9rules is a
blog network
On the World Wide Web, a link farm is any group of websites that all hyperlink to other sites in the group for the purpose of increasing SEO rankings. In graph theoretic terms, a link farm is a clique. Although some link farms can be create ...
that serves as an online community of
blog
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
s and bloggers. In 2006 it took the award for Best Community Site of the Year at
SXSW
South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, ...
i in
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...
.
9rules is currently made up of over 30 communities divided by topics such as
Gaming
Gaming may refer to:
Games and sports
The act of playing games, as in:
* Legalized gambling, playing games of chance for money, often referred to in law as "gaming"
* Playing a role-playing game, in which players assume fictional roles
* Playing ...
,
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ances ...
,
Web Design
Web design encompasses many different skills and disciplines in the production and maintenance of websites. The different areas of web design include web graphic design; user interface design (UI design); authoring, including standardised code a ...
and
Web 2.0
Web 2.0 (also known as participative (or participatory) web and social web) refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture and interoperability (i.e., compatibility with other products, systems, and ...
. Each member is hand-picked out of thousands that apply to join, their blogs evaluated over an extended period of time with regard to quality. In 2006 it is estimated to have had more than 200 members.
Membership process
From 2005 to 2006 applications were handled in submission rounds, occurring roughly twice a year and giving applicants a 24-hour window to submit their blog. Each member was evaluated and hand-picked by the site staff based on quality of applicants' blogs. The fifth membership round attracted 1,190 new submissions. In 2007 a new application round started but was not limited by the previous 24-hour time limit. 9rules remained open for submissions until April 17, 2007 when the round was officially closed with a public announcement.
In September 2009, 9rules was acquired by Splashpress Media. Since then they have announced the 9th round of submissions.
Membership rounds in 2008
The latest version of the 9rules website now includes pre-announced dates for membership rounds in 2008. The first membership round—Round 6—yielded over 50 new sites however 9rules did not publicize how many blogs submitted.
Site history
Ali
On February 8, 2007, 9rules launched a new version of its site code-named Ali.
Ali2
On October 9, 2007, 9rules launched a new version of its site code-named Ali2 which introduced several new features to their public member forums. This included a visual redesign,
social bookmarking
Social bookmarking is an online service which allows users to add, annotate, edit, and share bookmarks of web documents. Many online bookmark management services have launched since 1996; Delicious, founded in 2003, popularized the terms "social ...
system and improved capabilities for user profiles to showcase feeds from external sites such as
Flickr
Flickr ( ; ) is an American image hosting and video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was a popular way for amateur and professiona ...
,
Del.icio.us
Delicious (stylized del.icio.us) was a social bookmarking web service for storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks. The site was founded by Joshua Schachter and Peter Gadjokov in 2003 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. By the end of 2008, ...
and
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
.
Chawlk
On February 22, 2008, it was announced
that 9rules would change its approach again. 9rules proper will only feature member content, as it did before Ali, whereas the community will transfer to a new site set up by the owners, called Chawlk.
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External links
9rules
Blog networks