And The Award Goes To…
After 7,000+ nominations and 1800+ votes for our 91 finalists, here are the winners of the 2007 Black Weblog Awards.
Unique to this year was the addition of our panel of ten judges, authorities in the fields of blogging, design, the Internet and good writing. Each category has two winners: a popular vote (the ones which you, the users, casted your ballots for) and the judges’ vote (the top ranked picks from our judges).
Winners are listed after the break.
Best Blog Community
Popular Vote: Young, Black and Fabulous
Judges’ Vote: Nappturality
Best Blog Design
Popular Vote: Young, Black and Fabulous
Judges’ Vote: Clutch Magazine
Best Blog Post or Blog Post Series
Popular Vote: “Who Killed Hip-Hop? On Some JFK Shit…”
Judges’ Vote: “What About Our Daughters Wins Battle!!!”
Best Business Blog
Popular Vote: Black In Business
Judges’ Vote: Black In Business
Best Celebrity Blog
Popular Vote: Tyra Banks
Judges’ Vote: ?uestlove
Best Culture Blog
Popular Vote: Young, Black and Fabulous
Judges’ Vote: Afrobella
Best Faith-Based Blog
Popular Vote: Are You There God? It’s Me, Dawn
Judges’ Vote: The Infidel Guy Show
Best Fictional Blog
Popular Vote: Fake Janice Combs
Judges’ Vote: Life and Times of Ata Nafia…a (not) true story
Best Food Blog
Popular Vote: A Lot About Nothing
Judges’ Vote: TriniGourmet.com
Best Gossip Blog
Popular Vote: Young, Black and Fabulous
Judges’ Vote: Young, Black and Fabulous
Best Group Blog
Popular Vote: Concrete Loop
Judges’ Vote: Racialicious
Best Hip-Hop Blog
Popular Vote: Real Talk NY
Judges’ Vote: The Smoking Section
Best Humor Blog
Popular Vote: Crunk & Disorderly
Judges’ Vote: Funky Brown Chick
Best International Blog
Popular Vote: Black Women in Europe
Judges’ Vote: Black Women in Europe
Best LGBT Blog
Popular Vote: Keith Boykin
Judges’ Vote: Keith Boykin
Best Music Blog
Popular Vote: Real Talk NY
Judges’ Vote: HoneySoul.com
Best New Blog
Popular Vote: Blogxilla.com
Judges’ Vote: Stereohyped
Best Niche Blog
Popular Vote: Afrobella
Judges’ Vote: Fly
Best Personal Blog
Popular Vote: The Beautiful Struggler
Judges’ Vote: InTheLifeOf.org
Best Photo Blog
Popular Vote: The D-Nice Journal
Judges’ Vote: Alakija.com | photoblog
Best Podcast
Popular Vote: HoodHype
Judges’ Vote: Friday Favecast
Best Political/News Blog
Popular Vote: The Field Negro
Judges’ Vote: Jack and Jill Politics
Best Science/Technology Blog
Popular Vote: Nerd With Swag
Judges’ Vote: Tiffany B. Brown
Best Sports/Recreation Blog
Popular Vote: The Starting Five
Judges’ Vote: The Starting Five
Best Teen Blog
Popular Vote: My Teenage Years
Judges’ Vote: Queer Kid of Color
Best Video Blog
Popular Vote: Love B. Scott
Judges’ Vote: Ill Doctrine
Best Writing in a Blog
Popular Vote: Young, Black and Fabulous
Judges’ Vote: Blackprof.com
Black Blogger Achievement Award
Popular Vote: Keith Boykin
Judges’ Vote: Baratunde Thurston
Blog of the Year
Popular Vote: Young, Black and Fabulous
Judges’ Vote: What About Our Daughters?
Blog to Watch
Popular Vote: Real Talk NY
Judges’ Vote: AverageBro
I’m sure there will be a lot of discussion about the winners, so feel free to leave a constructive comment below. No “this person should’ve won” type comments, please. You can also join our Google Group to get in on the discussions for future installments of the Awards.
Winners, please contact us via our contact form in order to receive your winners’ graphic(s).
See you in 2008!
September 5th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
Wow! I am so honored to have won in the Best international Blog category! Thank you readers and judges! I am truly blessed to be able to share this honor with the other winners. Can you send me the “badge” to post?!?! Yipee!
September 5th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
Congrats to all the winners!
