Tuesday, October 12, 2010

TO AWARD OR NOT TO AWARD... that is the question

I am having a dilemma my friends... In fact, I would call it a crisis of my conscience and I am left trying to sort out what to do next. 

It’s to do with these blog awards that are going around.

Several weeks back, Cinderita and Frisky Virgin awarded me both with a Blog with Substance Award and then the following week, the delightful Frisky Virgin gave me another one entitled One Lovely Blog Award.  It goes without saying that I was thrilled, not because, I was walking the red carpet and receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award, but the fact that two people considered my blog worthy enough to mention me and add my link on their blog.  Basically, in this act of kindness, they brought traffic to my blog without me lifting one single finger on the keyboard.

I did my thing and graciously accepted and followed the instructions and then I posted my blog with a list of 10 deserving blogs (in my opinion all are deserving) that had inspired me in one capacity or another.  Imagine my surprise when only  three responded, two of which sort of declined the award, for good reason.  You see they found it a lot of work to accept this acknowledgment, and let’s be honest, it is.  Without a doubt, it takes a lot of time to acknowledge them.  You say thank you, then write a post answering a series of questions about yourself and then you must link 10 new blogs onto your post.  And if you are like me with an iMac, for some reason you cannot just copy and paste other blogger’s URL.  So physically, I had to go to 10 different sites and write down 10 different site addresses and then type the links in.  By the time, I had completed the post it was almost two hours later.  Not that I am complaining, just that I am understanding.

I will say that I was neither disappointed nor angry that no one really wanted to accept my acknowledgment of their blog.  Why should I be?  I mean who am I to you, and really do you care what I think of your blog?  Because I am just a person on the other side of the computer who is, in fact, in awe with the many fabulous people I have met thru blogging. In fact, I could be fairly crazy, so do you actually want an acknowledgment from a person who could or could not be posting this from some padded white cell?  Mwaaa haaa haaa!  

In all seriousness, I suppose what I am really trying to say is that most likely when you started blogging, you were probably much like me, unaware of these blog awards and that wasn't your purpose for blogging, although a definite lovely perk. But, I completely understand the work and time involved. And mostly, I understand that everyone's life is hectic and stressful in one capacity or another and would like to post their thoughts and move on for the day.  You know blogging could be a full time job, if you let it be. 

But after much consideration of the above, I found that I was in a serious dilemma, as I received four more blog awards.  One from the lovely Martha Ruth at A Real (Upstate) NY Housewife called Life is Good, and three more, the Stylish Blogger, Versatile Blogger and One Lovely blog from the fabulous girls over at Leggings are not Pants.  And you know, I was thrilled all over again by the thoughtfulness of these individuals.

I wanted to post these lovely acknowledgments on my blog but I did not want to follow the instructions due to the very luke warm response I received from my previous post.  I suppose I am a little gun shy now.

So after much consideration, and hopefully no insult to anyone, here is what I finally decided to do and I hope you will still love me after this:

I have decided to accept these wonderful acknowledgments from these absolutely lovely blogger friends, because you took the time to think of me, to add me on your blog and to create a link to my site, for which I am forever grateful and I think you are amazingly wonderful.

I will however not be passing it on due to the lack of response the last time around.  I want to be respectful of the ones who acknowledged me, and respectful of the ones who are not interested and I hope that everyone will be okay with this decision.

I will also say that whether I have one follower or a thousand followers, I will always and I mean always be grateful to anyone who took the time to acknowledge my blog.  You are kind beyond words and you make my life better so Thank You.

From my heart to yours.

Until Next Time.
Smooches Pooches

15 comments:

  1. Very well put! It is very nice to receive an award, and that others feel your blog is special. I think if you want to pass it on, you should, otherwise just accept it as graciously as you just did!

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  2. Whatever floats your boat, Tracy. I can understand your problem. Personally, you are a lot of good things to me. I do care what you think about my blog, although I wouldn't change it for you, ha ha. I do listen to you though, as my two followers not connected to your blog following were from my first garden post with a bunch of flower photos, so you gave good advice on that point. Started doing photos on my sidebar, although I may have gone a little overboard, but it is all inspirations from you. So there! you're a jewel to me. Love...Yvonne

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  3. Tracy!
    As you know, I love your blog. Whenever I see you have a new post, I MUST check it immediately.
    Blogging could easily become a full time pastime. It's wonderful. And to have someone think your blog is award-worthy is thrilling and wonderful. But as the awards start pouring in, it is overwhelming. Especially to the techologically impaired, i.e., me.
    And then, when you try to pass on the award, so many blogs are award free, that it takes 2 or 3 times as long to give your award, since so many don't accept them!
    A quandary, to be sure. So that's why I opted out.
    But I think I'd pass every one of the awards to YOU!

