Respect My Author-i-tie!

In a recent post I wrote about my dislike of the word elite in the context of describing Technorati's top percentile of blogs.  Some of you agreed, some didn't.  It's all good. 

But here's the thing.  As a professional focused on creating good experiences, I'm always encouraging clients to use words on their sites that are less jargony, less corporate, more straight-forward, accurate and dare I say it—conversational (you can be both conversational and professional by the way).

Ben McConnell's recent comment crystallized it for me:

"I'm not sure I would consider a lot of the Technorati top 100 to be authorities on their subject matter. Popular, yes. To me, "popularity" would be more suitable than "authority."

Ben's comment stuck with me.  So I put it to the test:

What if we talked to each other the same way Technorati talks to us?

That's right.  People would think we were a little off.  Who uses words like authority in simple, direct conversation?  And is the word authority even accurate used in this context?  Aren't there more authoritative blogs not in the top 100—that are just less popular?

Now let's try this:

There's nothing wrong with admitting your blog is popular (if it is).  It's how people talk.  It's accurate and provides a frame of reference.  And my guess is that the person on the other end might be curious—"why is your blog popular"  "how did it get that way"  "how do you know it is"?

Anyway, I could be looking way too deeply in to this.  But I do like to ask the question "what if"?  (On a related note, Ann Handley has a great article up at the Daily Fix talking about happy hour or something—go check it out.)

I'll leave you with this final pearl of wisdom from Ben's comment:

"What does Cartman say on Southpark? "Respect my author-i-tie!"

Comments

[Roger von Oech]

How about a graphic for Mr. "my blog is so popular, I don't allow comments." I'd love to see that one.

[Scott Weisbrod]

I was wondering about the same thing!

[DA]

Hmmmm,

That conversation would go something like...

Red Person: "I don't accept comments"

Green Person: "You must be very popular with other bloggers"

Red Person: "Exactly"

[CK]

I'm not sure if I love the post or the comments more (ha!). I do love what this post is encouraging and the graphics are too funny.

Roger: your comment just kills. perfect!

How about a red guy who's so "I'm internet famous you know." and a green GIRL who says "Still compensating, even in cyberspace."

[DA]

OK CK,

Your comment takes it.

[Nomde Plume]

Dude, you should totally blog about why you don't want to blog about you blog being popular anymore.

You could have like two of your little bathroom dudes and one could say "My blog is so popular that I almost exclusively blog about being a popular blogger or other poular bloggers now"

And the other one could say "my blog is so popular that I don't even have to blog about that anymore"

And then the first one could say "word."

[Lewis Green]

David,

Like wow, Man! You are so right on! Cool!

Keep it simple folks and write the way we talk.

[Stephen Downes]

I notice there's another sense of 'authority' that is at work here.

Since the Technorati Authority story came out, I have been noticing that most of the items on it I've read credit Amy Gahran, of Contentious, with making the point that popularity is not authority.

You, of course, made the same point five days before she did.

So what's up? Gahran - by virtue of having a higher Technorati ranking - is that much more likely to be cited as the originator of an idea.

She is the 'authority', therefore, that people cite when referring to this item.

Reference: Contentioushttp://contentious.com/archives/2006/11/15/blogs-popularity-doesnt-equal-influence