I’ve been considering the categories for the blog awards for 2007. I’ve added some and removed one. The best comment/commentor was hard to get submissions for and hard to judge.
- Best Blog
- Best Blog Post
- Most Humorous Post
- Best Photo Blog
- Best Fictional Piece in a Blog
- Best Arts and Culture Blog
- Best Political Blog
- Best Group Blog
- Best Personal Blog
- Best Use of the Irish Language in a Blog
- Best Contribution to the Irish Bloggersphere
- Best Technology Blog/Blogger
- Best Newcomer
- Best Regional Blog
- Best Business Blog
- Best Music Blog
Best Comment/Commenter
New Categories:
I’ll also announce another 4 “surprise” categories closer to the event. Anyone got suggestions for other categories?
How about a best female blogger, I think we’re still under-represented in the blogging world, i just looked through my feeds and I’ve about 3 male bloggers for every female… Might help female bloggers to get a bit more publicity…
How about the best use of the word dossing in a blog? ???? No??
One i think that would be good would be best designed blog alot of people put a lot of work into their blog design.
I understand that some people record their blog entries as MP3 files, and require people to download them and listen to them, not even providing a transcript so I can read it in about a third of the time, or perhaps link to its contents.
Even though I consider this the height of rudeness, perhaps there’s enough interest to make them a category.
[Also, are there no budding Ze Proinsias out there?]
Best sports blog.
I have to say that I think ‘Best Female Blogger’ is not a good idea. The Internet is supposed to be the great equalizer. There should be no barriers to stop women from blogging. If we have a Best Female Blogger, that would imply that we should have a Best Male Blogger award. And that would be silly.
Like John, I think having a Best Podcast category would be good.
I have to agree with you Colm. I’ve had a similar debate with Mary Gilmartin today who seems offended that I have no females in my draft “Expert’s List”. Believe me I’d have them in there if I was aware of them so I’m looking forward to her pointing them out to me (and I’m not being sarcastic!). It makes so sense to me to have ‘positive discrimination’ of any kind.
What’s ‘positive discrimination’ you might ask? Well it’s a little known fact that employment law in Ireland suggests that all other things being equal you should offer the job to the ‘discriminated’ candidate – female, traveller (or other ethnic minority) or disabled person.
Off topic, but…
On what ground, all other things being equal, should you not give it to the discriminated party?
People who aren’t discriminated against don’t need the break and society could use the kick up the arse.
Colm, I see your point and it is a bit biased, but to respond to James’ point about not knowing many female experts, the same would apply if you asked him (or other people) about female bloggers… we’re a bit of a rare breed unfortunately! That’s one of the reasons that I suggested it, simply by having a list of nominations it would make some of the blogs more well known.
‘Sport & Recreation’ category please! where else do we fit in!?
Sports is an often overlooked category. That should be there.
Don’t agree with the best Female category as it’s obviously just there to make sure a lady gets an award. As it was at least two ladies won awards last year and that’s surely a good representation.
I’m not sure any lady worth her salt would want to win an award just because she didn’t have a mickey to zip up.
How about Best News/Current Affairs Blog? Plenty of worthwhile contenders there, I should think…
And as a bird, I wouldn’t agree with a Best Female Blogger award. Unless there is a Best Male Blogger award too. And that would be a waste of two categories
Not offended, puzzled.
Ok Mary, sorry if I misunderstood the tone of your message. That’s one of the problems of textual communications I guess.
Elly, just to be clear, it’s obviously not the case that I don’t know female experts – just that I don’t know Irish female experts who blog in the areas that I’m interested in. And that’s the pool from which I’m drawing up my ‘List of Experts.’
Suzy Byrne
Sabrina Dent
Sinead Gleeson
Annette Clancy
Claire Wilson
Sarah Carey
Mary Gilmartin
Natalie Buhl
Miz Random Grub 🙂
Karlin Lillington
They’re all experts. They’re all prominent bloggers. They’re all female and there’s a lot more than them in the Irish Blogging Community.
