Disqus - Latest Comments for melle

Re: More fun with Canadian companies…

melle — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 14:57:09 -0000

Fixed, should work now.

Re: http://melle.ca/?p=2824

melle — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:01:25 -0000

Fear not! Your crack smoking isn't causing memory loss just yet. You did comment, but four of my posts vanished the other week for some reason, including that one, and your comment went with it, alas.

Re: Cuz I needed more reasons to hate Rogers…

melle — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:28:39 -0000

You're right, now that I look, the Grand River Brewing, Seeking Simone, and Unphotographable ones are missing as well. To the Google Reader mobile!

Thanks for the heads up. Kinda disappointed my conspiracy theory is shot, though. :)

Re: Anywhere but here.

melle — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:21:46 -0000

If you like I can send you a list of recommended places to try. We're no gastronomic paradise, but there are some decent eats in town. :)

Re: Real-time Analytics & BOSS-PostRank Mashup

melle — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 16:44:52 -0000

All these new services and still we don't have access to the data/APIs from some of the most popular. :)

Re: Netvibes: The New Social Media Dashboard

melle — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:34:59 -0000

Hi Mike -- This is a great tutorial! Always cool to see people posting more hands-on info than just more lists. :)

One of our user community alerted me to the post. Have you played with PostRank as one of your filtering tools at all?

In addition to being able to filter by audience engagement levels, folks can also filter by specific topics, and create aggregated feed channels for topics of interest for monitoring. (More info on that here.)

In any case, I love seeing the tools that people are using who have specific (and professional) needs. The combinations and gaps give us a lot of information on what people really need (and thus what we should be building). :)

Re: The Top Education Blogs | Social Media Explorer

melle — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 12:18:45 -0000

Hi Stephen,

2) Aggregated.

3) No, we don't use Alexa. Yes, we use what Technorati does, but a lot more sources, too. (They only use trackbacks.) Our sources are listed here: http://www.postrank.com/postrank#how - and on our site you can see them when you mouse over PostRank scores as well.

4) Given that you can game Google PageRank the same way if you really want to, I don't think there's an iron-clad defence for this at this point. And really, most dedicated publishers I know invest a fair bit of effort growing their audiences and communities, and don't focus so much on trying to game systems. Those who do... I'm thinkin' it probably shows in their content pretty quickly.

5) Splogs are pretty much what you just described there when content is just re-posted. And if a fairly mainstream site does it and gets noticed, there are legal repercussions. When content is only somewhat re-posted... well, frankly, that happens all the time. Big stories get picked up by lots of people, often with very little variation in the content. Those who get more engagement on their version tend to just be those with bigger/more engaged audiences. Just being first doesn't necessarily mean the content's going to be the best.

6) Correct. It's something we've discussed and may implement in the future. No ETA at the moment, though.

7) No, we don't do engagement authority, nor do we have any plans to. Too subjective and variable. An audience member from one demographic might have a much more valid opinion to one publisher than to another, or one comment I publish might be eloquent and insightful, whereas another might just be, "Awesome!", etc.

Any other questions, please let us know. :)

Re: The Top Education Blogs | Social Media Explorer

melle — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 11:16:32 -0000

Jason's correct -- Engagement analysis isn't a public product yet. You can see it at work on the postrank.com homepage with a random assortment of sites from our system.

Engagement scores, however, are based on the analysis you can see on our website or in Google Reader -- the engagement metrics when you mouse over a PostRank score on the website, and the PostRank scores themselves. We just don't run the additional analysis to come up with a final score.

As Jason also noted, you can use what we call thematic PostRank, which compares your content to whatever complement of other content you choose by saving all the sites to the same Google Reader folder, installing our Google Reader extension, then viewing in folder view. That form of analysis compares apples to oranges, as it were, and ranks each site's content compared to the other sites you've selected. As I noted earlier, those, most of our analysis just focuses on your own site's content, so thematic PostRank isn't available in all formats.

