Campaigning for Blog Awards – Is This Ethical?
WizBang is currently holding voting for their annual Weblog Awards. Apparently a number of the nominees, particularly in the Best Business Blog category, are campaigning for votes. Now, I’m not just talking about posting in their own blog and encouraging readers to go vote, I’m talking about going out into mailing lists, social networking sites, etc., and encouraging people to vote for them.
Is this ethical? I think it’s a gray area. I certainly think it’s reasonable to let your readers know about the voting and encourage them to go vote. Maybe you even contact your immediate friends and colleagues. But at some point there’s a line, isn’t there? If the voting ends up being a result of campaigning, does the winner really deserve the title of “Best”, or just “Most Popular”, or perhaps merely “Most Effective Campaigner”?
Anyway, they are what they are, regardless of my opinion. I just encourage you to go vote, not just for your favorite, but use this as an opportunity to explore some blogs that you may not even have known about and then vote for which one you truly think is best. That’ll take a little more time, but you might learn about some great resources, and besides, it’s the honest approach.
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the only good these awards provide, is that they enlighten you to a new crop of blogs… hopefully. campaigning for a vote is just dumb.
Comment by sean coon — 12/12/2005 @ 12:24
Scott,
You’re correct. This is a gray area.
But not just for the ethics alone. I received an “awards” email and ended up voting for another friend who was also in the same category. Interestingly, she had NOT sent out an email request yet she got a vote. The person who sent out the email didn’t. Go figure.
Just for the record though: I did not vote against him merely because he sent the email. The person I voted for simply had a site that appealed more to my tastes. I liked them both. Were the categories set up more in an “Olympics” style of Gold, Silver, Bronze, rather than a” winner take all” for the category, I definitely would have wanted him to win the Silver.
Vincent Wright
http://linkedinbusinessdiscussionindex.blogspot.com/
Comment by Vincent Wright — 12/19/2005 @ 15:52
I don’t have a problem with campaigning. It’s still up to the voter to decide who they’re going to vote for.
Comment by Ed Kohler — 12/30/2005 @ 13:18