Yesterday I won an award. Or so I found out when I got an email from a friend telling me I'd won the JIB "Best News\Current Events Blog" award. This was news to me. I didn't even know I was nominated. Apparently though I hadn't won the JIB award, it had been renamed to the People's Choice award after a very civil falling out between Isreallycool's Aussie Dave and the IsraelForum. That's why last year's nomination button and this year's victory button look rather different.
Then just because things weren't soap operatic enough it seems another blog put out a press release claiming they won my category and then got suspended for apparently cheating. I don't name names, not to protect the innocent, but because that blog was clearly doing what a number of blogs on IsraelForum are, which is transparently fudging the voting. Go to the archives of one or two of the blogs that always end up on top of the listings and you suddenly see their posts climbing into the 300's range (No not the Frank Miller movie about the Spartans) not a rating you ever saw on the main page.
Really I don't name names, because when you get a few people together on the internet, whether it's a BBS, a board, a chat room, a group, a forum, a bloggers associations; in no time you see explosions of petty behavior as everyone wants to be in the charge of the virtual treehouse. Consider the big boys and the Pajamas Media fallout with lizardoids flaming Ann Althouse and Dennis 'I Know Real Live Muslims!' the Peasant ranting to beat the drum. It doesn't get any better at any level.
I have no talent for promoting myself. I pretty much anti-promote myself. I don't comment much on other people's blogs. I never solicit link exchanges. I don't host things and my one email conversation with a fellow blogger recently was quite unpleasant. I don't join groups. Mainly I concentrate on putting out a single post a day, often large and long and not all that easily digestible. The fact that I have the readers I do and the incoming links I do is a bit of a minor miracle that suggests there's a higher power watching over bloggers, than google bots.
So the award is nice, though I don't for a moment believe I beat Isreallycool or Atlas Shrugs which get my monthly readership in a single day. The big blogs which usually win these things will no doubt win them next year again and ignore this year as if it never happened. For now though some of the little guys won.
Then just because things weren't soap operatic enough it seems another blog put out a press release claiming they won my category and then got suspended for apparently cheating. I don't name names, not to protect the innocent, but because that blog was clearly doing what a number of blogs on IsraelForum are, which is transparently fudging the voting. Go to the archives of one or two of the blogs that always end up on top of the listings and you suddenly see their posts climbing into the 300's range (No not the Frank Miller movie about the Spartans) not a rating you ever saw on the main page.
Really I don't name names, because when you get a few people together on the internet, whether it's a BBS, a board, a chat room, a group, a forum, a bloggers associations; in no time you see explosions of petty behavior as everyone wants to be in the charge of the virtual treehouse. Consider the big boys and the Pajamas Media fallout with lizardoids flaming Ann Althouse and Dennis 'I Know Real Live Muslims!' the Peasant ranting to beat the drum. It doesn't get any better at any level.
I have no talent for promoting myself. I pretty much anti-promote myself. I don't comment much on other people's blogs. I never solicit link exchanges. I don't host things and my one email conversation with a fellow blogger recently was quite unpleasant. I don't join groups. Mainly I concentrate on putting out a single post a day, often large and long and not all that easily digestible. The fact that I have the readers I do and the incoming links I do is a bit of a minor miracle that suggests there's a higher power watching over bloggers, than google bots.
So the award is nice, though I don't for a moment believe I beat Isreallycool or Atlas Shrugs which get my monthly readership in a single day. The big blogs which usually win these things will no doubt win them next year again and ignore this year as if it never happened. For now though some of the little guys won.
Comments
Don't be so modest :)
ReplyDeleteYou deserved the award in the category you were nominated for. Your blog is actually more of a news site/commentary than blog. If you were writing for a newspaper the majority of your posts (articles) would be classified as feature articles due to their length, depth and analyses.
And believe me, writing a 1000 + word article once a day isn't easy. It's hard enough to do the research, proofing, editing, and links and compile it into an interesting article.
Unless it's a topic I am completely familiar with, it would take me at least a week or two to write an article of that length at work. Could I do it on a daily basis? No way!
I'm sorry some petty people spoiled the win for you. You deserve it. And sorry also that you received an unpleasant email. Some people seem to think the anonymous nature on online correspondences is a license to act rudely and insensitively.
The way I treat people online is pretty much the way I treat them in "real life."
Your writing is professional class.
ReplyDeleteMost of the top name blogs simply link to other people if you really look at them.
They go like this:
"Over at Yippee Do's blog" and "See it HERE!!"
and that is pretty much the extent of the post.
I agree. His writing is most definitely professional quality.
ReplyDeleteMazal tov!
ReplyDeleteYasher koach! The way these awards and all internet ratings work is often capricious - at least this time justice was served!
ReplyDeleteAnd Remember: Shameless Self Promotion is the wave of the future for bloggers everywhere
ReplyDeletethanks you k.a., lemon and mm and itzik.
ReplyDeleteat the end of the day I post for my readers, not for any awards... so you guys make it worthwhile
rewards him with pie in the face to keep him humble.
ReplyDeleteLemon-keyLime Pie too.. with mucho whipped cream.
whippy cream... my favorite
ReplyDeletemazel tov!!! I think you deserve it the most. My tiny little mind is always boggled by all your research and I learn a lot from them. :]
ReplyDeletethank you Yo, I'm always glad to hear that someone gets something out of my blogging
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