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	Sunday, April 11, 2004

KING OF THE BLOGS REVIEWS CHALLENGE QUESTION AND SUBMITTED POSTS OVERALL NOTE ON RANKING: The new King of the Blogs scoring system awards points based how an entrant performed relative to his/her competitors, so what counts is whether someone got first, second, third, or fourth place. As a courtesy to the contestants, I'm including the scores I assigned to the individual posts to determine placement. This week's challenge question is: Is your blog therapy for you or does it exist as an on-going op-ed piece for you to express your views to the world, and why? DGCI (3rd place) (challenge) GOOD POINTS: Takes the time to explain what blogs are before going into the various reasons for blogging. Assumes the throne by utilizing the Royal "we" during most of the discussion. BAD POINTS: The question was meant to be about the contestant's feelings & opinions. A chance to open up and share a little bit about himself. I thought this post could have been less global and more personal. SCORE 7.5 (submitted) GOOD POINTS: A firm-handed discussion of why the terrorists themselves, and not any Presidential administration, were to blame for 9/11. I thought the police analogy was apt. BAD POINTS: The discussion of Bush and Kerry felt tacked on and gratuitous. It seemed especially out of place given that one of the points of the piece was that the President can't protect you from a terrorist attack, he can only direct clean-up operations afterward. While the Bush/Kerry comparison is a valid point and an interesting topic for discussion, it really belonged in a separate post. SCORE 6.5 DEBRA GALANT (1st place) (challenge) GOOD POINTS: Has the audacity to question the premise of the question (audacity is a good trait in a blogospheric monarch). She has a good analogy (a dinner party) and a good answer (fun). The rest of her entry serves to give support to both, in turns. Well constructed, insightful, and personally revealing BAD POINTS: None visible. SCORE 10 (submitted) GOOD POINTS: Striking imagery, and nice verbal build-up in the caption BAD POINTS: Who's Noah? Also, am I supposed to be amused, disappointed, or pleased that he got walked? I think I'm missing the point here. SCORE 5 GENERATION WHY? (challenge)(4-9 CTRL+F "therapy") GOOD POINTS: Answers the "which is it" portion of the question while leaving no ambiguity regarding the author's personal politics. BAD POINTS: Not much into the personal reasons of "why". Jason missed a good chance to showcase his creativity and settled for a few quick political jabs. SCORE 5 (submitted)(4-7 CTRL+F "double standard") GOOD POINTS: Cites sources for all his quotes, which is a good blogging habit, as it allows the reader to determine for himself the validity of the claims BAD POINTS: Although the point of Robert Byrd being a racist is well-received, the post was poorly constructed when it came to making the analogy. As written, Jason takes Lott saying something vaguely racist as a compliment to someone who is a racist (Thurmond) - and compares it to Dodd & Kennedy saying something non-racist as a compliment to someone who is a racist (Byrd). The sad part is that Dodd DID say something vaguely racist ("He would have been right during the great conflict of civil war in this Nation."), but Jason didn't use that quote. If Jason had stuck to criticism of Dodd & Kennedy for praising a former Klansman Kleagle, instead of trying to work the double standard angle, this would have been a better post. SCORE: 5 WALLOWORLD (challenge) GOOD POINTS: Almost Pythonesque in it's self-referential, and self-deprecating humor. It's good to see Bill giving his funny side a long leash to romp with. Even answers the question, eventually BAD POINTS: Arrogant, pointless, blowhardian twaddle being shoved down the throats of innocent readers. Why? Because King Bill is MAD! Mad with power! Brutally torturing his subjects with an endless meandering yellow-brick-road-to-hell of a post. There's a human rights violation in there somewhere. SCORE:8.5 (submitted) GOOD POINTS: Nice visual at the end with the hippy/Dr. Scholl's commercial BAD POINTS: I read this thing about 10 times, trying to figure out why I couldn't find the point. It finally hit me. The whole section from "While I'm not one…" to "…jobs and all the rest" belongs at the top of the piece as an introduction. In its current position, it destroys the conceptual flow and build-up of the post. This isn't up to Bill's usual high standards. Reading it was like watching a gold-medal gymnast falling off the balance beam. SCORE:6 posted by Harvey at 11:17:24 AM  permalink    Crappy Broken Radio Comments (do not use) [] trackback []  HOME

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