September 5th, 2007 at 8:33 pm
just want to say thanks to the judges for picking my blog for Best Fictional….man you guys are smart! lol.
September 5th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am so happy. And flattered. And honored! Thank you!! Is there a special winners badge we can post?
September 5th, 2007 at 9:40 pm
Oh my goodness. I didn’t even know I was nominated! hahahaha. Wow, I am less than six months old and I won an award. Thank y’all so much. I don’t do the blog for the recognition, but it still feels nice to be appreciated
September 5th, 2007 at 9:44 pm
Yaaaaaaay!!!!! I am so honored and excited!!!!! Thanks to all who voted and congrats to the other winners!!!!
Please send a badge to sister.toldja@gmail.com so I can show my momma’nem.
September 5th, 2007 at 9:49 pm
[…] You’re reading the words of an official Black Weblog Award winner!!!! […]
September 5th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
OMG so many people I voted for won! I nominated WhatAboutOurDaughters for blog of the year and the judges chose it! OMG I wrote the judges vote for best blog entry! This is awesome! Congratulations to everyone. This was a lot of fun!
September 5th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
This is cool…this is really, really cool. Congratulations to everyone who won, was a finalist and nominated. It’s about the BLACK EXPERIENCE on the WEB! U gotta love it.
Please forward my badge to me…Thanks!
September 5th, 2007 at 10:24 pm
How come for best celebrity the judges voted a blog that wasn’t even nominated?
September 5th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
Who are the ten judges?
September 5th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
[…] 2007 Black Weblog Awards are over for this year, and I’d like to thank each and every one of you who voted for me! […]
September 6th, 2007 at 12:26 am
@”me”: I would have replied directly, but you provided a fake e-mail address. To answer your questions though:
1. The judges made their picks from all the blogs nominated in each category, not just the finalists. As you’ll see, many of the judges’ picks are not the same as the popular vote finalists.
2. I think it’s up to the judges whether or not they want to reveal themselves; we haven’t divulged their identity in order to protect them from any unwarranted harassment (because I know I’ve received some crazy mail, and I don’t want to subject them to that).
September 6th, 2007 at 1:02 am
[…] good looking out on all of your parts. To check out the rest of the winners, head over to the official blog of the Black Weblog […]
September 6th, 2007 at 1:11 am
according to the rules on this site:
“As an added bonus to this year’s Awards, each category will have two winners.”
kinda weird that the same person wins twice in one category.
September 6th, 2007 at 1:25 am
I don’t think its weird to have two winners. Its better to have people vote but sometimes people just vote for their friends or for someone popular. Maybe the judges looked more at quality to decide. It would be worse if it was just judges because then we wouldn’t have a say.
September 6th, 2007 at 1:29 am
Yeah!! Man Best New Blog…. Read my joints people… Some Think I’m over confident… but my scribes are monstrous…. Yall Know BX bout to blow like nintendo Cartridges
September 6th, 2007 at 1:30 am
I agree Bronze which is why im pointing out some of the categories dont have two winners. That is what I think its weird because like you said friends would just vote for popular people. I thought if someone won the popular vote they wouldnt be the judges vote because it said “each category will have two winners.” Just an observation.
September 6th, 2007 at 2:35 am
The “As an added bonus to this year’s Awards, each category will have two winners” may seem a bit subjective, but it does make sense when a category has the same winner for both voting choices: 1 winner for the public vote and 1 winner for the judges vote for each category = 2 winners… but the rules didn’t distinctly say that the 2 winners of each category MUST be different blogs.
That in a sense would be unfair, especially if there’s a really good blog out there that the judges would deem a winner (based on a lot deeper criteria than most of the general voting public), but had to demote because the voting public also liked that blog and thought it merited a win. I think the way the 2-winner category decisions were made this year were done as best they could.
September 6th, 2007 at 2:45 am
I was one of the judges for this year’s Black Weblog Awards.
I can see how “me” is getting tripped up by the wording of the rules. It should read more like “…each category will be awarded a popular award and a judges’ award”.
The fact that some blogs won both the popular vote and the judges’ vote shows how successful those blogs are achieving their goal. Every blog that won an award was submitted by the public. We were not allowed to “write in” any choices.
After wading through over 7,000 nominations, I’m proud of the judges’ picks even though some of the blogs I chose didn’t win. That’s the nature of voting. I wrote more on my blog.
