Blogisattva Pros and Cons

Last updated on: June 19, 2010 at 7:34 pm by Justin Whitaker

Blogisattva Pros and Cons 2010-06-19T19:34:00-06:00 Justin Whitaker

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

This week Nate from Precious Metal and Kyle of the Reformed Buddhist announced the revival of the Blogisattva Awards. Tom Armstrong, of many blogs over the years, first conceived of the awards and has given his blessing and assistance in this new incarnation of the awards. *Full disclosure: I received 2 Blogisattvas in 2008 and one in 2006. I was also a judge in ’08 and if I remember correctly, we (judges) simply did not cast votes/points for our own blogs to remove any possibility of ego-bias. See a full chart of past winners and nominees here.

The announcement has brought out a range of responses from fellow bloggers; mostly concerns about the effects of an award in the selfless world of Buddho-bloggers. Perhaps the most telling was Scott’s from the buddha is my dj, with the headline “i’m number one?” and caption, “What if the Blogisattvas turn us all into this?”*

NellaLou at Smiling Buddha Cabaret wrote:

I am rather ambivalent about these kinds of things as I somewhat snarked back in 2008 in the post The Buddhist Contest. The lip is still slightly curled at the resurgence but am setting that aside for the most part and considering who to nominate…

These kinds of popularity contests don’t often have much by way of criteria other than being “friends” with someone or a lot of blog stats for whatever reason. The content, care and time taken to do the work is pretty irrelevant. (Yes I am feeling a bit cynical today) This is exactly why I want to at least give my nomination process that kind of consideration.

She goes on to raise some good questions that surely will be considered by Nate and Kyle and others involved in the process.

Nate, for his part, posted this on Thursday:

As the founder of the Blogisattvas [Tom] himself said, they are intended to shed light on bloggers who’s ability to write insightful articles impact the buddho-blogosphere.

PROs:

Shedding light on Buddhist Blogs: There are probably thousands of blogs out there that can fit into the ‘Buddhist’ category in one way or another. Most of us who have been doing this for a while have our favorite 10 or 20 but the reality of time-constraints means that we rarely find and explore new ones.
Awarding excellence: We can all quibble about who really deserves the awards (Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize, “Hurt Locker” for Best Movie, need I say more?). But even that quibbling, or ‘discussion’ to drop the pejorative tone (sorry), gets us thinking about what excellence means and how best to recognize and promote it.
Building Community: the above two lead to this. As we find new blogs thanks to the hard work of Blogisattva admins we’ll naturally say hello and get to know one another in some form or another.
Fun: Think of mudita, rejoicing in the success of others. If you’re familiar with this practice at all, you’ll see how great the awards are.
Casting a broader light on the Buddho-blogosphere: Even people who don’t watch a lot of movies often get together for Oscar’s night, where they learn about what’s great in the movie world. Likewise I’m sure many people who spend little time reading Buddhist blogs will check out the awards’ unveiling and make their way to winning blogs – and nominees.

CONs: (potential)

Ego: We all have one and we all have our ‘hooks’ that get it engaged in ugly ways. This is definitely something to ‘sit with’ if you feel strong desires or aversions here. While the Buddha never, to my knowledge, criticized fame per se, he did list it as one of the eight worldly conditions which, in our striving for them, drive our ignorance and suffering.
Crony-ism: It could devolve into a ‘popularity contest’ as NellaLou describes, where a group of friends essentially get together and award themselves and friends. I would love to have seen a judge in/from Asia, one in/from Europe, a person of color, etc – and of course a Theravadin, Zen, Tibetan, Pure Lander, etc… I’ve seen, however, that the organizers and others, myself included, have worked to get a diverse selection of judges (and it’s been hard), so I’m confident that this will not be a problem.
Anything else?

Given all of this, I’m very happy to see the awards resurrected. And I’m confident that with the PROs in mind, the CONs won’t be a significant problem. If you know of other potential CONs, I, and I’m sure the admins, would love to hear about them – speak now or forever… For my part, I am grateful to Tom, Nate, and Kyle (and others involved) for their efforts and look forward to this year’s Blogisattvas.

* image via http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/

Uncategorized

Previous Post

June 17, 2010

CIA Salon

Next Post

June 24, 2010 The Three Marks of Existence in Life

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Academia Activism American Buddhism Art Book review Buddhism Buddhism Today Buddhist Ethics Burma/Myanmar China Christianity Commodification Environment Gender Happiness Health Humor India Interfaith Islam Japanese Buddhism Kant Media / News Meditation mindfulness Photography Poetry Politics quicktakes Running Teaching Technology Thailand Theism/Atheism Theravada Tibet Tibetan Buddhism Travels Uncategorized Unitarian Universalism video Western Philosophy Zen

Select a Month June 2021 January 2021 November 2020 August 2020 July 2020 March 2020 January 2020 October 2019 August 2019 June 2019 May 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 November 2004 September 2004 August 2004

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz