Well, sometimes we blog for the sake of telling the world we exist. Being a blogger myself, for four blogs - one flimsy, one researched, one floating, one a mix of it all - everything is still subjective.

But sometimes I wished people got the reason why we write about ourselves, at least not as blatantly as others do.

I am also seriously disappointed in the list. Aside from Dine, Gibbs and Aileen, I don’t know who else deserves to be there. Some of the blogs on the list are good, but they’re not exactly what you would call influential. Also, if it’s influence we’re talking about, why is Benj not on the list? His blog pissed off a lot of people but he IS influential.

I don’t know about you guys, if you really think there are “New” influential bloggers then why didn’t you join to cite these particular people so other people would see them and help spread the word that they are influential?

Another thing is, all of the ones who cited these particular bloggers aren’t really friends in real life or at all, the fact that they are being voted repeatedly is a fact that people find them influential or they find that the blog content is interesting for the people today that makes them want to blog more.

You can’t expect “new” bloggers to be instant “pro” bloggers can’t you?

Inggit lang ata kayo e.. Kung hindi kayo agree dun, e di gumawa na lang kayo sarili niong contest…

Why don’t you get off my girl’s blog before i make you disappear

@ Ynlraey and Richard:

If you noticed, this is a free country and we are free to hold a different opinion from the majority and express it too. And not get prosecuted for it.

Also, Liz’s point is: “Influential” is not the word to describe the majority of those blogs. “Popular” is the word. That is not a list of INFLUENTIAL blogs. Get it through your skulls people.

We’re not expecting them to be PRO.

Imho, it was just matter of semantics. Influential is the wrong word to use - I actually think its in total opposition with the entire concept of being a “new” blogger. A new blogger cannot be influential unless you’re already a well-established expert in some other field (showbiz, politics, sports, music etc.)

I think the point was “rewarding” the Rookies Of The Year for ‘06 and ‘07 and I think Toral’s project fulfilled that.

Influential was obviously used loosely (arguably inappropriately). But their negligible influence made a couple of dozen people vote for them. That’s some semblance of “influence” there.

As I posted my recent post, I think influence is a function of 1) authority, 2) reputation and 3) popularity. Most of the winners have #3. Imho, only Gibbs Cadiz has all three.

These are the ones who do not need to go out of their way to post stupid come-hithers on tagboards because traffic comes to them of its own accord, thirsty for their content. Sadly, these bloggers are a minority in the list. You want me to name names? Visit the winners. I bet you’re smart enough to figure them out.

Wahaha. :p Minority? I’d say 5-6 really deserve it.

The Rookies Of The Year idea might fly better than this misleading label.

Benj of Atheista.net didn’t get to the list because his blog started way before August 2006. If the blog age restriction was removed, I’m sure his blog would be one of the Top 10. And I’m sure he knows how it is to be persecuted for having a different belief. Remember PBA? No, I’m not trying to resurrect ghosts. Just want to prove a point.

There will be other competitions. Hopefully, lessons learned from the recent Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs will be applied to those.

“If you noticed, this is a free country and we are free to hold a different opinion from the majority and express it too. And not get prosecuted for it.”

All I can say is that I’m not prosecuting you but…

I don’t know about you guys, if you really think there are “New” influential bloggers then why didn’t you join to cite these particular people so other people would see them and help spread the word that they are influential?

and then why didn’t you if you think the list is “bastardization?”

@ Prudence: Gibbs has been blogging since 2006. I met him back October last year and he is still there.

@ Ynlraey: Just because we didn’t join in this contest doesn’t mean we don’t have the right to express our opinions. Also, Liz did make an entry about this sometime back.

@Ade, I know that you have the right to express opinion that’s why I said: “I don’t know about you guys”

(As for the entry, I asked Ms. Janette if she did she said she didn’t and I asked it out of pure curiosity and if you think ms. Janette is involve in this then no).

(Also Influential means prominent, which also mean well-known. and well-known is also known as famous and famous means popular by the way and how will one be popular if he/she isn’t influential?)

The Emperor has no clothes. That is all I can say.

It’s a touchy thing, defining “influential” when it comes to the [Philippine] blogosphere. Bloggers seem to be more into fun-reading, informal, go-with-the-flow, stream-of-consciousness type of blogs than the niche blogs — socio-political, technology…heck, even fashion blogs.

I know I did. Vote for friends because they’re friends and not because of influence, I mean. I already admitted it. I enjoy their blogs, but that doesn’t mean they influence me. Influence me to WHAT, in the first place? Wasted effort to vote for other blogs when the word influential can mean so many things to so many people.

My sad ass, really.

