Seth Godin posted on the Z-List and created a lens on Squidoo where people could add more sites, in addition to voting sites up and down. Mack Collier, the creator of the list, wrote that he isn’t a fan of voting, as it’s contrary to the original purpose.
It’s been interesting to check on the list’s movement on Squidoo. For example, if you look at this screenshot from David Armano’s blog, the ranking is quite different from today. Also makes you wonder what "Romanian book blogs" have to do with marketing…
So what happened? Ego and anonymity. This is currently the hottest meme on Squidoo (i.e. #1) and bloggers have been voting up their own sites at the expense of others. That’s why you find almost no items at "0 points" while the mode (i.e. most frequent occurence) on the list is -7 or -8 points.
I wonder what the list would look like if voters were required to leave a record of their behavior – my guess is that there’d be many more sites clustered around 0. Which leads us back to the question of purpose – what does a "high ranking" get you? Influence or authority? Or a few hours at the top of a Plexo list?
After reading Godin’s update post, it’s clear that he "gets it." Now let’s hope that a qualified moderator will step up.