September 6th, 2007 at 3:33 am
Thank you voters and judges for voting The Starting Five the best sports blog.
We get jacked by biters and haters quite regularly. We’ve been “blacklisted” (pun intended) by Deadspin and The Big Lead. I’ve been called a race-baiter and received death threats and other sundry hate mail…..
But recognition like this makes it all worthwhile….
Thanks again.
peace,
-DWil
The Starting Five
September 6th, 2007 at 4:36 am
Interesting, won three popular votes and 0 from the judges. The one the bothers me is the Blog To Watch, how can that blog be picked over mine?
September 6th, 2007 at 5:29 am
[…] am happy to announce that TSF won the Black Weblog Award for Best Sports Blog. We are both the voters and the judge’s choice, which means we swept the […]
September 6th, 2007 at 5:31 am
Interesting, won three popular votes and 0 from the judges. The one the bothers me is the Blog To Watch, how can that blog be picked over mine?
My whole thing was I thought the judges were going to pick out of the finalist, not everyone else. but I’m glad they had the judges b/c w/o them it’s really became a popularity contest. Take best blog design for instance. I was up against Concrete Loop, and YBF, they are everywhere from BET, To the Vibe, to the boston globe. I had no chance of winning the popular vote in that category. So that really doesn’t prove anything. I mean even You have your blog powered or apart of the Rawkus.
September 6th, 2007 at 9:30 am
::The fact that some blogs won both the popular vote and the judges’ vote shows how successful those blogs are achieving their goal::
Not really. If there were three finalists obviously those three deserved to be finalists so all three of those blogs were successful. The judges choosing the popular votes too makesit feel like even more of a popularity contest. What is the benefit of winning twice in the same category? Will their badge say “two-timer winner in one category.” The rules said TWO winners and was said as a “bonus” so it all just seems weird but that is just me.
September 6th, 2007 at 10:14 am
[…] happy to announce that HoneySoul.com has won “Best Music Blog” in the 2007 Black Weblog Awards. What an honor! Thank you to the judges and congratulations to all the nominees and […]
September 6th, 2007 at 10:19 am
Just like with any ‘black’ awards, there is some bullshit over here. Yall, the creators and judges, can’t make this a peoples’ choice type of thing and a judge’s one. You can’t possibly have blogs that are getting tens of thousands of visitors a day compete with the lesser known ones. Who do you think’s going to win? This is just a popularity contest. An unfair one.
Though I am a visitor, how can YBF win best writing in a blog when theres more pictures then words? Answer? Popularity contest. Not surprised if people voted for their favorite blog for the maximum allowed categories.
Perhaps i’ll create a black blog awards which will consist of real people reviewing blogs that deserve the title and not just visitors and friends voting for their favorite. quality over quantity.
September 6th, 2007 at 10:24 am
I wonder if I created a blog and chose the same generic blogspot template as YBF, would I have tied with YBF? Again, popularity contest.
September 6th, 2007 at 10:37 am
Unimpressed has a great point. Who decides what “best writing in a blog” is? I didnt want to name names and I love YBF but how she gonna win best gossip blog for the popular vote and judge’s vote? In the categories where the bloggers won the popular vote and the judges vote, they are bloggers that cant be competed with. I thought having a judges vote would balance things out but I guess not.
September 6th, 2007 at 10:41 am
[…] out the rest of the winners here. Sep 6, 2007 · Link · Respond Related Posts • 09/05/07: Parting Shots […]
September 6th, 2007 at 10:57 am
We’re honored at The Starting Five for winning the best sports blog category. I’d like to second my boy DWil in saying thanks to all who voted. We’re catching a lot of wreck at TSF, but to be mentioned with all the other nominees elicits the smile grand. Thanks.
September 6th, 2007 at 10:59 am
[…] an honor to be in such great company. Check out all of the winners if you get a chance. Special shout to Racialicious, What About Our Daughters, TIffany B. Brown, […]
September 6th, 2007 at 11:01 am
[…] I’m thrilled to announce that Racialicious won the Judge’s Vote for Best Group Blog in the Black Weblog Awards! […]
September 6th, 2007 at 11:04 am
The Rawkus deal was a few weeks ago, I got over 7 million hits by without help. I hear what you are saying about being a popularity contest but I can’t see how I would not be voted the blog to watch. I’ve only been in existence for a year and have surpassed most blogs from out of nowhere.
