nostrich:

The directory is being touted as a way to find blogs that are “gaining momentum”. But how does listing the most popular 7 blogs in a particular category help anyone except the popular people? Sure, you can click “more” and get a full list, but it’s still weighted so that the popular people are at the top. And anyone that’s been on the web for a while knows that a) most people won’t click “more”, b) of those that do, most people will not get very far down the full list. (“Why should I care about anyone with only 1,000 Tumblarity when all these awesome people have 10,000 and up?”) And as a result of that, the users in the top 7 will succeed in getting even more popular, and everyone else will squander.

Revealing the Top 10 could turn Tumblr into highly competitive community, this is bad because competitive environments encourage cheaters. They also favour players who have more time to spend playing the game. You also run the risk of creating a divide between the elite and those with a low Tumblarity score, these users may feel disheartened. After all, what’s the point in playing a game you cannot ever win?

I really like the idea of a directory and being able to find new & interesting people to follow, but all these stats have taken away a bit of the serendipity of finding cool people.

The community will change because of this focus on popularity and it may turn Tumblr into a very different place.