KEVIN AYLWARD’S NIGHTMARE
If James Brown can be called “The Hardest Working Man in Show Business” Kevin Aylward at Wizbang deserves the title “The Hardest Working Man on the Blogosphere.”
Of course, the big difference between the two is that Kevin doesn’t get paid for his work.
His is a labor of love. More importantly, Kevin has a vision and a mission. His vision is a future where this new media becomes a dominant form of national discussion and information exchange. His mission: To scour the internet looking for, assisting, and nurturing the talent necessary to make that vision a reality.
Kevin does this in a variety of ways. As a top thirty blog Wizbang allows comments and trackbacks; something many of the larger blogs do not (I can imagine the problems associated with de-spamming comments when you have so many visitors a day). If you trackback to a post on Kevin’s site, the increase in traffic for a blog like mine is gratifying and encouraging.
Kevin also encourages new blogs by advertising “Bonfire of the Vanities” weekly…a linkfest that’s both fun and informative. Kevin’s philosophy appears to be that there’s room at the top for many…given the size and scope of the net and its potential for growth.
For the last few months, Kevin has worked hard to develop “The 2004 Weblog Awards.” With an extraordinary array of categories (including awards for every level in the ecosystem) Kevin has given generously of his time and effort to create a contest that kills two birds with one stone; it gives the satisfaction of recognition to many who ordinarily wouldn’t receive any while highlighting blogs that I’d venture to say most of us would never have heard of or visited otherwise.
Now, thanks to a few unworthies, the fun has gone out of that contest. It seems that some moonbats from Daily Kos and Eschaton have used a program to bypass Kevin’s minimal security (why have more, after all it’s just for fun, right?) and stuff the ballot box, as it were, in favor of their candidate. And according to Jay Tea, some of the LGF community have done the same. (Note: I just perused the comments over at LGF and find that the program code doesn’t appear on the LGF website…there is a link to Daily Kos where the code originated. Ed.)
The Capn’ has it about right:
“It’s the equivalent of bringing a marked deck to a poker game with matchsticks for stakes. It reveals Moulitsas’ character more than anything he writes for his site. Isn’t it odd that the same people who claim that Republicans and conservatives spend their time ginning up new and creative ways to cheat in elections have no qualms about screwing Kevin out of an opportunity to do something fun for the entire blogosphere? If not odd, their ease and pride in cheating is certainly instructive.”
Instructive, indeed.
Hindrocket weighs in support for Kevin that’s typical:
“This is sickening, but typical. Kevin Aylward of Wizbang goes to a lot of trouble to set up a competition that is intended to recognize as many blogs as possible and introduce people to blogs they don’t already know. It’s done in a spirit of fun, and relies on a modicum of good faith among the participants. But liberals don’t seem to be able to do anything honestly, to follow the most minimal standards of sportsmanship, or to do anything in a spirit of good will and good humor.”
If there is a just God, Wizbang would win in several categories. I confess to not knowing where or if the site is nominated (I was planning on taking a good look at the nominations tonight). And Kevin Aylward should receive, by acclamation, a special award for his efforts and have bestowed on him a new nickname:
“Godfather of Bloggers.”
UPDATE: TO THE LUBYANKA WITH THEM!
The Commissar links to this post with a few thoughts of his own about the “Kossacks:”
“What’s the only thing Kossacks don’t like about jerking off?
No way to cheat.”
“How do Kossacks play solitaire?
Deal the cards out face up.”
Da, Comrade Commissar. Forget about “show” trials…how about a real Soviet style, kangaroo court set up in the bowels of the Lubyanka where sentence was carried out 15 minutes after the trial was over and where the bodies were unceremoniously dumped in the garbage and carted off to Moscow’s “People’s Revolutionary Graveyard and Refuse Dump.”