You know I’m a bit of a blog award junkie. I admit it, in my personal life and even at work, I’m a huge believer in recognition and positive feedback. I’m sure this has everything to do with leftover insecurity issues from my teen years and my infernal and endless need for external validation. Back in the day, I was even involved with the Canadian Blog Awards because I truly believe in recognizing excellence — and there are so many excellent Canadian blogs out there. I must say, though, that I have lost a little faith in the CBAs over the last year or two. They were too mired in political conflict and I just didn’t have the patience or the stomach for it, and the folks who were trying their very best to run a good program were just overwhelmed, despite their best efforts, by the scope of it and the knee-jerk reactionism to what they were trying to do.
Which is why I am so delighted to see someone start from scratch and create exactly what I’d envisioned the Canadian Blog Awards could be. Schmutzie, creator of Five Star Fridays and tonnes of other Web goodness, has launched the Canadian Weblog Awards. From the “about” page:
The Canadian Weblog Awards are intended to promote good weblogs of all genres from across Canada year round through regular interviews, articles, and the nomination, judging, and award process that culminates with the announcement of the top three weblogs in each category on January 1st. […]
Even the best weblogs can get buried under the swathes of information that flood the internet, and the Canadian Weblog Awards are determined to bring good Canadian weblogs to light. This is why we use a panel of judges rather than the popular vote to unearth our best and brightest. The use of a judging panel that follows a specific set of criteria to evaluate the nominees helps to ensure that the winning weblogs are chosen more for their quality rather than by how many people they can mobilize to vote.
We’re a talented lot, we Canadians, and we should show it off. We deserve it.
So smart! The original Weblog awards use a juried panel to choose the finalists, and that always seemed like a better approach than the various rounds of popular vote. Also, rather than just running a short window for nominations, they’re accepting nominations all year. Best of all, though, they’re interspersing regular updates from various categories with interviews with nominees to keep it interesting for the whole year. I’m so very impressed by the whole thing, and that is entirely beside the fact that I’ve been nominated in two categories!
(I’m delighted to be nominated in the Family and Parenting category, but truly honoured that someone put me up in the Best Writing category, too. Thank you, anonymous nominator(s). You made my day!)
I only wish I’d had the brains to think of it myself, or — even moreso! — the time to follow through with it all. It’s a great effort that really should be recognized. Is there a weblog awards for best weblog awards? 😉
Seriously, though, go check it out and don’t be shy about nominating your faves. Who doesn’t love a little recognition every now and then? Isn’t that why we’re all out here on the Internet blathering away in the first place?
Edited to add: Oh, I can’t tell you how tickled I am to be nominated in the humour category, too! You might never shut me up now! You think I’m funny? *squee of delight*
*smooch*
I’m so glad that you like the CWAs! I’m excited to see what this year holds.
Mission accomplished….always happy to help those who help others.
I have been super-impressed with the way that Schmutzie is doing these awards. She rocks! 🙂
Add Humour to that now, too! Congratulations!