September 6th, 2007 at 11:59 am
Thank you Thank you to the academy for this award.
My press conference will be at Sylvia’s soul food ad 6pm.
September 6th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
Some of the criticism here is just ridiculous. Whoever made the contest can make up whatever rules they want. The judges can use whatever criteria they want to decide and people who submitted blogs could choose them for whatever reason they wanted. Voting is subjective. I didn’t read anywhere that decisions would be made based on blog hits so RealTalkNY’s argument doesn’t make any sense to me. Just because you get a lot of hits doesn’t mean that you should automatically be the blog to watch. I’m sure there are other Black blogs who have more hits than you. All I have to say to the people who run the contest is that you did the work, you created the contest, someone is always going to complain especially if they don’t win. To all the bloggers out there, just keep blogging. It was just a contest.
September 6th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
But you must remember RealTalkNY, traffic isn’t wait makes a good blog or much less a “Blog to watch”, Your Alexa ranking really has no significance in these Awards.
September 6th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
Oh yea I almost forgot, thanks to the judges, voters and everyone else who made this happen… The awards in 08′ should be fairly interesting.
September 6th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Let the ish talking begin!
Nah, I’m honored to have been considered a finalist for Best Hip Hop Blog and Best Music Blog, especially since I haven’t even been doing this for a year. Shout out to all the award winners.
September 6th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
Congratulations to all the winners!
September 6th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
And now I’ve read the comments. Goodness, people do create some drama with all this stuff. Really, if you won in two categories, how do you get pissy about not winning in another one? All this is just like the grumbling with the Koufax Awards. Some people think it’s a popularity contest, some people (like me) actually award the writing on the blog. Now, I’m gonna have to check to see if I have to unblogroll some whiners.
September 6th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
I was a judge in this year’s Black Weblog Awards. I’m seconding everything j.brotherlove said above.
The BWA staff took on a difficult task and passed with flying colors. They have earned praise and respect, and I’ll gladly give it up for them.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be busy adding blogs over at Negrophile.com.
September 6th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
Enh…I cleared off trophy space so I’m glad we got a little recognition by winning lol.
September 6th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
The judges have spoken. Thanks for naming AverageBro the true “Blog To Watch!”.
September 6th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
[…] the comments. I giggled at RealTalkNY’s comment about YBF’s win for “Blog To Watch”, but RealTalkNy actually won that. I think he was referring to “Blog Of The Year” (YBF repeat. In fact, YBF won all of its finalist noms). Notice how he doesn’t mention the site by name. Hahaha. But you know, we’re all competitors at heart. It’s all about being the best and being recognized as such. […]
September 6th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
[…] we did when the award for 2007 Black Weblog Award for Best Hip-Hop Blog, along with RealTalkNY. Shoutouts to the RealTalk crew over there because that’s […]
September 6th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
RealTalkNY, dead the sour grapes, we both have “Blogs to Watch”!
We’re both winners. I’m adding you to my blogroll, do the same, please.
September 6th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
yeah, it’s really not that serious.
I doubt anybody got into blogging thinking they’d win any type of recognition. And even if we hadn’t won, I doubt I was going to quit as a result.
We do it because it’s what we enjoy…or we have hundreds of thousands of people who expect a show every day, lest they might send us viruses if we stopped lol.
Kudos to all the judges, nominees and winners.
September 6th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Thanks for the love, its always appreciated. Also, congrats to all the winners.
September 6th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
yeah, it’s really not that serious.
I doubt anybody got into blogging thinking they’d win any type of recognition. And even if we hadn’t won, I doubt I was going to quit as a result.
We do it because it’s what we enjoy…or we have hundreds of thousands of people who expect a show every day, lest they might send us viruses if we stopped lol.
Kudos to all the judges, nominees and winners.
Well put!
September 6th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
You guys are not really getting my point, I guess, “blog to watch.” means something different to me. No more Kanye from me people, best of luck to everyone.
September 6th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
lastly
the people > judges
September 6th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
C’mon bruh, let to go. You are acting mighty Kayne-ish about this.
September 6th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
More like Ralph Tresvant-y….
September 6th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
or Carl Thomas-y…
September 6th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
wht i’m trying to figure out is how you WON and you are STILL yappin’? take your prize, take your rawkus endorsement, and keep it moving. no need to spout your hits and all of this other yang. you won the people’s “blog to watch” vote, but trip over the judge’s? what kind of mess is that? AverageBro came up in 5 months and got their vote… why you mad? hate for no reason is kind of ridiculous…
September 6th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
I won a Black Weblog Award :-D…
I am the 2007 Judges’ Pick for Best Technology Blog, which came as a Big. Total. Shock.
