A number of people have expressed consternation and exasperation with the 'Top Blogger' algorithm. And I believe they have a point. Over the last two months it has become clear that the algorithm which ranks blogs on the site, only rewards posters for the number of comments on their posts and fails to take account of other significant factors. Consequently from now on, we will be awarding 10 points in each of the following categories to complement the rankings provided by the algorithm.

1. Quality - We will award ten points to the post or poster we think attains the highest quality standards each month.

2. Quantity - Ten points will be awarded to the most active blogger on the site OR to the person who contributes the most substantial posts. There is no objection to 'snippeting' or to short posts which are links to offsite articles or resources BUT this will allow us to recognise more consequential and significant posts.

3. Popularity - Based on perusal of the log files and taking into consideration Facebook 'likes', Tweets etc, we will award ten points to the post or poster who drives most traffic to the site each month.

The new adjudication system will be implemented for the first time this month ( January 2011 ). Hopefully it will constitute an improvement on the previous arrangement. If anyone has any ideas for making Top Blogger fairer, livelier or more interesting please let us know in the comment box below.