Promotional feature
This morning my eye was drawn to the front of the Metro, which promised "Your chance to vote for Britain's best blog - or to set your own one up, with a little help from us!".
Noting their attempt to wrest the title of chief mainstream media promoters of blogging away from the Guardian, I turned to the relevant page and was disappointed to find that it was pretty much just an advertising piece. "As part of the awards, Metro has got together with Vox, one of the world's top social blogging services, to give you the chance to create your own free blog"...
Well, excuse me, but I do believe people can set up their own free blogs quite independently of either Vox or Metro. Not that I'm about to start blowing Blogger's trumpet for them, given the hassle I've had with the recent template upgrade and switchover...
So, what was my reaction - to chuck the rag away in disgust? No, on the contrary - whatever the motivation behind them, these awards still represent an opportunity to promote some of your favourite blogs to a national audience. Registration is required, which is irritating - but, all the same, what are you waiting for?
Friday, February 23, 2007
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5 comments:
I'm starting to get cynical about all these blogging awards. The same old names keep appearing again and again. It's a pity if blogging goes down the route where merit and a large readership become important, and people see blogging in career terms. A pity, but inevitable I suppose.
"It's a pity if blogging goes down the route where merit and a large readership become important."
I agree - Readership pah - what do the readers know!
Merit! I agree - In fact I have a suggestion - how about an award for the worst blog of the year!
By the way - the metro is a dirty rag - anyone who is desperate to be nominated for their awards must have some serious self-esteem issues!
I remain convinced this sort of thing is the real reason a lot of people blog in the first place. Glory, or - at the very least - for somebody to notice them. And the day the cunting Metro starts awarding things to them...!
I rather agree with Betty as well that the same old names come up again and again, and anyway - isn't blogging something people of a certain age do now (the 25-35's)...wheras the rest are all on MySpace?
Rubbish.
True, the same names crop up - but then that's usually for the reason that they're very good. I've got more of an issue with the Metro jumping on the blogging bandwagon - though, as Anon suggests, this is hardly keeping up with the times...
Phill: My feelings on the Metro are mixed. On the one hand, its news and sport coverage is almost invariably toss. But they do cover some surprising things in the arts section, and give significant amounts of space to relatively obscure bands who are visiting the city, so it's not all evil.
And on the readership issue: I made a point of nominating some unjustly overlooked / unvisited sites as well as some of the "bigger" more well-known names. Not that those nominations will necessarily mean anything, mind.
If you don't already know about it, the Post Of The Week site set up by Mike of Troubled Diva is a good place to discover quality blogs that don't necessarily have massive readerships (and it's open to your nominations too).
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