I finally got around to voting for the 2003 Bloggies yesterday and halfway through checking out people's blogs and writing little notes about why I voted like I did I found a far more comprehensive article about the nominees than I would ever write. So in case you want to know about the blogs I didn't vote for you should check out The Bloggies: An In-Depth Analysis.

Again, I've chosen to use the More function, because I don't want a long list of blogs crowding the entire page. I'm actually not a big fan of the More function, because it means that you can't see the rest of the entries, but when it comes to postings like the ones today and Saturday's I think it's apt.

Oh, I've added a Playlist to the left frame, because I've seen them on other blogs and I think it's a fun little addition. It serves no other purpose than show the last five songs I've listened to, which right now are ZZ Top - Balinese, Low - Long Way Around The Sea, Le Tigre - Deceptacon, Interpol - A Time To Be So Small, and Ron Sexsmith - Don't Ask Why, which will give you an idea of what kind of stuff I listen to on a daily basis.

But on to the bloggies...

Best Merchandise of a Weblog:
Boing Boing
None of the blogs had amazing merch, Boing Boing had some cool
Cockroach shirts, that I liked.

Best Weblog Webring:
Windy City Webloggers
I really had no interest in any of the webrings, but I liked the picture of Chicago, so I tossed my vote at the Windy City Webloggers. Oh, this is a pretty good indication of how random my votes will fly. I've visited all the blogs, but if none of the blogs in a category spoke to me I picked the one that looked the nicest.

Best Meme:
Blogtree
I like the idea of being able to see the development of the blog phenomenon even though I have yet to figure out what the different colours on the site mean.

Best Article or Essay About Weblogs:
What We're Doing When We Blog
None of the articles are particularly interesting, but this was the most thorough of the bunch, so it got my vote. I had actually nominated Let Slip the Blogs of War, because it's one of the few truly interesting and critical articles I've read, but apparently others weren't as impressed.

Best Weblog Directory or Update Monitor:
Blogdex
This one was fairly easy, because out of the five Blogdex is the only one I use. I used to use Daypop all the time, but haven't visited it frequently since it was down for a while.

Best Web Application for Weblogs:
Movable Type
Easy, because MT has worked perfectly for me since I started using it.

Best Australian or New Zealand Weblog:
LukeLog
I didn't know any of the nominees beforehand, so I had to look through them and see if I liked any of them. It was a bit tough, but LukeLog mentioned PJ Harvey and Kraftwerk, whereas some of the others mentioned babies and kitties, so that made my decision that much easier.

Best Asian Weblog:
EmptyBottle.org
Again, I didn't know any of these blogs, so I actually picked EmptyBottle.org because it looks a lot different than other weblogs.

Best European or African Weblog:
How to Learn Swedish in 1000 Difficult Lessons:
I read quite a few European weblogs, but none of them got nominated, so once again I had to read through all five to get an idea as to what these people write about. I really like the idea of someone living in a foreign country trying to teach others the language he himself is trying to learn. So the vote is as much for the great idea as it is for the writing.

Best Latin American Weblog:
www.blog.com.mx
Que? No habla espaņol? Well, then you're as screwed as I was, because all five nominees are in Spanish (or Portugese. It's all Greek to me!), so I just picked the one I thought looked nicest.

Best Canadian Weblog:
She Speaks Good English
I've actually sort of been reading it for a while, so since none of the other nominees impressed me too much I went with what I knew.

Best American Weblog:
Little.Yellow.Different
This was such a non contest. I've been reading Little.Yellow.Different for a year and a half and it still rules. It was one of the first weblogs I ever saw and I still check it every day.

Best Tagline of a Weblog:
More Margaret Cho Than You
Frankly, I thought they all sucked, but I picked the Margaret Cho one, because I have no idea what it's supposed to mean. I nominated a couple for this category including Arseblog - It's Fuckin' Excellent and my own. And even though I ripped it off from Chavez it's still a hell of a lot better than Based on a True Story.

Best Webcam of a Weblog Site:
RedCricket
Haven't been into cams since I spent hours watching Anacam back in the day to see if she would wear her Cat Woman outfit or do some other crazy shit. But the camtoons over at RedCricket made me laugh, so he got my vote.

Best Non-Weblog Content of a Weblog Site:
Davezilla
I'm not use what you're supposed to evaluate here, but Dave got my vote, because of the jokes, which I guess are non-weblog content.

Best Programming of a Weblog Site:
ScriptyGoddess
Again, I have no idea what to look for, but ScriptyGoddess has a subscription service to the comments on her blog, which I also want for this site. So that was a cool enough feature to get my vote.

Best Weblog About Music:
The Modern Age
I read The Modern Age every day, so this one was a no-brainer.

Best Weblog About Politics:
Fark
I'm sick of hearing and reading about American politics, so Fark gets my vote because of frequent links to boobies and weird news stories.

Best Web Development Weblog:
Scripting News
I don't know Jack about tech blogs, so I've voted rather randomly in the next couple of categories.

Best Computers or Technology Weblog:
As The Apple Turns
Again I'm out of my field, but I liked the design.

Best Reviews or Weblog About Weblogs:
Fucked Weblog
Just a funny idea.

Best Topical Weblog:
Whedonesque
I picked Whedonesque, because I'm a big Buffy/Angel fan and because I've heard good things about the weblog. I don't visit it myself, because we're way behind on both shows over here, so I don't want to know too much about episodes, which haven't aired here yet.

Best GLBT Weblog:
Must Read HTTP
I've read it for ages and it was, along with LYD, one of the first weblogs I ever read. But in this category I'll have to go with Must Read HTTP, because Brad is just way gayer than Ernie (not that there's anything wrong with that).

Most Humorous Weblog:
Little.Yellow.Different
If Must Read HTTP had been nominated in this category there would have been some competition in this category. But with Brad out of the race LYD gets the vote hands down.

Best Group or Community Weblog:
Fark
I used to check Metafilter regularly, but Fark is the only community blog (besides Interesting Stuff) I check on a regular basis.

Best-Designed Weblog:
Loobylu
The site is nice, simple, and has very unique illustrations.

Best-Kept-Secret Weblog:
Blog Anon
Again, I totally nominated myself for this one, because this site is a fairly well kept secret. But no dice, so I have to cast my vote elsewhere.

Best New Weblog:
Whedonesque
I don't mean to sound mean, but none of these weblogs intrigued me, so Whedonesque wins by default. It's getting pretty obvious that whoever picked the nominees out of the submitted suggestions have different tastes than me.

Lifetime Achievement:
Kottke
I used to read Kottke all the time and out of the five he's the one I know the most about, so my vote goes to him. I actually nomined Stile in this category, but apparently the jury didn't agree with me.

Weblog of the Year:
Little.Yellow.Different
I think this one is pretty obvious. LYD is just the funniest, most well-written blog around, so obviously he gets my vote.

In conclusion I should add that I was surprised by a lot of the nominated weblogs. I didn't think they were as good as the ones in my blog roll, but I guess it is just down to a matter of taste. There has been some hoopla about how the nominees were chosen, but I don't really care about that. It's all for fun anyway. I was just a little disappointed that I didn't find a lot of interesting weblogs I didn't already know.

Posted by John Fogde at January 27, 2003 10:51 PM | TrackBack