

    As far as Smitty goes? I’m just playing with him 😉 He’s cool like that.

  41. Red
    July 24th, 2012 @ 8:52 am

    But thou goest good with onions.

  42. Red
    July 24th, 2012 @ 8:57 am

    Flying under the radar isn’t such a bad deal. You get a closer look at what’s up without all the fly-by crackpots (usually).

  43. Bob Belvedere
    July 24th, 2012 @ 9:53 am

    Well put.

  44. Bob Belvedere
    July 24th, 2012 @ 9:56 am

    Don’t forget the garlic.

  45. Red
    July 24th, 2012 @ 12:27 pm

    Oh you like some stank on it!

  46. Settling Scores | Daily Pundit
    July 24th, 2012 @ 4:30 pm

    […] Scores Posted on July 24, 2012 1:30 pm by Bill Quick The ‘Too Good to Check’ Glitch : The Other McCain Doug updated and explained that, in compiling the list — based on Alexa traffic rankings — he […]

  47. K-Bob
    July 25th, 2012 @ 4:57 pm

    Thanks, Bob!

  48. K-Bob
    July 25th, 2012 @ 4:58 pm

    Plus, he leaves some typos in. Just to see if we’re paying attention.