Fred Wilson Says it Better Than Me

Last week I had a bit of a go at the way that we build online communities in exactly the same way we build real communities.

One of my issues was the need to for the ‘Top 100 Lists’. Why is it important how many links a person gets?

Seems I wasn’t the only one having the same thoughts Fred Wilson who probably appears on most of the Top 100 Lists has made his views very clear.>

To paraphrase from the famous Treasure of Sierra Madre line, we don’t need no lists and I don’t want to be on any stinking lists!

He then goes on to say:

And if everybody is directed to read the “A list” bloggers, we’ll miss all the best stuff which is being blogged by people who get maybe 100 to 1000 readers.

But there is an interesting thing here; because he is on the list, people link to him, and in so doing drives the thoughts of the entire community. His list of trackbacks is impressive.

Back to my whole point of the last blog though, why do we need to build hierarchy? Do we hope to get a greater standing in the community if we can demonstrate how popular we are? Our human need to be popular is strong, and so is our need for position.