one should rate every single blog that they read.
if one took the time to write it, and another took the time to read it, then why do i see so many non-voted blogs? half of the blogs that i have read have fifty reads and no votes.
this is why we have so much trouble on here and also with voting in america. nobody does it enough. c-span is televised government, and not many people that i know watch it. i do, while it may be boring and droll, it still is a televised broadcast of the inner workings of our government. they have made it boring so no one will watch it. they pass laws and then slip by-laws in after it passes, why? so not many will know what they are doing. so the common person will see c-span for possible thirty seconds a week, and that is alloted time no less, and just think that it is a bunch of rich, fat, old, congressmen, doing their jobs and nothing else.
it is pretty much the same on here. excepting that this is a progressive website, centered around social and political change. although i am not surprised at the lack of voting, i am appalled at how many blogs get left outside of the limelight, because they haven't been voted on. the highest rated blog listing is a joke.
if it is the highest rated then by all rights it deserves to be recognized, but at the same time, i am sure that there are more deserving blogs locked away in some random users bloglist.
i pay more attention to the recent blog postings than the highest rated, why? because no one cares too much about the recent blogs posted, they care more about what others have thought about some blog that was posted umpteenth days ago, by a user that already has enough support, especially from the website administrators.
the terms of service state that a user must not in anyway mess around with the overall scheme of the contest, and by any rights that is true. but how can anyone rightly have a chance to win anything, let alone a scholarship, when the administration is biased itself? but how can anyone have a voice, when only a select few, a upper echelon receive all of the benefits and none of the deficits of a website? mayhaps this be elitism in it's smallest form? or prayhaps it be imperialism in it's snidest form. what praytell where they thinking when they made this "highest rated" blog listing? probably not much at all.
it is of my beliefs that there should be a most progressive blog listing as opposed to the highest rated listing.
i vote very poor-average on every single highest rated blog that i see.
why you might wonder? because i can, because i choose to, because i like the underdog more than the mighty mouse. because week after week there are blogs that have been passed over, and part of the reason why is because they don't have the highest rating. part of the reason is because no one votes. even if you think think it is crap. vote. even if you don't agree with the entire blog. vote. even if you hate the message of the blog. vote. and comment the blog too while you are at it. that way the system that was set in place works rather than falling apart into favoritism.
i agree with you, i like to read the newest blog entries rather than the highest rated, those blogs have been up there for FOREVER.
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I agree with you too, but for about 90% of this blog. You were right, our blogs are kind've connected, and this one here if very well-stated if you ask me.
" I pay more attention to the recent blog postings than the highest rated"
I do too. Sometimes I'll check one out, but oftentimes I feel that they've gotten their chance in the limelight, now let's see someone else's awesome blog. I keep seeing the same 2 or 3 bloggers there, and it doesn't seem to be very fair to those who write good blogs but don't ratings.
The only portion of your blog I don't agree with is voting poorly on Highest Rated blogs. If you don't want them on the list anymore, just don't vote for 'em at all. Keep looking for new great blogs and vote on them to hopefully get on that list. Eventually they'll be cycled out (though "Wee Tiny Opportunism" seems to have been there for an exceedingly long time).
~ *~
This is a signature, an automated thingy that pops up when I comment, not a demand to see my blog!
Mind Control is Easier Than You Think
it is simple arithmetic. if there are enough outlying votes, it will offset the overall average. not voting at all, often times leaves it up there. most times i have found that people are more like lemmings. you know the last lemming to be in line is secretly thinking "well that is a load off of my back." and then they walk away from the cliff.
Yours truly,
.demosthenes
You took the words right out of my mouth. I wrote a blog called : When Two Critics Collide, Move Out the Way. It is very similar to the same subject you are talking about. I have people who read it , but did not vote for it. I was like what the heck.If you can read it, rate and comment. If you feel my blog is not that good, please by all means tell me what you think I can improve on but don't be rude about it.
'nuff said.
Yours truly,
.demosthenes
I object to the accusation that the administration is biased. It is not OUR fault that the users aren't voting, and a select few blogs are remaining on the list. The list is meant to show what you all enjoyed reading, and what you all think is good on the site. With only about 4 active administrators, it's a bit difficult for us to rig anything, and you'll notice that very few of our OWN blogs get up on that list. If we were truly into rigging things like the highest rated block, don't you think we'd want to focus on ourselves?
