Blogcritics: Comments on Best of the Best

Comment by Harry Forbes

Mon, 20 Dec 2004 21:07:50 EST

Awards be damned. The best (or worst) thing to happen to blogs is the sitemeter. Do you remember the story from 'Cat's Cradle' about the extraterrestrials who conquered an entire planet without war by publishing certain false anatomical statistics on cereal boxes for all to read? Well, I believe the sitemeter came from those extraterrestrials.

Comment by Eric Berlin

Mon, 20 Dec 2004 02:15:11 EST

Kenlyen - agreed on the secret chuckling and the ranking and the awards and the spice!

Comment by kenlyen

Mon, 20 Dec 2004 02:14:20 EST

Thanks. I'm just secretly chuckling at one the quirks of human behavior... ranking people and things. Sure, it occurs in nearly every area of endeavor. The flavor of this month just happens to be blogs, which is why I'm writing about it. And yes, I'm all for awards... it adds spice to our otherwise lackluster existence!

Comment by kenlyen

Mon, 20 Dec 2004 02:12:11 EST

Thanks. I'm just secretly chukcling at one the quirks of human behavior... ranking people and things. Sure, it occurs in nearly every area of endeavor. The flavor of this month just happens to be blogs, which is why I'm writing about it. And yes, I'm all for awards... it adds spice to our otherwise lackluster existence!

Comment by Animesh Rawal

Mon, 20 Dec 2004 01:43:21 EST

Why just focus on blogs? Aren't "Best Movie", "Best Song" etc. also all very personal choices? So does that mean that nothing anywhere should ever be awarded? In a world where everything is special, nothing is. [A warped line from a dialogue I heard in "The Incredibles"]

Comment by Daryl

Mon, 20 Dec 2004 01:38:01 EST

Yes, very cool. On the one hand, people like to blog to express themselves, but on the other hand, these awards at least say that someone is listening - the old "if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it" dilemma.

Comment by Eric Berlin

Mon, 20 Dec 2004 00:21:32 EST

Very cool post. As a relatively new blogger, I'll be the first to admit that I'm pulled in by the numbers game. Perhaps that's because in the blogging world, you can go from relative obscurity to relative fame in a relatively short period of time. Of course, it's all relative (ha ha). Take Blog Critics. It's only been around for a few years, yet it pulls in thousands of visitors a day -- this is something that would have been unheard of (without couch-loads of cash) only a few years ago. So we're really at the infancy of an egalitarian, cheap, and open-all-night medium. It's fun, it's free, and if you live in a country that at least claims to value freedom, you probably won't get hauled off to jail for it. Eric Berlin Dumpster Bust: Miracles from Mind Trash http://dumpsterbust.blogspot.com

Comment by Temple Stark

Mon, 20 Dec 2004 00:05:51 EST

He he. I like the way you handled this one Ken. Nothing from you Jim C. :-)