Opal – as Meg said, Leigh from All for Women works out the average from technorati and AU Alexa. The average is then graded without any weighting. Meg keeps the top 100 Australian index and she uses a different formula. She looks at the global and Au Alexa ranking and at the Technorati authority. She divides by variables and updates fortnightly. Opal out Australian blogosphere is much smaller than the US one. There are very few women my age (43) who use computers and there are few people I know who even know what a blog is. Australia doesn’t have fast internet and there are many places where our fastest (broadband) doesn’t even work. Because Australia is a huge country, polarised by geography , climate, culture, tradition and sophistication, we have pockets of people who hang together because they understand each other – hence the bloggers. I talk to my blogging friends in a language that would possibly get me committed to a psych hospital if I used it with my colleagues. Meg and Leigh have taught me heaps about blogging and the blogosphere, as have many of your posts Opal. I thank each of you profusely and want you to know that you have made my world a better place to be.

Meg – I so appreciate everything you do to assist and to educate. I had to have a laugh at one of your recent blogs where you were commenting on us having to suffice with your eclectic content rather than hard driven niche topics. I gotta tell you Meg, I love your blog and voice just the way it is! Plus, nice name…lol.

Marcella (abyss2hope) – 100% agreement here. I LOVE my sexual abuse prevention work more than anything else. I find it stimulating, positive and exhausting. I go to bed knowing I’ve earned my money and contributed in a way that many people wont. Before I die I intend to help abuse prevention issues be as mainstream as turning on a light when it gets dark. I have just met with a marketer who is going to do the research around why people find abuse issues distasteful, scary, to be avoided or what ever else they might think about it. Making these two Aussie lists though does make a statement about how we as an internet community are ready to accept the issues and work against child abuse. I have said for years that with prevalence figures of 1 in 3, business and marketing needs to take into account the massive power of people who have been hurt as children. That power will one day surface and change trends, programs and spending habits. I long for the day where the globals that use child slave labor to produce their expensive product, go broke, because the community has accepted that purchasing the global’s product equates to supporting child abuse.

Leigh: No need to apologise at all. The second score pad is the more realistic one and gives me more room to improve and climb. Thank you for your untiring contribution to women and to child abuse issues – want to come with me when Oprah rings up and says she’s flying me over for an interview?

Take care and stay safe everyone. Today is the traditional and international Reclaim the Night march day – a day where women take to the streets in peaceful protest against sexual violence. We’re having a “Light march” (a blogging relay of sorts). Follow the posting instructions in Reclaim the Night Light March so that I’ve got someone to immediately link to.

Keep up the good work.