18 December 2003
I am underwhelmed.
You should have entered, Vaughan.
I must confess to a moment of surprise upon opening the newspaper this morning...was it an issue of good writing from Belle de Jour, or was it subject matter? Fair enough, I don't know of another blog that is even vaguely similar, nor many that seem to do what they set out to achieve so well, but I do think I know a good couple that, *in my opinion* are better written. But then again, they may not have entered. I do think in the discussion of the winning entries in the article, they focus more on the subject matter and how different it was, rather than on the writing.
Just a thought.
Well - as I wrote the piece, and I was just dropping by, I can't help but respond.
Actually we thought about nothing but the writing. I think one of the things that helped all three blogs we mentioned in this category was that they not only contained good writing (and Belle de Jour's writing style is exceptional) but they also had very tightly focussed subject matter, which made them very readable.
Each of them had a (apologies for crap lit crit here) consistent narrative....which ultimately gave them the edge over a lot of other blogs which might well have good writing in, but didn't work as well as a whole. It wasn't meant to be that way, but I can see how it happened.
It's something we'll think about when we're doing the categories next year.
As for being underwhelmed, I think that's a great injustice to the winners: all of whom are producing great blogs. It's not that there aren't other great blogs out there (this being one of them), but we were really pleased with the overall standard of the winners.
Much as it pains me to shatter my own ego here I am forced to agree that Belle Du Jour and Call Center Confidential are very well written sites that happen to be distributed through blogging software. Look at Mil Millington for instance. If he used blogging software we'd all be falling over one another to add him to link lists and sidebars.
So many people use the technology for so many things, everyone seems to read different meaning into what a blog is. Is it a site that logs web browsing activity? Is it a personal journal? Is it a book that's being slowly divested over the web? A collection of random thoughts?
You can't fault the Guardian for attempting to bring it more into the popular consciousness, something I felt Tom and Jane had a hard time agreeing upon at the meetup. We all want that recognition, that legitimisation, the book deal, the daily column in print, otherwise we wouldn't be doing it out in the public forum.
Of the three contenders for best written, I've sat and read through every post of two of them. Pepys I'm unfamiliar with but will certainly give a try.
I wasn't criticising the decision, I was wondering upon what basis it was founded because of the percieved emphasis in today's article. Call Centre is consistently excellent, and I do read BdJ, although I have to say, more through a compelling interest in the subject matter than an appreciation of the style.
It's given me a grin that Simon has commented in response, mind.
I really wish I didn't have so much work to do today and had the time to marshall my thoughts enough to write properly on this, but I don't, so I'll just say that I'm glad I didn't enter, and I'm glad I wasn't a judge.
See, she claims she isn't Alist, but she posts one line linking it and Simon defends it. You weren't trolling were you Stuart? We'd have to throw you to Gert if you were.
She's, like, totally the uberblogger.
Nope. Just popped by as per the usual reading rounds!
And of course to see what today's picture was. Becoming a bigger and bigger fan of Pix's photography every day.
That's a hell of a photo, too.
It is isn't it!
As backlash goes this is all pretty tame. Can't we have a few indignant people stand up and say they'll never read the Guardian ever again?
i'll never read the guardian ever again! it doesn't come around these parts, but even so... someone has to be indignant, don't they?
i s'pose i could visit the website...nope. indignancy runs high!
as an aside, i totally thought someone was putting you on with waldman's comment. but the lack of irony and humor in the comment made me think otherwise.
I wasn't intending to start the backlash, merely commenting that the inevitable backlash would now begin...
Gawd, I'm not only a crap rebel but a worse revolutionary...
Oh the irony of it! The full delicious works.
I didn't enter, mainly because I thought that even if anyone read my site they would never consider it a 'weblog'. Because it's not linky or newsy or techie, it didn't have comments (at the time), it had relatively narrow subject matter and it had a narrative of sorts, a Jamesian operational centre as it were.
A site like that would never win, would it?
Anyway congrats to B de J (BJ?), which is, IMHO, pro's writing at its best.
Maybe next year.
Sorry. I think I meant:
'a Jamesian operative centre'
back there.
Actually, I'm not in blogging for a book deal. I'd like to point that out now.
I'm in blogging because.. um...
Does anyone REALLY know why they do this??
The champagne, the beautiful women, the fast cars?
Sorry, I'm confusing blogging and spying again, aren't I?
It strikes me that most of you are gnashing and whining simply because The Guardian has failed to recognise anyone in your little circle wank.
And having looked at your site D, I'm going to stick my neck out and say that you will never get a book deal. The best chance you have of any recognition is if The Guardian introduces an award for the blogger with his head furthest up his own arse.
Honestly, you bloggers slay me.
Remember folks, no feeding the trolls...
You obviously don't get around the blogosphere much. I'm fairly low on the scale of monumentally egocentric and elitist bloggers. I don't even have groupies.
I have to wonder what sort of person trolls blogs... sorry, trawls blogs simply to chime in with a comment like that. I guess you're feeling a lot more unfulfilled with your lot in life than any of us.
Unfulfilled and proud of it!
Voice of reason? Sounds like the voice of jealousy to me. I mean, I'm jealous of D. Who wouldn't be?
Mark. Mark's got no reason to be jealous. If there was a prize for "person most likely to end up writing a daily column having started off doing it for kicks on the Interweb thingy" Mark would win. I'd probably end up second with my luck.
It occurs to me that the comments in this thread are very unbitter about the results. We haven't been bitchy at all, we haven't lamented or lambasted, in fact this has overall been probably the most favorable backlash the Big G could have hoped for. Which just makes the troll stand out.
It could be apathy!
Go on - ask me how much I care.
Oh - and another cracking pic pix!
Troll? Trolling?
I have a rough idea but I'm really not certain what it means...if you think I was looking for trouble..then I weren't.
Trust me. In terms of post-award bitterness, I've had a lot of practise, so perhaps I'm just more restrained now than I was when slighted in...well. I won't go into it. I concur on the pics. This was such a good idea Pix, especially as the galleries of food and, er, your legs, stopped a while back...
:-)
Stuart - I wasn't suggesting you were the troll :)
As for the pics, well they're all still there, just not linked at the moment so they didn't clutter up my lovely minimalist design *cough*.
Also because I'm working on ways to make typepad do something more photobloggy for the new year, since I've got thousands of pics that I haven't yet posted.
I need a troll for my film. Can I post an audition notice?
Sure - but I don't generally attract them in here, so you might not get much of a response.
To take a moment out from being flippant and facetious (and it will be a strain, you know), it occurs to me that the little blog circles of wank, as I think they were referred to, are inevitable. We're rather like football supporters with our favourite teams, and we're disgusted when one of our own doesn't get elevated to the top. But despite all our backlashing and moaning, I think most of us really can manage still to get on with our lives without the recognition of The Guardian - we'll still support the teams of our choice and slag off the Man Utds of the blogosphere to our hearts' content. It's all part of the game.
Hear Hear.
Newsflash: "blogosphere" just like real life. Some people are cooler, more attractive, more interesting or more popular than others.
In other news: Sky is blue. Water is wet. Bear excrement discovered in forest.
Breaking news: Pope is Catholic.
Blog circle wank. Soon to be used all over the place... no that doesn't sound right...
As one of the highly commended I was waiting for the inevtiable backlash too. Yes, it has happened (very agressively in some circles) and it all seems to be aimed at the winner of best written Belle de Jour for a variety of reasons which I'm not going to go into.
However, what I really wanted to say is that I've been much more than pleasantly surprised over bloggers reaction in general and it's been typified by the posts here, which have been thought provoking, honest and not bitchy or agressive.
Thanks guys, it actually means a lot when you are chosen (from a self nominated list admittedly) to not hear people massively slagging off the awards. As Mo Morgan in the UK Bloggers' Yahoo Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ukbloggers-discuss/ said:
"Frankly, I don't think there's anything wrong with criticising the Guardian or the competition as they see fit. I think they not only expect it, but encourage it.
However, I wasn't referring to people tearing into the Guardian. I just think it's wrong to criticise the winners just because they won.
However people feel about the competition should not affect how people feel about those who took part.
I wanted to avoid using this expression because it makes me cringe, but I guess I'm trying to say that we should blame the game, not the players."
And thanks to Pix for saying I wuz robbed, and others here for their congrats that means a lot too :-)
Curse Mo for being so good-natured and sensible. You didn't see this kind of considered debate back when the 2003 Bloggie winners were announced and I was robbed by TC
Good-natured and sensible? Christ. Someone please kill me.
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