Best of British Blogs.

July 29, 2002 12:47 PM

Best of British Blogs. Tom Coates of the award winning plasticbag discusses his misgivings with Simon Waldman of the Guardian.
posted by Fat Buddha (10 comments total)

How To Get the Attention You Want by Pretending You Don't Want It, 101.

Or, Buying Your Own Bullshit, 101.
posted by donkeyschlong at 12:51 PM on July 29, 2002

As I read the first line of this post I thought.. "Hahaha!! I was right!" but then I read the rest and read the article and I just about to scuttle off to eat some cake.

This is definitely the best MeFi link today though. The whole concept of that article is hilarious. It's founded on a complete non-story, and the guy from the Guardian really makes a meal out of it.

I agree with Tom, but (as in many 'arguments') that other guy was the better debater.
posted by wackybrit at 3:01 PM on July 29, 2002

I think that's a completely fair assessment - for a whole variety of reasons I think that he out-manouvred me on this one - one of which of course is that he gets the final word. More to the point I think the intro is a bit unfair, but since we agreed that I could put a version on plasticbag.org as well, I'll try and write (what I consider) a more fair intro to my version later in the day.

As to trying to get attention - hmmm - I don't really know what to say about that. I've been trying to encourage lots of British webloggers to declare their lack of interest - and in fact many have, some with - but most without - my intervention. The fact that the Guardian approached me about this is simply because I made the most stink (and probably because it makes it easier to latch the story onto a guy with an award - however meaningless that award is) rather than because I'm the leader of a movement of anything! And in fact - the first thing I did when I saw the intro was write to them saying that I would get lynched for some of the lines which described me as being one of the 'cream' of British webloggers and that I had never represented myself as a spokesman for weblogs or webloggers - I'm wasn't self-representing myself as 'in charge' - but that I had an opportunity to express the kind of reservations that I felt and that other webloggers that I'd talked to had felt as well...
posted by barbelith at 12:29 AM on July 30, 2002

barbelith: But you web log is better than most. It has whorechalking, for example, which alone must make it better than 99 percent of UK blogs.
posted by pracowity at 12:57 AM on July 30, 2002

...and always take the comments of someone who wants to be referred to as 'donkeyschlong' with a grain of salt.

(Said the 'wonderchicken'. I know, I know.)
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:09 AM on July 30, 2002

Thanks for the condescension laced with self-effacement and salad-tossing, stav.
posted by donkeyschlong at 2:09 AM on July 30, 2002

well, i have been discussing this with simon too, although not publically. i don't see that much of a problem with the blogging competition, though i don't think it is the right way forward at all. the guardian sees it as a first step. i suggested to them that they have a blog of the week or something that will show the diversity of blogging.

but, man, so much fuss over a little competition?

and you didn't explain why you could be european blogger of the year and not british blogger of the year.
posted by quarsan at 2:15 AM on July 30, 2002

> but, man, so much fuss over a little competition?

A competition is nothing without fuss. You don't have a race without spectators and advertising and prizes and noise. And a winner.
posted by pracowity at 3:39 AM on July 30, 2002

The Best British Blog [TM] award will prove to be about as interesting and relevant as, oh say, the Oscars [TM], the Grammys [TM] or the Bloggies [TM].

Guess what? It's just another meaningless ego stroking popularity contest. Who really cares?
posted by mark13 at 9:26 AM on July 30, 2002

Well the person who gets $1000 will probably care. I've made my opinions clear so many times on this one that it's probably better if I just shut up now, except to say that I think the differences between 'Best European Weblog' at the Bloggies and 'best british' through the Guardian are:

1) Scale - something can be kind of bad, but not really disasterous if it's small. The potential effect of indulging a dangerous appetite a little isn't the same as indulging it a lot. Scale really does matter here - particularly when you're talking about potential damage to a community (pragmatism) rather than clear-cut moral rights and wrongs (idealism).

2) Criteria and Judges - What does it mean to be the best weblog in Britain? And who are the judges? Are they fit to judge? I think in the Bloggies the fact that it was weblog readers and writers made it more of a community patting itself on the back - which is a bit wanky perhaps, but still reflects the diversity of individual weblogs and webloggers. The Guardian has some paid rent-a-celebs. I simply would resent their presumption that they're fit to judge the quality of my site or the sites of any of my friends.

There are more, but those are the most important...
posted by barbelith at 4:03 PM on July 31, 2002