Re: The Top Education Blogs | Social Media Explorer

melle — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 11:07:16 -0000

Hi Gary,

Engagement doesn't actually have anything to do with quantity or publishing volume. It relates to how much a site's readers engage with a site's posts regardless of how many there are. There's more info here: http://www.postrank.com/postrank/

So a person who publishes once a week could end up with a higher engagement score than someone who publishes 10 times a day. It depends on which site's readers engage more with the posts -- leaving comments, writing their own posts linking back, bookmarking, tweeting, etc.

Additionally, sites are analyzed on their own past performance, not against other sites (until Jason sorted the numbers by rank, of course), so despite being on the same list ultimately, another site's higher or lower ranking than yours won't affect your ranking, since there is no comparison between your site and others in our analysis.

Re: born not belonging

melle — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 09:14:20 -0000

To me it feels more like a piece that would wind and meander around the body.

Re: How To Pick The Right Blogs For PR Outreach | Social Media Explorer

melle — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:32:52 -0000

Actually, we picked on Mack and his list as a way to run a real world experiment with some ideas we'd been noodling on, and he was just kind enough to give me the time of day when I showed up on his virtual doorstep with the results. :)

In any case, thanks for including us in the "package", fragmented and nebulous as it may still be. And, as I've hinted, we're working on that best practices toolkit angle. For the time being, everyone is most welcome to throw out wishlist ideas.

Re: Golden Fish & Chips

melle — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:00:55 -0000

This is Canada, sweetie. :)

Re: louisgray.com: AideRSS Rebrands as PostRank, Launches New Features, API

melle — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:07:14 -0000

My response is quite long, so I've posted it as a blog post instead so as not to hijack the blog, and to make the responses accessible to others who might have the same issues or questions.

http://blog.postrank.com/2008/11/17/troubleshoo...

Re: louisgray.com: AideRSS Rebrands as PostRank, Launches New Features, API

melle — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 13:14:16 -0000

Hi Louis, thanks for the write-up! As you noted, a lot of what we rolled out is user request-driven, so we're pretty excited about it (and are soaking up the feedback, both positive and constructive).

A good chunk of our user base consists of those using the functionality for business purposes as well -- blogging strategy, brand management, etc. -- so we definitely wanted to deliver features to enhance and streamline those processes.

One other request we got was for targeted tutorials -- PostRank for social media management, for example. We thought that was a great idea and will be working on those (and certainly welcome suggested topics).

@DGentry If you see off comment counts, please let us know. It does happen from time to time, and obviously we want to make sure any glitches get fixed.

Re. Delicious, yeah, some things stopped working after their site update. That's been fixed now, and you can see those metrics if you mouse over PostRank score icons.

Your comments about tweets and posts expiring aren't something I've seen much. If you can send specific URLs where you've seen that activity, we'll certainly look into it.

I'm curious as to how you don't see the functionality working for lower traffic/post volume sites. Feed-based PostRank only compares a site's content to its own past performance, so the rankings wouldn't be skewed by analysis against louisgray.com, for example. Analysis doesn't go on indefinitely, but we've determined that regardless of the site or traffic volume, the "response curve" for reader engagement is pretty much the same. Or were you referring to something else?

Re: louisgray.com: Is Lifestreaming a Catalyst for What's Coming After Web 2.0?

melle — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:22:38 -0000

The next phase will be creating intelligence based on the data. The first step to that will be recommendation engines.

Absolutely. Creating intelligence (with which users can interact) is what we do now, and requests for a recommendation engine are something we get regularly (and are working on).

I think, though, that better analysis of and interaction with our data is just an early step, and one that's still very "machine-based". A fundamental part of lifestreaming is that it's our lives, and we're not machines. Even with hard data, once you get into the recommendation side of things, it gets less binary and more human, and humans are messy and unpredictable sometimes.

Slicing and dicing data in particular ways isn't going to be a one size fits all answer. Especially when we get into the parts of lifestreaming that deal with relationships. A need for relationship management online is already something increasingly needed, and filled with all the subtleties and minefields of human interaction (combined with trickiness like invisibility and relationships for which English has no accurate descriptive terms).

