The Blog of the Year Awards, run in conjunction with Liberal Democrat Voice, are back for their third year. As usual, they’ll be awarded in a budget lavish ceremony at the party’s autumn conference in Bournemouth.
We have retired a few categories from last year and introduced some new ones. This year’s awards are:
- Best new Liberal Democrat blog (started since 1st August 2007)
- Best blog from a Liberal Democrat holding public office
- Best use of blogging or social networking by a Liberal Democrat
- Best posting on a Liberal Democrat blog (since 1st September 2007)
- Best non-Liberal Democrat politics blog
- Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year
The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice the different cut-off dates for best new blog and best posting. We felt that a new blog might need time to be recognised, so although 31th August was the voting deadline last year, blogs that started in the previous month are eligible for the award.
To be eligible for “Best blog from a Liberal Democrat holding public office”, a blog should be written by a councillor, elected mayor, assembly member, or parliamentarian.
The new “Best use of blogging or social networking” recognises the expanding role of both blogging and the likes of Facebook, Twitter microblogging and YouTube in politics. It’s a deliberately open category: you might want to nominate a good campaigning YouTube video, or a particularly interesting Twitter feed.
The “Best non-Liberal Democrat politics blog” winner will be chosen by you, dear reader (should you choose to take part). Once the judges have chosen their shortlist, these blogs will be put up for public vote here on Liberal Democrat Voice.
The judging panel of nine is still being finalised, but I can tell you which judges have blogs so that you can avoid nominating them, as they’re not eligible to win. Blogging judges are Ryan Cullen (of Hapless Band of Staff and Regulars and Lib Dem Blogs), Lynne Featherstone, James Graham, me, Sunny Hundal, and Stephen Tall. Liberal Democrat Voice and any official party blogs (such as Corruption is a Crime) aren’t eligible either.
You’ve got until 31st August to nominate your favourites, but the sooner the better (and you can send more than one set if you’d like). Please don’t feel the need to round up hundreds of people to nominate your blog as the number of nominations aren’t taken into account. You can send in your nominations by email to [email protected]
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55 Comments
And the winner is…
Leech Weltzer, ladies and gentlemen!
* Best new Liberal Democrat blog (started since 1st August 2007) – I’m wondering if I’m eligible for this? I mean, I’ve been blogging since well before the cut-off date, but I only became a Lib Dem in April… Not that modesty wouldn’t forbid me voting for myself anyway, but, you know, some other poor bugger might be fool enough to vote for me…
Also, can I nominate Liberal Drinks on Facebook, even though it was started by James?
Also also, is Liberal Conspiracy ineligible for non-LibDem blog because of Sunny?
If best non-lib dem blog is being voted for by us readers, then blogs of judges shouldn’t be excluded, especially when the blog in question is widely rated as one of the top 5 UK politics blogs by a number of metrics.
That a number of Lib Dems write for it in a variety of capacities shouldn’t discount it either as it’s overwhelmingly non-partizan and most contributors aren’t LDs.
(and Jennie’s already asked if she counts as I think ‘people wot were persuaded to join because of their blogging’ should be recognised, and we should encourage more of that sort of thing generally)
Well, no-one’s going to vote for me because they think:
1. I’m not related to anyone
2. I’m not a potential female candidate
I have proof that this really is the basis of people’s choices in these types of awards!!
Sorry, Jo, I nominated the other Jo 🙁 I feel guilty about that now, cos I bet other people will have nominated her anyway…
Feel free to post it then. It’s certainly not why I made the decisions I made, nor why a lot of other people make their decisions. Some people may make decisions based around that sort of thing, but I’d be very surprised if it’s more than a tiny minority, let alone close to a majority.
I’ll be nominating Jennie this year because we met through blogging and thus I’ve always liked her blog, I’d never consider James Graham’s strengths as a candidate when considering him one of the bloggers that persuaded me I would fit into the party before joining.
So where’s this proof Jo? Persuade me I vote for different reasons than I actually do.
I’m not really bothered Jennie – I’m not even going to conference and you may have noticed (or not as the case may be) my lack of interest in blogging lately.
