We noticed something funny in our contest, too. One guy had published his lens but all that was on it was the obligatory guestbook - and no signatures. Yet he got all the way to the Top 200s. LOL  Out-ranking many in the contest who were working away with content and other modules.
tiff

Impressive analysis overall; my analysis says that these 4 attributes are `weighted' - lens sales, lens traffic, clickouts per module, trackbacks. New weight is being given to NEW modules which have traffic.

Rick,

thanks a lot for your positive comment regarding the analysis I have on my blog. I highly appreciate it as it is coming from a true expert.

It's a work in progress and I can always add fresh observations. I'm just telling what I see...

Yeah, I'm sure you're right that the use of new modules is "liked" by the algorithm. I'll have to use your great tip myself - I only added "Featured Lenses" lately and none yet of those over 20 commercial modules. Sure... That's why my lenses are out of Top 100 today!

Thanks, Rick!

Last edited by zuzanna (01/27/2007 2:51 pm)

Rick,

I really love to opportunity to exchange views with you - noot really arguing, but simply showing what's on my mind...

Now, you wrote geat comments - as always well thought of and they clearly show that you read  what I have written (Thank you!).

I must explain something, though.

If by SQUIDS you mean those whom I described as the Citizen Squids and those who freequently post in the Squidoo Lounge (I also called them "illluminati" - to add some fun to my dry analysis), then I have to explain that as of yet, I only mainly noticed the numbers and wrote that being an "illuminati" almost guarantee a spot in Top 100 by LensRank.

It's true that I didn't write yet in more detail why I think they are there, except for general statements in few places (e.g. blurbs in Guestbooks) about how much I like many of their lenses. I have them in my Favorites, on my Lensrolls, in my bookmarks. I was learning my lensmaking craft from them! From relache's, KDW's or jefrryv's lenses...

I'm sure they will be on my version of "People's Choice" list that I'll be sending soon to Megan.

One day I will look closer at the lenses made by the "illuminati group" and other groups too. I will post my review on my blog "Mastering Squidoo." I think it will be very useful, because everybody may learn from it.

For example, following your thought, Rick, it may be true that they have big lifetime clickouts per module, of course, but there is one important reason for that - GREAT QUALITY CONTENT. Plus excellent use of modules and smart promotion.

The other groups that I mentioned are lacking at least one of those elements!

As to your final remark - NEW modules, NEW lenses, etc.

I'll think about it, but I've noticed an interesting trend - just the opposite of this - there were quite a few older lenses that came back (appeared in)  to Top 100 by LR after the latest tweak:

- Dog Gone Knit,
- Blogging Starter Checklist,
- MySpace Made Easy,
- Taiwanese Hotpot,
- Detroit Red Wings Jerseys,
- A Grandma's Love.

There may be more of them and I love seeing them there because they all are very fine lenses!

Thanks, Rick; I'm always ready to talk with you about Squidoo...

Sincerely,

Last edited by zuzanna (01/28/2007 10:33 am)

KilnGoddess - you are right about the example you point out --- it makes no sense (except, let's say that the `attribute weighter' does something like this -- it picks out `unpublished' lenses that have a lot of modules in them and gives them a huge boost -- just a guess; but, my pt is that it IS possible to come up with a `weighting' that could produce that result).
zuzanna -- You are right; I mis-interpreted your words -- I thought you were saying that somehow BEING a Squid gave some `artificial boost' to ones lensrank. You clearly didn't mean that.                       It is indeed fun speculating on the weighting of various attributes within lensrank. I think it is important to remember that even sales on a lens falls within a rolling two week average and therefore the effect only last two weeks or so. I also think that Squidoo will weigh attributes that help --- squidoo - and not attributes that can be manipulated by the lensmaster (e-mailing lens - participating in the Squidu - things like that) -- that means they would favor sales and traffic and lens interaction by the general public. Looking forward to the future banter on these issues.

(sigh) thanks for clarifying things, Gil!

hahaha I thought it was on every full moon?

no problem. and before someone asks, we're keeping the formula for 'random' a secret so as to prevent gaming!

I know one thing. .   I'm not worrying about it 

Just make the best lenses you can, it's just that simple!

And remember, the tweeking will never end.

The algorithm is just like life itself, always changing.

Sometimes it will be in your favor and sometimes it may not be.

Make adjustments if you find them necessary.

Rick,
please keep us up-to-date about the O'Hare incident. It looks that somebody is watching us:

http://www.purdueexponent.org/index.php … ry_id=3746

Regarding the lensrank algorithm tweak. One day I'll come up with the formula based on the factors I describe in my blog.

But if Gil jokes: "every third sunday we keep the lensrank algorithm on 'random' just to screw everyone up", I have  a serious question:

Is the current Top 100 still screwed up or do we have a real ranking - showing the whole world the best lenses that we have at Squidoo?

I think the answer is no. In such case, when will we get "unscrewed" ranking? It's more than a week since the tweak announcement...

zuzanna wrote:

Is the current Top 100 still screwed up or do we have a real ranking - showing the whole world the best lenses that we have at Squidoo?

I think the answer is no. In such case, when will we get "unscrewed" ranking? It's more than a week since the tweak announcement...

What you see as the Top 100 is the Top 100.  Those listings update daily (or nightly depending on how you think of it.)

I'd like to thank my predecessors not only for very interesting input, but also for great contribution to the Squidoo community.

Relache - isn't that nice that we both live in the PST zone and can write whatever we want around midnight our time - because the Big Fish sleep already in New York?...

Gil - I have a couple of points:

- naturally, I appreciate very much your sense of humor and even though I'm not a snowboarder, I share your passion for snow - I'm a quite skillful skier.

- maybe there is "futility" in "debating why one particular lens has a higher lensrank than another - yes, that would be unreasonable, but what I do is I analyze the trends - not single lenses. My observations are based on groups of lenses and I comper them over the time. I think it makes sense, don't you? I believe Relache agrees with that... An regarding discussing it "ad infinitum". Well, you should rather praise me for input (that I do following p. 4 of the Forum Rules - see above) and if you can't stop tweaking, why should I stop commenting on that?

- you say you punish lenses that violate TOS - I know that you do - because I saw that. But you could be reacting quicker to signals of the violations. I sent the feedback form some days ago that certain lensmaster violates TOS and as of today I don't have response and that person for at tleast 3rd day has two lenses that should be locked, but are not. What else can be done? How to untie your hands? Maybe listening to the lensmasters who offer ideas and signal inapproprieties would help...


Finally, I second Margaret's thought about giving a bit higher weight to older lenses, maybe no more promoted so much - because the lensmaster is working on new lenses - at least because of of the great content that often is evidenced by high rankings at Google.

Margaret's lenses on David, 1963 corvette or my lenses - about my father - and Auschwitz survivor, about The Beatles songs or about the Las Vegas weddings.

I look forward to further discussions on this fascinating subject. Unless you say - enough is enough, finito!