Awards seem to be a tricky thing. When i got my first one i actually got excited about it!
"I got an award??? Who me???"
You know, people visit your house, stay for a cup of coffee and the next day they mail you a little golden statue. Touching! Then i got another award. The sweet one. Despite all the annoying sugar all over the place i kinda got excited with this one too.
"Don't say, i got another???"
When i realized i was double nominated for this same award, it felt quite awkward… Then more awards came. My friend the evil nymph nominated me for 2 awards, the Βeautiful Βlogger award and the Reader Appreciation Award. Yeap, i got both, i know, i have my hands full. Oh wait, here comes another, the Βeautiful Βlogger Award (again) by yablogtherapy!
At least now i know i am officially sweet and beautiful! That’s comforting! 🙂
So what’s the matter? I ‘ll take one step at a time….
~~*~~
What i like:
– The “I see you/read you” factor. There is someone who checks me on his/her reader, who maybe reads my posts fully, hits the like button or even actually likes me. I say i don’t check the numbers, i blog for fun, but it feels good seeing familiar faces and it also feels good seeing new faces.
– The story. I like reading the “7 or 10 facts about me”. Seven useless facts about someone i ‘ve never met! Love it!
– Clicking on the links. 15 people are nominated for an award and i am a curious cat! I am gonna check all of you out! Muahaha!
What i don’t like
– The plain thank you note. Here are 7 things about me, 15 nominations, now leave me alone. If you don’t have fun with it, don’t take the freaking award! No one is gonna make you!
– The “rule” thing. Ok, i have to say 7 things about me, and i will, can we at least not call that a rule??? This is another WordPress blog pOst, have fun with it!
– Award pics. Hate them. They remind me of internet ads. The ones you click on and you are taken to a casino page. Don’t like them, don’t like putting them in my posts.
– Chosing to nominate. I ‘d say i don’t like choosing among my friends. And i don’t. The truth is though that i now am beginning to see familiar faces, recognize the blog behind the Gravatar and even my browser remembers certain URLs on his own! So i’d say i do recognize some fellow bloggers. Not in the “you are better” sense, but in the “hey, i know you!” one.
~~*~~
So the bottom line is you get an award, you follow a procedure. At first it’s exciting, creative, etc… then it’s just the typical part…
Plus suddenly this looks like a small world doesn’t it? I see awards going back and forth. Which of course can also be a good thing, meaning that we are all a big company and hang out together! 🙂
So what do i do with all the statues???
I know i blog when i feel like it, when my hand (the right one mostly) is up for the job (sometimes i first write my posts on a piece of paper). And i intend to keep it that way. Then i think having posts about awards one after the other is not particularly interesting… Still i kinda like awards, they keep the links flowing, plus i get to find out useless information about my fellow bloggers! 😛
So i think i wanna stick to the awards i am given, bring them a bit to my measures, strip them off their rules, and post about them whenever i feel like it. Plus i am gonna try to nominate different bloggers every time, so we can all get to know each other better!
I ‘ll stash them here then! Having said that i owe you a virtual dinner, a very inspiring blogger award, a Very Inspiring Blog Award, One Lovely Blog Award, another One Lovely Blog Award, another Lovely blog and another lovely blog award and another one… A beautiful blogger award, a Liebster Blog Award, another Liebster Award, and another Liebster Blog Award, and another one. A Super Sweet Blogging Award, Liebster Blog Award, another Liebster blog award, a Reader Appreciation Award, a Wonderful Team Member Readership Award, a Blogathon Award, a very inspiring blogger award, a (3) Blogging Award Nomination (:-O), a tag, another tag, an Illuminating Blogger Award, a reality blog award and a versatile blogger award! And ofcourse i must not forget to choose an award from Jo Bryant’s bucket! 😛
So, are YOU up for an award?
life portOfolio 
I have had some awards too. And although these are not “official” awards, it is nice to know that people follow you AND appreciate you! I don’t follow the rules either, I usually thank my fellow bloggers for it and as a sign of appreciation I put them on my blogroll.
So it’s not just me then! 🙂 Sure it’s a more “proper” way for people to say “i like you”, and of course awards are appreciated….
