Having now participated in this Blogging for Progress Scholarship twice, I'm beginning to wonder: What are our motives? There's a good number of people on this site simply here to win that scholarship. They might not be interested in blogging at all. They might not really care about their comments, they just want that extra ten points. They might "fluff" up their blog with nonsense posts, hoping to gain the necessary pointage to reach the goal of recieving that scholarship. I ask you, is this "progressive" behavior? Don't get me wrong, I am not speaking for everyone and anyone on this site, I am merely pointing out some observations. But what it seems to come down to is this: greed. Yeah, I want that scholarship too, but I'm working towards it with what I hope are relevant blog posts and what I hope are interesting and insightful comments. I really do want to make a difference. Do you? There are some incredibly blogs on this site. You've probably stumbled across a few. There are some who specialize in ranting about the government or their own religious beliefs and opinions. There are others who comment on random news-related topics. These people are obviously trying. It's almost as if the scholarship were meaningless to them. Just the satisfaction of seeing their own ideas being read by others is a reward in itself. It's enough to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Now that is progressive behavior. People talking about real issues and voicing their own opinions--either to get that topic out there or to share their own ideas and critisizms. They are making a difference. But there are others. Others who don't seem to mind those little things called "rules" and continue to try to blog simply for the points involved. I remember seeing a comment to a blog entry that said something about Mexicans being great. I don't believe the entry had anything to do with mexicans, and therefore the comment was virtually useless. I happened to find a blog yesterday that was pretty much garbage. There were only a couple of actually "good" blog entries. Everything else seemed to be re-written music lyrics belonging to popular bands. I wasn't happy with this. In fact, I breifly considered making a list for people illustrating whose blogs they should not visit. But that kind of black listing is quite mean and unfair. I can't tell people to not go to someone's blog simply because I have the hunch that this blogger is cheating. So with this little rant now done, I must point out the obvious in order to hope that I'm making a contribution with this entry. Consider the name of the scholarship contest: Blogging for Progress. If what you're doing only involves progressing you towards a thousand bucks, then you're a bit misled in what "progressive" means. Your blog should, I hope, make some sort of difference. People should comment because they respect your ideas or are genuinely interested in whatever topic you've presented. Don't merely copy&paste some news story from an internet site (this has happened before) and leave no substantial comments of your own. Try to SAY something of meaning, and you may progress.