There currently aren't really intelligent tools to manage relationship-centered data well like there are to manage financial data, RSS feeds, photos, etc., and I think it's something we're going to have to sort out, though not without a few stops, starts, and re-directs, I'm sure (see early comment about humans being messy and unpredictable...).

Re: What to do when you can’t be RSSed…

melle — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 14:35:52 -0000

Ok, that is definitely one of my favourite user-generated blog post titles. :)

For those not terribly familiar with us yet, there's a bunch more info on how we do what we do here: http://postrank.com/postrank.html

And, of course, folks are always welcome to ping me with questions, feedback, etc.

Re: Social Media Measurement - Finding Top Industry Blogs

melle — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:34:34 -0000

Hi Barry -- thanks for including us! One of the best ways to find top blogs using our service is with the Thematic PostRank functionality.

Thematic PostRank is included in our Google Reader extension, and automatically kicks in when you're in folder view -- the PostRank scores that appear have analyzed and compared all the feed content from all the sites you've grouped in that folder, so all your "social media marketing" blogs, or all your "tech news" sites, etc. So Thematic PostRanks scores really show you what the top feeds and articles in an industry are.

We'll be releasing the beta of the next version of our website shortly, too, and it's got some great features to make media monitoring and competitive analysis (among other functions) really efficient.

Re: Filtering Without Getting Trapped in the Fishbowl

melle — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:04:59 -0000

Hi Derrick -- Thanks for the write-up. While I'd love to proclaim we'd answered those very quandaries, they're a work in progress for us, too. :)

However, some answers... Eyeballs on a page is one way we do our analysis, but there are a few more. There are plenty more info here: http://postrank.com/postrank.html -- as you can see, the "weight" of a type of engagement is one of the most important factors. How much work is your audience will to do to share your posts?

There will always be some unevenness, I think, between the "big" sites and all the rest of us little guys, however, we do remain cognizant that you can't just compare apples to oranges and expect credible results. Which is why we do two kinds of analysis. Thematic PostRank, which appears in Google Reader in Folder View when you use our extension, does compare all the sites you've selected for a given folder against each other. However, Feed-based PostRank, which is what kicks in when you view a specific feed (or use the website), ranks a single site's content only against that same site's past performance.

It's not perfect, certainly, but it helps good content that's less well known not get buried beneath the TechCrunch behemoths of the internet.

Of course, all that said, I am always all ears about people's strategies for both keeping up with content online, and for hunting down the unique and lesser-known gems. To date the best way I've seen is still to have a great network of smart and curious people and remain tied into to their word of mouth.

Re: Can You Build An Enterprise Only Web App?

melle — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 11:07:16 -0000

I admit I had to laugh when I read over how Yammer works. Employees signing up on their own, using company addresses, and with the ability to invite whomever else internally that they want. Externally hosted, with a high likelihood of proprietary information discussed. (I used to work in insurance - holy privacy nightmare, Batman!) App downloads required. Integration with mobile devices - and not necessarily only company-issued ones.

These are all daily nightmares that a lot of IT departments spend a lot of time trying to prevent, and, in fact, directly contradict user policies of more than one company I've worked for. But hey, I'm sure getting upper management approval for an enterprise-wide rollout of an internet app that encourages chitchat wouldn't be a missionary sell at all... right?

These days I'm at a web startup, so we're all over new toys and it's the sort of environment where tools like this could find fairly easy adoption, but web-centric startups and the folks who tend to work at them aren't really mainstream. Enterprise means a lot bigger, a lot more established, a lot slower-moving, a considerably different culture, and a whole lot more policies. I think companies could certainly benefit from new tools like Yammer coming out (call centres are one environment where they could be very useful), but I can't see them being adopted any time soon.

Re: The "Feedization" Of The Web (continued)

melle — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 12:57:16 -0000

The combination of "feedization" with ever-growing info fire hose (exactly as @Joe Lazarus noted) is precisely our raison d'etre. (AideRSS started as a weekend project by our founder who got tired of being unable to ever get through all his RSS feeds.) Of course, as @Fred Wilson also commented, Google Reader, Bloglines, etc. is only one part of the picture. The list of what *can't* be fed into a feed grows ever smaller.