Well said! You expressed so much of what I’ve been thinking lately about blogging and awards, and I’m grateful you took pen to paper then put fingers to keys to write this post to share 🙂 I wholeheartedly agree with you: “I don’t check the numbers, i blog for fun, but it feels good seeing familiar faces and it also feels good seeing new faces”. And I love your idea about stripping the awards of their rules (or at least modifying them) and posting about them whenever you feel like it. Takes a bit of the pressure off…which I found was an unexpected side effect of receiving awards. (And, I don’t like feeling as if I’m choosing among my friends, either!). I could write an entire post right here, couldn’t I? 🙂 So happy you blog for any reason, and that I discovered your blog! Thank you again for this particular post 😀
hahahaha, i see we understand each other! 😀 I know what you mean, plus when i nominated some fellow bloggers for a past award, i felt they wanted to take the burden of the rules off their backs, but at the same time they felt bad/weird not taking the award…. Awards shouldn’t be so up tight, come ooooon, the goal is to have fun with it, right???
Absolutely, awards should be a pleasure both to give and to receive. Rules can make it difficult to give an award, and passing it along is where most of the pleasure comes from. There should be some flexibility 🙂
Congrats on the awards! 😀
With that being said, I’ve chosen to, as graciously as possible, not accept any more awards myself. While I’m honored to be nominated, for all the reasons you mentioned, an award that comes with “rules” or “strings attached” isn’t really an award to me.
Someone actually willing to subscribe to my blog, (me, who the hell am I, why would anyone care about what I have to say?) is the best award I can receive from another blogger. 😀
I totaly understand! Plus it depends on the type of blog you have. A photography blog of an artist maybe is not a suitable place for award posts… And of course not participating in the whole “award thing” is acceptable too! I don’t think anyone is going to judge someone who politely denies to take part to it all! So i know we are all right at whatever it is we choose to do, take or leave the award.
But come ooooon Jeff, i care about what you have to say! 😀 Not about an award in particular, about anything! If i didn’t, i wouldn’t stare at the screen so much when it comes to your photographs! 🙂
You are too kind! You keep staring and I’ll do my best to make photos that keep you wanting to stare 😀
well said beautiful 🙂 congratz fr the awards.. I wish i cud have my first award too 🙂 sumday 🙂
I am sure you will be nominated girl! 😉
Muchas Gracias baby girl..but err…its gona be a long way to go n as good as you.. 🙂 🙂
Oooooook, now you are just being nice! 😛
This is a humorous write on a subject that I have often been frustrated about.
I, too, was fascinated with the whole award thing. Loved having people say I had a blog hey enjoyed by nominating me. Soon .. I was overwhelmed. I had no recourse but to begin to do mass award posts. Hope you’ll stop by this one to see what I mean –
http://insidethemindofisadora.wordpress.com/2012/02/28/academy-awards-for-me/
I could have used this blog post instead. LOLOL
Real nice approach … enjoyed it.
Isadora
Ok, that is too many awards!!!! Overwhelming indeed!!! Awards are beautiful as long as they are kept fun, when they start becoming a -must do post- it’s time to get rid of them…. 😦
I totally understand what you’re saying. I have eight awards lurking in my saved e-mails. I want to accept them but the rules that go with them are so time-consuming and as you say, it’s difficult choosing from your blog friends, who to pass them on to, especially when it’s 15 each time. It’s a difficult one indeed. 🙂
It’s one of this thing you have in mind (saved emails) and kinda have to do…. And it is an award we are talking about, it shouldn’t be that way…
I so agree with you. It should be a joy, not a chore. 🙂
Congratulations once again, I’m glad for you and I have to say I love the illustration of the cat with the trophy
prrr prrr
Awwwwww love the cat too! 😀 😀 😀
I’m so glad to see someone address the awards in this manner. I’ve got three hanging in the wings and haven’t attended to them. I barely have time to maintain my blog and if I’m going to accept them and the requirements, I want to put some time and thought into it, which is at a minimum at this time. 😦
But I am going to do it!
I was very honored to receive all of them, since I am fairly new to blogging. I just felt kind of tingly all over.
Since I want to keep my sidebars uncluttered I’m going to put them on a separate page, and include them in my blogroll.
Thanks for addressing this. Since I’m new, the awards kind of confused me. Then I got my first one!
It will be hard to choose the ones that go there. Wish I could put all my followers there! My readers are truly wonderful.
Peace,
Alexandria Sage
Yes, i know, it seems like we are all thinking the same way…. I have thought about putting my awards on a separate page too… I am not sure yet though. I mean are my award post so important or interesting as to be put separately? I don’t know if someone would click on an “award” page. On the other hand they appear randomly on my first page! I don’t know, i ‘ll have to think about that…
I have seen them on a separate page and it worked nicely. Much like a page for the photo challenge.
