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Introducing the Scotblogs awards

Awards for 29 December 2009 edited by Duncan Stephen

With the end of the year comes mild nostalgia, endless navel gazing and jumped-up awards ceremonies. In the past couple of months one or two people suggested to me that there should be an end-of-year Scottish Roundup awards ceremony. After canvassing opinions among some other bloggers, most agreed that it was a good idea.

So here they are: the Scotblogs awards.

I had originally planned on running this throughout December. But I have been quite busy so it has been pushed back to January. I figured that if it’s good enough for the Oscars to be held in March and the Mercury Music Prize to be held in September, holding the Scotblogs awards in January would be just fine!

I should point out that the Scotblogs awards will not just be about patting each other on the back (though no doubt that will form a part of it). But primarily it is intended as a celebration of Scottish blogging as a whole, and a way to promote new and under-appreciated blogs.

As such, there will be two stages to the awards. The first stage, which will run from now until 6pm on Wednesday 13 January 2010, will be a nominations stage. I know that some bloggers prefer not to be involved in such blogging awards. So before voting commences, those who would rather opt out can, while everyone else can nominate their favourite blogs.

Self nominations are allowed — indeed, they are encouraged. Remember, this is all about discovering blogs, so we’d love to hear about your blog.

During this period I would also greatly welcome any input on what the categories should be. There will be a best blog overall, but I would also like there to be categories. Best politics blog? One for each of the political parties? Best music blog? Food? Sport? Personal? Photography? Suggestions are very welcome!

The second phase will be a voting phase, which will run from Thursday 14 January until 6pm on Wednesday 27 January. To prevent a select few blogs running an effective campaign to get their readers to vote, the awards will be based on a mixture of votes from a panel of established bloggers and readers’ votes.

Readers and panellists will be invited to select their favourite blogs from the list of nominations. At the end of the voting period, the blogs will be ranked based on the amount of votes they received from readers, with a separate ranking based on the panellists’ choices. The final rankings will be based on the average position on the two tables. In the event of a tie, the readers’ votes will take precedence.

I hope that’s not too complicated!

The panel is based largely on the “team” of regular contributors that was put together a year or so ago, with a few additions:

…But I’d quite like to have a couple of others added to the list because the panel is a bit politics-heavy just now. So if you would like to be on the panel, send me a quick email with a sentence or two explaining why you think you should be on the panel.

You can use all the usual ways to nominate a blog for the awards, although please make it clear that you are contacting us about the awards and not for the roundup (which will appear as normal on 3 January). I suggest that you email scottishroundup+awards@gmail.com. You can also get in touch via Twitter @ScottishRoundup.

27 Comments »

27 comments

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  1. Andrew Reeves

    29 December 2009 at 22:04

    I think one for photography would be great, like all of the topics you have selected.

    Best campaign blog?

  2. Duncan Stephen

    29 December 2009 at 22:10

    Thanks for the suggestion Andrew — sounds interesting. What sort of campaign? Single-issue campaigns? What sort of blogs would be described as campaign blogs?

  3. subrosa

    30 December 2009 at 01:36

    Pardon my ignorance Stephen, but what’s willy-waving got to do with it?

    Campaign blogs? What about pro and anti climate change blogs for example. Just a thought.

    Now I’m off to read the rules again.

  4. Duncan Stephen

    30 December 2009 at 13:36

    Sorry Subrosa — I just meant that I didn’t want the awards to only be a popularity contest. I have changed it to “back slapping”! :-)

    Incidentally, now that the nominations are trickling in, if we are sent anything that doesn’t make clear if it is a nomination for the awards or for the roundup, the blog will be put in for the awards and featured in the roundup at some point in the next few weeks.

  5. Mr Eugenides

    30 December 2009 at 15:26

    Excellent idea. I’m happy to serve on the panel if you need numbers, but as you say it is quite politics-heavy. Unless, of course, you want to style it as the “Scottish political blog awards” and perhaps have a generic category for non-political blogs.

    I’ll give it a plug at my place – might I suggest that someone nominates this post to the next Britblog Roundup, as well?

  6. Duncan Stephen

    30 December 2009 at 15:30

    Good idea Mr E. I’ll drop the Britblog people a line.

