Duties, Responsibilities, and Rewards (Updated 4-23-06)

*** NOTE: AS OF 9-5-06, THE ALLIANCE IS CLOSED TO NEW MEMBERSHIP APPLICATIONS ***

You're considering joining the Alliance. What will you be getting yourself into?

The goal of the Alliance is to replace Instapundit as the biggest thing in the blogosphere by means of links, hits, and humor, thereby helping Alliance members evolve upward through the Ecosystem .

WHAT WE ASK:
The following items are mandatory and must be completed prior to applying:

1) Have an Alliance banner on the front page of your blog. You may re-size it to fit your needs. A copy-and-paste guide to adding the fake Glenn Reynolds quote and Alliance Banner to your blog can be found here.

2) Have a fake quote, attributed to Glenn Reynolds, on the front page of your blog. See the upper left corner of the HQ page for an example. Yours is not required to link to anything, but it may, if you so choose.

3) Have a link to Alliance Headquarters. Preferably through the Alliance banner, but anywhere on your permanent blogroll will do.

UPDATE 4-23-06: DUE TO CONTINUING ISSUES WITH THE TRUTH LAID BEAR'S ALLIANCE BLOGROLLING CODE, THE FOLLOWING TWO ITEMS WILL BE CONSIDERED "OPTIONAL" RATHER THAN MANDATORY.

4) Have a Sitemeter hit counter on your blog. You can still use other counters, too, but Sitemeter is the official scorekeeping counter of the Ecosystem, and it's how we keep track of how the Blog War is going. It's free and only entails copying and pasting a little code into your blog template.

5) Enroll in the Truth Laid Bear's Ecosystem. You need to be listed in the Ecosystem in order for your traffic to count toward the Alliance total. You can sign up here.

NOTE: From time to time, the Ecosystem is down for maintenance and is unable to process new applicants. During these times, this requirement is temporarily waived, but you will be expected to sign up ASAP once it's working again.

OPTIONAL ACTIVITIES:
The following are optional, but highly encouraged. The more you participate, the more hits and links you get, and the stronger the Alliance becomes. Innocent Civilians (those who have not yet joined the Alliance, but are interested in having a little fun and gaining some linkage) are welcome to participate in all optional activities except for declaring a specialty.

1) Declaring a specialty. As a member of the Alliance, you are encouraged to give yourself an "official title" describing the strength or talent that you believe you bring to the Alliance. These are collected and posted on the Team Member Specialties page. Make something up and submit it to the contact e-mail there (on the right side, above "Recent Posts"). You are also encouraged to blogroll the Specialties page.

2) Blogrolling the Alliance. As a courtesy to your fellow Alliance members, you may wish to blogroll the entire official Alliance membership list, as found on the Alliance Headquarters page. If you'd prefer a shorter list for your sidebar, you can choose the code which will display only the 50 most recently updated Alliance member blogs. Both codes can be obtained from this post.

UPDATE 4-23-06: Inactive blogs (no new posts for 6 months) may be deleted from the Alliance Blogroll at the discretion of the Alliance HQ Hostess, even if they otherwise meet membership requirements.

REMINDER: Blogrolling the Alliance membership is not a requirement. If either or both of the blogroll scripts mess up your template or loading time, you don't have to use them! Just the Logo, Link to HQ, and Fake Quote are enough meet membership requirements.

3) Writing Filthy Lies about Instapundit. This is the heart and soul of the Alliance's battle to win blogospheric supremacy. Links to some examples of Filthy Lies can be found in the Introduction post. There is no required length or format, we only ask that they be about Instapundit, that they are not true, and that they are clearly labeled as a lie. We seek to entertain, not to libel. Some hints on creating your own filthy lie can be found here. All lie permalinks submitted will be posted, regardless of quality, and you may lie as frequently as you wish. Don't be shy, tell a lie.

4) Participation in various blog carnival link round-ups such as the Carnival of the Vanities, the Best of Me Symphony, etc. These are weekly blog-linkage events that will get you, and thus the Alliance, hits and links. Your entries are not required to be Blog War related, but they certainly may be if you so choose and if the round-up guidelines don't require a specific topic. A list of posted and upcoming link round-ups is posted every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evening at Alliance HQ. Also, the Blog Carnival page tracks hundreds of Carnivals, and includes submission forms and entry requirements.

5) Other duties as assigned. Twice weekly, on Wednesday & Friday nights, new assignments will be posted, with a deadline and rules for submission, at Alliance Headquarters. You are highly encouraged to participate in order to maximize both your, and the Alliance's, links and site traffic. As with Filthy Lies, all entries properly submitted will be linked, regardless of quality.

WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU?
Delicious, ego-gratifying ATTENTION. The more you participate, the more hits and links the Alliance will be able to send to your blog. And isn't that why you started blogging in the first place?

HOW TO JOIN:
E-mail Charming Alliance HQ Hostess Susie using the mail link on the left side of the Alliance Headquarters main page under "Annoy Your Hostess": gevkaffeegal-at-yahoo.com after you have your Alliance logo and fake Evil Glenn quote up.

Please include:

Your name
Your blog name
Your blog URL
A contact e-mail address

One more note: Please--proofread your url! We can't link to you if we can't find you!

Additional Notes from your Hostess (12-04-04): Please be patient. Sometimes it takes me up to a week to get to applications.

Addendum 08-01-05: Please refer to the Alliance in the subject line of all emails to your Hostess, otherwise you might well be deleted along with the (massive amounts of) spam...

See also the application FAQ

Thanks for coming and enjoy the Blog War!

INSTAPUNDO DELENDA EST!

Comments

[TwitchyB]

Sign me up.

[cecile]

How do I join?

[Chris aka thegreenman]

I am ready, just give me a flight jacket and a cue card. Oh, and a big banner on a Navy aircraft carrier wouldn't hurt either.

[Bob]

hi. trying to join alliance, but link to "email your hostess" keeps kicking my emails back.

info is.

name - Bob Spanbauer
blog name - Feeding Rainbows to Unicorns Since 1978
blog URL - http://tacomablaze.blogspot.com/
email - bphlatt@yahoo.com

thanks,
Bob

[Elderbear]

Quite obviously (to the awakened reader), instapundit exists solely to further the creep of fascism by attempting to dominate the blogsphere in a neo-pseudo-crypto Aryan-Nietzschian manner, while masquerading as populist schnozzle. I'll be joining the alliance officially real soon now, but I sense fascists creeping outside my bedroom window and must unmask them in defense of liberty, anarchism, and the Mystic Path of True Democracy!

Elderbear
Fighting creeping fascism one HTML tag at a time!

[Elderbear]

It wasn't fascists (plural) sneaking around my bedroom window, it was the “Evil Glenn!” I tried to catch him, but he threw cat doodie in my face and ran off cackling! Talk about creeping fascism! Fellow bloggers, beware! This man is a menace to free blogging everywhere!

Elderbear
Fighting creeping fascism one HTML tag at a time.

[jomama]

Anarchists of the world unite.

Bwahahahah.

[jomama]

Damn, I hate it when I stutter.

[jomama]

Anarchists of the world unite.

Bwahahahah.

[shep blank]

We salute the proud yet flaccid banner of the Alliance. We would like to compose a rock Anthem of the Alliance. The only way we will do this is by
1. approval of the leader of the alliance
2. approval of the members of the alliance
3. approval of the lyrics written by one or more of the members of the alliance
To evaluate our worthiness, visit the Blank Brothers Blog and follow the links to various music samples...they are not hard to find, and all have free MP3 streaming samples. Then communicate with us. If we are not selected to compose the rock anthem, we will be content to sweep floors. Not at the alliance. Here. At home. Don't be a simp. Check us out.
Shep Blank

[American Daughter]

Not in a position to join the Alliance, but have a suggestion for employing Dan Rather, though I don't know how to use trackback. Hire Dan to polish the village cannon. Old story about sympathetic NE village that paid the village moron to polish the cannon on the town square each day to provide him with a living that he wouldn't see as charity. One day he resigned his job. When asked why he said, "I have purchased my own cannon and I am going into business for myself."

[jp]

HI,
I am complying with all the rules, except for that TTLB is not adding new blogs at this time. What to do?
thanks
jp

[Tom]

I have a similar problem. I applied my blog Pooklekufr to the Alliance a little bit ago. I opened up a new blog at Mo'time after Blogspot went insane, but N.Z.Bear is still debugging so I cannot enter my new blog in the Ecosystem.

I'll add the requisite stuff to my new blog, but I don't know how long it will take for the Bear(pbuh) will take in debugging.

[Isiah Schwartz]

Going to join very soon, wish me luck (because luck is creation of witch doctors to inslave the masses of humanity Muhahahah). My stated goal in joining the allinace is to rip up and destroy every and any international governmental organizations that have no democratic process.

[mavines]

Nice site!

[basil]

Wow, mavines! I wish you'd come to my site and say such nice, sincere things as that.

[Shirazi]

It is so very difficult to join in. Why not make it a lil simpler.

[tommy g.]

can i join with http://tommunism.blogspot.com if im already a member of another blogosphere?

[Robinik]

I Join The Alliance!

Let's War!!!

lol

Hi to all from Italy ;)