I guess you are right! 🙂
Congratz again! Love the post, love the breakdowns (your point of view has a point 😄 )
On my first award nomination was excited but when I realize that I must nominate another 12bloggers and my own ‘community’ that time was only 7 argh….but then I passed the award to those who I think like my posts, those warm bloggers to liked and commented, its my way of a warm heartfelt thank you!
Thank you again and Congrats!
hahahaha!!!! You are killing me “I must nominate another 12 bloggers and my own ‘community’ that time was only 7…” That was a good one! At least you were nominated for an award when you were still a beginner which says good things about you! 🙂
After the excitement, If you can just see me, staring, just staring the blogging award and felt the pressure biting me 😊
Hahaha
Thanks 👍😄
Good for you to think it thorough & put it out there. I’m very new here, but not very new at living life, so I understand a bit of cynicism, or should we just say ambivalence?
I guess everyone sees things his/her own way. And yes, turns out awards can have different effects on bloggers…
Ioanna, you have spoken for all of us in this post. My reactions to the awards I got, was very similar. I too feel awkward, when I nominated for a same award by five different bloggers. And the funniest part was, among all those people who had very kindly given me all those award, there were some who never bothered to visit my blog more than once or twice. My reaction was like, “Aah! Must be he/she could not find another fifteen people to complete that list”.
Still it’s a good feeling to know that, “someone who visits your blog regularly and thinks that you deserve appreciation in form of these awards. ” But I hate it, when someone does not even visit my blog regularly and pass on an award. 🙂
Great post, Ioanna. Great take on these awards. Very unique and interesting !
Thank you Arindam! 🙂 I just wasn’t sure about how people see this award thing, i really didn’t want to pass on awards just because i have to. I seems like we all think the same way! 🙂
I share your thoughts and sentiments about awards. I consider it as a blessing and an honor being acknowledge by another talented blogger but honestly, I can not catch up if I am to make a post of each. I just hope that my sincere thank you for each on the generous giver is more than enough. Blogging is still about expressing your own personal thoughts that should come from an inner inspiration in all of us. Great post!
I am sure noone misreads a blogger who kindly denies an award. It’s just the way you said, at some point you just can’t keep up with awards…. Unless of course an award offers you inspiration! 🙂
I know one appreciates the awards the only problem is passing them on to 15 others. You need a whole day to do that and my time is so limited and out Internet connection rather slow. Maybe if the rules changed and one could send it on to 3 others?
PS I also enjoy it when you get the rewards, like the stuff you write
🙂
I know, 15 nominations are A LOT! Maybe the rules should change…. who came up with them anyway?????
Search me, not guilty
😀
OMG you just said it! everything I thought about award and hadn’t the courage to say…think I won’t take awards anymore, even tho it’s always a pleasure to get one…it seems just too much….
X
I know, at first you get excited with it, and then all those rules are just
pain in the ass…. 😛Congratulations! 🙂
Thank you! 🙂
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Fantastic @Ioanna:D is an honor to receive this nomination, congrats ! 😀
Thank you! I just need to find some time now to write about them…..
😀 Take a time, just relax
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Ioanna, you are so hilarious! I love this post about all these awards. I can’t tell you how many I’ve just ignored because it’s so much work! I have spent practically all day on the Blog of the Year 2012 award. It’s so nice to be recognized, but I dislike all the same things about the awards that you do. I say, strip off all those rules, as you say, and I agree: have fun with it! You’re the best. 🙂
Thanks catbird! 🙂
Awards are a tricky thing…. it always makes me feel good reading i am nominated for an award, but the award itself is sometines too much. The blog of the year 2012 awar for example makes me mad! Full of “do this” and “do that” and put a link here…. OMG! Come on people! Lets just have some fun!!!!!!
Exactly!! I know exactly what you mean! I feel many times like it’s just a bunch of self-promotion. But I guess we have to do that if we want to increase our readership! 🙂
I know. Awards is a “tool” for readeship like you said, and tools should work for us, not the other way around. That’s why i like “changing” my award post a bit, they gotta be fun! 😀
Good for you!
I had no idea you were so amply “decorated”! Oh well…
I guess i have a few awards i should start writing about…. I am thinking i should start with yours! 😉
I all the time used to study piece of writing in news papers but now as I am a user of internet thus from now I am using net for articles, thanks
to web.