Which is my take on the Anime Blog Awards. But before that, allow me to just talk about the three categories which I had placed nominations for.
Quickly, let us begin with the category of Most Funniest Blog which I had nominated Hontou Ni Taihen Desu and RIUVA for. I have to say, nothing beats watching an advocate of siscon in action.To keep it short, I like his blog. And RIUVA’s nasty sense of humour won me over. RIUVA may not be able to please everyone *Tjhan pissed one of my friends! oh no!* but hey – at least they have got mango milk and an awesome mascot.
Jpmeyer of Minaide Hazukashii came to my mind for the Best Satire Blog. Now let me repeat that I am very new to the blogosphere so my nominations are based on first yet lingering impressions and Jpmeyer’s was one of the first blogs that I had ever stumbled upon. When I think of his writings, they crack me up with this feeling of reluctance from an old fan. So let us move on from there as this is not meant to be a thorough explanation of my choices.
Finally, we have DUM DUM DUM DUM…. my nomination for Best Dorama. For this case, it comes from personal experience. Imagine this staunch knight of justice who is absolutely burning with abhorrence for the injustice that is dealt to a particular anime studio. Rising to the challenge, he draws his sword pen in an epic quest to defend the honour. Waging battles across blogs, he knows nothing about faltering. There was even a moment when a low lvl n00b got himself caught in the crossfire for cracking a joke due to his lack of awareness. Congratulations n00b, you earned yourself a point in infamy because of that. Regardless of whether our sir knight has a warped sense of justice or whether he was the justifiable enforcer, he deserves a pat on the shoulder for his efforts. Hey Mister Kaioshin, those were 3rd degree burns you had dealt to me!
Alright, finally to the part which explains the title of this post. The Sojourner believes that the ABA will help to promote awareness in blog readers so that more blogs out there will be appreciated. Apart from that, ABA is just one massive event for masturbation. K nite folks.
P.S I demand a category for MOST NSFW BLOG.
Ohhhhhhhhh……….Burn?
If you want my honest opinion though, these awards won’t do much to help smaller or newer bloggers gain awareness. Considering that only the mainstays (overwhelmingly) and a precious select few newer blogs (Only in the Rookie category which was one of the few I nominated in) are seeing nominations, it can’t really be considered much of an awareness raiser. You pretty much have to have your name up their and receive some noteriety, otherwise there’s not point to it other than the self congratulation of the big shots. And no amount of denying it and saying it’s for the good of the fresh or “Noobs” as you call them is going to change that unless some real action is taken to ensure that some of the smaller blogs are indeed credited.
A rule that only one blog that has been established for over 2-3 years could be nominated and the other 2 had to be ones that have been around for less than 2 years could have gone a long way, but alas.
That’s all fine and good if some people consider my joke crusade a lost cause, because really it never was one, but just be aware that I in turn consider the ABA a cause that could have been good, but is now pretty much the same thing as the Oscars.
And really, a good blog should speak for itself and not need to be awarded as a means of gaining noteriety. The satisfaction of having written a good thought-provoking article that gets people talking should be more than enough that we don’t need a big ceremony to acknowledge it. We aren’t A-List celebrities who need the limelight (at least I hope not), but merely men and women with a hobby.
Fair enough and I share some of those sentiments. I would also like to point out that there are those who prefer not to be involved in ABA, so whether ABA is a relatively accurate depiction of the current ‘vitae’ of the community is pretty much subjected to debate.
But then, can’t a dreamer like me continue to believe in what ABA had originally stood for? I want to.
“But then, can’t a dreamer like me continue to believe in what ABA had originally stood for? I want to.”
Certainly. I still do to some extent.
I don’t see it as a big circle jerk. People are going to vote for what they know, so while the “popular” blogs will get those top spots, I feel one of the goals of the ABA is to expand the blogs that people know. This is only the awards’ first year, so there are going to be kinks involved, and it’s good that you have suggestions on what can be done about this so that it’s not as much of an apparent problem as it has been. Neither are the awards the definitive solution in terms of how do people get to know new blogs (if those blogs want to be known though, but I know that from the public nominations to the blog list of people that are involved with this, I’ve gotten to see blogs that I haven’t heard of before that are good, interesting, what have you.