Going back to the Best Female Blogger, I think the fact that 3 of the 13 awards going to women is good but it would be nice to see more women winning. 3 of the remaining 10 were won by just one person too. I’m not convinced that a womens only award is a good idea since women in the Irish Blogging certainly hold their own and from what I can see will be represented far more at the next awards.
Ahem. I blog. 🙂
How about best parenting blog? There are a few out there…including me.
From the experts list i was drawing up, i have a good few who blogs on family issues.
So Best Family Blog i think would be very suitable.
Maybe also a best Education Blog, though I have only come across one person blogging in that area.
How about a best charity/non-profit blog?
There’s not a whole lot of them, but this one in particular has been quite effective
Ireland 16 Day
Sounds like a good idea.
Again though, is there enough for it to be a field yet? Is there 4-5 of them? If there isn’t enough yet, it could be put down for next year.
“They’re all experts. They’re all prominent bloggers.”
Good list Damien, I was only aware of Mary’s and Karlin’s blogs previously. Mary’s is a great blog and working its way quickly into my expert list. Karlin’s *was* a great blog and would have been top of my list except it’s been March since she posted to it (has she moved somewhere?).
Remember I said – “I don’t know Irish female experts who blog in the areas that I’m interested in.” – and on a cursory glance it looks like some of these don’t blog in areas of my interest. So, I still not might be adding them to *my* experts list, simply because I don’t feel qualified to judge anyone an expert in an area I don’t have a good understanding of myself. That, naturally, is not to say that they aren’t experts or that they won’t make your Expert List and the list’s of others. BTW girls, I’m subscribed to dozens of male bloggers who won’t make my Experts List!
Anyway, good to have some new Irish subs.
[better use my full name to distinguish from Mr. Mulley]
Coming back on the charity blogs – it is early days yet, but a few charities are experimenting with the medium.
Apart from Womens Aid and their 16 Days blog mentioned above…
Trócaire have a number of interesting blogs from their staff in Palestine, Darfur, Lebanon and elsewhere.
Concern have started a blog from the Congo.
what about best lifestyle blog?
or ahum
best beauty blog? Oh I jest, I jest.
Lifestyle is a bit of a hokey term but might pour some oil on the troubled male /female waters – for example, women are often lifestyle bloggers just like men are often sports bloggers. But you’re not judging or awarding on the basis of sex. Though you can have a fair auld guess!
Suzy Byrne
Sabrina Dent
Sinead Gleeson
Annette Clancy
Claire Wilson
Sarah Carey
Mary Gilmartin
Natalie Buhl
Miz Random Grub 🙂
Karlin Lillington
Also styletreaty.com is run by gurls.
I think both Sports and Parenting are the big omissions.
Also whilst it’s easy to understand the reasons for dropping Best Comment/Commenter it would be good if the discussion/conversation that takes place on many blogs could be recognised, particularly as it’s a significant element of blogging. To credit the host for creating the space more than crediting specific contributors?
Maybe Best Commented Blog or Best Blog with Ongoing Conversation, or something less pompous?
Oh oh I have a blog on something really niche so I demand a category so I have a chance of winning. Parenting? Women? How many Irish Parenting blogs out there? A category for women says they are too weak to compete in other categories, tut tut.
How about something to award the blog with the best interface and most useful features?
It wouldn’t just be about the best designed blog (although that’d be a factor), it would also factor in extras put onto the site to make it more user-friendly, interactive and generally worthy of a direct (rather than RSS) visit.
I’d also be against a female blog award, purely because there’s a best blogger award and there’s no reason why that can’t go to a female (assuming they’re the best blogger going… sure I have my suspicions that Twenty’s a lady anyway).
Would be all for a Sports/Rec blog, but are there enough to cover it? I know there’s the Liverpool access blog and Northsider on the Southside terrace, but what else? I suppose it’s good to have an award where being nominated is an honour as well, where each person isn’t just there to make up the numbers.
Wouldn’t mind seeing a Current Affairs blog, although not sure how that can be separated from the Political topic range… you could always make it a political/CA award?
