A-list blogs

I think the argument put forth by Shirky that there is a sort of ‘A-list’ blogging community holds much validity. He argues that in any social system, such as the blogging world, disproportion of popularity occurs normally. He says that this isn’t intended by anyone, it just sort of happens as traffic occurs on busy roads. This makes perfect sense to me. The rise of the blogging world is a direct result of an increased blog-reading community, as such; readers obviously prefer one thing over the other. He argues that in the early days there just weren’t enough people reading blogs to create such disproportionate amount of blogging traffic. Now mainstream media promotes their blogs and other link their blogs all over to make it more likely to be viewed. However, he argues that in a system where most bloggers get below average traffic, the hit-size can't be the only measure for success. It depends on the purpose of your blog. 3 hits a week is a lot to someone only talking to their friends. For blogs without a friend-based intended viewership the amount of hits directly relates to how many people view the blog, which for most is the whole purpose. Also, the more hits you get the more legitimate you seem, which Shirky himself argues, which seems to support that popularity is a direct measure of success. But since blogs but their links everywhere in an attempt to increase the likelihood of their blog being viewed each hit doesn't neccesarily mean the person was looking for the blog.