@Ynlraey, I think you’re talking about “interesting” and “enjoyable,” and not “influential” blogs. There’s a world of difference. If The Dork Factor influences you to have sex, then great. Good for you. But honestly, would you even bother to visit a blog that ONE person thinks is influential? No? Maybe? I don’t think so.

@Richard, why would people who hold different opinion be jealous? Can’t you come up with a more creative argument? Liz made her point clearly, as did her friends. Deal with it.

@Shari Honestly, I never voted the D Factor >.> Well maybe other people will be then (Sex…eww.. at my young age why would I bother with that) and the top 10 are not voted by just one people anyway.

@Shari Honestly, I never voted the D Factor >.> Well maybe other people will be then (Sex…eww.. at my young age why would I bother with that) and the top 10 are not voted by just one person anyway this just proves that a lot of people find them good or fun or maybe even influential.

Well then, you can just stop trolling blogs of people who hold a different opinion, because it paints a very bad image of the people behind the awards.

Also, if it’s influence we’re talking about, why is Benj not on the list? His blog pissed off a lot of people but he IS influential.

Due to my incessant need to resurrect Tabulas (2004! instant DQ) and Wordpress posts, I ended up disqualifying myself. I think it was unfair for my part to pretend that I just started blogging just this February (for Atheista) since I really started before the actual contest period. Oh, believe me I tried to skirt the rules - me being the ultimate chief when it comes to shameless self-promotion (the type that doesn’t involve tagboards. hehe). It’s interesting to see if I would have gotten the votes to make the top 10 though. haha. Sayang ang wireless mouse (yes, there’s a prize).

Ynlraey, Influence is part authority, part credibility and part popularity. It can’t be all popularity.

Asking for 10 “influential” rookies of the year is a bit too much to ask. Some of the bloggers who won aren’t even real newbies - they’re more like me. They just didn’t export their old posts. haha.

The question that needs to be asked it who else could have won? Newcomers do not have influence except in rare exceptions (e.g. Cueshe can become influential bloggers if they decide to start now). I think the young bloggers (Jhed and Kevin) “inspired” and “influenced” younger people to start blogging and to blog more. Yes, their influence could only go that far. Nothing mind-blowing like how the SEO gurus made us all aware of PR and stuff like that.

Intrinsically, the concept is flawed.
A new guy can’t be influential. The contest went on to look for 10. Good luck. Hehe.

Ynlraey: i didn’t participate in this writing project because i saw the trend from the beginning. visiting 125+ blogs for two months, i noticed that a lot of bloggers treated this as a mere meme, voting in their friends and/or blogwhores with no content. of course, some on the list did deserve to be called influential; but i hold that they are a minority.

influential never meant popular and vice versa—Ms Toral knows that, hence her post, ‘The Long Tail’. they may be mutually inclusive variables, but to be influential, i think you have to be MORE than popular. you have to have other qualities such as what benj enumerated: credibility and authority.

Ade: cool ka lang pare, manood ka muna ng mga Koreanong bata sa Ortigas Park. funny post, that.

Shari: thanks for the comment. it made me think.

Richard: i have always found it hard to tolerate ignorant comments in this blog. take your crippled intellect back to Mikey’s blog where they have better use for it, that is, making fun of it.

my dear, if all the people who work in China Bank are like you, i’d just keep my money under my pillow. you’re a dumb slacker. you’re using company time to troll blogs with stupid comments. get a life. if you can’t, focus on your job.

also, marco, i do not give you permission to threaten anyone here.

I think my daughter can’t help but to say a thing here as she witnessed the amount of time I spent on the past twelve weeks tallying entries. But thanks to this, she learned a thing or two about the blogging culture.

which is? i’m curious. ^_^

@Ade: I was talking about Benj. I would have voted for Atheista.net if he started August 2006. But, yeah, he did import his old posts into this new domain, so there, he disqualified himself. Haha. I did vote for Gibbs. His post on creationism vs evolution got me.

@everyone (who’d care to read): The Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs is just one contest. Don’t make a big fuss. We’re all free to express our different opinions, for as long we’re all civil to each other. I’ve been to the event, I enjoyed it, and I congratulate those who won. They all deserved to win, one way or another.

One theory of mine is proven by the recent flurry of online conversations because of this event: those who leave the most scathing comments do prefer to remain anonymous.

in addition to what I’ve said:

I do commend those people who stood up for their beliefs, be it unpopular. At least they don’t go hiding under the name anonymous or go creating names that are untraceable to an email or website.

What camp is the angry guy campaigning for anyway? Even the “YAY” side is indifferent about his crass efforts of resorting to expletives in this supposed age of reason.

