The Atheist Blogger

A few weeks ago I mentioned on Twitter that I’d created a prototype atheist ranking system that automatically updates and ranks using a variation of Hemant Mehta’s original algorithm. Quite a few blogs commented on it and spread it around, and ever since I’ve been getting almost daily emails from people asking about it and sending me their blogs to add to it. So I thought it was high time I explained the project and what I plan to do with it.

Firstly, as has been mentioned many times before, this ranking system does not say which blogs are the “best”. It only ranks by popularity, and although generally speaking the more popular blogs tend to be of high quality, it isn’t always the case (just look at Ray Comfort’s blog). Some of the attributes measured will depend somewhat on the age of the blog. Older blogs tend to have more links to them, although this too isn’t always the case. The good thing about this system is that it updates every week, so as blogs get older, their rank should become more accurate.

The attributes which are calculated are:

• Google PageRank (The rank of the blog homepage as used by Google in search results)
• Google Backlinks (The number of pages Google can find that link back to the blog)
• Google Readers (The number of people who subscribe to the blog through Google Reader)
• Alexa Rank (The rank of the website as calculated by Alexa, which uses a toolbar installed on various web browsers to collect stats)
• Alexa Backlinks (Same as Google Backlinks, only calculated by Alexa)
• Alexa Reach (The rank of the website calculated by number of visits)
• Technorati Rank (The rank of the website a calculated by Technorati)
• Technorati Authority (How many websites actively link to the blog over a period of 3 months)
• Technorati Backlinks (The exact number of links coming back to the blog – no defined period)
• Yahoo Backlinks (The number of pages Yahoo can find that link back to the blog).

Of course these attributes will probably change down the line. Through doing some research for this system, I became aware that some things like Technorati ranks are calculated by using the Technorati authority and backlinks. Having all those attributes doesn’t really help with the ranking, but it might be useful to still display them. I made sure to use the word “prototype” very carefully on the rankings page, since although the system currently works, it is far from complete. A prototype should be a system that works but lacks certain features and is made up of code stubs.

An example of how the system is a prototype can be seen by looking at the database where all the values are stored. The database currently consists of only one table, which stores every single piece of information in it. A screenshot of part of this table can be seen below.

NOT the way to do it.

Database programmers out there will realise why this is such a bad way of doing it. It isn’t easy to maintain, and each time I want to add a new ranking attribute I have to change the entire table. Luckily, I already have a better database system outlined on my whiteboard at home, and it makes use of 4 distinct tables. The great thing about this new design is that it can be used to store a “history” of rankings. Whereas the above database overwrites all calculated values when it updates, the new system simply adds new rows with the updated information.

My current plans for the system are outlined below:

• Ranks atheist blogs by various attributes, and displays paginated lists of the top sites, 20 sites per page.
• Options to rank sites by different values (e.g. Google PageRank) instead of the default overall rank.
• View the history of individual sites by attributes. A graph will be generated to show how attributes have changed over time.
• Interactive “badges” will allow sites included in the rankings to display an image that tells the world about their rank.
• A submit form will enable people to add their own sites to the system (and hopefully cut down on the number of emails I get asking to be added :P)

Of course, I realise the irony of having an atheist ranking system on my own blog; it means that my blog will simply rise up the rankings as more people visit it. For this reason, the first released version of the system will have its own website, on a separate domain. I’ve also received some interest in this project generally, and so when I have a working system I will be releasing the source code so people can use it to rank other types of site (or build a competitor to mine).

Finally, if you have any questions, want to point out a mistake in my system plan, shout abuse at how ranking systems are evil, ask for your site to be added to the prototype, or generally have a chit chat, please leave a comment :D