The JackB

"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'." Groucho Marx

JIBs

A Few Musings About The JIBs

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Just when you thought that the posts about the JIBs were finished there arises yet another post. I hadn’t planned on writing anything else about them but I just stumbled onto two or three posts about them on other blogs so…

For a while I had considered constructing a post about the purpose of the JIBs. I still believe in them. I consider their purpose to be sound but like so many things in life the intent is sometimes different than the actual execution.

In the most recent incarnation of the JIBs there was a tremendous effort to make them into something that transcended the past. The goal was to avoid the pitfalls and problems of the past. It wasn’t a complete success, but it wasn’t a total failure either.

A small number of people worked hard to sow dissent and create chaos. They went so far as to create a blog which was used to smear various participants and members of the Jblogosphere. They called it satire and I called it a pathetic attempt by second rate hacks to be funny. Satire is a great thing, but it requires humor. It failed miserably, as did the attempt to besmirch the awards.

But the attempt to do so speaks volumes about the character of those involved. It is similar to the toddler who demands that the world attend to their needs. “Play my way or I am taking my ball and going home.” Quite impressive.

Not unlike the past I still found the pandering and begging for votes to be silly. The blogs that used email lists to solicit votes didn’t do much to prove their worth either.

However the JIBs did provide exposure to blogs that I had never encountered and that is a primary goal. I am appreciative of that and for that reason alone I want to see them continue. There is never going to be a time when everyone is satisfied with how they are run. You can’t make everyone happy.

The management of the Shack is still going to push Haveil Havalim as being one of the keys to promoting your blog. It is still a great way to be a part of a community. Every time I host it I see my traffic go up. These posts continue to generate traffic long afterwards too.

That is enough on this for now.

The JIBs- Best Post

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More often than not any time you see the abbreviation JIBs on my blog it is tied into some sort of criticism. This is one of those occasions in which it is not. Instead it is the inspiration for this semi-introspective post.

There is a category in the JIBs called “Best Post” that caught my attention. In particular what I was curious about was trying to identify what I think the best post I have written is. The hard part is that choosing among my posts is a bit similar to asking me to pick a favorite child. I can’t quite do it. I love all of my children…equally.

Ok, that is not entirely true. There are posts that are superior to others. There are posts that I am proud of and some that I probably should have nuked. That is probably not all that different from most bloggers.

Anyway, instead of making myself crazy trying to pick a favorite post I went to my default answer. Thanks to the magic of stats I am able to review the past three months and identify which posts have received the most attention. In order to really try and boil it down I eliminated videos, memes and the times I hosted Haveil Havalim from consideration and picked out the top ten most popular posts.

Here is what I came up with:

  1. What Are Your Favorite Song Lyrics?
  2. Today Is Link To Jack Day
  3. How to Make Hard Boiled Eggs
  4. Morality Without Religion- A Comment to The Self-Righteous
  5. Going Commando
  6. Why The Baal Teshuva World Irritates Me
  7. How Personal Should A Blog Be?
  8. The Day School Dilemma- Paying For Private School
  9. My Brother- A Lesson in Simple Physics
  10. What The Hell Happened to Courtesy

If you asked me if I would have picked any of these as being my best post I would say no, but I would also say that this is a decent sample set of the type of content you might find here. It is a mix of the absurd with a little serious and thought thrown in.

Does any of this really matter? Probably not.

The JIBS

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Folks I have tried hard not to remark on the JIBs but I just can’t refrain any longer. The real point of the JIBs is to promote Jewish/Israeli blogs, to help provide greater exposure than currently exists.

The thing that I have always found distasteful about the JIBs is the campaigning that takes place. Some people are so concerned about winning all they lose their ability to blog about anything else.

But if winning means that much to you than I guess that is how it goes.

I Am The Source of Evil In The JBlogosphere Part II

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In part one of this series I shared part of an email I received from one of my fans. It was an uplifting tribute in which my dear cyberFreud provided their analysis of all that is wrong with me. I must say that I was moved and flattered by the attention. It seems that the dear soul is trying desperately to garner more attention from me.

Jackass,

Your pathetic and moronic attempt to cover up your own shortcomings is transparent.

In days past I would have printed more of their email but as I said below, I am lacking some of the blogging passion. I would have jumped on the attempt to make a joke out of transparent shortcomings but again I am lacking passion. It might have been good. Some snappy remark about buying new underwear or some such thing.

But alas the blogging malaise has afflicted me and I haven’t the words to share. So let me wrap this up by saying that if you want to make me the villain of the JBlogosphere I shall gladly accept your title in the same spirit that Reggie Miller loved to be the villain.

Excuse me, I have to go watch some more Snidely Whiplash video so that I know how to play this role.

I Am The Source of Evil In The JBlogosphere

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It has been a while since I last shared fan mail with my beloved 17 readers. And now I am pleased to present you with a fragment of one of the greatest testimonials that I have ever received.

Dear Jackass,

The reason that so many people hate the jblogosphere and the jibs is because of jerks like yourself. if you leaned how to be a mensch maybe your children wouldn’t be so bad and your wife would love you more. Why don’t you take Ezzie and go away…”

Hmm… I mulled over how to respond to this. I played around with printing the entire email, but it was missing something called grammar. That presented a problem because it was so poorly written that I didn’t think that people would be able to stomach it.

So while I sit here beaming with the pride I derived from your accolades let me share something with you. I am not sure that Serach would appreciate my taking Ezzie away. Not that it wouldn’t be good for him to be exposed to real sports teams. Ask Stacey about how much her life has improved since she left the burning river behind.

I wonder how many blogs there are in the Jblogosphere. I should Ask Shifra. I would guess that there are close to a thousand that are kind of involved in some capacity or another. But in terms of how many are actively updated I bet that the number would drop pretty dramatically.

I’d write more but I am late for a meeting of the Elders Of The Jblogosphere Meeting.

DovBear’s Quality Proposal

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The grouchy old bear says:

So far not one big blogger has written to tell me that s/he is willing to help judge the proposed quality awards. I don’t understand their indifference.

Our blogs are successful (in part) because smaller bloggers read us, and link to us. I can’t understand why the big bloggers aren’t willing to return the favor by helping to organize a contest that recognizes high quality posts, written by smaller bloggers, and rewards them with links and traffic.

I am a cranky cynic who appreciates Dovie’s idea but is not so sure about the concept. The idea of having a panel read/judge posts is not a horrible idea. It certainly has merit. The issue is more along the lines of trying to determine who the panel members should be.

You see the fact that someone has a big blog is not indicative of quality writing. Some bloggers have managed to grow based upon the community that has formed around them. It is kind of the dive bar concept. You don’t go there for the food/drinks but for the atmosphere around the place.

To paraphrase Cheer’s ” it is a place where everyone knows your name.” There are a number of different blogs out there that are like this. You don’t go there expecting to see the blog-ha-bayit (landlord/blogger) produce brilliant content. You go because it is fun to hang out with the people around there.

To be clear, I do appreciate the grouchy old bear’s idea and his effort. We’ll have to wait and see if it pans out.