Comments on: Higher Blogging

by: mudslide567

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 01:44:05 +0000

I hate to throw iced water over the reading level but I just went and tested a few other sites and the most notable result was that the social porn site, www.pornotube.com also is evaluated as written at genius level. On the other hand, www.andrewsullivan.com is evaluated as “High School”. With that result, I had to test my local high school student newspaper site, www.elestoqueonline.com, and it is written at “Post Grad” level.

by: Daniel Larison

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 21:11:07 +0000

I didn’t think the blog is at genius level, either, since I am confident that I am not one. (This will no doubt be seconded by a chorus of people who have actually met me.) If I were at that level, I should have been done with my dissertation years ago. These are obviously just for fun, but it did seem like a nice compliment for all the readers.

by: empiricus

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 18:19:36 +0000

Thanks, Roach, for informing us of LGF’s rating. Maybe there is something to that rating system after all ;}

While I am second to none in my appreciation of Eunomia’s exposition (which strikes me as just about ideal for an educated lay audience; but, no offense, Daniel, Eunomia’s prose style, vocabulary, conceptual complexity, and assumed background knowledge are hardly genius level, nor do I think it would be an improvement if they were much more demanding than they are), I must agree that the rating seems pretty arbitrary. The presence or absence of pictures/graphics does indeed appear to feature in the heuristics, as does the fraction of foreign words/names and the complete absence of the typos and unspeakable solecisms that plague the blogosphere.

by: Roach

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:49:10 +0000

This is probably the same utility on word that looks for things like sentence complexity etc. I should think a certain type of bad writing–not yours Daniel–might trigger genuius on account of how overwraught it is. I spent a lot of time simplifiying my writing in law school and after compared to the over-complexity I acquired in college.

That said, it seems to work well. Little Green Footballs is High School.

by: Daniel Larison

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 05:52:43 +0000

That may be. I readily grant that the ratings seem pretty arbitrary. There are other blogs whose authors are writing excellent, high-level material who don’t get the same rating for reasons that I can’t discern.

by: Anthony King

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 05:47:10 +0000

I’ve been trying to convince my wife of just this sort of thing for awhile. As a regular reader with–as we now know–bonafide genius credentials, perhaps Mr. Larison could forward her the designation. It will look better coming from a third party.

Just a hunch–I think the test gives high marks for having no pictures. I just started a blog for my bicycle business and it gets a College-Postgrad rating. I haven’t put in any posts with pictures yet. I bet when I do the level will go down.