Amazing how an action, like the well used analogy of the stone lobbed into a pond) can ripple out far into the world - in this case, across the blogosphere. On a whim, I started a rogue offshoot (Sorry if a I screwed up the exercise for you Jeff, but could not resist) of a game started in another corner of the blogosphere. According to Michael Jensen at SoloSEO, this branch of the Blog Tag game has now gone beyond 11 levels. How the devil he has had the patience to track it that far I have no idea - possibly his interest in family trees has been ample conditioning to dogged detective work. If my own dear brother is anything to go by, genealogists can be the most tenacious of blood(line)hounds.
His "blog tag tree" can be found here.
Most people I see have good humouredly entered into the spirit of the game, and I am now have a slightly better insight into the soul as well as the brain behind the words I read on some blogs. One person (and I apologise for forgetting who you were) suggested that we find a more constructive objective for such an exercise in future and I wholeheartedly agree. Suggestions welcome.
Strange though that of all the posts I have done in my so far in a very brief blog-life, none has elicited more trackbacks and site visits as one so superficially frivolous. Maybe it is that despite the regular "meeting of minds" we engage in so often here in cyberspace, we always hanker after something more profound and personal.
Enough rambling so very far off topic. I am on leave for 3 weeks until 8 Jan 2007, and am not sure if I will succumb to the blog-drug during that time, so forgive me if I go silent for a while. Have a wonderful Christmas-tide wherever you are and whatever you do.
That's me.
Bonjour Dave !
Thank you for your visite at my blog ! You have, now, a "French" family for this "game" !
Posted by: Olivier SC | 29 January 2007 at 09:06 PM
Hi Michael,
It has been fun, but a bit unnerving to watch the snowball effect of tagging 5 bloggers!
I'm not familiar with crazyegg.com - will check it out now, but I wonder if something like http://www.liveplasma.com/ would be appropriate?
Thanks for adding to the fun with the tree.
Posted by: DaveG | 10 January 2007 at 10:15 PM
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for dropping by as it were. Have only managed to make it one VON (in London in 2004) but have appreciated the value of information sharing that you "catalyse" (can that be a verb?). I'm chewing on why this game of tag has been so popular, while being so "off topic" and frivolous. One local (South African) SEO player has taken a very contrary view to it: http://www.gottaquirk.com/post/202/5-reasons-why-blog-tag-sucks
- I need to digest his views before readjusting mine.
Good to "meet you" - I'll buy you a drink if I make to another VON - particularly if you arrange a good jazz band! ;)
Posted by: DaveG | 10 January 2007 at 10:11 PM
Dave, it really is amazing, and it keeps going! It has been a bit of work to keep tracking, but with the popularity of the blog tag tree most just comment and give me their link directly.
I would love to put this into another visual format (web still) sometime, so any suggestions on doing that are welcome. I'm doing some crazyegg.com (heatmap) tracking with clicks now, so that will be interesting to post up there also.
Even the likes of Danny Sullivan have joined in and even mention the blog tag tree (wow, that link is worth a pretty penny).
It's been fun!
Posted by: Michael Jensen | 18 December 2006 at 08:37 PM
Hi Dave,
Nice to meet you. Glad to see your side of the "family" is doing so well. I hit 11 generations a few days ago and lost track at 13 and 14 generations out. Funny thing is that the people who were playing other variations of the game who were tagged weeks ago but can not be tracked back to you or me (I've been checking the geneology myself) are still giving attribution to me. It is undeserved but not sure what to do at this point.
Enjoy your holiday. Nice to meet you.
Best regards, Jeff
Posted by: JeffPulver | 18 December 2006 at 05:00 AM