Yesterday googlemail stopped working.
Today I am 65th best Left of Centre Blog.
…and tomorrow? Are people going to stop being wrong on the internet? Has the internet gone mad?
Now I’m not saying my blog is rubbish. This is okay, this is pretty good and this is a work in progress I’m pretty happy with, which I am going to edit and refine and then maybe it will be good enough to be republished.
But if I am the 65th best the left can offer, then the left Blogosphere is well and truly fucked.
Most of what I do is frankly mediocre speculation and what could be really good is either unfinished or unstarted. What I am clearly not, is the 65th best Left of Centre Blog (although I might repeat it a bit more).
To put this in perspective, I now am officially better than Pickled Politics and Shiraz Socialist, but I’m not. Total Politics methodology has always been flawed, but I never suspect it was this flawed. I doubt Sunny Hundal or that chap I saw on BBC News24 are quaking in their boots.
Until this mess is sorted out and I get a polite e-mail informing me it was a mistake, I am going to display this pretty banner and to hell with it. Maybe this will inspire me to get off my arse and write something of real quality.
Filed under: Blogging, Blogging, frankly mediocre speculation
For what it’s wrth, I thought your post on the Conservative International White Paper was more than ‘pretty good’; I’d rate it in the top 5 posts I’ve read all year, and I’ve read a few. Your recent post on immigration would also make the top 10 (see my comments at raincoat optimist)
Though the favourite blog competition is amusing, I’d be much more interested in a Total Politics blogpost award, as it would actually get people to decide whether they thought bloggers had anything to say, rather than vote on the basis either of the person’s fame (e.g. Tom Harris) or because they feel the need to be seen to do so (lots ofe.g. in my head but I wouldn’t want to name and shame).
Anyway, you and a few others e.g. RCO, Cllr Tim are a breath of fresh air to an already stale scene. Have confidence (I know I come over as all patronising here, which is a bit off as i’ve only been blogging properly for a year or so).
Yes, I’ll second Paul’s remarks and charge that, far from the internet going insane, placing you on the top 100 left blogs is one of the most sensible decisions it’s made for a while.
Blogland is always in a state of flux, partly due to bloggers’ own personal circumstances (my blog’s certainly going to turn to crap when I start my PGCE), and partly due to deep fatigue with the sludgy mess that currently constitutes mainstream British politics. So when other folks start up their own blogs & offer interesting content, it’s a shot in the arm for everyone else.
Okay, you’ve only been going for six months, but in that time you’ve been unfailingly interesting, your topics have varied and your writing has been of a high standard. If that’s not enough to get you on some list of merit, then there’d be even more wrong with this poll than is already apparent.
[...] Hopi, flippantly, and Left Outside, self-effacingly, are still right to remind us that the top 100 list is fundamentally bollox, [...]
Congrats comrade, very well deserved, you had my vote :-)
Do you reckon it had anything to do with you asking people to vote for you?
I reckon it probably did…
Just looking at the top 100 left of centre list, I notice that most of them carried appeals to vote.
My blog deliberately didn’t carry a vote appeal. I didn’t make the top 100. But I know from your generous use of stat porn that I get over twice as many readers as you. Not trying to wave my willy, just providing you with a plausible explanation.
I bow before your powers of deduction and superior willy!
I have to admit I hadn’t considered that… probably because I never expected anyone to pay attention to me in the first place. I genuinely am shocked at being included.
Yours is a much better blog than mine and there are a number of other blogs that weren’t particularly interested either and opted to officially boycott the poll. Any particular reason you were especially uninterested?
I’ve stayed out of Iain Dale’s orbit, so although I can sense his crapulence it doesn’t put me off a bit of shameless self promotion.
Its a bit of a kick up the arse which is nice, I really want to write things that could be the 65th best left wing thing on the internet.
Having said what I said the other day, to be fair on Wikio rankings Left Outside is about 300 places higher than BC on the “general” ranking, so fair to take that into account as well.
re Dale, a lot of people think he’s a nasty bastard who manipulates his status as King of Blogs to push very rightwing ends, so they don’t want to be associated with him. Like you, I don’t know enough of the back-story bitching to really say…