It’s Gabe Rivera, Bitch! (Or the Importance of the Techmeme Circle Jerk)

Few things are as unimportant as a top 100 list.

I dig Gabe Rivera.

Him and I have been homies for a while.

He’s a quietly brilliant man who’s mind is always working. And the launch of his ‘Leaderboard’ is a good buzz producing (and revenue producing) exercise. But coming from the music business it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see what happens next.

There was a time when Billboard’s Top 100 was king. It was the barometer of what’s popular (supposedly) across the country. But today, by and large, it is irrelevant to most people in the music business.

Why?

What doomed Billboard was the fact that people gamed the system. I, a former low level music industry peon, can tell you, everyone cheats.

The same thing happened to Technorati. The chart ends up filled with crap because recognition becomes more important than actual accomplishment.

Actually Jason Calacanis, (of all people!), is right about the importance of this new Techmeme innovation. But he does, as usual, miss the real point.

People naturally want to know where they rank among their competitors. And what makes the Leaderboard cool is that it’s focus is the circle-jerk known as tech blogs.

But what tech people need to do is focus on making the same pleasurable experience for other people (before they do it themselves.)

Explore posts in the same categories: Billboard, britney spears, charts, gabe rivera, Jason Calacanis, technorati, top 100

Tags: Billboard, britney spears, gave rivera, Jason Calacanis, leaderboard, technorati

You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.