Not to give myself airs, but I live in dread of receiving a Versatile Blogger Award. Well, dread is a strong word. Basically I hope I never receive one, mainly because I don’t want to play in that field.
It’s the “Chain-Letter” feel of it, you see. It took me a long time to wean people on my mailing list to stop forwarding me chain letters (i.e. forward this to 10 friends or your hemorrhoids will explode!!).
I really don’t want to start it here.
Don’t get me wrong; I appreciate the sentiment behind it. It is a great way to discover new blogs, build a community, and perhaps establish some friendships.
The problem is the “nominate 15 other blogs for the award”. That just rubs me the wrong way. I can see nominating someone else; someone whose efforts have struck a particular chord with you. But fifteen (15)?!? I don’t have that many friends who influence and affect my life, let alone blogs.
And, it’s not really an award, is it? There is no prestige there, no recognition by a community at large, no rigorous selection process and review. It’s someone who happens to like what you do, and maybe sometimes it’s someone who remembers the cute picture of a puppy you had on your site, and it comes to mind when they are strapped to name 15 other blogs.
Again, I appreciate the intent behind it, and accept the honesty and earnest of the persons taking the time to put forth a nomination, but don’t like the requirement to do the same for 15 (!) other bloggers.
I’m a math guy . . . if I nominate 15 blogs, and each of those nominate 15 more, and so on, here is the progression:
15 . . . . . . 225 . . . . . . 3,375 . . . . . . 50,625 . . . . . . 759,375 (!) . . . . . . 11,390,625 (!!)
Plus, you have to divulge seven (7) things about yourself. FaceBook has those same kind of things, and I always thought it’s just another way for people trying to break your password to get useful information from you. Basically, you are willingly giving away your identity.
Besides, if someone is a real fan of my blog, they should already know everything I am willing to share publicly (i. e. 1. I am old 2. I am ugly 3. I am a great guy to be friends with 4. I stutter 5. I like pasta (plain or with butter) 6. I like guns 7. I like the movie Joe Versus the Volcano).
I want to stress I am not taking away anything from anyone nominated. Likely someone (possibly many more than one) thinks a lot of your efforts, and for that one should be proud.
I am saying that personally I would prefer receiving a private e-mail from someone telling me how I affected their life in a positive way. That would be HUGE. Really, just hit the “like” button, or give the post a rating (few use the star-rating system), and I am well on my way to being giddy.
(Side Note: while the numbers are low, I check out who “liked” my posts, and if interesting people, I thank them. But that too has the potential of becoming a huge time sink. At some point it will begin to interfere with producing new content, and that’s when I will stop acknowledging each “like”.)
Hopefully this post will put the final nail on any chance of me being nominated, but if someone does nominate me, please don’t be offended when I turn it down. For one thing, it means you are not reading my blog.
Disperser Tracks 
Very well expressed. It is what I have wanted to say, but didn’t take the time to do it. I have been given at least 10 of these awards, and one chap I did not know at all. I think he just wanted to find the 10 or 15 people he needed and picked me at random. Perhaps when we get to a certain age our bullshit barometer becomes more finely tuned, and we have less patience for things unnecessary. I appreciate this post and say good for you, you old, ugly, pasta eating SOB.
LikeLike
I resemble that remark. Thanks.
LikeLike
Yes yes yes I really dread the comment I’ve nominated you …. By now you know I always want to please so I politely thank the blogger and slink into the background.
LikeLike
Slink . . . that sounds vaguely suggestive. I guess that’s one way to throw them off their game.
Not much into slinking myself; more into bludgeoning.
LikeLike
Perhaps I should take a lesson! Oh I can’t. In my profession I must feed two birds with one seed rather than kill two with one stone. Bludgeoning is definitely out! Lol
LikeLike
So…you don’t want me to nominate you, then.
I’m in the same boat. In the last couple of days I just started vaguely wondering what I should do in case someone nominated me for one of them, thinking how I really, really didn’t want to participate, and then I woke up this morning with two people telling me they nominated me. Which was flattering, don’t get me wrong. It’s not a bad problem to have. Someone likes what I do, awesome!
But the nominate-15-other-people seems a little excessive, and I don’t want to burden anyone else who’s not wild about the idea thinking they have to participate too. It’s not that I haven’t been impressed and sometimes awe-struck with some of the work in the blogs I’ve encountered, but I’d be hard-pressed to name 15 people off the top of my head, being that I’m pretty new here. I’ve made up my mind to instead try to be a little more intentional about sharing my feedback with people whose work I really like, or sharing links to said work in a little more organic way.
Here’s to hoping I’m not struck dead by the vengeful spirit of the original Versatile Blogger.
LikeLike
I actually rushed this post out at lunch today because I noticed my subscribers jumped from the low teens to the mid-40s in a little less than a week . . .
. . . I need to write a post about subscribing as well, but meantime I was concerned one of them would get an award (all of the ones I check do very good work), and pass it on to me.
