Blogger Awards

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.