UPDATE: We're now in touch with Yahoo, which is working diligently on the problem. We'll keep you posted as to when we're getting functionality back.
Why, indeed...
As some of you have already noticed, the Yahoo! Site Explorer API hasn't been updating scores for some time now -- we're not exactly sure how long, but it's been a couple weeks.
Amusingly enough: the API itself actually works if you manually hit it using your favorite browser, just not when a program makes the call. According to the Yahoo! Development Network, Yahoo! is aware of the problem. (Whether they actually believe this to be the case is another matter...)
The bad news is that -- given the sheer volume of blogs we rank -- we simply have to rely on a program to collect your scores. The good news (for most of you, that is) is that we have your last saved score on file, so your overall weather pattern shouldn't have been affected that much (unless you've gained or lost an insane amount of popularity in 2009). Our scores are all scaled like tax brackets, so in most cases you need a substantial gain to get to the next one.
To help manage the high-speed chase that is the Power 150, we've temporarily lowered the entry requirements for new blogs in order to compensate for lack of Yahoo scores. Additionally: we can manually update your Yahoo! score upon request; just shoot an e-mail to Charlie Moran with your request, and wait 1-2 business days for us to honor it. (We read really, really slowly.)
Also, while Yahoo is not functioning, we'll be manually be grabbing Yahoo scores for all new blogs we add, starting today. If we've added your blog within the past few weeks and you have a 1 for your Yahoo! score, let us know and we'll check for you.
Further, if you've submitted your blog in the past couple weeks and believe that your rejection had something to do with the current Yahoo! outage, feel free to re-submit and we'll re-evaluate with our temporarily lowered requirements. This process is automated, so if you are rejected again, you'll know within 24 hours.
We're continuing to explore ways to make the Power 150 more vibrant and dynamic; one such way is to ensure that these things actually work, so we'll holler back once it's back up. For any other questions you may have, please contact Charlie and he'll do his best to help you.