I didn’t have enough votes to be a finalist in the popular vote, but it looks like the judging panel considered all nominated blogs when picking a win…
September 6th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
“Work like you don’t need the money. Love like you’ve never been hurt. Dance like nobody’s watching.”
September 6th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
I am pleased, humbled and honored to be included among so many wonderful blogs. Thank you for having a recognition forum for black bloggers
September 6th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
[…] here to see the top blogs. Props to all of the winners. I’ll enter next year. Bookmark This Post […]
September 6th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
Real Talk, I mean there are a million and one other blogs trying to be like other blogs… We really want to get our Kanye’ on… for what? You won Blog to watch b/c you had readers… which kind of defeats the purpose of being blog to watch: The description read…
30. Blog to Watch
This category highlights the best “undiscovered” blog in the blogosphere; keep your eye on this one! This is for that great blog that not everyone knows about…but should!
If you had 7 million hits & was picked up by Rawkus… you ain’t really qualify for that account… i mean duke really its like you played madden on rookie and go outside bragging that you beat the cpu 800 - 3 it really makes no sense. I started my blog in May and didn’t even promote it until about June… So I’m honored to be nominated. But Congrats to you none the less you beat 2 upstart blogs in the popular vote… Kudos to you… Now that’s real talk. Now for a Personal blog to come in and rep… Wait till I get my numbers RIGHT!! I do more then post pictures.
September 6th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
CONGRATS TO ALL THE WINNERS……ON A SIDE NOTE, HOW ABOUT……………………..
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9Qx1L1X92lc
September 6th, 2007 at 9:24 pm
Congratulations to everyone who won! It’s nice to see so many diverse types of blogs out there by Us Folk that are being acknowledged and recognized for quality on the ‘Net!!
September 6th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Many thanks to the judges and those who voted. Black blogs are on the rise, y’all!
Also congratulations to Baratunde Thurston, who also writes at Jack and Jill Politics.
Congrats go to all the winners and nominees. It’s an honored to be considered among so many fine bloggers.
September 7th, 2007 at 12:35 am
So happy to see my favorite site on there!!! Clutch magazine rocks and I am glad to see the judges think so too. Seriously its a beautiful site and the content can’t be messed with. Congrats to all the winners!
September 7th, 2007 at 11:21 am
[…] The Black Weblog Awards Blog » And The Award Goes To… Congratulations to JD Walton on his win! JD puts a ton of effort into his blog and it shows! Well-deserved. (tags: jimwalton blackweblogawards weblog awards) […]
September 7th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Sorry YBF shouldn’t have won most of the categories it was nominated for. That blog is bogus as hell and her writing isn’t that great. pop up for grown azz folk. She beat concrete loop? bullshit
September 7th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
When people voted they were under the impression that there vote would matter. If there was going to be a judge’s vote then what is the point of telling people to come and vote? When you do that people of course are going to vote for the blogs they are fans of in fact that’s how most found out about the nominees anyway. Now I’ve got no beef with the winners and think most of the nominees were qualified but I just think wording as someone previously mentioned needs to be taken into consideration. People vote so they can get their favorite blog to win so either you do it by the people’s vote or the judges’ vote. Congrats to the winners and nominees..I’ll keep reading as long as you keep entertaining.
September 7th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
wow, thanks guys
i hope this is the ‘contact form’ that I was supposed to use 
I look forward to receiving, and displaying, your winner’s badge 
September 7th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
Hi Me Being Real,
You said “If there was going to be a judge’s vote then what is the point of telling people to come and vote? When you do that people of course are going to vote for the blogs they are fans of in fact that’s how most found out about the nominees anyway.”
I don’t see why this is a problem for you. People voted and the blogs with the most votes won based on that. They judges chose a second winner. Whats the problem with that. The other alternative would be to just not have a judges vote and have only one winner for each category (or maybe 2nd or 3rd place). I think its better to have more blogs being recognized. People’s votes were counted so I don’t understand what people are complaining about…maybe people just want to complain. For crying out loud, the makers of the contest gave people TWO chances to win instead of one and people are acting like thats a bad thing. Really people….
