Injustice in Search
Dec 28th, 2007 by Syzlak
One thing that I have desperately tried to in my life is quash injustice. That’s a lie, but I’m not a fan. Which is why I was very upset to see that the Rubber Chicken Awards have decided to ignore fairness in order to pander to the same tired search crowd.
The injustice that caught my ire? The inclusion of posts from the same site. However, maybe that’s because in every list there has to be 3 from SEOmoz. For good measure, let’s throw in 2 from Sebastian’s Pamphlets so people don’t notice. While both are fine blogs, I think it is horribly unfair to the other nominations to be kicked out of the running by multiple posts from the same blog.
Am I upset that SEOHack’s posts were not considered? Sure, JDog from BlackBookData nominated the Worst SEO Blog Ever very early on in the competition. So was Streko! Funny fucking guy that Streko! Some of the posts were actually informative with hints of humor, or what my English teachers used to refer as ‘voice,’ rather than being simply “Bizarre, Funny and/or otherwise Irrelevant (or Irreverent)” as the rules had originally requested. Was Mystery Guest’s post on things to do when Rand’s at a conference very funny? Not really. It reminded me of those “40 things” lists (irritate roommate, you’d like to say at work, only happen in movies, ways to skin a unicorn, etc). Funnier would have been the ‘Things overheard at PubCon’ post by Rebecca…but I digress.
In the comments for nominees I saw maybe 20 links to unique websites, and maybe at most 30 links total. So obviously Mike had to work pretty hard to narrow the list down to the 10 finalists. Well, wrong again, as instead of doing the honorable and just act of creating a FAIR contest, we see that there are 15 finalists! Kudos for omitting your own submission, but un-Kudos (is that the opposite of Kudos?) for taking the easy route and going with 15 posts from 11 sites and ignoring the rest of the bloggers that work hard at creating irreverent posts to make our lives as SEOers just that much more fun.
Syzlak
Sorry if I annoyed you…after coming up with the idea, I was working through the process as I went and overwhelmed by the work I had created for myself and others..
To make the work load manageable here is the process that I followed:
* I created a list of all entries,
* gave 7-8 to each of the judges and myself
* Included in the final voting the top 2 or 3 from the judges that they liked plus any that had been highlighted by readers as noteworthy…
I wasn’t trying to get out of anything (other than more work) by having the Final 10 be more, I just thought it was funny and if an article was mentioned by the judges or reader’s as good I included it. Fair? Probably not but any unfairness was inadvertent result of what the judges and a few readers enjoyed.
Sorry if something got left off that you would have liked to see included in the final 10 (whatever) list. Will try to do better in the future.
Mike
Mike B
Thank you Syzlak, knowing that I have you in my corner will make me think twice before listening to emo music and cutting myself in a dark room tonight over the loss of this award.
I also was shocked that SEO hack’s posts were not considered. But once again, the SEO/SEM blog world is one big popularity contest…
1. - Hey Blumenthal! Relax, my sense of humor is always angry
2. - Streko, you should feel sad. Listen to some Dashboard Confessional and when you cut yourself, always remember that X-Acto knives work best. For all your self-mutilation needs X-Acto knives are your best bet. Now with the handsome basic craft tool set, the X-Acto knife to best fit your job will always be at your disposal!
i prefer a dull spoon.
Went right over my head!
Mike
I was always partial to a broken disposable razor, but I digress.
It’s nice to see that I’m not the only cynical bastard in our industry.
I’m sorry but I thought SEOHack was a shoe in on the competition. I like the adjustments you made to the rubber chicken award ;-p
@Mike - Thanks for the extra work to bring a little amusement into the SEO community
the hardest part about skinning unicorns is that you get glitter all over the place. And these “beautiful” creatures stink on the inside as much as all the ugly creatures. Make sure you know where you’re sticking your knife. You get into the intestines . . . . that’s a smell you’re gonna’ smell for weeks.
thank you for your support, syz. and you too, JDog.
[...] it turns out, I got screwed. Thanks to Comrade Syzlak’s vigilance, the slight didn’t go unnoticed. Almost immediately his audience of 20 jumped into the [...]