Takes and trash talk from both ALL sides of the NHL's most obscure PATHETIC* rivalry

* Thanks, Kevin Lowe!

Monday, October 20, 2008

When blogs battle, everyone wins

Battle of California (0-0-0) vs. Behind the Jersey (0-0-0)
Round One -- Single Elimination

I really should have been promoting this semi-event more (I've had it in the sidebar for a few weeks, I think), but I guess BoC was one of the last entries in the field. Anyhoo, the NHL Arena messageboards are running an online Battle of the Blogosphere, where 128 blogs are stacked head-to-head in an NCAA-style vote-off for a champion. You can read about it here.

Before I link to the list of match-ups, though, I do want to mention a few things, and first is a quick profile of why you should vote for BoC's first round adversary, Behind the Jersey. If you're unfamiliar with the site, Christy Hammond is a Red Wings blogger, and if information is your game, she's all over it. Take a scan of her posts, and check out her profile page, and you'll see that she loves her Wings pretty dearly. And while I'm a guy who holds plenty of hate for Wings fans, that's never an issue with Christy.

You may notice that I've had BTJ in an exclusive group on the sidebar called "BoC Inspirations", which I guess I should explain a bit. It's not meant to be a "best of" list or anything (there's plenty of blogs not listed there that you should definitely be tracking -- Puck Daddy, The PensBlog, FHF1, FHF2), but it definitely includes some of the best. Really what the "Inspirations" listing represents is the sites that turned Sleek into a blogger today (plus I added Fanhouse when they paid me to draw cartoons). The primary reason why BTJ made that list was because of the series that Christy ran, Behind the Blog. It's one series that I'd recommend any aspiring blogger to read (especially the questions about "Why do you blog?" and "What advice would you give?"), because I think it offers plenty of great perspectives -- I know I was influenced especially by the BoA take and Mirtle's offering, plus here's one by our pal Mike Chen (and one on PJ here).

Anyways, I've been stalling long enough -- here's the Battle of the Blogosphere. Be warned, it is a long listing, and I don't recommend voting for each and every contest. My advice? Scan the list, pick out your favorites, cast a vote (registration is free), and when you're satisfied, stop. Here's where you can win, though -- if you catch yourself on the trailing side in any poll, it's probably worth giving the other entrant a read. Of course, I don't assume that this Battle of the Blogosphere will categorically determine anything (popularity contests rarely do), but that's not to say it's a waste of time; it does at least offer a wide glimpse of the variety of fan sites out there. What's stunning to me, actually, is how many quality blogs aren't even in the running -- this blogosphere experiment grows and improves by the week, it seems.

If you'd rather skip all that and just push BoC to round two so I can campaign for another quality opponent, though (or eliminate BoC so I don't write about this again), here's the direct link for BTJ vs BoC.

Go Blogs.

11 comments:

Earl Sleek said...

Oh, and speaking of big blog news...

Wow.

brokeyard said...

Funny, I read

"And while I'm a guy
that's never an issue with Christy."

initially. Makes sense that way too.

Mike said...

I'm sure Christy is a perfectly nice person, but if you can't find a way to hate every Red Wings fan in some small way, you just ain't trying hard enough.

Earl Sleek said...

Mike, you're absolutely right, of course. I totally forgot to include the word "crippling" before the word "issue".

Go to hell, Detroit.

Anonymous said...

Glad you posted bout this lol had no idea my blog was even considered. go BoC!

RudyKelly said...

I guess since Earl's taking the high road I'll take the low:

If you mother fuckers don't vote for us I'll put horse porn right in the middle of every one of my posts for a month. Besides, that dude we're up against has a girl's name. What's up with that?

Doogie2K said...

I'm deeply offended that my site of 50 readers isn't there to suffer a humiliating first-round defeat to a site that's been growing and posting for three or four years.

/sulk

Earl Sleek said...

Aw, jeez. Here's Christy:

BOC is my favorite non-Wings humor blog out there. Despite Anaheim’s defeat over my beloved Wings in the 2006-2007 postseason, Earl Sleek’s take on the Ducks is absolutely hilarious. His cartoons, which can now also be seen at AOL Fanhouse, are the best in the hockey blogosphere. Earl isn’t the only blogger over there. BOC includes RudyKelly who covers the Kings as well as PJ & Mike Chen who talk San Jose hockey. If you haven’t been reading this blog already, please head over there and do so today.

This is the worst battle ever. Let's all hug.

brokeyard said...

It's an indirect insult to everyone besides Earl.

"Earl's awesome!! Oh yeah and there are some other people who blog there too."

Earl Sleek said...

I don't really know if this counts as victory, but what the hell.

VICTORY!!!

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