September 7th, 2007 at 7:45 pm
Bronze said, “the makers of the contest gave people TWO chances to win instead of one and people are acting like thats a bad thing.” several of the categories only had one winner even though its suppose to be 2. so that aint true.
and I really dont get how someone wins the “judges” vote and they werent even a finalist. itd be like if actors won a oscar and werent nominees. why even have a nomination process?
as much as the awards went on about those “rules” they need to take a writing class on how to make things clear because alot of people dont get how some winners won twice in the same category (when it said two winners for each category), blogs winning the judges vote and not being a finalist, people winning for writing when their blog has like no writing, etc. Then telling people to reasearch the blogs before voting. are the “judges” researching?
there shouldve been a voting poll where people can see how far ahead someone is.
but this is why people keep saying the black weblog awards is not legit.
September 7th, 2007 at 10:28 pm
I still don’t understand why some people are still complaining about the winner’s list and the rules. To me, the rules seemed pretty clear and I don’t argue with the fact of why some bloggers won in some categories and some didn’t.
You can’t use the Oscars as an analogy. Oscar voting is done by SECRET ballot by members of the Academy who are skilled experts in their craft in order to get the nominees. Then final ballots are then tabulated in order to deem who the winner of each top 5 is. Thus to strike a similarity with the BWA and the Oscars isn’t well-founded. The People’s Choice Award on the other hand, is based on votes from the general public. But awards with this type of voting procedure have margins of error (e.g. there have been ties for Best Picture in the past b/c the numbers were so close).
Just think of this year’s Black Weblog Awards as a cumulation of the former and latter award ceremonies that I spoke of. If there’s a problem with people seeing the same winner for the public vote and the judges vote, anything different than that would be unfair. Why should the judges choose to pick a blog that they feel is less-deserving of a particular award, just because they also garnered the top number of votes by the public?
Being on the winning side of both the public and judges vote could simply mean that that particular blog is good at what it does, and was rewarded as such by the people and by the judges (who I assume know what they’re talking about when it comes to critiquing blogs). I didn’t see many people complaining when Titanic won a People’s Choice Award and an Oscar. No where in the rules did it say that there would be two SEPARATE AND TOTALLY DIFFERENT winners for each category… just that there’d be 2 winners: the winner of the public vote and the winner of the judges vote. If these two happened to be the same Blogger, then kudos to them.
Is it unfair that the judges voted from ALL the nominations, rather than just the top 3? Of course not. The finalists were based on the PUBLIC vote which can be skewed at some level. Yes, the finalists in the public vote may have a large fan base, or they just could’ve decided to tell each and every member of their large extended family and friends to vote. Regardless, the finalists were bloggers who were the top three nominated in each category. If the judges choose a winner based on just the finalists, there’s a good chance that the winner would only be based on blogs who receive countless traffic to their site–a popularity contest. What would happen to the lesser-known blogs (e.g. The judge’s choice winner of Blog To Watch) which are actually great blogs, but just need that expert critique and analysis to let the rest of the general public know that this is one to be read?
Geez… I wrote a lot. Congrats to all the winners and finalists! Say no to sour grapes!
September 7th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
OK, so I’ve been absent from these comments for a minute (mainly, I wanted to see where this would go), and I can honestly say…I’m not surprised at the negative comments by me/me again/… (who are all reporting from the same IP address).
In a way, I appreciate the negative comments because it lets me know areas where the Awards can improve; since the Awards have started, it’s been a popularity contest. Most people’s choice type awards are just that. The people nominate someone, then vote for the one they like the best. That’s just an inherent function of any sort of award-type function; you’re declaring one thing better than something else. The reason we did the judging was to make it fairer across the board for blogs nominated, because they could also win if the judges selected them.
As far as the “same person wins twice in one category” situation: when that happened, it was a coincidence. There’s nothing in the rules which says that one blog can’t win more than one Award. The judges had the arduous task of selecting their winners from all the nominees in all the categories (which has been stated in this blog earlier). Going through all those nominees isn’t a small feat by any means, so don’t belittle them by asking if they ‘researched’ their picks. They can all tell you that it was NOT easy. The judges didn’t “just choose the popular vote”, because the judges didn’t know the popular vote winners at all! Everyone found out the popular vote winners at the same time when they were posted here, so again, it’s just a coincidence. J. Brotherlove was right when he said “The fact that some blogs won both the popular vote and the judges’ vote shows how successful those blogs are achieving their goal” because the judges didn’t know who won any of the popular votes yet.
