Alright, I’m not really going to cry, but a year ago, on March 13th, I became a member of the SEOmoz community, and in celebration of my moziversary I wanted to write a post that summarizes a few of the things I’ve learned.

The Thumb System Works  Due to the "one member equals one thumb rule" and wonderful moderators like Jane and Rebecca (who spring into action whenever anything untoward happens), the thumb system works.The thumb system helps promote worthy posts to the top of Best of YOUmoz, and the fact that comments themselves can be thumbed means that the members who contribute the most value-added comments also get rewarded (don't you wish that was true on all blogs?).  All of this helps to make the ranking of the members list not just a popularity contest, but a somewhat accurate assessment of the value members add to the community.  My only issue with the ranking is that it favors those of us who have been on SEOmoz for a while.  It would be nice to see some month-over-month analysis of thumbs earned, so newer members don’t have to wait weeks and even months to get into the top 100. 

The other great thing about the thumb system is that it is open to all sorts of analysis.  You can slice and dice your way through a combination of thumb statistics: average thumbs up per contribution, net thumbs per comment, net thumbs per YOUmoz entry, etc.  As an example, check out these entries where moz members have done their own analysis on the thumb system:

• Are You More Disliked than Matt Cutts?  If so, what did you do?
• Mozlovin in Time for Valentine’s Day

You’re Going to Get Thumbs Down You Don’t Deserve  Now, one of the consistent complaints on SEOmoz is that you can be given a thumbs-down without any indication of who did it, or why they did it.  Unfortunately, that is just a byproduct of the thumb system.  Another byproduct is that sometimes those thumbs can be completely arbitrary and other times you can get them merely because you happened to comment in the wrong place at the wrong time. When Gab (bookworm-SEO) did a post Outing Network Solutions, nearly everyone who commented received two thumbs down for their trouble.  This just goes to show you that even if you’re doing something completely innocent,  you’re bound to get thumbed down eventually.  But don’t worry about that too much, because…    

You’re Going to Get Thumbs Up You Don’t Really Earn  I am entirely unable to predict any kind of thumb activity with any kind of accuracy.  Every time I think I will get a thumb down, I don’t.  And there have been plenty of times I have gotten thumbs up I don’t think I deserve.  In the latter case, I attribute some of it to secret admirers.  As one of the Annapolis area’s most eligible singles of 2005, I know a thing or two about secret admirers.  To this day I have never found out the identity of the person who nominated me, and I imagine I never will (though I’ve ruled out my mom).  The same thing is true of thumbs.  I am sure there are times my posts and comments get a thumb up, not because of the quality of the content, but because someone out there likes me, they really like me!

In other cases, you’re going to get thumbs to compensate for an uncalled for thumbs down.  Most moz members don’t try to mess with the balance of thumbing too much, but if someone gets thumbed down unjustly, the community will spring into action .

There Are Things You Can Do to Game the Thumbs System  In a time before I came on SEOmoz, there lived a man by the name of Chris Hooley, who wrote a nice little post on how to game the SEOmoz thumb system.  While it was written mostly tongue-in-cheek, there are some things you can do to boost up the number of thumbs you get.

First and foremost, participate and comment on other people’s posts.  They’ll return the favor and you’ll get a lot of thumb love later on down the line, though you still have to earn it.

You can also play around with your avatar.  I haven't done any kind of analysis on it,- but I am quite sure people like Richard Manley get a lot more thumbs up per post than those of us who don't look like Richard Manley. And I’m convinced that Rishil earned himself a lot of thumbs up when he changed his avatar to a picture of a woman (who we all hoped was his girlfriend) kissing a bottle of Jack Daniels.  I think he rode that for all it was worth, and now he’s changed it again and has resorted to the somewhat sounder strategy of writing exceptional posts in order to get his thumbs.

Here in the merry land of moz, laughter equals thumbs, so humor always plays well.  FeedtheBot, for instance, can not post anything for days and days, come into a rather benign post, make a witty comment, and get more thumbs with one comment than most of us get in a week.  The same is true of Sean (one of my favorites was his comment involving a commodore 64 and the rocket links directory).  If you can mix in a vague reference to an 80’s sitcom or a washed up music star, all the better.

Finally, one of the best ways to game the thumb system is simply to mention other moz members in your post.  Hopefully, they'll repay the mention with a nice 'ole thumb up.

Lastly…I’d like to thank the entire moz crew, especially Rebecca, for taking the time to edit my YOUmoz posts, and to Jane, my second favorite blonde ex-swimmer.  And to all of the moz members who have made the last year interesting and enjoyable, including Ciaran, Dr. Pete, Will Critchlow, Sean Maguire, FeedtheBot, Identity, BookwormSEO, EGOL, AnnSmarty, Brent Payne, Lorissa, Tom C, Richard Baxter, Kimber, WebGeek, InflateMouse, Mystery Guest, SiteMost, David LaFerney, Richard Baxter, Oliver Taco, Crash, eCopt, KatFrench, MariaSEO, SEO Columbus, Lindop, and all the rest – I’d like to say thank you.  :-)