Blog awards… where do they start?
NOTE: if you are here because I have tagged you with an award and have no interest in my ramblings, click here to get all the details!!! But you’re missing some great – rambly – stuff.
On Friday, no doubt spurred by my inspirational Shabbos menu, Jolly Green Mommy named me (in this post) as one of fifteen Very Special Bloggers who have recently touched her life.
Being the cynic that I am (and figuring everybody else on the Internet probably had one already), I wanted to know where the award came from. Not just as a cynic, but as a perfectionist who, if I’m celebrating an award, would naturally want to include a link back to the award’s originator as well as to the person who gave it to me.
For anybody who’s seen my home: stop laughing. I am indeed a perfectionist… a very, very frustrated one in a very tiny, squalid home.
So I clicked Jolly Green Mommy’s thank you link and followed it back, and back, and back, until one person several links backwards neglected to provide a link to the blogger who awarded HER the award, and the trail went cold.
So I Googled it instead to see if I could find the earliest instance of the award. Very mysterious.
It seems to have originated in two place at once, by two bloggers of Indian (ie from India) origin. I guess basic epidemiology would suggest that there was an earlier blogger who came up with the concept, but they seem to have created two completely different award “logos.”
The first – the earliest reference I could find to the award, which even includes the same logo as Jolly Green Mama, seems to have originated with a blogger named Indyeah at this post, on January 18, 2009.
The other one seems to have been originated separately – but perhaps not – on May 14, 2009 with a blogger named Arpit.
He created two separate award logos for the two recipients, and mentioned that the award “is meant to appreciate the versatility of the bloggers who have the capability to divulge into different areas and yet emerge victorious . Be it sports, politics, entertainment they have always emerged with flying colors by impressing us with their opinions and posts.”
(call me racist, but I really think armpit every time I type his name)
Click the links on the images to visit each blog:
However, in an interesting example of cross-pollination, Indyeah bequeathed her newly-minted “Versatile Blogger Award” to a blogger named Indian Homemaker… who turned around in May of 2009 and passed the award along to the same person, Kanagu, who’d been named as one of the two recipients of Arpit’s newly-minted “Versatile Blogger Award.”
Two awards, same name. In neither case were there any strings attached to the award. And, in fact, Kanagu does not mention that he is passing either award on to any further recipients. In other words, the trail went cold. Plus, I realized I had wasted an hour on a silly blog award and already gotten more or less the answer I’d been looking for: where did they come from?
Blog awards come from blogs.
It’s interesting to note that for most of the blogs receiving the “Versatile Blogger Award,” the award was their first and/or only award. Hmm… this in-depth analysis may be the reason why nobody gives me any awards.
I did realize that whatever happened, the lovely personalized jpg awards that Arpit created could not have continued for long. Blog awards are mostly the 21st-century equivalent of the chain letter, and they MUST be fast and easy to pass along. To actually go into an image-editing program and create a special award for each recipient would be very much more work than is in the lethargic click-to-pass-it-along spirit of a blog award.
Speaking of work, in the more than two years that it took for the award to reach Jolly Green Mommy and for her to finally pass it along to me, somebody had whomped on a ton of rules. Sheesh!
Here are all the rules, as they were passed along to me. And I’ll warn you right now, having gone back to the original source, I’m not planning to play by them all.
1. Thank the person who gave you this award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic!
4. Contact the bloggers you've picked and let them know about the award.
So! Because I don’t innately like chain letters, but believe that hakaras hatov (gratitude), is a nice Jewish value, if we don’t make it too cheesy or oppressive, I am suggesting these modified rules instead. (okay, maybe also because I’m lazy and 7 and 15 are such big numbers!!!)
I’m also modifying the logo, because I like this version better!
“Versatile Blogger Award” Rules – the MamaLand edition:
(if you just landed here and want to see if you’d prefer the original rules, scroll up)
- 1. Thank the person who gave you this award. Definitely!
2. Share one thing about yourself readers might not know otherwise.
3. List (with links) SIX (6… not 15!) bloggers you think are fantastic, and why.
4. Contact the bloggers you've picked and let them know about the award.
I can do that!
So, without further ado… as if further ado is even possible after all the already-mentioned ado…
Gratitude:
Thank you to Jolly Green Mommy! I really am honoured; I hope you won’t think I’m dissing your award by researching it for an hour and then mucking up the rules. ;-)
Selfitude:
One thing about myself: I didn’t wash any dishes today. I sat and read and walked and after Shabbos, read blogs and did Internet stuff while Ted washed dishes. I am so lazy after Shabbos… okay, always. :-(
Share-itude:
- Me-Ander by Batya. We are probably not much alike in person, but her blog is my most regular taste of everyday Israel lately. She’s been there so long and still marvels at the little things.
- Our Shiputzim by Mrs. S. A new one to me, just in the last few weeks. For life on the street in Israel, her posts are less frequent but always entertaining.
- You Grow Girl by Gayla. A local hero, who writes & grows in as many and as unlikely spaces as possible and teaches the rest of us about chucking our limitations.
- Playing in the Dirt and Assertagirl, both by Amy. More of a gardening veteran than me but more of a newbie mama, giving me a glimpse of what life was like with baby #1.
- Lionden Landing by Michelle. Because, well… Jewish homeschoolers! Gotta share what we can, because it turns out there aren’t many of us out here.
- Of Course You’ll Get Pregnant! by Sara. Not just because it’s an infertility blog, because it’s so much more. I don’t have many friends who blog, so why not pass it on to someone I know and like greatly IRL as well as OL (online)?
Enjoy your new award, and have a great week!!!
P.S. Just emailed everybody on the list and BOY do I feel like a giggly groupie. For those who don’t know me well, I’m not, I promise. Not a stalker, either. :-o
Thank you!! I will G-d willing bli neder blog about this and annoint my bloggers later in the day. I have an important "kibbud av," honoring my father, errand to take care of today.
ReplyDeleteShavua tov, and please remind me if I don't respond in 24 hours.
Thanks for the sweet award and for your kind words.
ReplyDeleteNot a stalker, either.
LOL! As far as I'm concerned, that's the only downside to blogging: Whenever one meets a fellow blogger offline - try as one might - it's nearly impossible to avoid sounding like a stalker... :-)
Shavua tov and chag samei'ach!
I think the changes you made are quite valid. I had actually written something at the end of my post about feeling like I had just taken part in a chain letter, but deleted it as I didn't want to offend anyone (none taken). I also thought it was weird that in the "rules" it didn't say to pick someone you think is versatile, but to pick a blog that you have recently found...
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I agree.
Time for Giving Thanks; I've finally posted the meme.
ReplyDeleteNow I get it...thank you!
ReplyDelete