« Vermont Blog Roundup | Main | Prince in Verizon ad »
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Best Vermont Blog
It's time again to vote for your favorite Vermont blogs in the annual Seven Daysies contest.
Last year, many folks suggested that we have two Vermont blog categories — one for best political blog, and one for best non-political blog — and we made that change. So this year you get to vote for the Vermont Libertarian Party blog and All Things Hold Together. Or whichever blogs you choose. Whatever. As long as the people writing them live in Vermont.
And feel free to vote for Seven Days blogs. Or for the Burlington Free Press blogs, for that matter.
FYI, this is the 3rd year we've included blogs in the Daysies. Past winners include Bill Simmon's Candleblog (2005) and Philip Baruth's Vermont Daily Briefing (2006).
PLEASE NOTE:
1) The Best Vermont Blog categories are just two of 80 categories. You must vote in at least 23 categories for your vote to be counted. So don't just vote for the blogs.
2) You must include the correct URL of the blogs you're choosing. Just cut and paste the URL, to be sure you get it right.
3) You can only vote once.
4) Voting ends Monday Wednesday, June 27 Monday June 25, at 5 p.m.
What are you waiting for? Go vote!
June 6, 2007 at 01:23 PM in VT Blogs | Permalink
Comments
June 27th is a Wednesday...
Posted by: Molly | Jun 6, 2007 2:13:45 PM
But Molly, she didn't say which year!
Posted by: Scrubber | Jun 6, 2007 2:18:53 PM
D'oh! I fixed it.
Posted by: Cathy Resmer | Jun 6, 2007 3:01:51 PM
I only noticed because June 27th is my birfday.
Posted by: Molly | Jun 6, 2007 5:41:55 PM
Cathy, I notice none of the Burlington Free Press blogs are on your "Vermont Blogs" blogroll.
Posted by: Haik Bedrosian | Jun 6, 2007 10:50:00 PM
She does not put every VT blog on the blog roll anymore.
Posted by: Captain_B | Jun 7, 2007 7:12:58 AM
No, actually, the freep blogs are there, under "Burlington Free Press blogs."
I list all the 7 Days blogs under "Seven Days blogs."
Keeps the list shorter, a tiny bit more manageable.
I list "Get Real" and "Vermont View" separately, though they're run by RH/TA staffers, because I don't think the RH/TA has a landing page for their blogs.
I'm also still tinkering with ideas for how to list these blogs differently, and I want to categorize them, etc. Sometime soon. This is just the easiest way to do it now.
Posted by: Cathy Resmer | Jun 7, 2007 7:45:21 AM
Oh yeah. I guess I just missed that because I was looking for their individual titles. I'd not try to categorize the blogs on your roll (never mind what I do). It's too hard to do that meaningfully, unless you go "A-E," "F-J" or something like that. Your Vermont Blog Blogroll is a signature feature of EZTO, and a valuable resource for the rest of us. I wouldn't mess with it "too too" much. Having Seven Day Blogs on the left and seperate makes sense for obvious reasons, but I would expand the Free Press category to display their individual titles. The addition of a few more titles would make a negligible difference in an already wonderfully long list. (All IMHO, of course.)
Posted by: Haik Bedrosian | Jun 8, 2007 1:16:53 AM
I can't decide if I agree with Haik or not. I like a long list too, but I do wish there was at least some kind of indication of what to expect before I click. Maybe instead of categories, you could include a parenthetical sentence or two about each blog that pops up during a mouse rollover. So for BurlingtonPol.com you could put "Haik Bedrosian on local Burlington politics" and for S.R. Wild's blog you could put "Graphic designer Scott Wild blogs about his life and design -- check out his journal pages!" etc. I know that means a lot of work writing the blurbs for hundreds of blogs, but you could do it over several months, adding a few each week. You need an assistant, Cathy!
Posted by: Bill Simmon | Jun 8, 2007 11:18:19 AM
She would need an assistant to keep the blurbs current. Blogs aren't always about something in particular. Most of them are as God originally intended blogs to be- online personal diaries, and as we all know people change. Lives change.
And therein lay the crux of the problem, I think-to categorize the blog is necessarily to categorize the blog's author- As in "Carton of Cigarettes for Christmas dot blogspot dot com- John Bender's tirades and outburst on being a teen dirtbag in Shermer Illinois." That kind of personal analysis of each blogger would take time and may be unwelcome.
I guess you could ask folks to submit and update their own blurbs- but I can't imagine Snarky Boy wanting to deal with that, for example.
To be honest, I'm a curmudgeon and I think if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I would just keep as many previous posts up as it takes to match the length of the list on the right so the main part of the page isn't blank as you scroll down the blogroll.
Posted by: Haik Bedrosian | Jun 9, 2007 7:03:56 AM
I'm a curmudgeon and I think if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
I agree, but as it is, I almost never click on links from Cathy's blogroll because there are too many -- it's too daunting to just start clicking and hope I'll like what I find. I need more guidance. I actually like the idea od self-edited blurbs. Each blogger gets up to 25 characters to say whatever they want in a rollover pop-up message. If SB chose to use his 25 words to, well, be SB, so be it. That still tells would be clickers a little something about what they're clicking on.
Posted by: Bill Simmon | Jun 9, 2007 3:04:25 PM
I like your idea, Bill, but I know it would be difficult to get people to participate. I know it doesn't SEEM difficult, but based on my experience communicating with folks so far, I suspect it would be.
Also not sure how I would process that information. Via email? Not sure we have the ability to create another system right now.
I know what you mean, Bill, about wanting more guidance. I wish I could provide it in a way that makes sense. I'm working on it.
Posted by: Cathy Resmer | Jun 10, 2007 3:41:14 PM
Cathy,
When will Seven Daysies have a "best citizen journalism website" award? They are cropping up all over the state and I think it would be a more appropriate category say for, iBrattleboro, iPutney, iBurlington, etc.
Whadda you think?
Posted by: Brattlerouser | Jun 14, 2007 12:13:22 PM
As far as I can tell, there are only two citizen journalism sites worth visiting -- maybe three, if you count iRichmond.
I think we need at least a dozen to have it be worth a category. And by that I mean a dozen FUNCTIONING sites, with real communities, and multiple contributors. I think it'll be a long, long time coming.
Posted by: cresmer | Jun 14, 2007 5:42:23 PM
Cathy,
Last question.
Is there a category for best radio show outside Chittenden County?
Just wondering.
Posted by: Brattlerouser | Jun 15, 2007 12:40:05 PM
Not that I know of, but good suggestion. I'll pass it along.
Posted by: cresmer | Jun 16, 2007 6:51:23 PM
The Vermont Public Interest Group will be presenting Step It Up Day November 3rd on the State House Lawn in Montpelier. This is the second Step It Up day this year and follows the very succesful event this spring which featured Bernie Sanders and other important speakers. This years event features a writing contest to provide ideas on how the governor can encourage a sustainable energy future. All entries are welcome at http://www.vpirg.org/stepitup2/ were more details on the event can be found.
Posted by: Colin Arisman | Oct 24, 2007 11:25:36 AM
The comments to this entry are closed.