The Alliance

Vote Late, Vote Often

Harvey already reminded you to vote in the New Blog Showcase, so I'm going to take advantage of my hostessness and show you how it's done....

First, go here. The contestents are listed in random order with little excepts from their posts. Find one or two that catch your eye, and blog thusly:

I'm voting for this one.

Perhaps you aren't a minimalist. Then something along these lines might work:

I really liked Pardon My English's entry in the New Blog Showcase.

The important thing is to link to the post, not the blog.

Everybody got it?

New Blog Showcase Reminder

Yes, Alliance Members, it's that time again. We can't alway count on the Axis of Lazy to do our work for us. So, this weeks' victim recommendation is:

Alliance member Madfish Willie, whose link is http://madfishwillies.blogspot.com/2003_10_05_madfishwillies_archive.html
#106549045568612775
and whose post is entitled "Hangover-Part I".

New Blog Showcase difficulties

As Harvey has pointed out, there seems to be a curse on Madfish Willie--no votes for his entry are being counted. However, some of the other other entrants are suffering the same fate, for I have seen votes for this post and this one in my wanderings around the blogosphere and both show no links to them, so I suspect it is a larger problem than just prejudice against the Bartender...

The Liberal Menace

As you may have heard, there is now a third group vying for sponsorship of the New Blog Showcase: The Looney Left League of Liberals. They already have 10 of their 15 members showing as having voted in this week's Showcase.

Their raison d'etre: "The purpose of this blog is to form an alliance of Liberal Bloggers to counter the impact of the Blogger Alliance and the Axis of Naughty."

Not only are they casting their votes as a bloc, but they also seem to be casting multiple votes from their blogs
so that although "only" 17 blogs have linked to their candidate this week, they are being counted as 27 votes.

Trust a liberal to perfect voter fraud.....*

So, Alliance members and sympathizers, Vote Early! Vote Often!

Anyone who uses Hosting Matters, or reads any blogs on Hosting Matters, will appreciate this post: Defending the Blogosphere Front in the War on Terrorism.
The URL to link to is http://irreconcilablemusings.typepad.com/main/2003/10/defending_the_b.html

*actually this may be a glitch in the Bear's tracking asystem, but who am I to pass up a chance to liberal-bash?

New Blog Showcase Voting for the Busy or Lazy

If you REALLY are too lazy or busy, you can just copy and paste the following:

I'm voting for Irrenconcilable Musings, the URL of which is: http://irreconcilablemusings.typepad.com/main/2003/10/defending_the_b.html

If you are slightly less lazy or busy, you can make it a link: I'm voting for Irrenconcilable Musings

New Blog Showcase - Ouch!

"You see that? [Holding a clenched fist, then striking Clifford.] That smarts, doesn't it? Getting slammed in the nose. F***s you all up. You get that pain shootin' through your brain, your eyes fill up with water. That ain't any kind of fun, but what I have to offer you, that's as good as it's gonna get. And it won't ever get that good again."

-Christopher Walken from the only good scene in "True Romance"

Well, if you've been following the news at the Bear's place, the League of Multiple Voters Liberals walked away with the sponsorship this week. 100% participation. The good news is that the Alliance posted its highest participation rate ever, and even the Axis put some effort into it. The bad news is that our efforts weren't good enough. More on how to fix that in the next post. First, the results:

The following Alliance members were listed by the Bear as having voted this week:

