Scottish Roundup » Duncan Stephen

Top 100 Scottish blogs

Duncan Stephen — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:00:47 +0000

First of all, a huge congratulations to all blogs that were involved in the Scotblogs Awards. Whether your blog secured a high position or not, this entire exercise has been a great way to discover new blogs — and it is because of every one of the 140-or-so blogs that were nominated.

A massive thanks must go to everyone who nominated a blog, all of those who contributed to the over 1,500 votes cast, and the panellists.

The great thing is that even more blogs have been submitted to Scottish Roundup since the deadline for entries closed. Each of them will be featured in the roundup in the coming weeks.

The wonderful diversity and the high quality of the blogs, right the way through the field, bodes well for the health of blogging in Scotland.

Below is the main list you have all been waiting for — the top 100 blogs. For information on the voting process, visit the Scotblogs Awards 2010 page. View the winners in other categories.

97=. Scottish Business Blog
97=. Philosophical Zombie
97=. Hythlodæus
97=. Amused Cynicism
95=. Islay Info
95=. Councillor Paul Johnston
94. Captain Ranty
93. Pining for the West
89=. The Green Isle of the Great Deep
89=. One Man Blogs
89=. Loose Change
89=. David Fagan
88. Inside Left
87. Bread and Roses
86. Slugs on the Refrigerator
84=. Smashing Mirrors
84=. Better Oot Than In
77=. PoliticsScot
77=. John Connell
77=. Jamie Livingstone
77=. Islay Birds
77=. I am a Rag Doll – Broken and Bent
77=. Domestikated
77=. Alter Ego…
76. A Wee Bit of Cooking
72=. RantinRab
72=. My Portis Wasp says
72=. Have Fun At Dinner
72=. Debra Storr
71. Bishop Hill
67=. Shopaholly
67=. A Son of the Rock
67=. A Rabbit’s Eye View of the Hyperborean North
67=. …except the Kyles and the Western Isles
66. TheCatGirlSpeaks
65. *Insert My Blog Name Here*
64. Andrew Reeves’ Running Blog
63. …and your electron microscope!
60=. Eric Joyce MP
60=. Caledonian Comment
60=. An incredulous eye on the isles
59. Scotland in the Gloaming
58. Pseudepigrapha
53=. Scottish Football Blog
53=. Wholly Rude
53=. What Oor Willie Did Next
53=. Another side of Lesley Riddoch
53=. “And Another Thing…”
51=. Taexalia
51=. Bella Caledonia
50. Jess the Dog
49. What’s in Kelvin’s Head
47=. Whitehall 1212
47=. Holyrood Chronicles
46. Scots Law News
42=. Holyrood Patter
42=. Suitably Despairing
42=. Scot goes Pop!
42=. Ideas of Civilisation
41. Newsnet Scotland
40. Yapping Yousuf
38=. Love and Garbage
38=. Kezia Dugdale
37. Under the Radar
34=. More Than Mind Games
34=. Left Back in the Changing Room
34=. Greener Leith
32=. Stephen’s Linlithgow Journal
32=. Phuturelabs
31. Calum Cashley
30. Last Year’s Girl
29. Blether with Brian
28. Planet Politics
27. Between the Hammer and the Anvil
26. Clairwil
25. Iain Macwhirter Now and Then
24. The Universality of Cheese
23. Inksters Give Blog
22. Freedom and Whisky
21. Aye Tunes
20. Scottish Roundup
19. Malc in the Burgh
18. The Ben Lomond Free Press
17. Ian Hamilton QC
15=. Subrosa
15=. Indygal Goes to Holyrood
14. The Pop Cop
13. Gerry Hassan
12. Caron’s Musings
11. doctorvee
10. Peenko
9. The Misssy M Misssives
8. We Know SFA
7. Alex Massie
6. Lallands Peat Worrier
5. Everyone I Ever Kissed
4. Go Lassie Go
3. J Arthur Macnumpty
2. Mr Eugenides
1. SNP Tactical Voting

In the interests of full openness and transparency, I have decided to make all the data available for anyone who wishes to look at it. You can download them below in PDF or Excel format.

