Thoughts on the BlogPoll Awards

First of all I'm really excited about these BlogPoll Awards. Not that I'm expecting to win anything mind you. Sometimes I feel like this blog is like the Penn State visiting uniforms. Very vanilla. I just think anything that connects bloggers together as a common entity possibly bringing more exposure to our little corner of the blogosphere is a good thing for all of us. Like I said before, a rising tide lifts all boats. Before I get into some of my name and award suggestions, I want to first express a few concerns I have.

Joel jokingly said "What's the point? Why don't you just go ahead and anoint Orson and Brian and Peter and SMQ as the Royal Family and be done with it?"

Even though he was joking I think this is a legitimate concern that should be considered. If they want this thing to be really credible they better work to prevent this from being perceived as the rich getting richer. If the four horsemen of the blogosphere sweep everything the entire event will be seen as an elitist ploy to drive even more traffic to their sites. I can see this happening if they leave it open to the masses to nominate bloggers and vote. Let's face it. We all have maybe 10 blogs we read every day. Even though there are hundreds of blogs we don't read often or may not know even know about, we'll tend to vote for the people we know. Since almost everyone reads the big four those guys will get most of the votes.  I suggest they should set up a small selection committee of five or six bloggers. Have the picks of the voters count 30% and the selection committee count as the other 70% of the selection process. Or perhaps they could split each award into two categories, small blog and large blog based on number of hits per day.

My other comment has to do with including the name "Blogpoll". Joel argues that since the Blogpoll is the most credible thing the college football bloggers have going as a group, we should "put our best foot forward" and attach the Blogpoll name to this thing to lend it credibility. Frankly, I this is a mistake. I think this thing should stand on its own. Like it or not, some smaller bloggers get a bad taste in their mouth when you mention the word Blogpoll. Maybe they got snubbed and weren't invited to participate. Or maybe Brian ridiculed them or their team with his sarcastic brand of humor on MGoBlog and they associate the BlogPoll with that. I don't know, but for whatever reason they hate the BlogPoll. So I suggest dropping the brand and let this thing stand on its own.

Enough of that. Here are some suggestions I have for names of the event in general.

The College Football Blogger Awards (Boring! I know!)
The Blogger Championship Series (BCS for short!)
The BlogPoll Championship Series (if we must include Blogpoll)

The Awards

Since this is supposed to help promote the blogosphere I say the more awards the better. If I could give everyone an award I would. But that's not possible and soon you reach a tipping point where this whole thing stops being special. Here are some awards I was thinking of.

Best Blog Design
Best Writing
Best Analytical Series
Best (Insert Conference Name) Blog
The "Buck the System" Award - given to the blog that most agitates the mainstream media.
Best Readers - given to the blog with the most interactive thought provoking non-blog owning readers.
Funniest Blog
Coulter/Krugman Award - Why not? Give one to the shameless homer.
Best New Blog
Most Original Photoshop - There are some really great photoshop artists out there that should be recognized.
Most Influential - the blog that had the largest role in influencing the mindset of their fan base.

Not very original I know. What can I say? I went to Penn State. We're not very good with awards. We don't even have our names on our jerseys for goodness sake. Please offer some suggestions and I'll put up future posts if anything else comes to mind.