I had hoped for a nomination. Yes, I did. I know some of you love Chezsven: Wellfleet Today and nominated it. (Thank you!) The people behind the Bloggies even noticed your votes. I know this because they clicked through to my blog via a “panelist” link, twice. Well, I don’t feel bad anymore after reading the finalists in Best Kept Secret and Best Topical. Here’s what the bloggers, nominated in these two categories, offer that I don’t:
• Outlandish photos, minimalist writing
• Tendency towards the vernacular
• More than occasional use of profanity
• Thoughts that are random, as opposed to thought-provoking
• Twitter and Facebook literacy
• Attitude.
My first look revealed a world of hip, young bloggers, appealing to a hip, young audience. Still, the more I read, the more I scratched my head. Where were the serious topics? Was this what’s considered good blog writing these days? Who created the finalist list, anyhow? I perused it a bit more.
On the fifth entry for Best New Blog, the writer declares, “Unbeknownst to me, Hard Feelings was nominated + received enough votes to become a finalist in the ‘Best New Weblog’ catergory of the 2010 Bloggies. Pretty crazy, right? The site’s only been up for a month + a half!”
So, um, I was wondering who does the final selection + based on what criteria? This information is not provided. Still, it's clear receiving votes in the nomination process is not enough. You have to pass a popularity contest, conducted by a panel of unidentified bloggers, past winners perhaps? If you want to check out the 2010 selection, go here.
Fake Plastic Fish (a worthwhile blog on keeping plastic out of the environment) and Starving off the Land (an excellent local blog), both nominated, did not make the cut either. (You'll find links on the right, in the sidebar.)
I was hoping to find more worthwhile blogs to follow and recommend. Didn’t happen.Here’s a photo of LeCount Hollow Beach this morning, much too cold for a walk, and here's something else to think about, an article related to our B&B, a bit tenuously related, true, but related nonetheless since Sven’s a Swedish historian: global warming may be putting Viking ships that sank in the Baltic Sea at risk. Read about it here.