Asking “Who decides what ‘best writing in a blog’ is” should be an easy answer: the people who nominated those blogs for that category were the ones who decided. And the judges pick for that category? Some of our judges are journalists, reporters, fellow bloggers, university professors — they are all around well-educated people. So they decide in that particular instance.
Everything else from me/me again/… can easily be chalked up to not reading through the site, because the answers to those questions are found there. Personally, I find it interesting that folks will nominate all across the board, then want to throw up the rules and category descriptions and be sticklers to those when the finalists and the winners are announced.
It’s very tired.
Just as tired as these “black weblog awards aren’t legit” and saying “a lot of people say blah blah blah” comments. If you want your voice heard, stop hiding behind anonymous comments and e-mails and join in the discussions going on at the Google group (where they’ve been going on since March for this year’s Awards) because that’s where a large part of what happened this year went down. They were suggestions from other users, not just magical notions conjured out of thin air.
September 7th, 2007 at 11:46 pm
you right dude. no disrespect. not meaning to come off like that. now that you explained itmakes sense. didnt know the judges voted before the popular vote. all good.
September 8th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
Congrats to all the winners. I didn’t throw my hat in this year because honestly there was no reason to. If your blog gets $5,000 uniques a day you don’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of winning against a blog that gets $50,000 uniques a day- no matter how great you are.
Btw, Clutch and Afrobella have always been two of my favorites
September 8th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
[…] ensure that he has repeat visitors/listeners for his podcast. No wonder he just won the prestigious Black Weblog Award for best podcast of […]
September 9th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
I hope I will make the list next year. LOL It is What About Our Daughters Gina’s fault that I am blogging in the first place. Sandar Rose also inspired me to blog. Keep up the good work with The Black Weblog Awards.
September 9th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
I am surprised that Sandra Rose was not nominated or won any of the categories. Check out her blog.
September 9th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
I want to say congrats to everyone that won! I just discovered this site last month and I think it’s a great idea to recognize the black webloggers of the world [we need our own thing too! lol]. I can’t wait for 2008 Black Weblog - I plan on entering as well
September 9th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
I think ConcreteLoop is a great, well rounded blog and I thought they would’ve won alot more than what they did. Drewreports.com and SandraRose are also GREAT blogs and RhymesWithSnitch is the most humorous of them all. I can complain though becausd i didn’t even vote ;-} Congrats to all of the winners and hopefully next year there will be a BEST URBAN FASHION BLOG so we can be included. We are only a month old but I can honestly say blogging isnt as easy as I thought so EVERYONE who does it daily needs to be commended ;-} stylerazzi.blogspot.com
September 11th, 2007 at 9:30 am
I am totally happy for ALLL the winners cos blogging is NOT an easy job…it isn’t easy to do it daily and get all the traffic the winners get. Its also not a competition for some of them…so can people leave it be and just move on and let the winners bask in their glory (wateva way they choose). Kudos to BWA and the judges and all…ur rules are ur rules. U did good. Can’t please em all.
September 12th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Can’t please ‘em all! That should be next year’s slogan.
September 15th, 2007 at 12:16 am
So, just how does one get into the mix so that their blog will at least be known for consideration for the future?
September 15th, 2007 at 12:52 am
I would like say how honored I am to have been selected as “Best Video Blog” and I would to congratulate all the other splendiferous winners! Thank you to all my love muffins that voted for me! Take me higher lord! *Double Kisses*
Love ya much!
B. Scott
www.lovebscott.com
www.myspace.com/lovebscott
lovebscott@gmail.com
September 15th, 2007 at 12:55 am
*to & *like (B. Scott tipsy!)
September 15th, 2007 at 2:05 am
To Mitch…someone has to nominate you
September 18th, 2007 at 9:41 pm
congrats to ALL of the winners, i like alot of them, and they are in my blogroll, im sorry ya’ll and i know this is gonna get deleted, buh my blog shude hav been nominated….the writing is great, the pics/news/videos are current. buh hey, there’s always nxt yr haha
September 25th, 2007 at 11:43 am
[…] Second, via Rachel, the 2007 Black Weblog Awards. […]
October 11th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
[…] am happy to announce that TSF won the Black Weblog Award for Best Sports Blog. We are both the voters and the judge’s choice, which means we swept the […]