How does Regator do it?
In terms of getting blogs with quality content? In fact how does any RSS aggregator do it. One can explain the latest feature that is empowered with the snazziest software application or GUI, Or how the confluence of the number of text in the first two or three paragraphs would determine the importance and even the tag of a post. But how do you select?
This has been one of the most intriguing questions that can be asked when the term quality comes in. And quality at the end of the day is decided not by a software application or even solely by the number of words an article has but by a human. A mortal such as us decide what goes in and out.
And this is reassuring but it does come with caveats or warning. And prime caveats to this is that the person deciding what goes in and out (even initially) is qualified. And if you are familiar with the old print encyclopedias this is the reason why they place the name of the editors and writers inside each volume. To reassure the reader that this is quality work. Or if you are going to buy a book it details the qualification of the author.
With Regator it is glad to know that they have given the identity and qualification of Regator’s Editorial Director - Kimberly Turner.
What are her qualifications?
1. Kimberly Turner has an M.A. in Applied Linguistics from the University of New South Wales.
2. Turner has edited and/or written for a number of Australian magazines, including ADB, Roost, Massive, and Outdoor.
3. Kimberly is at present a senior staff writer for Atlanta magazine .
She seems highly qualified to lead the selection of blogs for Regator.
Dont you wish other aggregators would be as forthright as this?
Tags: RegatorRelated Stories
POSTED IN: RSS Readers, aggregators
2 opinions for How does Regator do it?
Kimberly
Jul 9, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Thanks for the additional coverage. We really appreciate it. And yes, I personally read every blog we add…except for when I need a break and my cat takes over. He has no qualifications whatsoever but he’s super-cute. Does that hurt my credibility? Uh, nevermind then.
-Kimberly (regator.com)
Scott Lockhart
Jul 9, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Kimberly is highly qualified and a great person to work with. Just so everyone knows, we use qualified humans (Kimberly is their leader) to select the blogs that go into Regator based on about 7 or so different factors (see our blog post here: http://www.regator.com/blog/?p=12). But once they are in Regator we do not interfere with the wisdom of the crowd. It is a combination of user interest/activity and our server algorithms that populate our top rated, kinda related and what’s hot lists. We couldn’t imagine doing that manually. Users can nominate blogs for submission onto Regator and our editors will take a look and see if they meet our standards.
Regator is all about giving people an easy way to find quality blog content. We feel that selecting blogs by the body of their work is a much fairer way to do it and levels the playing field as opposed to going on post popularity alone which can be slanted only towards “popular” blogs.
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