Favourited Blogs
The Favourited Blog feature has morphed considerably since it was first introduced here on Blotanical. The reason; it seemed that some people didn't want to Rank their friends and therefore upset other bloggers. So, now you have the option to Rank or Unrank your most Favourited Blogs - or Faves as we colloquially refer to them.
How can you change if Faves are Ranked or Unranked?
Quite simply, once you're logged in go to your My Plot and in the About Me section you will see an option titled "My favourited blogs are ..." with a checkbox for Ranked and one for Unranked. Click Edit and then select your preferred option before updating.
You can change this option at your discretion and while it doesn't change the placement within your My Plot it does change the Ranked number to "unranked" and vice versa.
What effect does Ranking and Unranking have on a blog's score?
Ranked
If you keep your Favourite Blogs ranked then your #1 blog will receive far more 'votes' than the blog listed last in your favourites. #2 will receive less than #1, #3 less than #2 and so on....
Unranked
Changing your Favourite blogs to unranked means that every blog receives an equal vote from you. While this may be what you are trying to achieve it does have an effect on the Top Favourited Blogs.
Why should I choose any Favourites at all?
Your choice to choose any Favourite blogs is your own but there will be some future benefits to doing this especially as Blotanical grows.
One of the upcoming features will be to the ability to add a widget to your blog using your Favourites as your Blogroll. This will be very helpful for those who have problems with expanding blogrolls.
Also, you will also get the choice to see Picks from just your Favourites as well. As Blotanical grows you may miss recent posts from Picks because the turnover will just become too fast so limiting it to just your Faves will make it far easier to deal with.
Plus, picking Faves means that you're giving a vote to the blogs that you consider should have special mention.
Why does my ranking differ?
As of today, the Ranking system is finally correct and reliable. However, the rank you see on the widget you find in your My Plot sidebar is more reliable than the rank showing on the Most Favourited Blogs page.
Why? Because the widget will assign the same rank to blogs who share the same position. However, on the MFB page each blog needs to be given a number in numerical order without missing numbers, for it to work.
Questions?
If I haven't answered something about the Favourited Blogs feature here please ask the question in the comments below.
Comments
Hi Stuart: Can you explain a little further how this 'vote thing' works for ranked and unranked faves? You stated:
If you keep your Favourite Blogs ranked then your #1 blog will receive far more 'votes' than the blog listed last in your favourites. #2 will receive less than #1, #3 less than #2 and so on....
Does ranking my faves automatically cast a vote somewhere?
What are the red stars on the MFB page?
Sorry for bombarding you with questions. I am still trying to figure out the system. Meems
Posted by: meems | February 13, 2008 9:13 AM
Good questions Meems. Whether you rank a Faved blog or you decide not to rank them does score them a vote. This vote is continuously calculated based on more blogs being Faved and the positions they're Faved in. I can't give too much more away than this in order to protect the system from being 'gamed' but be assured that when blogs are Faved it is a vote of popularity. Obviously the more members that Fave a certain blog, the higher it goes in the rankings.
The Red Stars? Click one and you will find out.
Feel free to ask questions whenever you want.
Posted by: Stuart | February 14, 2008 7:51 PM
Stuart: Thanks so much for the clarity. Easy enough to click on the star. Should have thought of that myself. :-)
I've been wondering how to get the "blotanical" tag onto my blog like I see so many others have? Is there a java script or something I can copy and paste? I know... I'm technically challenged.
Thanks again.
Posted by: meems | February 14, 2008 10:01 PM
Meems - you can copy the code from this page.
Posted by: Stuart | February 15, 2008 3:55 AM
Hi Stuart, I got a few faves and started faving others, but only got a little ways down my reading list and now I find I've used up all of my fav credits. Can I get more, there are lots of blogs left I want to fave!
Posted by: betsy | February 22, 2008 2:24 AM
Sure is Betsy. You will have to go and get some more points though. The more points you get the higher in the levels you will go. Each level represents more blogs to fave.
Posted by: Stuart | February 26, 2008 6:45 AM
Hi Stuart,
I can't find any edit button on my "my plot" page to change for rankings. I have an iMac. Would that make a difference? And I don't understand why my user ranking has gone down. Does this have to do with the amount of hits I get, or the amount of time I use the site? What do I do to raise it?
Sorry for the multiple questions, but some of this is very confusing for me. Please HELP! Thanks so much!
Posted by: Anna of RavenCroft | March 15, 2008 5:03 PM
Anna, you will find the MOVE buttons for ranking blogs when you click the View More... link.
If your User Ranking has gone down then it just means that others have gone past you because they're participating more on the site. Read the FAQ's page under the Help tab to understand how this works.
Posted by: Stuart | March 16, 2008 2:15 PM
Is there a way to fave a blog that is NOT listed on Blotanical?
Posted by: Shady Gardener | March 18, 2008 9:58 PM
No. And this will probably never become something that we would want to achieve.
Posted by: Stuart | March 19, 2008 6:05 AM
I want to start by saying that I'm really enjoying this site. But... You recommend clicking on the red star to see what happens. That's what I did to the "favorites" button under someone's blog on their page. I was expecting a popup to appear asking if I actually want to fave this person, but no, it was already done. I felt awful--and I'm afraid it never occurred to me to click on the "more" on my page to look for a way to remove the blog, since I knew there weren't any more. But it certainly made me cautious about exploring, and about clicking on this or that.
So, I'd recommend putting "Moving and Removing Faves" in a prominent place on this page, for lazy folks like me who might not read through all these comments and questions.
I'd also love that pop-up, also for spastics like me who are constantly clicking the wrong button.
Thanks--and if you can keep your sanity and sense of humor while managing this site, well, wow.
Kate
Posted by: theManicGardener | May 10, 2008 11:57 AM