Ordinary Gweilo

I haven’t yet mentioned the Asia Weblog awards, though I have had the logo (with a link) up for a few days. Like some others, I am not all that keen on the idea of trying to decide which is the “best” out of a very disparate collection of weblogs, but I do think that awards such as this generate some useful publicity for everyone and help to draw attention to some blogs that might otherwise go un-noticed.

So, many thanks to Phil for taking the initiative to do it. There is obviously quite a lot of work involved in setting it all up and then monitoring the voting.

I have to say that I fully expect a certain amount of ballot stuffing – apart from the obvious attempts that Phil will catch, it’s fairly easy to ask friends or colleagues to vote for you.

Simon seems concerned that many blogs are unlikely to get the hits, the links or the notice because they are “slice of life blogs” rather than being just political or just humorous. Yes, but does it matter? If people enjoy the blog they’ll read it, and ideas such as Phil’s ought to draw more attention to all blogs in Asia and everyone will benefit. So, far, Simon seems to be doing well in the voting.