After The Love Is Gone
For better or worse, for richer or poorer, the Best of Blog Awards are now OVER.
In case you didn't know, yours truly managed to take the runner up slot behind The Sarcastic Journalist. If she should somehow become unable to fulfill her duties as the most sarcastic, the judges know where to find me.
The best way I can think of to describe the past 50 or so days has been like some surreal summer camp. I've met interesting new bloggers. We've swapped stories. We even "roasted" things besides marshmallows. Then we parted ways and promised to write. Only time will tell if we will hold true to that promise.
If you had been following the awards at all you would know there was a decent amount of controversy swirling around. But really, what's a good awards ceremony without a Brokeback Mountain-like scandal or two?
It all started with the idea of a "Best of blogging" contest itself. Why do we need to pit blogger against blogger? Why can't we just instead make it be us bloggers against the world?!
Then there were the nominations themselves. Many bloggers questioned the nomination process, which was far from secret ballot. The rules were simple. Any blog could be nominated by anyone, any number of times. This irked most while it fueled others. Although some voted for one blog multiple times, all any nominated blog needed was the one golden ticket to make it to the finals.
Eventually a top ten list emerged in each category by way of careful calculation or the flipping of a coin, you choose. By virtue of this complex, yet mysterious algorithm, AOGB made it to the top ten of the best overall blogs.
Traffic rose. Comments came a courtin'. Seas parted. Ok, maybe just one out of the two happened.
And then, as Tom Petty once said, the hardest part came. That my friends, was the waiting. We waited for the voting to go live. Once voting finally went live the fans went crazy, flooding the system. This marked the first major rift in the delicate fabric of the BOB's. It seems some people were able to vote more than once, while others were allowed their one vote and they were done. The glitch was acknowledged, but at first, the judges kind've shrugged their shoulders, ambivalent about what to do about the fallout. This made bloggers angry.
Some bloggers saw this weakness and used it to their advantage, attempting to sabotage the system even further since voting, in many categories, was "allegedly" rigged. I wouldn't have believed it, the naive, optimistic blogger that I am, if I hadn't seen it with my own double click. I literally watched one blog go from 40 votes, to 120 votes to over 300 votes in less than five minutes, placing said blogger at the front of the pack.
If this were say, the stock market maybe then, and only then, would I accept such dramatic changes. Perhaps someone had an all of their minions lined up at computer labs across the country, a arsenal of double click majorettes who acted upon hearing the order "ATTACK NOW!"
With the popular vote itself ironically losing popularity, the judges had no choice but to reassess the situation. Voting was originally slated to last a grueling few weeks, which was far too long, even by Kevin "Dances With Wolves" Costner's standards.
The judges were now in a pickle. Should they call off the farce, end the bloodshed and announce the winners, or should they drag this thing on indefinitely?
What the judges did next might surprise you. They did neither. The voting was indeed closed, however, a decision was still far off. This was when the second major glitch in the infamous Battle of The BOB's. While voters and finalists waited for the results, very little information as to when the results were coming were actually revealed. In the meantime, the BOBers posted about a blog cruise and another blog contest where you could vote...for the BOB'S. Meanwhile the restless masses just got angrier...and angrier.
Many people incessantly worried about the outcome. These people clearly had too much time on their hands. Besides, if you looked at the popular vote it seemed overwhelmingly easy to predict who would come out on top.
But then an amazing thing happened. The popular vote went from being the be all end all to seemingly... nothing at all. Take that, ballot box stuffers!
Now that the dust has finally begun to settle, I can finally speak freely on where I stand on all things BOB. For most of this process, I can perhaps best compare my feelings to Drew Barrymore in the movie Irreconcilable Differences. Poor little Drew was just a child, wanting to be loved, who was caught in the crossfire of an ugly custody battle.
Only in my world, AOGB is that little child, caught in the middle between the denouncers and the makers. On one hand I admire the judges that volunteered to create a contest that helps little bloggers like me get more recognition. To complain about that would be like biting the blogger that feeds you.
Yet on the other hand, there is a fine line between error and embarrassment. No one, including the judges themselves, has denied there were a LOT of errors that gave the naysayers all the ammunition they needed.
All the reasons listed above are what make any sort of victory bittersweet. You feel guilty for "winning" which implies you are "better" than another blogger. You also feel partly ashamed that it took so long to find out who won which makes you wonder how much of a victory it really is. And as far as the "it took very long part" some of you might be reading this right now thinking to yourself, "You mean that contest didn't end weeks ago?!"
For what it's worth, I was and still am proud to be nominated. As many of you already know, I consider AOGB the column I don't get paid to write and the thought that people out there enjoy it amazes me every. single. day.
The judges might have placed me in the top ten, but it was you, yes YOU who cared enough to submit AOGB to begin with. Without y'all I'm nothing. Seriously.
Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a silver medal to go polish.
In case you didn't know, yours truly managed to take the runner up slot behind The Sarcastic Journalist. If she should somehow become unable to fulfill her duties as the most sarcastic, the judges know where to find me.
The best way I can think of to describe the past 50 or so days has been like some surreal summer camp. I've met interesting new bloggers. We've swapped stories. We even "roasted" things besides marshmallows. Then we parted ways and promised to write. Only time will tell if we will hold true to that promise.
If you had been following the awards at all you would know there was a decent amount of controversy swirling around. But really, what's a good awards ceremony without a Brokeback Mountain-like scandal or two?
It all started with the idea of a "Best of blogging" contest itself. Why do we need to pit blogger against blogger? Why can't we just instead make it be us bloggers against the world?!
Then there were the nominations themselves. Many bloggers questioned the nomination process, which was far from secret ballot. The rules were simple. Any blog could be nominated by anyone, any number of times. This irked most while it fueled others. Although some voted for one blog multiple times, all any nominated blog needed was the one golden ticket to make it to the finals.
Eventually a top ten list emerged in each category by way of careful calculation or the flipping of a coin, you choose. By virtue of this complex, yet mysterious algorithm, AOGB made it to the top ten of the best overall blogs.
Traffic rose. Comments came a courtin'. Seas parted. Ok, maybe just one out of the two happened.
And then, as Tom Petty once said, the hardest part came. That my friends, was the waiting. We waited for the voting to go live. Once voting finally went live the fans went crazy, flooding the system. This marked the first major rift in the delicate fabric of the BOB's. It seems some people were able to vote more than once, while others were allowed their one vote and they were done. The glitch was acknowledged, but at first, the judges kind've shrugged their shoulders, ambivalent about what to do about the fallout. This made bloggers angry.
Some bloggers saw this weakness and used it to their advantage, attempting to sabotage the system even further since voting, in many categories, was "allegedly" rigged. I wouldn't have believed it, the naive, optimistic blogger that I am, if I hadn't seen it with my own double click. I literally watched one blog go from 40 votes, to 120 votes to over 300 votes in less than five minutes, placing said blogger at the front of the pack.
If this were say, the stock market maybe then, and only then, would I accept such dramatic changes. Perhaps someone had an all of their minions lined up at computer labs across the country, a arsenal of double click majorettes who acted upon hearing the order "ATTACK NOW!"
With the popular vote itself ironically losing popularity, the judges had no choice but to reassess the situation. Voting was originally slated to last a grueling few weeks, which was far too long, even by Kevin "Dances With Wolves" Costner's standards.
The judges were now in a pickle. Should they call off the farce, end the bloodshed and announce the winners, or should they drag this thing on indefinitely?
What the judges did next might surprise you. They did neither. The voting was indeed closed, however, a decision was still far off. This was when the second major glitch in the infamous Battle of The BOB's. While voters and finalists waited for the results, very little information as to when the results were coming were actually revealed. In the meantime, the BOBers posted about a blog cruise and another blog contest where you could vote...for the BOB'S. Meanwhile the restless masses just got angrier...and angrier.
Many people incessantly worried about the outcome. These people clearly had too much time on their hands. Besides, if you looked at the popular vote it seemed overwhelmingly easy to predict who would come out on top.
But then an amazing thing happened. The popular vote went from being the be all end all to seemingly... nothing at all. Take that, ballot box stuffers!
Now that the dust has finally begun to settle, I can finally speak freely on where I stand on all things BOB. For most of this process, I can perhaps best compare my feelings to Drew Barrymore in the movie Irreconcilable Differences. Poor little Drew was just a child, wanting to be loved, who was caught in the crossfire of an ugly custody battle.
Only in my world, AOGB is that little child, caught in the middle between the denouncers and the makers. On one hand I admire the judges that volunteered to create a contest that helps little bloggers like me get more recognition. To complain about that would be like biting the blogger that feeds you.
Yet on the other hand, there is a fine line between error and embarrassment. No one, including the judges themselves, has denied there were a LOT of errors that gave the naysayers all the ammunition they needed.
All the reasons listed above are what make any sort of victory bittersweet. You feel guilty for "winning" which implies you are "better" than another blogger. You also feel partly ashamed that it took so long to find out who won which makes you wonder how much of a victory it really is. And as far as the "it took very long part" some of you might be reading this right now thinking to yourself, "You mean that contest didn't end weeks ago?!"
For what it's worth, I was and still am proud to be nominated. As many of you already know, I consider AOGB the column I don't get paid to write and the thought that people out there enjoy it amazes me every. single. day.
The judges might have placed me in the top ten, but it was you, yes YOU who cared enough to submit AOGB to begin with. Without y'all I'm nothing. Seriously.
Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a silver medal to go polish.
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