The final JIB results are in.
You will notice that votes have been deducted from some of the blogs, with the consequence that some of these results are different from those originally displayed on the JIB Awards voting page. This is due to voter fraud.
Even though mainly one blog has been affected, I want to stress that in no way do I suspect the bloggers themselves of perpetrating the fraud. In fact, given their general attitude, as well as their attitude throughout the contest, I have no doubt that it wasn’t them.
I also want to stress that I was loathe to deduct the votes, since it has the potential to cause controversy and ill feeling. However, fairness is a vital component of any awards contest. I simply cannot allow the cheats (i.e. fraudulent voters) to get away with it, especially to the detriment of those blogs who did not receive fraudulent votes.
Having said that, here are the final results:
Best Overall ‘Mega’ Blog
2nd Power Line
3rd Winds of Change
Best Overall Blog
1st Meryl Yourish
2nd Jewschool
3rd Jewlicious
Best New Blog 2004
1st Jewlicious
2nd Treppenwitz
3rd My Urban Kvetch
Best Group Blog
1st Jewschool
2nd Jewlicious
3rd Israpundit
Best Humor Blog
1st Protein Wisdom
2nd My Urban Kvetch
3rd Dov Bear
Best Designed Blog
1st Jewschool
2nd Jewlicious
Best ‘Life in Israel’ Blog
1st On the Face; Treppenwitz (Tie)
2nd Chayyei Sarah
3rd An Unsealed Room
Best Israel Advocacy Blog
2nd Jewlicious
3rd Jewschool
Best Politics, Current Affairs, and Academia Blog
1st Sha
2nd Bloghead
3rd Daniel Pipes
Best Personal Blog
1st Ari Goes Down
2nd Treppenwitz
3rd JewView
Best Jewish Religion Blog
2nd Hirhurim
3rd Bloghead
Best Jewish Culture Blog
1st Sha
2nd Jewschool
3rd Jewlicious
Best Post by a Jewish Blogger
Best Series by a Jewish Blogger
Well done to all of the winners! I will be sending out gold, silver and bronze medal logos for each of these bloggers, which can be placed on the blogs if desired.
Having said that, I feel that we have all been winners. Some blogs have reported an upsurge in traffic, at least during the time that the JIBs have been running, which will hopefully translate into permanent new readers. Many of you (myself included) have discovered new Jewish, Israeli and pro-Israel blogs for our own regular reading. It seems that most of you had fun getting into the competitive spirit, and following the voting.
Now I have a few special acknowledgements to make.
Firstly, I would like to thank Gina Arnone of Go Blog It, who set up the scripts for the polls, and fixed all the bugs. Without her, I could not have successfully run these awards. I should also add that Gina has generally been amazingly helpful with this blog, helping me with its design, as well as the implementation of other features. If you are interested in a Blogware blog, I highly recommend Go Blog It.
Secondly, I would like to thank Zahava Bogner (“Mrs Treppenwitz” ) for designing the amazing logos. You must all agree that they are very well done. They are but one example of Zahava’s work as a computer graphics designer. Needless to say, I would highly recommend her for any of your graphics needs.
Kudos also to “Mr Treppenwitz” David Bogner whose helpful advice included the conception of the name of these awards (I never even knew what a jib was before I spoke with David), as well as preparing me for some of the pitfalls involved in running such a contest. He truly is a mensch.
And of course, I would like to thank all of you for enthusiastically backing these awards. It was your own promotion of the awards that enabled the participating Jewish, Israeli and pro-Israel blogs to benefit from increased exposure.
You all did a great job. Any unpleasantness that emerged as a result of the contest was a natural outgrowth of competition, and should in no way detract from the terrific work you all did! Yasher koach to you, Dave, and to the whole team!
And now, we can get on with our lives!!
Dave, you did a difficult job with great skill and diplomacy.
thanks.
DB
From a non-finalist nominee — kol hakavod. There’s no doubt that the awards generated interest in and increased traffic on J-blogs, and it was a great opportunity to see sites — and especially posts and series — I might otherwise have missed.
Same time next year?
I want to thank you as well…this was a great experience for me. I met many new bloggers I might otherwise never have known…that was the best part. Thank you, too, for the behind-the-scenes work you did – it was priceless.
Dave, you did a fantastic job. Thank you so much for your generosity and hard work.
esperimento.ilcannocchiale.it writes:
http://esperimento.ilcannocchiale.it
Master Splinter writes:
Did you notice what “Kcid Skcus Hsawan” spells backwards?
http://www.freemuslims.org/march/endorsers.php
Wow… great endorsers!