Bonus award: Critics’ choice

Duncan Stephen — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 09:00:39 +0000

One of the things that really struck me as I was gathering votes was the large differences between the choices of the panellists and the choices of the voters. As such, I thought it was worth mentioning those blogs that scored particularly well in one of the rankings, but ended up with a moderate overall ranking due to doing poorly in the other one.

A wee bit of cooking is an attractive food blog. It caught the eye of panellists, five of whom gave it the nod. This made it the second most popular blog among the panellists. Staggeringly, only one person voted for it in the poll, placing it joint 121st in the readers’ ranking. This has left it 75th overall.

Two panellists gave Pining for the West their vote, placing it 19th among the panellists. Again, just one person voted for it in the readers’ poll. This left it in an overall position of 92nd. (Disclosure: This is my mum’s blog, and I helped her set it up!)

Four blogs received one vote from a panellist, but got no recognition from the readers at all: Bigmout Strikes Again, Shirl’s Gardenwatch, Skip Cottage Curling and Southside and Newington Newsblog.

A further seven blogs received the same number of votes from panellists as from readers overall: Better Oot Than In, Smashing Mirrors, Jim Millar, Mid-Life Bassist, Sea Kayaking with SeaKayakPhoto.com, Type face a week and Scotland in the Gloaming.

Bonus award: Readers’ choice

Duncan Stephen — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:00:49 +0000

One of the things that really struck me as I was gathering votes was the large differences between the choices of the panellists and the choices of the voters. As the overall ranking depended on doing well on both lists, plenty of popular blogs ended up losing out.

As such, I thought it was worth mentioning those blogs that scored particularly well in one of the rankings, but ended up with a moderate overall ranking due to doing poorly in the other one.

The runaway winner of the readers’ poll was We Know SFA, with over 50% more votes than the second most popular blog. But just one panellist voted for it, sending the blog down to 16th place overall.

Likewise, music blog Peenko came second in the readers’ rankings, but only 33rd in the panellists’ rankings.

Three blogs were in the top ten in the readers’ rankings, but did not get the nod from any of the panellists: Newsnet Scotland, Scots Law News and What’s in Kelvin’s Head.

Additionally, four other blogs finished in the top ten among readers, but only garnered one vote from among the panellists: Gerry Hassan, Indygal goes to Holyrood, Subrosa and Ian Hamilton QC.

Top newcomers of 2009

Duncan Stephen — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:00:53 +0000

This category contains blogs that were set up during 2009. For information on the voting process, visit the Scotblogs Awards 2010 page. View the winners in other categories announced so far.

25. Pining for the West
24. David Fagan
23. Bread and Roses
22. Smashing Mirrors
19=. PoliticsScot
19=. Jamie Livingstone
19=. Alter Ego…
15=. RantinRab
15=. My Portis Wasp says
15=. Have fun at dinner
15=. Cllr Debra Storr
13=. A Rabbit’s Eye View of the Hyperborean North
13=. …except the Kyles and the Western Isles
12. …and your electron microscope!
11. Eric Joyce MP
10. Psudepigrapha
9. Lesley Riddoch
8. Newsnet Scotland
7. Phuturelabs
6. The Universality of Cheese
5. Inksters Give Blog
4. Subrosa
3. Gerry Hassan
2. We Know SFA
1. Lallands Peat Worrier

Top personal / general blogs

Duncan Stephen — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 10:00:00 +0000

This category contains blogs that primarily focus on a topic other than politics or current affairs.

For information on the voting process, visit the Scotblogs Awards 2010 page. View the winners in other categories announced so far.

25=. My Portis Wasp says
25=. Have fun at dinner
22=. Shopaholly
22=. A Son of the Rock
22=. …except the Kyles and the Western Isles
21. TheCatGirlSpeaks
20. *Insert My Blog Name Here*
19. …and your electron microscope!
18. Scotland in the Gloaming
17. The Scottish Football Blog
16. Taexalia
15. What’s in Kelvin’s Head
14. Scots Law News
13. Under the Radar
11=. More Than Mind Games
11=. Left Back in the Changing Room
10. Phuturelabs
9. Last Year’s Girl
8. Inksters Give Blog
7. Aye Tunes
6. The Ben Lomond Free Press
5. The Pop Cop
4. Peenko
3. The Misssy M Misssives
2. We Know SFA
1. Everyone I Ever Kissed