The Unilateral Niblet Awards

Listen, people. 

Last year we went the democratic route and you saw what happened.  Complete chaos.

This year, to save everyone a whole lotta hassle, we, the Quorum of the Indeterminate Number of Snarks, unilaterally declare the nominees and winners of the Niblet Awards:
 
Best Blog:  By Common Consent.  Don’t hate the playah, hate the game.
 
Best New Blog: Mormons Rock  
 
Best Nacle Post, Period:  Tracy M., “Quick Like a Glacier“.  I loves me some good Tracy posts.
 
Best Wilfried Post:  Watching Conference  
 
Best Blog Layout/Graphics:  Nine Moons for the cool banner artwork.  I want a gallery of past banners.
 
Best Big Blog Containing “Housewives” in Title, with someone named “Janet” as a contributor:  Feminist Mormon Housewives
 
Most Irrelevant Blog:  Council of (not quite) 50  

Most Self-Aggrandizing Blog: New Cool Thang

Now to the rest of you, the unnamed heroes of the ‘Nacle, just know that we love you.  It’s because we love you that we left you off of this list.  It’s not you.  It’s us.  Seriously, there are so many of you to name.  I can’t begin to do you justice.  I want to thank the Academy.   And I want to thank D. Golden Shizzle, my producer, for his guidance.  I want to thank the writers, and the teamsters.

Oh yeah, in the interest of transparency and full disclosure, I’m Dazzle of Snarkernacle. 

Peace out, yo.

Niblets Results

I am Dazzle, and I am the man behind the 2006 “ldsniblets” admin curtain. I setup this site, and I configured and administered the voting. No one else had access to the voting results, nor did anyone else have access to the admin features of this site.

Explanation: My original intent was to create a “surprise/gotcha” effect when the podcast was released. Ironically, my reasoning was that it would “taint” participation to announce who was behind it before voting closed. Ronan had suggested not keeping it under wraps. Lesson learned: always listen to Ronan. Another lesson learned: size matters.

Incidentally, kudos to the two intrepid souls who dared to ask who I was by clicking on the “email” link on the sidebar. They both received a prompt and courteous reply telling them who I was.

I intended to invite each of the winners to submit an audio “interview” file that would be woven into a good-humored, high-quality podcast (i.e., there would be no “snarking,” axe grinding or the like). All winners would have been informed that I was running the Niblets this year, and all who elected to participate in the podcast would have had a chance to preview the podcast and give their approval prior to it being published online. But, for obvious reasons, I’ve scrapped the podcast, since a misplaced comma would invite me the ire of the assembled masses.

Here are the results of your voting, forever immortalized for your posterity. Voting was conducted in two parts, over three sequential polls. SurveyMonkey limits each poll to 100 responses, and 3 polls were needed to accommodate the volume of votes received. I voted once at the beginning to make sure the polls functioned correctly (i.e., linking from Part 1 to Part 2).  The tallies from each phase of voting have been added up and summarized here.  To see the three individual sets of results for each question, click here (given the hype over the election I felt it best to disclose the results in their “official” unofficial format as well).

Each poll was identical, except for two cases where I received requests from individuals who wished to be withdrawn. In those cases, they were withdrawn upon the commencement of the next poll (SurveyMonkey does not let you delete items once answers have been received). In one other instance a person was listed twice, and she was consolidated into one entry upon the commencement of the next poll.

Winners are in bold
Runners-up are in italics.

Best big blog
154 BCC
76 T&S

Best group blog
12 A Motley Vision
13 Blogger of Jared
15 Exponent II
16 Faith Promoting Rumour
42 Withdrawn
31 Mormon Mentality
14 New Cool Thang
14 Nine Moons
55 Zelophehad’s Daughters

Best mom/girly blog
101 Mormon Mommy Wars
42 Tales from the Crib

Best solo blog
8 Best Books
115 Dave’s Mormon Inquiry
18 Mormanity
32 Mormon Wasp
4 Small and Simple
16 Viva Ned Flanders

Best new blog
11 A Prayer of Faith
49 The Cultural Hall
37 Feast Upon the Word
3 The Ironic Priesthood
3 More Good Blog
72 Mormon Mentality
6 Purim
17 Urban Mormonism

Best blogger
22 Ardis Parshall
1 BrianJ
2 Devyn Smith
11 DMI Dave
22 Eve
17 J. Nelson-Seawright
3 Janet
4 Jim F.
21 Kevin Barney
5 Kiskilili
18 Margaret Young
7 Mogget
25 Ronan
5 Rosalynde
3 Sam MB
6 Steve Evans
2 Susan M
11 Tracy M
30 Wilfried Decoo