Matt – I do have evidence but if I was the person in question I would not want a private facebook message posted on LDV without my permission. It happens a lot as I’m only ever nominated by the people who I chat to a lot online – which you could say is good networking, but surely the writing should come into it somewhere too?
My blogs shit anyway so I don’t expect anyone to vote for it – my blog posting nomination at spring was a total embarrassment and I intend to keep well away from this…
Hmmm… I recognise something here. Now whilst I agree that not broadcasting a private Facebook ‘conversation’ is a good thing, broadcasting that such a conversation has taken place only encourages interest.
So, let’s lance that one, as I deeply suspect that Jo is referring to a conversation that I had with her. It’s a two-way street, and not necessarily a particularly scenic one. On the other hand, I made my nominations for Iain Dale’s little contest public, and provided some justification.
I do indeed use my nominations to encourage certain sub-groups of bloggers, in part because I do believe that we should encourage a more diverse blogosphere, as I believe that we should encourage a more diverse and reflective blogosphere. All other things being equal, I will vote for women and BME candidates and bloggers, a point that I have been pretty consistent on for some time, up to and including moving a motion to that effect at Federal Conference (I also wrote it and piloted it through my Regional Conference).
On a personal note, I find picking an exact number of nominees quite difficult. I am also aware that my choices are occasionally time sensitive, as is the case for many amongst us. Something or someone that catches our attention and sits in our forethoughts is more likely to be noticed when the time for nominationms comes. Last year, I happened to write a piece on divorce at around the time when nominations were sought, and I did rather well, somewhat better than I happen to think I merited, but that’s just the luck of the draw.
The fact is, all blogs have value at some level or another, especially where they cover subject matter in an interesting way, or where that subject matter is little known but has wider interest. And Jo, winning awards, or even being nominated for them, is not the reason why I write my blog. Don’t get me wrong, I am as pleased to be recognised as anyone, but I don’t write my blog in order to seek acclaim, I merely wish to contribute to debate and to create a greater knowledge.
If you’re not talking about peoples votes then why even bother with nomination? Simply take every blog on the lib dem blog list for the lib dem categories, along with asking for enlightenment to lib dem blogs you don’t know about *not* on the lib dem blogs list.
For the non-lib dem blogs I can understand wanting nominations, especially from lib dem bloggers, but for the rest it all seems a little…well…needless.
Thanks for that Mark – obviously you haven’t returned my respect for your privacy back to me. I always assume people will return respect. I’m a little naive that way.
“And Jo, winning awards, or even being nominated for them, is not the reason why I write my blog”
I don’t know where you got that idea from – I never said such a thing – the problem here now is you could easily put words in my mouth.
The problem I had with it was that you were nominating very new bloggers for a national award they obviously are not worthy to be nominated for. Voting for someone because you met them at the weekend and is engaged to someone active in the Lib Dems and you were quite taken with them is so so so shallow and I expect any contest entered into by any Lib Dem to be a little fairer than that!!!!!
Jo,
You will note that I did not reveal your input into the conversation, and as you were so enthusiastic in indicating the content of the conversation, I thought that I’d pre-emptively out myself.
But if you are going to do so, and then criticise my choices, do me the kindness of checking the context. My comments about one of my choices are unreconciliable when matched with what you’ve said in your comment here.
So, if it comes to betrayal, you seem to be denying your own claims to naivety. Perhaps I should never have responded to your initial message. A real politician wouldn’t have done, I suspect.
“Best non-LibDem blog”
The blogs I mostly read, because they are the best for information based content, are Guido Fawkes and Political Betting. But both I think, have LD connections?
Have been disappointed by the rather parochial scope of LD blogs this year.
Also heavily down in my rating is the conservative Iaian Dale who now has to recruit guest writers to fill his space, and otherwise, like so many bloggers goes in for the trivia of political gossip.
Yes perhaps you should be careful what you admit to on facebook now you are linked to a politician in a major way Mark. Sorry if you feel I have betrayed you. If you read my orginial comment here that was not my intention.
That’s right. Those are exactly the two criteria that allowed me and Stephen to win it over the last two years.