So I’d think that we’ve been successful to that end, and it’s also why I’m confused by what you mean by what the ABA has originally stood for. What makes you think the purpose has changed? o_o
@ TheBigN
Thank you for your opinion. Personally I do not think it is a lost cause completely, in fact I feel that it is the sign of a vibrant community.
Just like you, I discovered many new blogs through ABA especially since I am new. Unfortunately, it is simply my nature to doubt whether that will suffice. But hey, you are very much welcomed to share your opinion if you think I am worrying too much.
The part ‘had originally stood for’ – that came from the sceptic in me. I cannot help but ponder about it just a bit more, hence leading to my fears of diversion from what it is supposed to promote. No one is exactly wrong in their conclusions I think, because the factors weigh differently to individuals. So as to my doubts towards ABA, that is just my way of showing love. =p
Oh yeah. I am looking forward to how everyone could discuss about improving ABA (if there is going to be another one) once it is over. Surely we all want to help refine it right?
Who did I piss off? I’m the most friendly creature ever in the history of the galaxy. I shall serve up some fresh mango milk for the apology.
lol. Think it is hard because he likes yaoi and D Gray Man. Yeah, seriously.
I think you have a typo there. “She”, not “he”!
The reason why I quoted ‘seriously’ is because of the unbelievable fact that it IS a ‘he’.
Was I a bit too late?
Anyway, here are my thoughts.
1. Let’s face it. There is always an element of popularity in any form of awards. We have always been (Ok, my wishful thinking) planning to have another anime blog awards at the end of the year (think, NOVEMBER) when we have a more “Sundance” version in which we force people to nominate blogs that are new. Of course, criteria have not been set, but it’s obvious that the nominated blogs in the current ABA will not be eligible.
2. I like to correct Kaioshin_Sama a little. More than half of the blogs that have been nominated have lasted less than 2 years. In fact, THAT Anime Blog is only 1.5 years old. I am quite sure he meant an arbitrary thing, but that will be unfair to the older bloggers. Sure, we might intend to celebrate newer blogs, but I believe POINT 1 might work out better. We are using our current awards to siphon out for the less celebrated ones. I wonder why everyone thinks THAT Anime blog has been here for a long time
3. We will definitely be gathering feedback at the end of the awards. I already know some flaws such as categories that we have to fix the next time we set up. Of course, that is if people still want the same committee to set it up. I will be more than glad to pass the reins (suffering of emailing and hunting down people) to someone. I let them see how sad they will feel later, WAHAHAHAHAHA!
4. There will be people who do not like awards. No matter how much you convince them, they will say bad things. We cannot stop them, and we respect their views (though I am always trying to change their views, but turn out to piss them off). Nonetheless, I think the ABA is a decent representation of the popular anime blogs in our blogosphere. We might be missing out some (particularly in the mee.nu where they are calling ABA a total disgrace) but we try all attempts to get everyone. I think it’s hard when people are giving you the middle finger when you try to persuade them. I will vent my anger by saying, “I did not get paid to do this, I did it for the bloody damn community”.
5. I think it is rather idealistic and irrealistic to expect that we will suddenly have a pluralistic society with the existence of the AWARDs. We do try our best to give new blogs some exposure through the open nominations. It will be hard to do otherwise without giving it much fanfare.
I hope that it gives you some assurance (or @_@). We will definitely try to refine it, to improve it and to do better. It’s the first time anything like this has been done. We try.
Personally, good bloggers shouldn’t care about such awards or try to change their content just to suit these awards… =) but getting one or two awards does bring some blog owners to another stage of orgasm.
Its good that such awards exist, it exists as evidence of a growing anime culture in the world, IMHO at least…
For the new blogs, a blog of the week/month thing could be made, featuring the work of particularly outstanding blogs in that week/month itself. I believe short termed work should be appraised.
Holy Jam! Even Impzie is here…
Just like how it is evident in politics – you cannot please everyone. We all have mixed feelings about it and even someone like me who is supportive of ABA could not help but poke fun at it by calling it a ‘massive event for masturbation’.
Am I not supposed to be here @_@?
Btw, MOST NSFW BLOG. <— close, but no cigar. We have best doujin / eroge blog.
Sure, if there’s nothing to poke fun of in ABA, it will be boring. BORING.
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