    Like you say, it might be best if we find some non-political bloggers for the panel. But if you are by any chance up for doing another roundup sometime, that would be great — just let me know.

  7. Stephen Glenn

    30 December 2009 at 15:30

    If we are looking at promoting new blogs one way would to have a new blog category as well as an over blog of the year. That way a short list of new blogs will be up for consideration by the voters as well as any that make a blog of the year shortlist.

  8. Duncan Stephen

    30 December 2009 at 15:31

    Great suggestion Stephen. We can definitely do a best new blog category.

  9. Mr Eugenides

    30 December 2009 at 15:34

    Will happily do a roundup – perhaps not in the next month, but after that drop me a line!

  10. Holyrood Patter

    30 December 2009 at 18:20

    might be helpful (although its strictly blogging) to just broaden andrews excellent suggestion to be “best campaigns” because while being blogging orientated, a number of campaigns recently have been more facebook or twitter orientatated, then spilling on to blogs (the florence/precious mhango thing springs to mind)

  11. Duncan Stephen

    30 December 2009 at 18:51

    Good suggestion Ross. In fact, despite being called the “Scotblogs” awards, I see no reason why other similar forms of communication (particularly Twitter) should not be included.

  12. David Farrer

    30 December 2009 at 19:55

    Very good idea Duncan. I hope to get Freedom and Whisky a bit more active in 2010. Having cashed in most of my pension money for a quiet life I now find that I’m spending more time working than ever…

    On photography, I started my Scottish Clouds blog some time ago. In many ways that’s been replaced by my Flickr site, which contains a lot of Scottish material. However, I’ve been updating Scottish Clouds over the holiday season and it should be up-to-date fairly soon.

  13. Duncan Stephen

    30 December 2009 at 19:56

    Thanks David — I’ve put Freedom and Whisky and Scottish Clouds on the list.

  14. subrosa

    31 December 2009 at 02:58

    Ah, thanks for the explanation Stephen. I was just a wee bitty baffled there. :)

    I’ll do a promo for it too, although not as eloquently as Eugenides of course.

    Will send a list of blogs to you in the next couple of days.

  15. subrosa

    31 December 2009 at 03:01

    Duncan, tell me why I keep calling you Stephen? Please!!! So sorry. Certainly didn’t mean to insult you. Hope I’m forgiven. :)

  16. JuliaM

    31 December 2009 at 08:30

    I’m assuming anyone, anywhere can nominate a ScotBlog? You don’t just want nominations from other ScotBlogs or Scot-based commenters?

  17. Bugger Lugs

    31 December 2009 at 10:58

    Is this only for blogsites?

    Some bloggers invite others to pen a blogspot so, is this site specific or blogspot specific?

  18. Duncan Stephen

    31 December 2009 at 15:06

    Subrosa — No problem, I am quite used to it from other people too! :-) Looking forward to receiving your list.

    JuliaM — Yes, anyone can nominate. This is all about discovering new blogs, so anyone who can help is most welcome to! :-)

    Bugger Lugs — Interesting suggestion. I did think of doing a ‘post of the year’ award, but I think it might be too complicated to organise that at the same time. Do you have any thoughts?

  19. introducing the scotblogs awards; at [last year's girl]

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    [...] Here’s something new for a new year: Duncan over at Scottish Blogging Roundup is kicking off award season for local blogging types. Says Duncan: [I]t is intended as a celebration of Scottish blogging as a [...]

  20. Paula

    1 January 2010 at 20:12

    Just wanted to put my two cents in and say what a great idea this is!

  21. Armin

    3 January 2010 at 12:34

    Just sent you my first batch of nominations, with one exception I’d call them all non-political. Yay!

  22. Bugger Lugs

    3 January 2010 at 17:26

    Em

    me?

  23. Craig McGill

    8 January 2010 at 14:35

    I’m trying to get a hold of Scottish Tory Boy but the blog is gone! Could he drop me a mail please?

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  25. shirl

    11 January 2010 at 00:16

    Hi there,

    perhaps you could consider a nature category that would include garden, bird and wildlife blogs? Just a thought, sorry, perhaps I’m completely off topic here.

  26. Duncan Stephen

    11 January 2010 at 00:46

    Thanks for the suggestion Shirl, I’ve noted it down! :-)

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