We react because, one, we are under the supposed realm of the Philippine Blogosphere. Two, for want to express, we respond by writing what we feel about an event that affects us, though not directly but by association. Three, come on, in the first place, was the effort in marketing the said event done in such a way that everyone were warned that such a thing was going on? Ok, that’s asking too much. But has word about the supposed award been disseminated in good faith to reach as many of those within the blogosphere whose population will be represented by its results?

I have never heard of this until a week before the final tally is due and given that less time, I have given up the chance at expression since cramming for my list may lead to a not-so-well-thought-of representation anyway.

My argument basically stems from the fact that we, the bloggers of the whole Philippine Blogosphere, are represented by the results and those like me who have not even heard of the said contest should have the mechanism to explicitly denounce its outcome.

I rest my case, your honor.

never thought blogging could be this complicated.

Fritz: you’re right. if someone googles ‘influential filipino blogs’ and this list comes up…well, it would be a rather sad thing.

Totomai: indeed. ^_^

I agree that being influential is not the same as being popular.

I haven’t read the rules and mechanics; so, I couldn’t comment whether the winners really deserved them.

Any contest that are subject to to public voting would surely become a popularity contest, just like our politics.

wow..sis you hit a sensitive string..connected to the brains and some spider webs pulled along..take care lage..
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if the blog is a personal assays of one’s life, then it should only serve himself and not dwell on how his/her readers would react on his/her ideas. i believe blog should be always be self-serving, nothing more, nothing less.
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again, internet made us all experts and fools..
such a great device, a great equalizing device.
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how influential a popular blog should be or how popular an influential blog should be?

with numbers? Gosh! Now I am blaming 7 and 2 for this kind of culture they’ve promoted..

with popuplar people or with influential people? Gosh again, now I’m blamng 2 and 7 talaga!

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using influence is such a trick, maybe because “popular” is potentially wicked, and yeah, with the halloweens hovering, why not.
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i only keep a number of blog links coz, I think they are foremost SELF RELIANT in their thinking, next is that I am a hopeless voyeur. Do I admire them? No. Fan? Never. I even think they are flawed and blemished authors..biased and self-served.. but altogether SELF-RELIANT in their own thinking.

I don’t need their entire blogs, I only scavenge for a line or two or an idea perhaps. sometime i robbed these people too..

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about the list..
and by the way who are they nga influencing pala? and how do they influence people.. with a grand unifed theory or with a bomb that would end all other inventions..or an essay that freed a political prisoner in Burma or with a new way to cooked hard boiled egg without boiling it..

hay..people, authors will die, but a poem will always test time to see if God can really made a tree..

(I think I occupied too much space Liz.. sencia na po miss your blog.. ala na ung pancitcanton ko po..)

so that is how a beauty contest felt like.. world peace!

sun tu kan! sun tu kan! hihi

hi liz, as a community building event, the 10 most influential blogs project was a good move. janet has always been good at organizing community events and i commend her for this.

perhaps though, this particular contest was more challenging because of the semantics used to describe the winners. the word “influential” is quite heavy as influence cannot be won by mere votes alone.

i honestly feel that apart from the word “popular” the awards could have been pulled off as a “bloggers choice” type of thing. nonetheless, this is a move towards the right direction to livening up the blogosphere.

jayvee: i agreee it’s a good move. something’s got to begin somewhere i suppose.

Well, I won 7th… I don’t think I’m popular or extremely influential… Heck, I didn’t even try to win. If I wanted to win 1st, I would’ve campaigned harder, lol. Influence and popularity is relative to the group supporting you/your cause.

I am actually more happy about the $100 I won in the raffle. Cash I like. Cash is good.

I don’t really know the people who voted for me… I’ve never met them. I drop by their blogs and that’s pretty much it. I don’t live in the Philippines. And I don’t even blog frequently at all. Heck, in May I blogged 4 times, 4 in June and 2 in July. Apparently people WHO DON’T KNOW ME… find my ramblings interesting.

So the win boggles me. But a winner has no cause for complaint so all I’ll say is thanks for the memories, Janette Toral.

I don’t really know the people who voted for me… I’ve never met them. I drop by their blogs and that’s pretty much it.

My thoughts exactly. Although my husband and I had our food blog listed I have already admitted my selfish desire to promote my blog. I did not expect it would be part of the top 10. I did not even know that several people knew it existed. Kubiertos had about 1 regular visitor and commenter who was first a fan of my husband.

So the good thing about this project is the visitors that our blog has had in the past couple of months. Although our blog is far from “influential” or at par with a blog like Lori’s Dessertcomesfirst, I still thank all those who at least felt we gave them something to think about in the food and dining world. We hope to become as influential as we can be and that can only be proven in time - by more dining and more sharing of these experiences.

:)

Influential is very hard to define some of the blogs are less than a year old and maybe their influence is only within the circle of bloggers that this award covers.