Ediblewoman's blogs get ratings all the time. She's a good writer, and often deserves it. The administration can't have any bias in the fact that her blogs are on that list, merely because with 13 ratings, our votes aren't going to matter that much one way or the other. Kiota's blogs were the same when she was still writing. A few contests ago, Fanaile's and Fallon's blogs hit the list very quickly after they wrote them. Why? Because people LIKED them and saw the need to RATE them.
~C
Check out the latest entry in the Between The Lines column!
Want the highest rated list to change? RATE those blogs, then!
you misunderstand what i am saying. i am saying that the highest rated blogs are going to be read by newer user's and rated also, based on what THEY think the rating should be. most times people tend to follow the pack.
let me rephrase, the homepage layout distributed by the administration is biased. maybe a random blogs listing would be better. as long as they remain as blogs a part of the contest in question. or maybe a late great listing for blogs that have already been entered into a previous contest.
& i never said anything about rigging anything so stop jumping to conclusions, put away your "jump to conclusions" mat away and let loose for a while. if i want to say something like "i think that the admins are RIGGIING the contest" then i probably would have said something like "i think that the admins are RIGGING the contest" and in which case you probably would have shpealed out this exact comment, foregoing of course the whole accusing me of accusing you of rigging the contest.
Yours truly,
.demosthenes
I resent the accusations leveled in your post. I know they were directed at my blog. You are entitled to your opinion of my writing, but you are not entitled to accuse me of any untoward maneuvering. Why would the moderators give a rats ass who makes it to the highest rated list? (And in fact, mvenus has expressed her annoyance at the stagnancy many times in many places). What good would that do the site?
I work hard on my blogs. I only post about one or two a week because they take hours to write. My buddylist is four pages long. I spend a lot of time on here reading, rating, and commenting on other blogs. I have built relationships with my fellow bloggers. I use capital letters and punctuation. All of these things contribute to high ratings.
I wish there were more activity on the highest rated list, too, but I am only one vote.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
first of all i was not talking about anybody i was talking about the website layout, as presented by the administration, so please stop assuming what i am not saying. i am the type of person that would boldly take stabs at whomever i choose. and i would do it openly directed to them; not in a faceless, ambiguous blog
secondly, i care not for the ratings or the scholarship. i joined this website to blog. i came. i saw. i blogged. that is all. i could care less if you punched out fiftythousand of these a minutes and your fingers were worn down into bloody littles stubs.
i didn't even read your whole comment to me, because in the FIRST SENTENCE you proved to me that your entire comment was a fallacy. in the second sentence in which you wrote "i know your blahdeblah was directed at my blog" i have a question for you, since you seem to know everysingle little thing that i write about and why i do such, why am i writing this comment back to you? because i would like you and adminwasherbucket to realize that i take the time, also, to know what i am writing. while i could work on my prose and define what i am trying to write about a little more, i don't want to. punctuation and capitalizing aren't really a subject matter in this blog, i begin to wonder why you bring it up at all. do you even really care? does it make you feel better about your writing, knowing that a english teacher would like to have your blogs submitted to them as essays? a blog is a blog. nothing more. nothing less. it is what whomever makes it to be. so what if i don't correctly punctuate? who cares if i lack capitalization? i am not being paid for this. and neither are you. i mean there is the chance that i could get a scholarship and all that, but as i aforementioned i. do. not. care. for. it.
maybe i just don't like the idea of stupid archaic rules set up for dualist alphabets and would rather keep capitals FOR EMPHASIS. LIKE WHEN I WOULD LIKE YOU TO KNOW THAT I MIGHT BE STRESSING MY VOICE, SOMETHING THAT I FEEL I AM DOING BY TAKING THE TIME TO TYPE THIS.
and i am entitled to do whatever i may please, so long as i can back up any accusations, which i have already, and i don't over step my bounds with said accusations. i did nothing of the sort. you may think that i did. forget what you know. forget what you think you know. you don't know why i wrote that blog. i can tell you why, but obviously such an explanation would fall onto unknowing ears. it is okay though at least i know that someone agrees with me and sees the faults within the system.
voting should be mandatory. either a yes, a no, or a neither. either way works. at least we know that everyone voted and the system, which was put into place for a reason, is working, as opposed to failing miserably. this is a blogging website. it may attract a lot of younger kids because it offers up a contest for scholarships. i found it because my friend, whom i chose let them remain anonymous, introduced me to it.
lastly, i never mentioned anyones names specifically. so get off of the warpath, tone yourself down a bit. get a clue and take a hike, sit on a rock, and think about why you posted a three paragraph comment to me, stating "i" & "you" statements left and right, all the while perceiving some untoward stabs at your person when i never even talked about you. i mean seriously if anything i am beginning to believe you to be conceited, which is fine. i don't care. i do, however care about being misunderstood, hence this retort.