IMAO (724 links) - 3331 visits/day V
Blackfive - The Paratrooper of Love (195 links) - 3201 visits/day V
Misha (503 links) - 2860 visits/day V
annika's journal & poetry (121 links) - 239 visits/day V
Bad Money (134 links) - 208 visits/day V
Ramblings of Silver Blue (165 links) - 192 visits/day V
The Alliance (216 links) - 188 visits/day V
Anger Management (72 links) - 179 visits/day V
The Inscrutable American (63 links) - 172 visits/day V
Serenity's Journal (130 links) - 156 visits/day V
angelweave (138 links) - 156 visits/day V
Civilization Calls (31 links) - 106 visits/day V
Practical Penumbra (279 links) - 98 visits/day V
Irreconcilable Musings (329 links) - 89 visits/day V
Being American in T.O. (36 links) - 74 visits/day V
The S-Train Canvass (36 links) - 74 visits/day V
Judicious Asininity (83 links) - 63 visits/day V
The Everlasting Phelps (42 links) - 55 visits/day V
VRWC, Inc. (48 links) - 53 visits/day V
Curiosity (38 links) - 40 visits/day V
Simon World (33 links) - 35 visits/day V
physics geek (47 links) - 34 visits/day V
CandyUniverse (52 links) - 33 visits/day V
Who Tends The Fires (43 links) - 29 visits/day V
BigRedGiant.com (22 links) - 27 visits/day V
BLATHER REVIEW (66 links) - 27 visits/day V
See The Donkey (19 links) - 25 visits/day V
Not Quite Tea and Crumpets (32 links) - 24 visits/day V
Hypocrisy and Hypotheses (32 links) - 21 visits/day V
The Psychotic Rant (29 links) - 19 visits/day V
The Wise Man Says... (42 links) - 16 visits/day V
Cannon's Canon (22 links) - 15 visits/day V
Single White Male (12 links) - 15 visits/day V
Five Wasps (4 links) - 15 visits/day V
Hoppings of Roxette Bunny (29 links) - 13 visits/day V
Johnalism.com (15 links) - 12 visits/day V
Shameless Self-Promotion (18 links) - 11 visits/day V
Peripheral Mind (3 links) - 4 visits/day V
Interested-Participant (60 links) - visits/day V
Cannot find server (14 links) - visits/day V

The following Alliance members were listed by the Bear as NOT having voted this week. If you voted and believe you got screwed out of being counted, drop me a line and I'll get you some sympathy linkage (see below for details):

Useful Fools (0 links) - 500 visits/day
Grouchy Old Cripple in Atlanta (107 links) - 382 visits/day
The Laughing Wolf (34 links) - 271 visits/day
Right We Are! (273 links) - 228 visits/day
Madfish Willie's Cyber Saloon (33 links) - 164 visits/day
A Gaggle of Gals (and one Guy) (171 links) - 145 visits/day
RajanR (34 links) - 97 visits/day
DANEgerus weblog (44 links) - 92 visits/day
Curveball (22 links) - 75 visits/day
You can call me Al (58 links) - 67 visits/day
Anti-Anti-Flag.com (22 links) - 54 visits/day
anti-com.com (6 links) - 54 visits/day
Leaning Towards the Dark Side (34 links) - 52 visits/day
Altered Perceptions (40 links) - 47 visits/day
Elephant Rants (49 links) - 46 visits/day
TacJammer (54 links) - 43 visits/day
little miss attila (34 links) - 42 visits/day
The Patriette (27 links) - 38 visits/day
Gleeful Extremist (45 links) - 36 visits/day
You have got to be kidding me! (24 links) - 35 visits/day
Tom's Nap Room (52 links) - 34 visits/day
BigStick (21 links) - 34 visits/day
All Encompassingly (22 links) - 31 visits/day
Musings From The Imperial Senate (22 links) - 30 visits/day
aimless (71 links) - 28 visits/day
Wince and Nod (52 links) - 26 visits/day
Blog O'Dob (25 links) - 24 visits/day
Ninjababe's Ramble (37 links) - 21 visits/day
Homicidal Maniak (15 links) - 20 visits/day
A Life of Freedom (21 links) - 20 visits/day
Cool Kid Central (22 links) - 20 visits/day
Elegance Against Ignorance (38 links) - 18 visits/day
The Kingdom of the Geeks (16 links) - 18 visits/day
Intergalactic Capitalist (20 links) - 16 visits/day
Various Orthodoxies (30 links) - 13 visits/day
Newmanisms (28 links) - 12 visits/day
The Stormin' Mormon (19 links) - 11 visits/day
Mockingbird (19 links) - 11 visits/day
Ego-Daily.com (4 links) - 4 visits/day
Capitalist Lion (46 links) - 0 visits/day
It's High Noon Baby! (12 links) - visits/day
unigolyn.com (0 links) - visits/day
Victor of the Apes' House of Infinite Typewriters (32 links) - visits/day
Eckernet.com (20 links) - visits/day
Greg Gibas.com (13 links) - visits/day
Intermittent Stream (4 links) - visits/day
Pardon My English (55 links) - visits/day
Confessions of a Hockey Fanatic (6 links) - visits/day
Switched at Birth (8 links) - visits/day

If you suspect your vote wasn't counted, please take the following steps:

1) Make sure your vote entry was on your front page as of Monday morning and that your link was to the New Blog's POST and not the blog's main page.