Well perhaps you created something bigger than you expected with the gender balance blog awards James!!!! :@D
Elizabeth, Mike Smithson who runs political betting, is a supporter of the Lib Dems AFAIK, but it’s most assuredly not a Lib Dem blog. If PB and Liberal Conspiracy are both ineligible (are they? I really would like an answer to that, Will, James?) then perhaps Chris Dillow? Or even Devil’s Kitchen. I bet he’d be REALLY happy to get an award from the Lib Dems… >:D
* feeling slightly uncomfortable about some of the other conversations on here *
Mark, Jennie, James, I wonder if you can help me on another matter. What feed do you use for your chickens? I tend to use budget feed for mine however lately I have noticed them growing two heads and they have a bluish tint?
Any suggestions?
Jo,
How many Lib Dem bloggers are related to each other? Very few, I would contend. You made the mistake of extrapolating my own personal comments into those of ‘people’ and then used those comments to make a public assertion that could only be defended by breaching my right to privacy.
Oh, and by the way, I do believe that I retain the right to have opinions independently of Ros. We don’t, and probably won’t, agree on absolutely everything, but I had a reputation as a faceless bureaucrat long before I met her, and your inference that I should need to be so paranoid as to self-censor my private comments is unworthy. I operate on the basis that people should be trusted until it is proven unwise to do so.
And as for your chickens, I’ll leave that to someone who knows more about them than I do…
When I say related to I should have said have strong links to – it’s quite noticable:
Mark V & Ros
Alix & Rob Fenwick
Millennium & Alex Wilcox
Jennie & Matt
Lynne F is supposed to be good friends with Mark P I believe?
When you think that 8 of the top bloggers are in relationships with each other it makes you look at the ‘top ten’ a bit differently.
Go ahead and trust people randomly on facebook then Mark…
Children!
Alix & Rob Fenwick
I think we should do a sweepstake to see which of these two objects the more loudly to that suggestion! 🙂
Seriously, for there to be a stitch up in the way you are suggesting, it would require a blogger with rather more polygamous leanings and [deleted by moderator] is already a judge.
Not sure about your plural there Martin—I’ve been reading the thread since I last commented and am wondering what colour the sky is where Jo keeps her chickens.
Jo—Mark and Ros became a couple reasonably recently, Mark has been blogging for a long time, Ros started more recently, but her blog is a) good and b)written by a ranking parliamentarian and thus interesting in its own right.
Alix, to my knowledge, hasn’t met Rob Fenwick, and is most certainly not his type from my understanding. If you meant Rob Knight, whose Liberal Review was, when regularly active with the Apollo team, an excellent daily must read, then, um, they both started blogging separately and got to know each other through blogging (specifically when I messaged them both suggesting they might want to work on a project that we’d sort of been discussing).
Millenium and Alex live together, so what? Jennie and I met through blogging and I persuaded her to join partially as a result of her blogging (I was asked at Liverpool why she wasn’t there by one of her readers). Oh, and my name is Mat or Matthew, I don’t know who this Matt person is but he’s not me.
Lynne set her blog up with Mark, when blogging was just starting and before he held the role he does now, my understanding is part of the reason he was appointed to this role is the success of Lynne’s site as part of their overall strategy in her area.
There are over 100 Lib Dem bloggers, and of those I’d rank highly the majority I know very little to nothing about their personal life, let alone if they’re linked to another blogger in some way (pretty sure James’ partner doesn’t blog, same for Stephen, Johnathan Fryer I enjoy reading when I’ve time but, Mary’s blog is an excellent example of a local party blog but given I have no links to her area it’s of little interest to me, I know nothing about Joe Otten’s personal life, and only a little about Anders’, etc.
Besides which, all of this is irrelevent as we are merely nominating, the judges will make a decision based around the nominations—some have listed their nominations in order that we don’t double up—specifically Jennie expects me to nominate differently to her, which is annoying as she’s picked several I’d have chosen. The wider the spread of nominations the better, surely?
How someone chooses to vote in awards such as Dale’s is also entirely their choice, some will vote for the blog, some the content or subject matter, some the appearance, others who the person actually is—people are strange like that, it’s why I find politics fascinating.
