Monday, January 16, 2006

The one with how objectivity is relative

Yuga of Yugatech posts his thoughts on what make blog awards credible, given the reaction of Kid Flash X to the results of the 2005 Philippine Blog Awards.

Podcaster Kid Flash X mentions rather often that the awards are "a joke," not knowing the criteria for the selection of winners, and that "there's nothing really special about" the winners. He calls the awards "dubious," hinting, though, that he'd be all praises if he were nominated and won, and muses about the temptation to create his own awards.

Please feel free to do so, Kid Flash X. :) You'd be thrilling people whose blogs make an impact on you. That's all that matters - to you and to the recipients of your awards.

Speaking as a creator of a personal blog award, the Superblessed Christian Blog Awards, I acknowledge that the sites selected as winners by the SCBA are winners - for me. They bless me. I like them, and that's all there is to it. Not all Christians will agree with me (and for that reason, I, too, have gotten flak throughout the years for leaving out some blogger or other), and that's their right and choice. As Yuga points out, it's the same thing with the PBA, or the Philippine Webby Awards, for that matter; you can't please everyone.

People blog for a reason, whatever that reason may be. Superblessed, for instance, is a family blog, and Cathy and I choose to blog to tell the world of how much Jesus Christ has done for us and to testify of what a great life we now have because He watches over us and protects us. Ironwulf blogs for his photographs. I can't even begin to fathom what the Philippine blogging community would be like without Manuel Quezon III or SassyLawyer, Wifely Steps or Dr. Emer. Everyone has their own set of blogger friends, and how often have we stopped to say "thanks for blogging, your blog is [insert positive adjective here]!"?

As an extremely happy finalist, I must say that both Cathy and I were honored to have made the finals of the Philippine Blog Awards. It's nice to know we don't live in a vacuum, and people are visiting Superblessed, and enjoying what they read (especially the coverage of the Miss World 2005 pageant, which is largely responsible, I think, for our runner-up finish in the Most Informative Blog category). Thanks to Yuga (who I admire for his perseverance in creating PinoyTopBlogs), we are extremely surprised (and deliriously happy) to learn that Superblessed is #21 on the Philippine Top 100!

Award or no award, at the end of the day, it's nice to be acknowledged, especially by someone with whom we may not have had relationships but was helped somewhat by our blog. That's what awards are about - recognition when someone's done something outstanding.

The Deens may be "nothing really special" to Kid Flash X, but 136 other bloggers think we are special enough to link to. (",)

I will gladly defend the integrity of the Philippine Blog Awards insofar as it is an independent body that takes time and effort to recognize and bless Filipino bloggers. God knows there's enough negativity out there without people stopping to thank each other for simply being around and doing what they do so well.

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