Maybe to solve the issue of certain bloggers being boxed out due to the subjects they chose to talk about, how about an award for Best Niche blog, that covers topics not big enough to get their own award (because they’re the only ones talking about it)? I mean, blogging is supposed to be about giving people the chance to talk about anything, big or small, so the awards should reflect that.
It might be hard to compare two very different blogs in that award, but sure you have to do that for the best overall blog anyway.
http://www.irishblogs.info/index.php?cat_id=17 – Sports blogs and I’m sure there are more than what’s listed there.
I have my suspicions that Twenty’s a lady anyway
Come over here and say that to my tits.
I think we should have a best gay-lesbian parents, female who don’t mind just getting an award for being female, charity, newspaper reading, caterpillar specialist cateogory. You know, just to keep everyone happy.
How about best male arseholes whose comments are completely negative and can’t make an actual sensible suggestion to save their lives??
For fuck’s sake lads, Damien asked for suggestions, I gave a couple, so did some other people. If you disagree with them, why can’t you just say so simply and move on? What is it that makes you need to tear people down and accuse them of trying to make awards that only they can win? People are only trying to help and make suggestions – try discussing them like adults.
How about best male arseholes whose comments are completely negative and can’t make an actual sensible suggestion to save their lives??
Sexist pig!
Come over here and say that to my tits.
See you at the awards 😉
Best Food blog
I’d concur (obviously) with a best parenting blog, there are lots of us blogging away on the topic, male and female.
I’d also add: (I know some may have been suggested in one form or another already)
Best podcast or video
Best Charity/non-profit
Best Music blog
Best Political blog
Best New Blog
Best Sports Related blog
Best Food blog
Best Lifestyle blog
On the other topics going around this thread, I don’t have a problem at all with Best Female Blogger and indeed with also having a Best Male Blogger.
It was clear from the awards last year there are lots of women blogging but for whatever reasons few of us were/are visible above the parapets (James Corbett’s expert list backs this up somewhat to me). Looking at how many awards were presented to women last year also backs this up. (Though in fairness it was hard to beat the Mighty Twenty). As Damien (Mulley – not O’Broin) said we should see more women represented at the next ones.
I certainly don’t agree that having a best female blogger category implies that women are not as good as blogging, far from it, the sites I frequent say differently. And the fact that an expert list was drawn up with no women included at all is telling to me. There was another list this week by United Irelander listing the top 100 Irish people and there were only a couple of women named. Why? Are there so few great Irish women? not at all. Have they been overlooked of course.
I could add a load of women to his list and will do at some stage soon. Whether we like it or not women can be and are overlooked and sometimes we need to give a helping hand to rectify that. Whether or not this means a best female blog category or not I don’t know. But maybe it means going beyond your own comfort zone and exploring sites you normally wouldn’t.
I regularly stop by various techie and other development blogs. Sometimes I haven’t a clue what I am looking at and other times I learn stuff.
I think the problem I have with the best male/female awards is that it dilutes the whole thing; the best blog in Ireland should be the best blog in Ireland, it should be compared to everything else going, not just half (or whatever proportion) of the community.
I just don’t see the point in creating a divide for the sake of giving people a slightly better chance of winning; you could split every blog award category based on gender if you wanted to, but it wouldn’t really make it the best then, would it?
As for UI’s list, it probably does omit a few women who did great things (I just scanned through it tbh)… and there is a gender imbalance there because of sexism, but it’s not UI’s sexism, it’s the sexism of the relevant era’s which stopped women from doing great things.
The fact is that fewer women had the opportunity to do great things for their country/the world until relatively recently… that’s not an Irish phenomenon either, it’s global.
How about a category for us oldies [who have a thing about George Bush and a few other things besides]?
Call it the Best Oldcomer Category….
I vote for a “Best Blog Awards Presenter” category 🙂
Back in your box, O’Shea…
I’d also like to see the best charity/non-profit blog category, for obvious reasons!
I quite like the idea of best male/best female blog. It might be interesting to see in what ways they differ or not… I think best new blog is always real interesting too. Best student blog maybe… (any more ways i can possibly grab a nomination???? 🙂 )