Best commenter
7 a Random John
14 Annegb
12 Blake Ostler
5 Bookslinger
23 Bored in Vernal
1 Christian Y. Cardall
0 Costanza
10 DKL
29 gst
11 J. Stapley
17 Julie M. Smith
9 M&M
7 Mark IV
0 Matt B. at Mormon Mentality
5 Matt Evans
8 Matt W.
8 Nate O.
29 Ronan
12 Seraphine
3 Seth R
7 Stephen M. Ethesis

Unsung hero
17 Bookslinger
4 Christian Cardall
11 Clark Goble
9 Connor Boyack
5 J. Nelson-Seawright
21 J. Stapley
1 Jacob J
78 John Dehlin
26 Lynnette
13 Michael Otterson
6 Rusty @ 9M (just ’cause)
23 Stephen M. Ethesis

Best thing about the Bloggernacle in ’06:
22 Advent of serious Bible Studies
10 Almost no posts about SSM or abortion
24 Ardis Parshall at T&S
6 BCC’s rotating banner
8 Discussion of feminist issues
5 Expansion of Nine Moons (… 10 moons?)
15 Experimenting with new ideas (like podcasts and sustain’d)
3 FMH adds Janet to author lineup
5 Great guest posts
11 LDSelect: Configure it Yourself
10 Less melodrama
0 More diversity and interesting topic for “old timers”
4 More feminists
8 New blood at T&S
16 New feminist community develops around ZD and ExponentII
21 Resurrection of Zelophehad’s Daughters
5 Sustain’d
2 T&S gets demoted on MA
2 T&S gets slightly less stuck-up
8 Tracy M joins BCC

Worst thing about the Bloggernacle in ’06:
3 Banner of Heaven reunion never materialized
7 BCC destroying LDSLF
12 Everyone gets their own blog, less cross participation
10 JNS/Midgley episode
9 M* Collapse
9 Mark Butler fiasco
7 Meanness up, civility down
26 Melissa and Kristine leave T&S
12 Political discussions
6 Popcorn Popping pooped out
10 Raids from the DAMU
10 Reruns/Repetition
15 Selfishness and clicquishness
28 Snarkernacle
6 T&S Sidebar
15 Treatment of dissenting commenters at FMH

Best post:
7 A Mormon Mentality Reading of Where the Wild Things Are, by aRJ on Mormon Mentality
5 An adult’s view of Mormon origins, by Sam on BCC
7 And who is my neighbor?, by Rosalynde Welch on T&S
1 Ardis’s post on eating fruit/whip cream for an object lesson on Fast Sunday
4 Artistic Racism, by Ronan on BCC
8 Book of Job series, by Moggett on FPR
24 Dressing the Dead, by Ardis on T&S
13 The Grace of This Darkness: Surrendering to the Mystery of Suffering and Creation, by Eve on ZD
9 Gravity series by Tyler J. on T&S
17 gst’s greatest hits, on BCC
3 In the Archives, by J. Stapely
3 Is there work that is unworthy of me?, by Kris at BCC
7 Making Sense of Sunday, by Deborah at ExponentII
19 Martha’s Sacrament, by Wilfried at T&S
6 Mormon Culture Tournament, by J. Daniel Crawford on BCC
13 My Journey into Apostasy, by Kiskilili on ZD
3 random’s Thoughts on Perfecting the Saints, by aRJ on Mormon Mentality
6 To return to the temple, by Naiah (as a guest on FMH)
6 Thoughts From the Third Pew, Center Left, by Susan M on 9M
23 Why I Favor Gay Marriage, by Kevin Barney on BCC
2 Why Procreation, by Christian Cardall on Spinozist Mormon

Sorely missed:
16 12 Questions at T&S
14 Adam Greenwood
1 Bob & Logan
5 Bryce I.
6 D. Fletcher
5 Dallas and Janelle- This Mormon Life on hiatus
13 ECS/Elisabeth
12 Ed Snow
0 Greg Call
1 Kingsley
13 Kristen J
34 Kristine
18 Latter-Day Liberation Front
8 M* in its glory days
3 Naomi Frandsen
13 Our thoughts on the MA
7 Spinozist Mormon Posts
4 Zeitcast

