We Need A Playoff!

Why it is truly scandalous! Ranking systems giving different results! What are we to believe? In the table below I give the top 25 Christian blogs from the well known Chairon Leaderboard compared with the top 25 (there is a tie for 25) from the upstart He Lives rankings. (He Lives actually does much better in the Chairon rankings than in its own, where it drops precipitously. Go figure.)

The Chairon ranking system, while highly respected, is shrouded in more secrecy than an Enron board meeting. (It is rumored to involve Hostess HoHos and the Sydney Opera House.) The He Lives ranking system believes that sunshine is the best disinfectant, and publicly describes its system:

• Martin Roth’s page is downloaded and parsed to get all the blogs from his definitive blogroll.
  
• Links to each “target” blog are searched for on the main page of all the other blogs.
  
• If a link of any type (back to the target) is found (not necessarily a blogroll link), then the target blog is credited with another unique “site”.
  
• The total number of links is also counted, but the ranking below is based on the number of unique sites. ( If you rank by total number of links, then MartinRoth stays on top but In Between Naps jumps to number 2, indicating that Amy Welborn gets a lot of reference links).
  

So whether you have a site that puts He Lives on your blogroll or you have a post in which you write Look what that knuckle-head at He Lives has written this time! (or both) I would credit He Lives with a "site".

Again, no matter how many links there are back to the target blog on a particular site, the target blog gets credit for just 1 site. The total links is also tallied, but not shown here.

Blog (Chairon Rank)	Links	Blog (He Lives Rank)	Sites
Sacra Doctrina	40	MartinRothOnline	60
MartinRothOnline.com	37	Sacra Doctrina	51
Fool's Folly	36	In Between Naps	49
In Between Naps	34	beautiful feet	41
ladydusk	34	ladydusk	40
beautiful feet	33	Catholic & Enjoying It	38
Catholic Blog for Lovers	30	jimhart3000	37
Andrew Sullivan	29	Fool's Folly	36
Relapsed Catholic	28	Presbytermark	35
jimhart3000	28	KataJohn	35
KataJohn	28	EveTushnet.com	34
Presbytermark	27	how now, brownpau?	34
Nota Bene	27	Relapsed Catholic	33
lollardy	25	barlow farms	32
Catholic and Enjoying It	25	Catholic Blog for Lovers	31
barlow farms	24	lollardy	30
Mark Byron	24	Andrew Sullivan	30
how now brownpau?	23	Mark Byron	29
EveTushnet.com	23	Minute Particulars	28
Catholic Light	22	Nota Bene	27
Minute Particulars	22	Annunciations	25
He Lives	22	Carrifex	25
WayneOlson.com	22	Barukatash	24
Kairos	21	bloggedy blog	24
Disputations	20	WayneOlson	24
---	---	Sursum Corda	24

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