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  4. i accepted & reposted the blog award you gave me back a couple weeks ago & when i named several others blogs, none of them did it either. i had some acknowledgement, but no one else posted it on their pages (or if they did, i was left unaware). so the next time i got one, probably last week, i didn't bother reposting it either. it's all good. =)

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  5. Tracy, this is just the post I was looking for. i see people keep giving and getting awards, and I know nothing about them. How do you give them? Where do you get them from? How do you receive them? I haven't a clue.
    Nonetheless, I think your blog is da bomb, and I read it every day, so who cares about anybody else. If they don't return the favor, maybe they're just too busy to get an award..
    So, I'm officially giving you the "Da Bomb" award, and you don't have to do anything after you get it. See, life is simple :)

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  6. I understand.. I think awards are so nice..people are so nice..but then it becomes like a chain letter..

    I was in recipe exchanges..it drove people bananas:)



    You are gracious and honest.

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  7. I have thought a lot about awards in the past 1.5 years of blogging. I don't like to fail to acknowledge, so I always accept with gratitude. I also pass them on, just to widen the circle. But I just don't expect anything in return. So, as a result, I take my time in the process, and only reply/respond when I have time. That's made it all OK for me.

    xox

    Lisa

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  8. Totally understandable! Great way to put your feelings into words.

    CBG
    canadianbloggergirl.blogspot.com

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  9. You have covered this issue well. Early on I accepted awards and found it extremely time consuming, plus I hated passing the process on, first because I feel that all the blogs I follow are award-worthy, else I wouldn't follow them. (I only follow blogs that I actually read regularly. I never follow just to "follow back.") Second, I don't like imposing the burden of requirements accompanying an award on another writer. So now I have a disclaimer above my comment box that says I do not accept awards.

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  10. Thank you all for your great comments... as for you Alex, i graciously accept the "da bomb" award... so appropriate for today since I ate a fart bar and seriously, I am da bomb, but not in the way you think... LOL

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  11. You are so great at speaking the words others can't find. Fantastic! Yet again!

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  12. Well said. I love receiving these blog awards--whenever I receive one, it never ceases to amaze me. It does take time, and I try to get to the thank you post as soon as I can. It is certainly time consuming--I think the awards are wonderful acknowledgments from peers and how you chose to accept them or pass them forward is entirely up to the recipient. Does that make sense? It's been a long day and everything on my computer screen looks the same. lol

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  13. I understand your perspective...
    Myself, I am always grateful to receive awards, but I don't publish the awards...they don't 'go' with the theme of blog, or the post format I've developed, and for me, personally, (just how I feel about my own blog) feel a bit like bragging.
    I do like seeing the award questions answered on other blogs though :)

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  14. Tracy,

    I just saw this and I do understand. I've only been at this a short time and I've received 3 awards. First and foremost, I am so much more than grateful and a little shocked by each one that I've been given, but I also get that it can be overwhelming when it comes to the passing on portion.

    1) I just don't know that many people or their blogs yet and 2) it take time to do all of the notifications and the questions or whatever it is that comes with each award.

    So far, I've been very lucky and all of the lovely people that I've passed my awards on to have graciously acknowledged them. I can honestly say that I don't mind one bit if they decide not to pass them any further.

    I realize they were created this way so that people could get their blog and those of their friends circulated as much as possible, but in my opinion, it shouldn't have to stay that way.

    Why can't we just give someone an award and do it for the sake of wanting that person to know that we think they are an amazing, outstanding person and we love their blog? No questions to answer, no 15 people to pass it on to. Just a cute little button that says nothing more than "I think you're great!"

    Well, just my two cents. (or maybe that was more like five cents)

    Martha

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  15. Thanks for sharing this. I have experienced the same and been wondering the same. I'm glad you wrote about this. Award accepting is very time consuming. I have also received a few awards largely - and as you have seen, just passed one on to you. For now I've decided to accept them and pass them on even though I know many will not recognize them. I may do differently in the future and I think that's ok too. I think people should do what they want but in general I think the awards are a good way to recognize good blogs and push people to read and discover new and interesting blogs.

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