Wired News asks Gabe Rivera about the “white list” of sites that TechMeme may be using to determine the most newsworthy stories. Is that true?

Related: How to Get Your Blog on Techmeme ?

Gabe Rivera: Although a bunch of people repeat that Techmeme uses a white list, it’s not true, at least by the definition of white list that I understand. Every day my system posts things from sites I never “approved” or even heard of.

At this moment, for instance, there’s a press release from a company called Clearwire on Techmeme. I hadn’t heard of this company, nor did I do anything to flag their site as linkable.

I do use lists of sources to help my system determine which sources to monitor. Essentially, I’m telling it to “find more sites like these.” These aren’t exhaustive lists, or even close to exhaustive, and therefore not “white lists.”

Wired News [What Makes Techmeme Tick? Inventor Gabe Rivera Explains]