Yours truly,
.demosthenes =;
You may not have mentioned names, specifically, but I believe EW was talking about this bit you wrote:
they care more about what others have thought about some blog that was posted umpteenth days ago, by a user that already has enough support, especially from the website administrators.
If it wasn't about her, then who? I immediately thought you were referring to Ediblewoman with this statement as well. And I'd be willing to bet others thought the same. But, sure, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and toy with the idea that it was a completely generalized statement.
does it make you feel better about your writing, knowing that a english teacher would like to have your blogs submitted to them as essays?
It makes me feel better about my writing. Knowing I actually put in some effort to make something of mine look like it was written by someone who made it out of an English class always makes me feel better.
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i am really good at making generalizations be more than just cutting corners. i don't know anyone on this website, save one person, the rest of you are just faceless, or almost faceless internet entities. i would be hard pressed to care about anything anyone said about what i have written, excepting that they've misunderstood me, in which case i would find out why they have done so, unless they state why they have done so. if it is just my wording and cryptic nature, then i try to define my self and my words more clearly.
jumping to conclusions can land you in a bed of spikes.
i was talking about every blog ever listed in the highest rated because the highest rated blog listing is higher up on the page than the recent blogs posted listing, & i know that some people would just browse over the latter and only see the "same" repeating blog list thing that they don't even care about. furthermore, the recent blog posts are even under the "My buddies recent posts" don't you think that is a little biased in some respect, towards people who have already set up a social network on the site and already have support of many other bloggers? i do.
i could take the time to hold shift, and make my initial letter in a sentence become a capital letter. i don't because i am comfortable with my writing style and i don't need others to lay down the laws of writing.(hell sometimes i even let go of most of the writing rules(hell, sometimes i even make sub-perentices(hell, sometimes i even repeat myself, (hell, sub-sub-sub-perentices(screw you formulative writing styles)))))
take a look at Gene Wolfe's writing, and yes i will cap names, sometimes. i am sure that there are plenty of english teacher's whom like his work. it is very progressive, wouldn't you know?
Yours truly,
.demosthenes
But let's take a look at what you DID say:
"the terms of service state that a user must not in anyway mess around with the overall scheme of the contest, and by any rights that is true. but how can anyone rightly have a chance to win anything, let alone a scholarship, when the administration is biased itself?"
In those two sentences, you insulted the administration outright, and me by implication. Yes, I know you did not say my name, but as you spent the majority of the blog ranting about the blogs on the highest rated list, and the list contains three of my posts and has consistently for a couple of months, I made the connection pretty easily. If you don't want people to make those connections, say what you actually mean.
Impressive ability to pedal backwards, though.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
you know, while i did say that, i did retract that statement for a more concise one in a comment reply to both you and mvenu, the layout is biased. i don't feel the need to edit the blog since i restated against my previous statement. either way, i know what i said and what i meant. i don't expect many people to read my blog, i don't mind if i don't get the scholarship, i am sure that i can get other ones, elsewhere. if anything we should just agree to drop it. request that the website be tweaked a tad and then go on our merry ways.
Yours truly,
.demosthenes
Hmmm....
I must say two things. Take them as you will.
One, your lack of proper capitalization made it extremely hard for me to get through your blog. It's hard for me to read things that have no capitalization and/or punctuation. I do appreciate every period you used.
Two, I feel that the highest rated list is wonderful. It sure encouraged me to write better and be more progressive. I wanted to be up on that list. And I made it. Just once, but I did it. Now I want that to happen again. I'm sure there are others out there who are trying to better their writing so that they can be up there, too. It is a goal to strive for. Something to work toward. Isn't that part of what progress is? And, therefor, it fits in perfectly with the mission of this site. So it's a little stagnant at times... it's sure got people trying to do better. And, from another viewpoint, if it was constantly changing, wouldn't the recent blog entries be ignored more often, with everyone trying to keep up with the highest rated blogs to see what was so good about them?
And that's comin' at ya' from yer local redneck hippie.
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The Story of Myself