Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Poll position

Question: When you logged onto the site just now, did you notice anything out of the ordinary? Nothing? No "Vote for Falstaff" flashing in bright orange letters? No sudden banners saying "2x3x7 rocks!"? Are you sure?

Good. It's working then.

Now that we've got that cleared up, let me point you to the Asia Blog Awards site for the best Indian Blog for Quarter 1 2006-07 [1]. Polling for the awards is now open (here), so you may want to go fulfill that inexplicable urge to vote for this blog that you should be feeling right about now. (What's that - you still want to vote for Jabberwock? Sigh. It's the promise of naked pictures, isn't it?)

Much as I'm tempted to make the case for why this is the right blog to be voting for, I'm constrained by two factors. The first is honesty. The second is that I have no idea how 'best blog' is defined. Each of the blogs in that list has a different approach, different emphasis, different appeal. Comparing them is an exercise in apples and oranges, and voting for the best one has the flavour of trying to pick the 'best' fruit (or the top 10 organs). And I have to say that I'm somewhat amused by the idea of blogging as a contest.

The point of that little holier than thou speech is to say that since all these polls are irrelevant anyway, you don't want to spend too much time agonising about who to vote for. Instead, your best bet as I see it is to just go vote for the blogs in the order that they appear in the poll, picking the one right on top (which, coincidentally, happens to be 2x3x7) as number 1 and so on.

And hey, if it means that much to you, I'm happy to write a few posts about cows.

[1] Isn't it wonderful that we now have quarterly results for blogs? I can see the analyst report now - "A slow down in the blog's first paragraph growth in the current quarter seems to be driven largely by seasonal factors. More worrying is Falstaff's inability to get to a reasonable bottomline, which makes us revise our earlier recommendation of hold..."

23 comments:

ggop said...

Huh, no wonder the next comment is spam :-)
gg

Rookie said...

Falstaff was only a "hold" rating?
I'd predict that the increased morbidness and confidence in garnering votes for a public poll has analysts being bullish. An upswing on poetry could, however, rock the cart.

km said...

Congratulations on the nomination.

Speaking of that vote now, anyone else feel thirsty? A nice single malt maybe? Hmm? Scotch? You could even just buy us all a wine-in-a-box.

In return, we promise to make you very, very famous.

Tabula Rasa said...

i'll vote for you.

once you post a picture of you kissing a baby.

Falstaff said...

neela: I know, I know - it gets to us all in the end. In my defense, it's a really bad sales pitch, no?

ggop: Aarrghh! and now that you've mentioned it I'll have to actually leave it there. Sheesh!

rookie: :-). Ah, poetry. Now that's easy.

km: Thanks. Let's not lose sight of the fact that I'm a penniless PhD student though (another reason to vote for me - pity), so hand-outs of scotch are out, though I suppose if I do win I could promise liberally spiked Rasna.

TR: No, no, not that. I thought Bonny Baby contests went out with Wodehouse. Next you'll be telling me I have to give a speech at the Market Snodsbury Grammar School

Space Bar said...

Next you'll be telling me I have to give a speech at the Market Snodsbury Grammar School


that's where the spiked rasna comes in! or, staying with the same thought, you could post pictures of you kissing newts. or, you know, those reptiles that have ruffs on their necks that they frill out when they're annoyed?

:D

P said...

Congratulation Congratulations Congratulations!

Jabberwock said...

In my defence, I did subsequently put up a naked-monkey pic.

dazedandconfused said...

I will vote for you if you will do a tag. It's an extremely stupid tag which I am supposed to do, am looking forward to the part where I tag poor fellow bloggers...

I would never have thought of tagging you but since now you want something from me, what say, deal?!

Anonymous said...

Asia Blog Awards say they're here to award blogs published "by, in or about Asia", so I s'pose the Best India Blog is about blogs published "by, in or about India". Funny... I'd never thought of this blog as falling into that category. Did you, Falstaff?

:) said...

i'll vote for you. but i want you to visit my blog and leave me a comment :) heck i'll even advertise the contest on my blog...see i'm a die-hard fan.

The Man Who Wasnt There said...

Oh I will vote as well but where is that long promised post on communism?;)

We are loyal and undemanding readers arent we? :D

Szerelem said...

blog pimping eh Falstaff??
I would have voted for you regardless =P

Anonymous said...

:)

Falstaff said...

space bar: Sure, sure, just as long as I don't end up with that Bassett woman.

perspective inc.: Thanks

jabberwock: Yes, I know. I suppose if there's anything in this evolution thing it may eventually become a picture of you.

d&c: What's the tag? I've responded to my share of silly tags in the past, so feel free to tag me and we'll see. For now, like a good politician, I shall make general promises ("your tag is important to me") without actually promising anything specific.

harry: hmmm...I'm not sure what 'by India' means, but if that implies the person writing it is Indian then that's indisputably true. It's certainly not in India because I don't live there, and i'd say about 10-15% of it is about India. So I don't know.

I hadn't necessarily thought of it as falling into that category, but that's because a large part of my concern with this blog is to keep it from falling into categories. At any rate, I'm not sure some of the other blogs nominated are particularly 'Indian' either.

:): Ya sure. You folks don't need to blackmail me with potential votes for this stuff, you know. You could just ask anyway.

man who wasn't there: It's coming, it's coming. Eventually.

And yes. I'm beginning to understand how Santa Claus must feel every Christmas.

szerelem: Not pimping, exactly. More like that line out of Browning: "Nay, but you who do not love her / Is she not pure gold, my mistress/ Holds earth aught, speak truth, above her?"

ph: Thanks

Who am I?? I'm Spiderman!! said...

I would be more than happy to vote for you. However, I would like to petition for more fiction and less advertising!!

Anonymous said...

Just voted for you! Now, can you help me out with my Essay on 'conjectural variation' in Cournot duopoly? wait, are you an Econs PhD??

Keep them posts coming! :)

Szerelem said...

:)
and we dont have to blackmail you with a votes for comments scheme??
Now you tell me.

amit varma said...

Leave them cows alone!

Garrumphhhh...

Aishwarya said...

I insist on a post which involves naked pictures of you AND cows.

Falstaff said...

z: Fiction, advertising. Tomato tomahto.

thistle: Ah, Cournot models. I do remember those. But dimly, very dimly.

szerelem: Ah well, at least now you know.

amit: well now that you're posting about poetry, I have to have something, no?

aishwarya: The Pasiphae look, huh? Much as I'd love to cater to your private fantasies, my dear, I'm afraid any such post is almost guaranteed to drive away the rest of my readers. Besides, what makes you think any cattle I do get naked with would be of the female persuasion?

Aishwarya said...

I didn't realise how heterocentric that comment was *blush*

However. You have lost my vote. So there.

Anonymous said...

i voted for u ...hey, but did it happen by chance that u r on the top of the list even before the results...finally numbers worked for you..ehh...hail falstaff!!