I've been blogging for 5 years now, and throughout the years, I haven't paid much attention to blogging awards - the Webby, the bloggies and so on - especially as the same usual suspects keep on appearing on the list.
So I was pleasantly surprised when Marilyn (AKA The Nag), sent me the link to the 2010 Canadian Blog Awards (yes, she's a finalist and yes, I voted for her).
The blogs that appear on this particular award remind me of the good ol' days of blogging, which involve browsing a lot of obscure blogs to find the nuggets that end up as posts on Neatorama.
It's *a lot* of work going through all those blogs, and over the years, many bloggers (yours truly included) have developed a list of "go to" blogs and websites to find stuff to post about. Efficiency goes up, but the downside is that I feel we lose a bit (or a lot) of variety (James Mowry of Techi complained that the reason the blogosphere is sooo lame is that everything is the same).
Indeed, there's a pressure to cover whatever is hot at the moment, even though it's been covered everywhere else. Sometimes things that we found go viral, so it seems like we did a me-too post. I don't know if everything *is* the same on the blogosphere (a survey would be interesting), but it sure feels like it sometimes (some of you've had lengthy discussions with me about the evolution of Neatorama's blog posts and the diversity of our sources).
So Neatoramanauts, let me ask you what you think: what can we do to improve diversity and highlight good (but obscure) microblogs? Should we create the Obbies (the Obscure Blog Awards)? Or is blogging diversity good enough on the blog and we should leave things as they are?
Links: Canadian Blog Awards by Jonathan Kleiman, where you can vote for Nag on the Lake if you want to; the list itself is worthy of browsing (that's where I found XOXO Jess, the source of the post below). Good luck, Marilyn!
I love this blog. Throughout all of the recent changes you have maintained the integrity of the blog. And besides you have what many other blogs do not. You have all of these fine people who write all of those wonderfully original pieces that make Neatorama the best blog of them all.
Thanks to all of you for always giving me amazing things to look at and learn about.
Jo
Additionally, for me personally, I really get tired of all the cat stories. I know you guys love your cats and think everything cats do are cute and adorable and should be posted, but it's like the neighbor showing his vacation pictures. "Here we are walking up to the Eiffel Tower. Here we are walking closer to the Eiffel Tower. Here's the elevator to the Eiffel Tower. Here we are on the elevator to the Eiffel Tower. Here we are half-way up..." You get the idea.
And I know what cat-loving posters are going to say--Just skip those and move on. And I do. But that seriously limits the number of neat stories for me to check out each day!
@Jenni_purrr - Thank you! 300 blogs - that's a lot! It really is an issue of time and efficiency. I love browsing through smaller blogs' blogrolls - and have found some gems that way, but these days, it's hard to get dedicate the time to do that.
@James Schend - McDonald's burger stories should last as long as those burgers do! :) Certain things do tend to pop up over and over again. I think it reflects our fascination at the unrottable foodstuff (if we can call it that) from McDonald's.
@Fran - cat is one of those things that pop up over and over again. I can't understand it myself. Perhaps we should come up with a different LOLanimal. Let me see what I can dig up.
However, obscure-but-entertaining blogs are always a joy to find.
Nag is worthy of both titles and has my vote every 24 hrs .
I also agree that web awards are overused and you should stray away from the idea of creating your own. But some sort of badge system you could incorporate into your posts would be interesting. Certified Neat....Science something or something.... or for the really lame videos, like that lady stupidly falling off her guard rail, they could be called "giggle worthy."
And now, since it sounds as though I'm telling you how to run your blog, I'll stop typing.
I don't mean to say that you should alter the scope of your blog, I just think you should have some necessary criteria that a post should meet before it gets posted. Out of every 10 posts there are 2-3 pointless ones that apparently serve as filler.
One practice that I've adopted is that before I hit "Publish", I ask myself "How is this neat?" If I can't immediately think of a good, specific answer to that question, I don't post it.
Neatness, I find, is very subjective. If you can offer any specific criteria to define neatness, it'd help.