This author does not accept blog awards anymore.
Let me split a few hairs, if you will. I’d say my thanks if you persist, but I will not write about it to pass it on. And this post is written not because I’m swamped with awards. I have two already and I think it’s enough.
My dear reader, I understand your problem. You have just been awarded a blog award, a variation thereof, from a fellow blog author. And because the tacit understanding with this blog award is to pass it on, you’ve just met one roadblock. You’re one slot short of the five or six awardees. May be even two. It’s not a problem if you are easy to please and finds everybody a genius. What if you have discriminating taste? What if you consider nearly everyone a dolt? See the problem on your hands?
Will you lower your standard? Perhaps you remember me doing some neat cartwheels in the comment section of your blog. Will you now set me as your evidence of your new found love for humanity? A nice way to reward Jan for his efforts?
Stop.
Merit or Game of Politics?
It will put me in the spot. I have just awarded 6 blog authors. Another pay-it-forward blog award will leave me nuts. In order to come up with a list of 6 awardees in my own blog award, I left out a good number of people in my network. Will my third award – if it comes – be able to smooth the ruffled feathers of those who felt slighted when they failed to make the cut? I don’t think so.
This tends to degenerate into a game of politics. We get to nominate people on the strength of personal ties to us, with a minimum of merit thrown in maybe as an afterthought. Maybe if we give 50 % of the awards to people who are not in our network, but equally deserving of our recognition. Maybe then.
Link Love Failure
Of course I understand the value of awards as link love. But 5 to 7 awards for one recognition? A tie is rare in award ceremonies. If one’s intention is to spread the link love, guess what will happen if you award a blog author who’s not into a personal or free-wheeling site? Yes, the author will remain faithful to his niche. You’d get a sincere thank you. But there will be no write up of the award. Your link love is defeated. Boo hoo. Which is just as well because the recipient is well within his rights to do so.
This is not to belittle the two awards I have been given. I treasure them because they’re my first awards and very special. It’s my first tell-tale signs that I have not been stabbing at the dark anymore. The voices I hear are no longer the voices I usually hear in my head but actual voices – a remarkable progress indeed. Thanks Mye and Bingkee.
But the next one when it comes is not cute or endearing anymore. Trust me.
Alternative
A better tack is to make a link to another blog within the context of a post. Because the other author deepens the discussion and adds value to the conversation. Or maybe even because the linked author takes the contrary view, and offering this link gives your reader a comprehensive grasp of the discussion. Is it not then the more natural and effective way of giving recognition?
I keep my favorite blogs on my reader. That’s not enough for me because I still drop by to comment on their blogs. I email them when I feel that commenting is not enough. I add them on my Technorati favorites. And if I wake up on the right side of the bed – hey, I even thumb them up in Stumbleupon. And there are even no strings attached to it. Because I do it on my own. That’s my vote of confidence. That’s my award to you. And that’s my kinky way of spreading the love.
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