A few words

I wanted to write a few words about the JIB awards. There has been quite a bit of moaning and complaining about the way it has been organised. After all, it has been hacked at least twice, people are ramping their own blogs on other media to increase votes, the vote counters are also entered in the contest, and Israeli and South African voters are ineligible. Doesn't sound too good does it. On the other hand, it is a lot better than any vote or election in Israel, which almost certainly has most of those problems. And the good news is that the winners of the JIB awards don't get to decide if and when Israel will attack Lebanon and/or Gaza!
In other words, who cares if it is not a true reflection of the 'best' Jewish blogs in the world? Is it worth getting upset about? We all know who are the best - don't we? (No, I won't list names. You can fill in the blank yourself, that way there will be no fighting afterwards). These awards are just a bit of fun. Why not just enjoy them.
I was pleased to be nominated, not because I thought I had a chance to win (in fact my goal was to try to get into double figures, which I just about managed in one category), but mainly for a laugh.
If I am honest, my other goal was to try and get a wee bit of traffic to my blog, because to be truthful the counter is very low. And the interesting thing is that I don't think it made any difference at all. Which led me to realise that the people who read this blog on www.rabbisedley.blogspot.com don't have a clue what I am writing about now, because they never look at JBlog Central or the JIB awards. Conversely, nobody on either of those sites clicks back to www.rabbisedley.blogspot.com to see it in the original. That is entirely reasonable, because when I'm reading blogs I also rarely click on the links to see the originals (or the copies), but it means that my readership is actually about double what the counter says (at least, I can pretend it is). That's a bit better for my ego.
There is one thing on JBlog Central that I don't understand, and that is the list of top 50 best blogs. I don't know how one qualifies for that. It doesn't seem to be just the cumulative total of votes, because the blogs are not in that order, nor does it seem to be the highest rated overall, because then the first post with 5 votes should always be at the top. My other blog www.parshatshavua.blogspot.com was not on the list at the beginning of last week, then by the middle of the week it was suddenly number 18! (I think it is now 19). Perhaps there is a threshold of 1000 votes before being allowed onto the list? I didn't find any FAQs about this part of the website, so if anyone can explain it to me I'd appreciate it.
Anyway, thanks to the people who run JBlog Central, and the JIB awards. You put in the work, and usually have something good to show for it, but not much thanks. So, here is my vote of thanks. THANKS! (but I won't necessarily vote for any of you for the next defense minister - don't take it personally).
Thus ends the 'few words'. Thanks for reading (and feel free to click on the links and look at the blog in a different context).