2005 Koufax Awards --- Final Voting Now Open
Below are the list of semi-finalists in the fifteen categories of the 2005 Koufax Awards. While every nominated blog is to be congratulated, the ones listed in the posts below are due special recognition. They have been selected by their readers and peers as the best of the best.
The competition was fierce for a spot in the semi-finals. Many comments expressed the difficulty of making a choice. With the growth of the number of lefty blogs over the last couple of years, as well as the rise in quality, that difficulty is not surprising. I was very impressed the depth of the quality in every category. In past years, we have tried to limit the number of semi-finalists to about 8 per category. That was nearly impossible this year in some categories as the voting simply did not allow natural break points. Instead of allowing one vote out of hundreds eliminate several worthy nominees, we decided to increase the number of semi-finalists. That is consistent with the purpose of the awards. When faced with a tough call, we try to always take the more inclusive route. Honoring more people, rather than fewer, is part of what the Koufax Awards are designed to do. I hope that no one feels misled.
Now come the really hard part. We have to reduce the semi-finalists to one single winner in each category. I must warn you that the choices will be hard. Each and every semi-finalist would be a worthy winner.
Please vote in the posts listed below by leaving a comment. Do not vote here. The comments are open here only for noting errors on our part (we will try to fix them as soon as possible) or for any other purposes other than voting. Please vote in the appropriate comment thread below. We know that it takes a bit more time for you, but it saves an enormous amount of time for us. Please make sure that the vote is left in the appropriate comment thread. That is where we go to count the votes, and the chances that your vote will be lost rise exponentially if a vote for Best Post is left in the comment thread of Best New Blog.
When announcing the winners, I like to quote something from the comments to explain why the voters chose that particular winner from the list of other deserving semi-finalists. We encourage you to explain your vote. I am not likely to quote more than a couple of sentences so posting War and Peace is not really useful.
If you do not wish to vote by leaving a comment, you can send an email with your ballot to me or to MB, at the addresses listed on the right-hand sidebar. Please use the word "Koufax" in the subject line to make sure we count the vote.
The rules are simple. One vote per person per category. In the last round, some chose not to follow that rule. It makes our life more difficult and undercuts the credibility of the process if people try to game the system through multiple voting. It is also not nice. Please don't do it. If any semi-finalists wish to announce that voting is open, we encourage you to remind your readers of the one vote per person per category rule. Thanks in advance.
As always, the most important things are to be nice and have fun. The polls are now open.
MB adds: Please provide a valid email address and do not use an IP anonymizing service. We will discard votes which use such a service.
Comments
You guys are great (and I'm putting my $ where my mouth is) And I'm not just saying this because I made it to the finals.
And speaking of the finals, just one nit-picky question. Aren't we now "finalists," not the semi-finalists?
Posted by: Jordan Barab | March 21, 2006 12:48 AM
Why does it take forever to have a comment accepted in one thread after posting a vote in another thread? It refuses to post due to being too speedy, but it takes something like 10 minutes until I am allowed to post a comment again. There are many categories to vote in, and it is already 1am....
Posted by: coturnix | March 21, 2006 12:58 AM
Also put my money where my mouth is. And thank you; this was unbelievable
Posted by: pia | March 21, 2006 01:33 AM
How long will voting be open?
Posted by: pia | March 21, 2006 01:39 AM
Just wanted to let you know my link is broken in the Most Deserving of Wider Recognition category. I left a note there - then realized it should probably be here instead. So:
The Fat Lady Sings
http://www.fatladysings.us
Thanks so much!
Posted by: The Fat Lady Sings | March 21, 2006 01:43 AM
this is a vote for best test of the comments.
Posted by: ebw | March 21, 2006 07:20 AM
Thank you for all your hard work.
Posted by: actor212 | March 21, 2006 10:07 AM
Small error: In the left side-bar, the link for "Best Blog (non-pro)" actually points to the post for pro Blogs.
Thanks so much for all your time and effort in doing these!
Posted by: NYSusan | March 21, 2006 12:02 PM
yes, when does voting close? i can't seem to find that info anywhere. thank you!
Posted by: sally | March 21, 2006 01:41 PM
Sally, generally we keep the polls open for a week. But that is flexible, as we are Progressives, neh?
Posted by: MB | March 21, 2006 01:55 PM
Hi there-- fyi-- when I clicked on best non pro blog-- the pros came up. Can you please fix that? Thank you for hosting this-- you're great to do this important work!