2) Make sure your link at Alliance HQ is correct.

3) Make sure you are properly listed in both the Ecosystem and the Bear's Alliance membership listing.

4) If all of the above are correct, leave a permalink to your vote in the comments to this post or e-mail it to me directly at harvolson@charter.net and I'll light up your link.

INSTAPUNDO DELENDA EST!

Winning Back The Showcase

Ok, so the Alliance got beat this week. We still made a pretty good showing, and I'm hoping this small setback will put some fire in our collective bellies. It's time to move on.

What are we going to do to win back the New Blog Showcase sponsorship?

Well, first, we're probably going to trim the membership a bit. There are still some members who are missing 3 big requirements: an Alliance Banner, a link to HQ, and a fake Glenn quote. Those folks will probably get de-linked with the option to re-join once the requirements are met.

As for voting, well, I'm REALLY hesitant to even suggest membership suspension over failure to vote. I mean, stuff happens, people do have lives in the real world, and NBS sponsorship is just a bonus, not the purpose of the Alliance. But perhaps we should at least discuss the idea of suspension for chronic non-voting. Say miss 3 in a row & lose membership? With an option to re-join if you promise better participation? I don't know. I'm very open to suggestions here.

Or maybe we could make like AA and assign "blogger voting buddies"? A chronic voter will be paired with a chronic non-voter, and each of you are responsible for making sure the other one votes.

Again, I'm open to suggestions. Please offer your thoughts in the comments.

First, though, I'll offer what incentive I can for voter participation. Starting this week, I will give linkage to every Bear-listed voter over at my blog, Bad Money. Perhaps if others follow suit, we can get some more participation.

The Bear and the Showcase

NZ Bear is looking for some feedback on the New Blog Showcase, voting blocs and whether to divide the Showcase into political and non-political entries. Stop by and let him know your opinions.....

Mini Showcase Review

Well, I'm browsing the New Blog Showcase entries to discover a worthy candidate and the first post I encounter is from a blog with the sole purpose of criticizing Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs...I tried to read the post submitted, but being bogsplot the links are hosed, and I couldn't wade through more than a couple of the entries before my eyes glazed over -- I think it was the phrase "Charles Johnson and his creepy minions " that did it....

So the next entry is about the Heisman Trophy....yawn! On we go---next one is on a red background; I soldier on and read it despite the eye irritation, and it's an ok post. We'll put it in the "if nothing better comes along" pile...

K, the next one is from a blog I've actually visited before! It's rev0g! Let's see how the post is....not bad. I put it ahead of the the red one.

And who's our next contestant? Oh, dear--a blog with only one post. Well, it makes the entry easy to find, at least! Moving on...

A post on investment that touches on the field of behavorial economics. Interesting. Put it in the keeper pile.

Next post is from Alliance Member Peripheral Mind.
Wow! Excellent post--not too long or too short; to the point and well written. Got another keeper....

Next one's from bogsplot, too, but scrolling down to October 24 brought up the post, and it was well worth the search! It's a terrific post on small-town politics and eminent domain. Another keeper!

The next one is also a keeper--an amusing post on body hair and misleading television commercials...

Thank goodness, next one is dismissable--my keeper pile is already overflowing and I still have a few more to go! Ditto the next candidate...

Wow! The last entry is from fellow Munuvian DFMoore! Hi Daniel! Nice post!

This is a tough one to call folks! Here, in no particular order, are the link-worthy posts in this week's showcase--and remember, you don't have to vote for just one!

Compliments Wanted
Dow 1000, Psychology and the ECMH
Legalizing Illegals
Our Mission
Bare Faced Betrayal
Everyone's From Somewhere

Well, check out the above posts and see which ones you want to vote for--remember, not voting in the Showcase makes Baby Jesus cry.....

Bonfire is Burning

Over at Kevin's place, that flaming mass of mediocrity, that sacrifice to the gods of suck, the Bonfire of the Vanities is posted.

Laugh. Cry. Be Repulsed.