Top edublogs?

Update: Scott McLeod has commented on this post below. His misinterpretation of my point has led me to clarify this post. The old has been struckthrough.

Lately, I'm noticing a fair number of so-called "edu-bloggers" fussing over Technorati ranking, awards, number of hits and links. This is, apparently, in an effort to identify the top "edublogs". Recently, Scott McLeod created a chart breaking down the best-of-the-best and added,

"I unapologetically admit that I care about my Technorati ranking. Why? Because I'm trying to make change. The bigger audience I have, the more readers I reach directly and the more people I can influence indirectly through those readers. I'm on a mission. Aren't you?"

To be blunt, caring about one's Technorati ranking is self-indulgence and has no relationship to "influence". Of course, self-indulgence is not necessarily a negative thing and admitting it is healthy. But to defer that admittance to a higher reason by claiming that care for ranking to be reflective of capacity better enables one to carry out a "mission" to "change" society is nonsensical.

Hits, ranking, number of links...all of these are meaningless in the context of "making change"...unless you're talking about $pocket change$. However, in the context of social change, these stats are...well, dangerously irrelevant.