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Today has been a very unusual day, in so far as the Garden of Eaden site has been honoured with two – yes, two - different awards.
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The first was from Barbara Elaine of ‘Gardening in Mannheim’ who sent me the infamous ‘Honest Scrap’ Award, while the second is the 'Best Blog' award which came from Praveshree Edenglen (I am so very sorry if I have spelt your name incorrectly – please advise) who is responsible for the web blog ‘Whatever’.
The ‘Honest Scrap’ Award
As self obsessed as I am, I am also extremely uncomfortable when it comes to self promotion as there is always someone out there waiting to knock you off your own pedestal. However, because there are 4 parts to this acceptance – all of which I am duty bound to achieve – and I am obliged to make an effort.
1.Brag about the Award:
I’ve won it, and now I’ve got it no-one can take it away from me. Also, ‘IN YOUR FACE’ to anyone I have trodden on to get where I am today (apologies to my Mother who went to great lengths in order to teach me good manners – Mum, I haven’t actually trodden on anyone, I am just following the ‘Rite of Passage’ for accepting the award).
2. Link back to the Awarder – Many thanks to Barbara at 'Gardening in Mannheim'.
3. Write ten honest things about yourself
First. I ironically suffer from hay fever.
Second. I really don’t like Roses, an irrespective to what Shakespeare has to say – call them stink flowers if you want, they don't smell sweet to me!
Third. I don’t even have a garden. This is because I sold up and bought an apartment a couple of years ago because I thought that there was going to be a crash in the housing market. IN YOUR FACE TO EVERYONE WHO TOLD ME IT WASN’T GOING TO HAPPEN – sorry mother.
Fourth. I have a long scar by my right elbow from where I was viciously attacked by the spine of a mature orange tree. The tree was in my father’s garden and I whole heartedly blame him for not looking out for the Health and Safety of his only son – although to be fair I was about 35 at the time – oohhh the blood!
Fifth, Sixth, seventh, eighth, nine and tenth. Not one of my fingers is actually green, unless I have recently blown the nose of one of my children. Sorry, I have run out of any more honest ideas – I may add to them at a later date.
4. Pass on the Award Seven Times - I don't agree with this, although I will do three - see below.
I hereby bequeath the Honest scrap Award to:-
'Persephone in Bloom' - because I love the way she writes
'Liz and the Professor' - because it is so good
'Elephantseyegarden' - because you can become absorbed by it.
The 'BEST BLOG' award
Rules. Post the award on your blog along with the name of the person who passed it on to you and link to their blog. Choose blogs which you have recently discovered and you think are great and pass it on to them. Don't forget to leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have been chosen for this award.
This one is so much easier. Many thanks to my Patron 'Praveshree Edenglen' at the 'Whatever' website who gave me the 'Best Blog' award. I will now award it to 'Liz and the Professor'
On a more serious note
Unfortunately, awards such as these which are given out in this 'pyramid selling' style will eventually become meaningless, because once everybody has one, they will no longer have any real value. However, the true goal behind such awards - and this is just my opinion - is to create a way of generating large numbers of links between individual websites. This is important because the more links that feed back to your particular website, the more credibility it has to search engines. Who has the most to gain from this? Clearly the originator of the award, but for what purpose - nobody knows?
If you consider google, they work using a system - amongst others - known as PageRank. This is a link analysis algorithm owned by Stanford University and named after Larry Page, a co-founder of Google. This algorithm assigns a numerical weighting to each hyperlink that is connected to your site. It is a combination of the amount of, and 'weighting' of these links that helps to create a value for your own website.
This weighting is used to 'measure' your sites relative importance amongst other sites within the World Wide Web. The importance that search engine algorithms give your site is very valuable as it has a direct result on where your site is positioned within search engine listings. This is why having other websites or blogs link up to your own is so important and why it is actively encouraged - otherwise it is highly unlikely that anyone will get to see your work.
The PageRank ranges from 0-10, with 0 as the lowest number and 10 the highest. An example of a 10 would be the BBC, believed to be the largest website in the world today. As an further example, the 'Garden of Eaden' site has a PageRank of 4. You can check out your own page rank by clicking onto http://www.whatsmypagerank.com/
A suggestion for any future award giving - so that it would have more value and meaning - is to only allow each recipient to give out three nominations. However, to gain an award you would need to receive 6 nominations - only then can you display the award. The computer literate can then create a link from the award back to those who gave out the original nominations as proof of worthiness.
I am happy to receive comments on this - am I being too cynical, what do you think?
For more obscure articles click onto:
Public Bench Misdemeanours
8 comments:
Hiya Simon,
Oh, what fun!
Was the title of this post a Freudian slip?
In which case I agree, even TWO is TOO many :-)
However, it could simply be one of your intrigueing typo's. I hope not :-)
BTW, the 'stinking roses'? Again I agree, if you happened to have sniffed Austin roses that is. Some 'proper' roses smell delicious.
After taking all of yesterday to put the award blog together , I must agree with you . the original best blog award said you need to give it to 15 blogs. I agree that it should not be so easy
Simon, Thank you for your eminently sensible suggestions about the awards. I think it's great to have ways to truly celebrate one another's wonderful blogs; but to do that, these awards have to have some meaning. The "pass along to 15 others" type directions seem ridiculous, and I'm happy to see others routinely refusing to comply. -Jean
Tx Simon, for making me one of only 3. I have been sitting on my reply. Still thinking about it, as I don't like the chainletter/pyramid scheme flavour.
Simon, what a funny and insight-full look into the whole "meme" award thing. As a recent recipient myself, I had thought about the increased visibility of my blog, but not in regards to the search engines. I will have to check out my PageRank now. And congratulations on your awards!
Not too cynical at all. Very good information on the link thing and most insightful. Congrats on your awards. I am sure many more will follow-linking is big in this blogging world, must be the search engine thing:)
A really interesting contribution to the debate, Simon. I've gradually come to the conclusion that these chain letter type awards do a disservice to serious blogging. You've added an interesting technical angle to the discussion, and made some very worthwhile suggestions as to how awards can enhance the value of a blog instead of just being an exercise in mutual back-slapping (or whatever the equivalent 'female idiom' might be!) I hope Stuart and others who can develop these awards are following the debate!
Simon, Thanks again for the nomination! It does feel good to be recognized and that simple recognition, or geez, even people commenting on my blog makes my blog feel worthwhile!
Like you however, I am weirded out by self promotion and like you, I am paranoid about the internet and identity theft and all that rot so, that fine line between putting yourself out there while maintaining privacy while wanting to be read is so... difficult and slightly terrifying?!
I agree on making these award things at least relatively quantitative and I dislike creating undue pressure upon anyone by having to be potentially "more honest" than they regularly are. This honesty stuff should just come out and flow naturally, which is what I am all about! Hmm. That sounded odd.
I also will admit (honestly, oh my!) That I am a little lazy :( Following all these extra rules to actually "gain" an award makes my head spin a bit, so I will happily accept nominations up the wazoo and treat those as mini-awards in my mind.
Finally, 1) I dislike roses too and 2) when you saw that tree "attacked" you... um, that's a verb. Trees don't move unless a little help with the wind or humans. Admit it! You are a clumsy lummox :) And I will admit, I run into the cabinet doors at my house because I am short and they are just above eye level!
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