Good filtering is still a work in progress, for us and any anyone else tackling it, since there's still a lack of standardization out there. Blogs use different platforms for publishing and comments. Not all social media apps have public APIs... the list goes on. A lot of the evolution is still ad hoc, which can have questionable ROI sometimes, as any software/web service company can tell you.

What @stephanelee mentioned is a huge area of potential, too, I think -- relationship-based filtering -- and something I've talked a lot about with our developers. Word of mouth is powerful stuff, so it only makes sense to harness it for managing information, professionally as well as personally, same as we use it for meeting people, finding businesses to deal with, getting recommendations for anything and everything we buy/eat/visit.

I've been pondering the idea of being able to analyze/filter one's network on social sites, allowing you to see not only who's there, but how they engage with the site and others, and how relevant that person's presence in your network is over time.

Solving these issues is still certainly embryonic, but absolutely fascinating given the technological, social, and psychological levels the solutions exist on (I think).

Re: AideRSS Does OpenID Entry Elegantly

melle — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:14:23 -0000

Hi Chris -- Thanks for the write-up! We've tried to make our login options as intuitive as possible, since, while much of our community so far is pretty techie, it won't always be so. The devs used https://www.idselector.com/ for putting the OpenID portion together, I believe.

With our new site to be released shortly, we're working on making logging in (and everything else) even smoother!

Re: In Praise of Willy Loman

melle — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:01:01 -0000

This personal perspective evolution mirrors mine as well, though our paths are very different. For those who aren't born sales people, i.e. who actually want to do it for a career, sales tends to be a dirty word. And, frankly, fair enough. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a person who couldn't come up with a negative mental image based on at least one personal experience if you uttered "sales" to them.

That said, you learn over time (if you're worth your salt at whatever your job is) that it's ALL sales. Doesn't matter if you're a retailer or a software tester. Getting your point heard, your ideas implemented, your frustrated customers appeased -- it's all the same combo of skills.

Plus hunger. You have to have a reason to be there, and be convinced of the worth of what you're selling, or you won't be convincing anyone.

Re: The Repetition of The Blogosphere

melle — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 18:06:29 -0000

Thankyouthankyouthankyou.

I've been experiencing the same malaise, and when managing/reporting/participating in all this is your job, it becomes really hard knowing how to handle it.

One thing that's still been at least somewhat interesting to me, when I've had time, is to devote some brain power to thinking about some of this online stuff, but think about it from a completely different perspective (often completely non-technically). Comparisons and contrasts of ideas of community with different cultures I'm familiar with, etc. It's helped me stretch away from the same ol' same ol' a bit, and I am hoping helps with the writer's... ennui? (Not block, exactly.)

While this is new for me, I think it's got to happen to anyone who lives online a lot, whether for work, pleasure, or both. Keeping an eye on those who're far more immersed than I am and seeing how they deal or disconnect I hope will help me figure out my best balance, too.

Re: Sorry Rob But Rankings Are Here To Stay

melle — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 09:19:24 -0000

Hi Steve, thanks for adding your thoughts. I quite agree -- I know personally running the data with out tools is really interesting for me, and to a large degree the folks I share it with agree.

So as to avoid doubling up on my ramble, I left a longer and more in-depth comment on Rob's blog, which adds the business side of the argument to the mix since, bottom line, that's where the money is. :)

Re: Three Statistics That Lie

melle — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:39:27 -0000

Hi Fred - Thanks so much for this, and excellent timing! Served as the perfect example to illustrate some work we've been doing on measuring social engagement as opposed to just "storyless" numbers: Storytelling ROI: social engagement metrics for Marketing & Social Media bloggers (As a side note, your overall engagement score currently is 28919, very respectable.)

I think sorting out all these metrics and providing relevant context for people is still in embryonic stages, and there is so much potential for really cool developments. At the same time, though, the true connections between people, the incredible value of what you can learn from others -- I don't think stuff like that will ever be accurately analyzed. Nor does it need to be. :)