While catching up on some reading in the blog and YOUmoz section here at SEOmoz, I realized that I haven't been keeping up my end of the bargain as far as sharing much lately.  A lot of that has to do with taking a new job in January managing the e-commerce / web operations for DSW (kind of a "buy shoes online" start-up opportunity that has several million pre-existing loyalty rewards customers, best of both worlds).  We're planning on launching in the first half of this year, so I'll try to be able to offer some insight on web management, and specifically SEO, for a large company that is essentially starting from scratch in the e-commerce world.

But in regard to contributing on SEOmoz again, I was thinking about writing a post concerning a "contribution value" I had calculated a while back.  Heck, I even wrote the post once before (*note to SEOmoz development team - autosave draft functionality when writing YOUmoz posts would be wonderful for us idiot users like myself that accidentally use the same browser window to search another topic before realizing that the browser's back button serves as a giant "YOUmoz post eraser").  With Valentine's Day coming up this week, I thought it was the ideal time to share a little love in the community.  This is not the same as one of the more recent posts on Top 50 posters or Top 10 Sexiest SEO Pros, but rather by using cold hard facts and taking them one step deeper.  The result is...  MozLove.

MozLove is a calculation derived from MozPoints to show how much value a certain poster brings to other users, and is based entirely on the random act of thumbing someone up and down.  Because this is purely objective and unscientific, please do not use this article as a basis to thumb anyone down as this is likely the last time you will ever hear of MozLove, and I doubt seriously that a running score / rankings will ever be a contributing factor to get into the SEO Hall of Fame.  If, however, you choose to use these scores to set head to head SEO competition gambling lines somehow, then I'm all for that.

How exactly do you get MozLove?  The key is to contribute in a way that positively impacts other users to the point where they provide you with a "Thumbs Up" rating, and to do so at a higher ration than receiving the dreaded "Thumbs Down."  Since MozPoints are awarded not only by other individuals' thumbing powers, but also by simply contributing a post or comment, there is a highly complex formula for deriving one's MozLove.  MozLove awards no points for simply posting.  It doesn't matter if you are posting the search algorithm for Google or your grandma's chocolate chip cookie recipe, you get no MozLove for the actual posting.  Therefore, we deduct from your MozPoints' total any points earned by writing YOUmoz posts or by commenting on other posts on the site.  This leaves you with your MozLove Score, a calculation of your total thumbs up awarded by others less your thumbs down.  However, so as not to punish those with fewer ratings than others, we use the MozLove Score to derive a MozLove Score Ratio by dividing the MozLove Score by the MozLove Score plus Thumbs Down.  Maximum score is 100%, attainable if you simply never have a thumbs down - more on this later.

MozLove Score = MozScore - YOUmoz posts - CommentsMozLove Score Ratio = MozLove Score / (MozLove Score + Thumbs Down)

How do the Mozzers stack up?  For brevity's sake, I calculated the MozLove scores for the Top 10 or so mozzers according to current MozPoints.  Now that we are gauging quality over quantity, let's see how it all shakes out. 

#1 in MozPoints, obviously, is the Wizard of Moz himself.  Rand had 8377 MozPoints at the time of this post, without any YOUmoz posts and with 2116 comments, giving him a MozLove Score of 6261.  After adding 248 Thumbs Down to the total and dividing by the original 6261, Rand's MozLove Ratio is an impressive 96.19%.

#2 on the list is Rebecca.  Rebecca's Thumbs Downs seemed to come in at a little higher rate than Rand's, so her 130 Thumbs Down against a MozLove Score of 2223 gave her a still impressive MozLove ratio of 94.475% 

#3 is Jane, whose 48 Thumbs Down against a MozLove Score of 1338 gives her a little performance review ammunition, and a MozLove Ratio topping the boss himself, 96.537%.

#4 Scott comes in slightly off of Jane's pace with a 96.5%, and #6 Ciaran and #7 Oatmeal are a shade behind him at 96.28% and 95.549% respectively.

The Dr. Pete / WillCritchlow Celebrity Deathmatch takes the MozLove ratio to an entirely new level, as these gents battle each other for MozPoints yet impressively do it with outstanding quality, as Dr. Pete edges WillCritchlow with a Top 10 Mozzer high score of 98.011% versus the second highest ratio of a Top 10 mozzer, 97.302%.

Feedthebot scored a 95.623% and Identity scored a 95.941% to round out the Top 10 mozzers.

The most MozLove overall, however, goes to someone outside of the top 10 on this list.  With 185 Thumbs Up given, and zip, zero, nada in the Thumbs Down column, the #1 MozLovin poster award goes to Crash.  It is quite an accomplishment to not have a single poster give you a single thumb down. Hopefully this massive recognition and impending monetary windfall from an increase in future appearance fees won't inspire any haters out there to change that for you.

On the other end of the spectrum, there were some less than stellar scores of MozLove out there.  I'm not outing anyone for lower ratios, but there are scores of 78%, 47%, and even a 38% out there after a quick review of thumbs down leaders.  My own personal score, sure to drop after wasting so many readers' time with such a technologically insignificant post, is at 93.7% at the moment.  If, for some reason, you are interested in your own score and aren't able to understand the formula used, please let me know and I'll do my best to assist.  Otherwise, enjoy the Mozlovin...