Write-in category
26 Best parody post: “[Most] recent FMH sex post sanitized for your convenience”
60 Best podcast: Mormon Stories
25 Best prank: hacking T&S to play Star Wars and BSG quotes as well as All Your Base
52 Best promoter of bloggernacle community: Kaimi, for using T&S sidebar to mention posts on other blogs
5 Best use of big words: Christian Cardall
21 Blogging peacemaker extrodinaire: Stephen Ethesis
5 Funniest post: “Why God?, Why?” (Blogger of Jared)
8 Most inflammatory comment: Rosalynde on breasts and beards
23 Most inflammatory comment: Kiskilili’s infamous temple comment
38 Most overdone theme: Mitt Romney
3 Most picked-on person: Butler from DKL
10 Most vitriolic nonsense: J. Daniel Crawford’s Bush worships the devil post
21 Smartest best onery person: Julie Smith
3 Smartest guy in the bloggernacle: Wayne Lecheminant

And, last but not least, my favorite question of the poll. Mitt was doing quite well at the outset, but fell behind later on:

This is the end of the poll.
49 I concur.
25 Really?
16 It’s about time.
12 What poll?
53 Where’s the part where I vote for Mitt Romney?
19 Zzzz…

To the winners: Congratulations, and sorry it didn’t work out.

Comments are welcome on on this thread to discuss the outcome of the voting. Any complaining, conspiracy theories, etc. can go on the “Complaints, gripes and concerns” thread. No exceptions.

UPDATE: Ziff over at ZsDs has created some nifty charts to graphically display the voting results.

Complaints, gripes and concerns

Feel you got slighted in the Niblets?

Think there was ballot stuffing, or a compromise of voting integrity?  Think Jimmy Carter should oversee the next Niblets?

Just want to complain that your grilled cheese sandwich was akin to eating shoe leather?

This is the thread for you. 

No personal attacks of any kind will be tolerated from any party.

Niblets Results: Full graphical data

(the template was changed to accommodate the voting graphics)

Here are the results of your voting, forever immortalized for your posterity. Voting was conducted in two parts, over three sequential polls. SurveyMonkey limits each poll to 100 responses, and 3 polls were needed to accommodate the volume of votes received. I voted once at the beginning to make sure the polls functioned correctly (i.e., linking from Part 1 to Part 2). You will see three sets of results for each question, which is representative of the votes received in each of the three polls. Given the hype over the election I felt it best to disclose the results in their “official” unofficial format.

Each poll was identical, except for two cases where I received requests from individuals who wished to be withdrawn. In those cases, they were withdrawn upon the commencement of the next poll (SurveyMonkey does not let you delete items once answers have been received). In one other instance a person was listed twice, and she was consolidated into one entry upon the commencement of the next poll. In cases where someone was withdrawn, the votes remain for the time they were in the poll. This is a limitation imposed by SurveyMonkey, so you may wish to write them if you have a problem with it.

The following questions were in “Part 2″, so the numbering starts over:

And, last but not least, my favorite question of the poll. Mitt was doing quite well at the outset, but fell behind later on:

Comments are welcome on the main results thread.

Voting closed

Voting has ended.  Results will be announced shortly.

Cast your vote!

Voting has begun!  Listen up, Florida: the ballot is in TWO PARTS. 

Click here to vote: Part 1.

There is a link to Part 2 at the end.  If you get lost, click here for Part 2.

Voting will be open for about 1 week.  Bloggernacle Niblet Award policies strictly encourage dimpled, pregnant and hanging chads.  In such cases, the intent of your vote will be determined by disgruntled election staffers. 

Nominations Closed

Thanks to all who submitted nominations.  Voting will be available within a few days.

Bloggernacle Niblet Awards MMVI

** PLEASE NOTE: Nominations close on Friday, February 9 **

Remember 2006? It wasn’t long ago that…

Samuel Alito was confirmed, Mariah Carey won 3 grammy awards, Canada won 24 medals in the 2006 Winter Olympics, Andre Agassi retired, Democrats won control of both houses of the U.S. Congress, and legendary singer James Brown died.

And, lest we forget, the Bloggernacle had its own moments of glory.

To nominate your Bloggernacle faves, leave a comment on this post and specify your choice for each category below (please provide links, when applicable):

Best blog:
Best small blog:
Best blogger:
Best commenter:
Best new blog:
Best post:
Best thing about the Bloggernacle in 2006:
Worst thing about the Bloggernacle in 2006:
Unsung hero:
Sorely missed:
Write in category:

Feel free to nominate yourself; we’re all friends here.

Submit your nominations by Friday, February 9.  Web voting will begin shortly thereafter.