JIBs Results and Full Medal Count
Thanks to everyone that voted for my blog. Point of Pinchas won a Silver and a Bronze. The Silver for the NBN Aliyah flight landing photos and the Bronze for Best Photo Blog. Another post that appeared on this blog (which I also posted on Kumah) - the Shabbat Candle Ladies also won a silver (on Kumah). So thanks! And welcome to all our new readers!
Now a word about a minor controversy the JIBs generated.
Things heated up a bit on a few blogs after Arutz-7 post this article about the JIBs which included voting links for Arutz-7 owned blogs and Aruz-7 employee's and (in my case) contributor's personal blogs. My blog was listed (I did not ask for it to be listed though was glad it was) since I'm often asked to contribute material to Arutz-7. I do not work for Arutz-7 and have never received a dime from them.
Some bloggers felt this was unfair. They felt the people that read Arutz-7 are mostly brain dead (I'm of course reading between the lines) individuals that would spend 25 minutes blindly voting for all the links that were listed there. And by the way - many of the blogs were actually running against each other thus it would be impossible to vote for all of them. Some proclaimed that A-7 "stole" the awards.
Well now that the results are out and all those bloggers could eat their words. I've put together a total JIBs medal count based on the winners list and as you could clearly see Arutz-7 steamrolled nobody. That's not to say there weren't some blogs that did some serious steamrolling but they weren't blogs listed in the Arutz-7 article. The "Arutz-7" blog that did the best was the group Kumah blog – which I write for as well. And if I may toot my own horn it's a darn good blog and deserves even more medals than it won! Even with Kumah's medals the total "Arutz-7 medal count" is only: 3 G, 6 S, 6 B for a total of 27 medal "points." Compare that with 40 G, 36 S, 39 B and 231 medal points handed out. Hardly a steamrolling by anyone's standards...
In terms of total vote count too there was no Arutz-7 steam anywhere... not even steamed carrots... no steamed lasers... and no steamed bones.
I was happy Arutz-7 wrote the article. Let's be honest. The blogs that complained would be happy too if they were listed. In any case it did bring publicity to the blog awards and thus to all the blogs that competed in them. And that's what the awards are meant for. Find me another media outlet that would interview the JIBs staff! It's perfectly reasonable for a paper to tell its readers which of its blogs or it's staff's personal blogs are competing in the awards. So lay off Arutz-7!
Below is the total JIBs medal count. Blogs that Arutz-7 mentioned in the article are denoted with a star. Also note that not all blogs listed in the article won awards.
And a final word. I've hotlinked every blog that won here so if you never seen one of these blogs check them out. I think the JIBs (and everyone complaining) should post a hotlinked list of ALL the blogs that competed - not just those that won. But that's just me...
2007 JIBs Awards Medal Count
Pinchas pointed at 5:39 PM
5 Comments:
I won't be eating any words. Arutz Sheva did nothing to encourage people to visit any other blogs, and instead were more adamant than before after I pointed out the error of their ways.
I am surprised you don't seem to see this.
Dave – so then you are making two arguments here.
1. Arutz-7 didn’t do enough to promote small blogs
2. Arutz-7 steamrolled all the competition.
Let's start backwards.
2. Arutz-7 didn't steamroll anybody. I'd be curious to hear from Akiva how many hits to direct voting pages actually came from that article. But I don't think very many as the medal numbers show.
Now,
1. Arutz-7 did promote small blogs. Again many of those blogs listed are not owned by Arutz-7 but are personal blogs and actually don't get very many hits -such as this one. And if you are upset at Arutz-7 for not promoting small blogs then you should be just as upset at the Jerusalem Post too. And what about Haaretz... oh and hey, the Jewish Press - didn't hear a word about the JIBs from them... if you really want to promote small blogs the way to do it is the way DovBear suggested provide links to them every week... actually even better - I would feature the contact directly on the larger blogs since we all know most people don't always click links.
Pinchas,
Nice strawman, but I never advanced the "steamrolling the competition argument." Read my post again. I did include BBs cartoon, but just to bring up the topic.
Regarding your argument that I should be equally upset at JPress and JPost, well I would have said the same thing had they merely asked readers to vote for their affiliated blogs. But they didn't as far as I am aware.
You did not address my point that although A7 were aware of the bad feelings they caused, they were as adamant - and arrogant - as ever.
I know A7 mean well and do some good, but they also do some extremely counterproductive things. This is one example.
Dov Bears suggestion is one way, but all it does it promote the blogs to other JBlogs. The idea behind the JIBs is to promote pro-Israel/Judaism views to the outside world.
Dave – I see where you are coming from but I think you are the only one coming from that position. Indeed most others upset at A7 were upset because of the steamroll idea. Still if the point of the JIBs is to pull more readers into the blog world you should realize many of the blogs Arutz-7 listed do link to other blogs and share warm relations with other blogs. And blog readers can't just get involved reading one blog. All people in the blog world know this is true! I was first introduced to your blog some 3 plus years ago after clicking on a link on Bloghead (remember Bloghead?!). I read an article on Bloghead because someone posted a link to one of Miriam’s posts on a messageboard. I liked it so I looked at other blogs she linked to or posted about. Don’t think what A7 did was necessary so counterproductive...
And if A7 changed articles everytime they upset someone...well, they wouldn't have much of a site, would they?
"And if A7 changed articles everytime they upset someone...well, they wouldn't have much of a site, would they?"
Lehavdil! Is this really such an important issue for them? I mean, to amend an article in a small way?
BTW, I was not the only person who objected to their campaigning to the exclusion of other blogs..not by a long shot.
Pinchas, I see you are a good guy, but in this case, A7 were so very clearly in the wrong.
Post a Comment
<< Home