I don’t know if it’s since Forbes launched their Web Celeb list last year, or if people are reconfiguring their definitions on celebrity and influence as the Internet evolves the definitions of what all if it means. But here’s one worth checking out to see a new angle on personalities and webfluence (I don’t think I made that word up). Shabbir Safdar (resume) blogs,

(…) I asked a few of you by e-mail about the online experts you follow. I’m looking for role models to emulate in creating my own online marketing efforts. Here’s the list I ended up with:

One set of people have worked so hard on their positions that they are undeniably the best in their field. Their influence extends far, and they move opinion when they speak. I labeled them ‘forces of nature’:

* Seth Godin: online marketer and force of nature
* Violet Blue: sex-positive blogger, columnist, editor, also a force of nature
* Paul Kedrosky: VC, blogger, widely quoted financial analyst
* Om Malik: tech writer, force of nature (my heart goes out to him, he just had a cardiac event)

Others are influential but haven’t found the secret sauce that catapults them farther. They are still wildly successful with lots of readers. They are what I would call the influencers (…)

Link.

He also links to an interesting Google Doc spreadsheet where he lines up our “elements” — though I want to comment on one figure he has for me. He has my years publishing online as 4; while my Movable Type archives go back to 2003, this site started in 2001 (I blogged by hand, yo!); I founded the Good Vibes Magazine (now GV Weekly) in December 2000 (edited and wrote columns and features through 2005), I edited and wrote columns for necromantic.com from early 2000-01, and my first published online article was for Gothic.net in May 1999 (and there’s lots more visible online activity for me even prior to that). But how was he supposed to know any of this? Maybe I should update my resume page, doh… :)

Anyway — thank you Mr. Safdar, for such a terrific compliment!