8/30/2007

What have the Lib Dems got against September ?

What have the Lib Dem e-campaign team got against the month of September ?

The nominations for Lib Dem blog of the year are closing tomorrow (on the last day of August), yet, if you want to qualify as a new blog, you have to have set your blog up since the first October 2006. A very odd situation has occurred for me in the "new blog" category. People have told me that they wanted to nominate my blog, so they tell me, in the "new blog" category but I do not qualify as I set my blog up on 1st September 2006.

Apparently I have to have set my blog after 1st October. Assuming that the last day of August is the last day for nominations every year, including last year, that means that I cannot qualify in the best new blog category last year because on the close of nominations last year my blog did not exist on the closing date (31/8/06). However, I also do not qualify this year either.

It appears that the very odd set of rules set up by the Lib Dem e-campaign team precludes any blog ever set up in the month of September from qualifying ever in the category of "best new blog".

Yes,I might be sounding disgruntled. However, I am not whinging because it has cost me the chance to win (although I admit I am competitive by nature), but it seems odd that the party could introduce an arbitrary rule that discriminates on such an odd basis.

Update: Okay, so there was not a "best new blog" last year. However, it does pose an interestgin question about what happens to blogs created this September should the same process happen next year.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are there actually "party rules" on blogging as in are they offical and been voted in at conference, or are they just a bit ad hoc.

I haven't decided yet whether I feel that the lib dem blogger competition should operate on rules endorsed by conference because of democarcy etc etc or the idea of lib dem conference passing rules on a blogging competition is just a bit silly.

Anonymous said...

Hi Nich,

Your logic isn't quite right :)

As there wasn't a Best New Blog award last year, this year's just starts from an arbitrary post-conference date. If the category returns next year, it will, of course, include blogs launched any time after the close of this year's nominations - and there's a case for saying it should be earlier, since a blog running for a day is unlikely to be nominated.

But as their was no such award last year, the only discrimination is against all blogs running since before October 1st 2006, as they've never had the chance to be Best New Blog - but that's just the result of having a new category.

Nich Starling said...

But the new blogs award is for blogs in an 11 months year, which in itself is quite odd.

Iain Dale said...

Nich, fear not, your reward may come soon...

Jonny Wright said...

Chill out Nich ... you're going to wipe the floor with everyone else in all the other categories as it is! :-P

Anonymous said...

I'd lean next year towards a 14 or 15 month period. But surely you're not suggesting we should have to conform to society's dictated definition of "years" ;-)

Pages