Given that my main blog is specifically not a political blog nor aimed at Lib Dems, and the political blog I do write for on occasions appears to be ineligible (can we clarify whether Liberal Conspiracy is eligible for the non-LD blog given that it’s a vote as it bloody ought to be given its success), I have no illusions whatsoever of winning—I’ll be at the awards though, hopefully, for a start someone normally offers to buy me a drink…
(@ James who just commented—neither Jennie nor I are judges either…)
Indeed James, and given that my nominations were for a national contest, with probably hundreds of people voting, I would be surprised if my vote was so influential as to significantly alter the outcome.
On the other hand, if I were to make a nomination or nominations for the Lib Dem awards, they would have to be perceived as credible by an august set of judges. If the judges deem any nomination to be worthy of shortlisting, it’ll probably be a good one. The quality last year was very high and I was extremely flattered to be one of the contenders for best posting.
However, I’ll avoid a nomination for best blog by a Liberal Democrat holding public office if that makes Jo happier 🙂
James who just commented—neither Jennie nor I are judges either…
Oh, you’d have to go a long way to beat [name deleted by moderator]!
You city slickers – you don’t know anything – the sky is purple flecked with pink…obviously…I’m still worried about my chickens..
So if I start shagging people from the party I get more votes?
What’s Nicks phone number?
🙂
Dear god, all this time my boyfriend has been lying to me about which Rob he is! Is nothing sacred, not even Robs?
A bit like being Earnest in the country and Rob in London…:@D
Andrew – if you find it forward it to me :@D
Alix,
No, I’m Rob! :-))
Mark
To get slightly back on track… 🙂
Liberal Conspiracy is not eligible due to Sunny helping us out as a judge.
Political Betting is a bit of a special case. It’s not intended as a Liberal Democrat blog, although Mike (who doesn’t write all the posts) is a Lib Dem. We are happy to accept nominations for it in the “Best non-Liberal Democrat politics blog” category; it is, however, consequently ineligible for any of the other categories.
Goodness! It’s enough to make this new blogger stop blogging!!
You’re not Rob. I am.
Does that mean that I’m not Spartacus either? 🙂
No, you’re Brian.
And so’s your wife.
Reports of my relationship with Alix Mortimer have been greatly exaggerated.
Though I have met her, and found her delightful, I confess she lacks the… what would be the word… cahones to really ignite my interest.
Rob
PS – I was one of the organisers of the first LD blog awards. The sole criteria for winning the award was being able to keep it in one piece while receiving it. We chose the wrong man.
There was a time when I thought youwere s***ing Alix believe it or not James!!!
…
And you based that on…?
Actually, forget I asked. I have no desire whatsoever to know.
There was a time when I thought youwere s***ing Alix
Well, I did give her her award at the CGB awards – dead giveaway, that. You mind must boggle when you watch the Brits, Jo!
Having said that, I will freely admit to being in a relationship with Alex, just not the same one.
You’re all making me giggle which is a bad thing as I maintain an austere exterior at all times.
I am the proud owner of a creative writing degree so what the f**k did you expect?!
:@D
This is beginning to sound like six degrees of separation, but without the six or indeed, in some cases, the separation…
Brian
In fact, perhaps I should confess the sordid details of my relationship with James. On the other hand…
James, you told me I was the only one!
Jennie,
That James, he’s such a networker… 😉
Never mind blog of the year, anyway. VOTE SAXON!
Vote Hacker surely?
(Although good to see Saxon beating Thatcher. Readers of the Herts and Essex Observer clearly think he is the lesser of two evils).
But surely Hacker has no aspirations in that area, unless the position were offered of course.
I meant cojones above… never trust your instinct that a word is spelled the way it’s pronounced!
Thank goodness, I’ve been wondering ever since what on earth was wrong with my cahones. I mean, I make them with real butter and everything.
I think you’re safe Rob. Urban Dictionary spells it the same way. It just makes you more street.
“PS – I was one of the organisers of the first LD blog awards. The sole criteria for winning the award was being able to keep it in one piece while receiving it. We chose the wrong man.”
ROFL! I thought you were looking for someone who’d sweep fainting damsels off their feet?
Does anyone know when the awards event will be? – I can’t find it in the Fringe Guide.
Six degrees of separation, Mark? To me this is all sounding increasingly like 60 degrees of alcohol!