Posted by: angie | March 21, 2006 02:03 PM
Hi there-- fyi-- when I clicked on best non pro blog-- the pros came up. Can you please fix that? Thank you for hosting this-- you're great to do this important work!
Posted by: angie | March 21, 2006 02:07 PM
Thanks, Angie (nice to see you again via FDL.) I'm working on it, but having a hard time accessing the site's guts due to server load.
Posted by: MB | March 21, 2006 02:19 PM
Hi M.B. - sorry to add to your work load. I really wish there were some way we all could help. I tried posting this at the Best Series thread - but I got an error message - so I don't know if it got through. I got a few emails asking that each link to my Subic series be posted. They said it was too time consuming to sift through my other pieces. So, if you could, please (at your convenience, of course). Thank You!
Subic Bay
Subic Bay - Part Two
Subic Bay - Part Three
Subic Bay - Finale
Posted by: The Fat Lady Sings | March 21, 2006 02:47 PM
Thank you for everything is right.
The link to my site doesn't work
Posted by: pia | March 21, 2006 06:03 PM
TN WOMEN! WHO ELSE?????
Posted by: Tim Cooper | March 21, 2006 06:08 PM
Best Expert - Effect Measure (Revere(s))
Posted by: Student | March 21, 2006 06:56 PM
Effect Measure is excellent-- especially on the avian bird flu!
Posted by: Jerry Hood | March 21, 2006 07:28 PM
Best expert --- Effect Measure
Posted by: Mary Firestone | March 21, 2006 07:28 PM
Effect Measure
Posted by: Katherine Calkin | March 21, 2006 09:20 PM
Effect Measure
Posted by: Katherine | March 21, 2006 09:24 PM
I don't know if you've received any of the corrections I've winged your way - but here we go once again. Could you please update the links to my Subic Bay posts in the Best Series category? People really need to be able to read them before they can decide to vote for them or not. Thank you very, very much.
(Note from MB - Eric might have received them via mail, but then they'd be lost in all Koufax voting mail and he might not have seen them. If you send them to me at wampum622@yahoo.com, I will fix them asap. Sorry about that.)
Posted by: The Fat Lady Sings | March 22, 2006 01:46 AM
Effect Measure - would make Groucho Marx proud.
Posted by: Sam Dawes | March 22, 2006 07:23 AM
1) sorry to have been one of the people "gaming the system" because I never saw any indication that I had to choose just one entry. (some categories would have made such a choice meaningless anyway.)
2) you might want to reword from "the posts listed below" to "the finalists linked in the sidebar," to save other folks from scratching their heads, searching through other back-posts, and generally wondering what happened...
Posted by: acm | March 22, 2006 09:55 AM
3) if we have to vote separately in each thread (which is fine), you'll need to do something about the mechanism that doesn't allow an individual to post more than one comment on this site in a given window of time...
4) oh, and people voting for Effect Measure -- did you see that no votes are to be put in this thread? try again...
Posted by: acm | March 22, 2006 10:00 AM
Yesterday afternoon when I was attempting to vote, I kept getting a message to try again later. I got the message multiple times, as I made multiple attempts to vote. Suddenly all my votes appeared. I apologize; there was no attempt to game the system, just to vote.
Posted by: Aileen Wyse | March 22, 2006 03:14 PM
Yesterday afternoon when I was attempting to vote, I kept getting a message to try again later. I got the message multiple times, as I made multiple attempts to vote. Suddenly all my votes appeared. Suddenly all my votes appeared. I apologize; there was no attempt to game the system, just to vote.
Same thing happened to me.
Posted by: edger | March 23, 2006 03:27 AM
Hi guys...
not that I'm likely to win, but given the extraordinary quality of the competition, I'd appreciate it if you'd remove my name from the nominees for "best commenter" -- I'm NOT worthy, and its been an honor to be nominated!
thanx
paul lukasiak
Posted by: p.lukasiak | March 23, 2006 09:49 AM
Paul, can you email me? wampum622 @ yahoo.com (remove spaces)
Posted by: MB | March 23, 2006 12:38 PM
is there a specific deadline for voting?
Posted by: mark | March 23, 2006 07:29 PM
2005 Koufax Awards -- Finalists.
My vote goes to Progressive Digest Blog Digest for Best Blog (non pro).
Thanks.
DC
Posted by: David Curtis | March 25, 2006 10:12 AM