I was trying to think of a different system to make the selection, nomination, and awarding of the “prize” a little more meaningful, but we are dealing with literally millions of blogs. Unless one deals with a specific topic (Versatile Tuesday Between 9:37am and 10:17am Blogger About Red Underpants Award) you are still going to get into logistic issues. I really wanted it to be more positive (i.e. here’s a way to improve the award), but in the end I wanted to make sure I get out there that I was not particularly interested.
This award is very much akin to friending someone in FaceBook. After you have a hundred friends or so, adding a few more is not a big deal, even if you don’t know them.
LikeLike
Hi disperser,
I am so glad you’ve posted this, and with your approval, I will use your text, will edit it a bit and post it on my blog as well. I had three nominations the last few days and had a strange feeling over it.
I ran in so many blogs that had a nomination, it was weird… so when I read your post I thought: oh yeah…this is exactly how I feel about it. So thank you, and I will mention your name in my post about this…if it is okay with you… Have a great day!
Joanna
LikeLike
Hi Joanna.
If you plan on quoting the text exactly, then I would appreciate a mention.
If you are editing/rewriting it, then I don’t think you need to credit me, as it then becomes the expression of your own opinion.
If you mention me as an inspiration for your own writing, then I say thanks, and glad you liked my post well enough to move you to do your own,
LikeLike
Hi Disperser,
I’ve just posted on my blog about this stuff and I did mention you, as I used your text…
Thanks for your approval, for me it was much easier to write mine, as I had yours to hold on to…
Have a great weekend
LikeLike
Joanna,
I like the changes you made, and glad I could help.
LikeLike
Thank you, Emilio is it? as I read your name right at the photos you make…
LikeLike
Thumbs up. I also just don’t do the chain letter or the blogger nominations. So I agree completely. I did stop in to read about your trip. My antelope photos are not as good as yours. The rascals are fast my husband is not fast at stopping. He has to find a “safe” place and usually finds one before I am completely out the window. He is patient, and he stops a lot and he has bought me most of my camera gear, just because he know how I am possessed by photography. I used to think it was the developing chemicals but I can’t blame that obsession when I am a digital convert.
Your photography is inspiring!
LikeLike
Just came across this comment (don’t know how I missed it). Thanks for the kind words.
LikeLike
This post is a breath of fresh air and completely describes far more eloquently than I could my own attitude to blogger awards.
LikeLike
Perhaps we should create an award to help spread the word. One of the requirements would be not to tell anyone, and for FSM sake, not to nominate others.
LikeLike
Too true, I wrote a similar post, I just wish I had found yours first as you put it so much better.
LikeLike
Why, thank you.
LikeLike
I’m not going to lie, I participated in one of these awards. I was a bit leery about the chain-letter aspect of it myself, but the one only wanted 7 and 7, so I went with it. It of course means nothing to have won it. But it did give me another reason to write and a way to call attention to some other blogs. I think its obvious when the sentiment is genuine rather than chain-letter spam. I suppose it makes more sense just to stick to likes and actual comments though.
LikeLike
I have no doubt the sentiment is genuine. But within a two steps down the line, even with 7, you get into nearly 350 blogs.
The suspicion I have is they are created specifically to help promote blog usage (no way to prove it, or disprove it). Otherwise, the same thing could be accomplished by just sending the certificate (or other graphic) without the added requirement of spreading it.
LikeLike
I’ve had to turn down about ten awards. Initially I declined by providing the kind of mathematical explanation you mentioned, showing how quickly a geometric series with a common ratio of 7 (as it was then) ends up including every blog in existence. The next time, doubting that many people would appreciate the math, I turned to a mildly worded statement to the effect that comments would be reward enough for me without any overt awards.
One no-obligation alternative to blog awards is to put in your sidebar links to blogs you value.
LikeLike
Luckily, I don’t get many nominations. Actually, the number is zero in recent past. Probably the notice is having some effect. Or people just plain don’t like me. Either way, it’s fine. It allows me to concentrate on creating content, and really, that’s what I rather be doing.
Thanks for commenting.
LikeLike
My comment will likely reveal my age, but what have I got to lose? During my childhood, I was told that the USPO made it illegal for chain letters to be mailed, but no such luck for the internet.
What you say here surely is logical.
LikeLike
Yeah, the internet is behind the times, but in part that’s due to the nature of it (and what’s good about it) which is no central authority.
Email and most major sites offer tools to limit exposure to unwanted solicitation, but WordPress had a business model based on promoting interaction, wanted or not.
I worry that sometimes I might hurt someone’s feelings, but I also think . . . oh, who am I kidding? I’m not that worried.
And, lastly, let me guess your age based on the comment? 35?
LikeLike
My sentiments exactly. I think those “piffly” awards are silly and mean absolutely nothing. I’ve seen blogs that had so many awards I could hardly find the actual posts. And those blogs were not good at all.
LikeLiked by 1 person