JIB Awards 2005 - IMHO...

I've already discussed my suggestions for the JIBs, and shamelessly asked for support to the left. I even started listing my own nominees, but only discussed the two easiest awards so far. And, I begged for reader input on what posts of mine they've liked the most - sadly, to no avail. Then again, even OM, Krum, and DB couldn't get more than a few answers, and I picked a bad time to try. Ah well. Anyways, I said I would write who my own nominees were for the awards, so here we go...

Ezzie's nomination rules:

1) I must have read the blog on a decently regular basis.

2) I'm only listing the top 3-5 in each category, or I might as well just write in my blogroll.

[I'm excluding myself, because otherwise this would be really, really boring. ;) ]

I'm skipping Best Post and Best Series - that would be impossible to cover. There are so many great posts, and so many great series. I'm also skipping Best Student Life Blog, because I don't read any that are like this, and Best Designed, because I don't pay any attention - and most are Blogger templates. While many blogs I read are by students, I don't think any come close to qualifying as "student life" blogs.

As I noted, it's really difficult to determine which blogs fit into this category. Since it's a bit of a loose definition, it's hard to figure out what really goes where. But after thinking about all the categories a bit, I decided that as some blogs are more suitable to certain categories. Sooo, even if they could (or even should) go in some other categories, I tried to limit each category to blogs most suitable for each respective category. Got all that? Great!

(nominees listed in alphabetical order; if nominated more than once, link not repeated...)

Best Political & Current Affairs Blog:

This may have been the toughest to exclude some great blogs from, but eventually I split many between this and Jewish culture blog. This made it a little easier, though there were still many good ones... Ezzie's nominees: DovBear, Israel Perspectives, SoccerDad, and Tel-Chai Nation.

Best Israel Advocacy Blog:

This was a lot easier for me - some blogs are obviously way ahead of the rest here. Ezzie's nominees: Israel Perspectives, Shiloh Musings, The Muqata.

Best Humor Blog:

Also not a particularly difficult category, though a lot of the blogs I read are quite funny. Ezzie's nominees: DovBear, Fudge, Godol Hador, Jack's Shack, and PsychoToddler.

Best Jewish Culture Blog:

Once I split this off of Current Affairs, it was a lot easier - but this is still a really hard category. Ezzie's nominees: BlogHead, Jewish BlogMeister, Life-of-Rubin, Orthomom, Wolfish Musings.

Best Jewish Religion Blog:

Wow, was this easy. Ezzie's nominees: Godol Hador, Hirhurim, Krum as a Bagel, Maven Yavin, On the Main Line.

Best 'Life In Israel' Blog:

A bit of a weaker category, but that's fine. Ezzie's nominees: If You Will It, Israel Perspectives, Me-Ander, The Muqata.

Best Personal Blog:

Now, I'm curious who will realize why I put at least one of these in... Ezzie's nominees: Fudge, Renegade Rebbetzin, RespondingToJBlogs, Sweet Rose, Sweet Rose Ramblings (even
though it's the same blogger!).

Best Group Blog:

Well, the IGJ guys don't qualify, but it's pretty clear who this will be anyway. Ezzie's nominees: Maven Yavin & BeyondTeshuva.

Best New Blog 2005: Weird, because almost everyone I read qualifies. So I'm skipping this one, too.

Best Overall Blog:

Ooooh... This is really, really tough, and I really thought about being a cop-out again and skipping it. But I decided to be brave and hopefully people won't be upset at me... And if they are, too bad!!

Best overall blog impossible to define: Some are best-written, some are entertaining, some are thought-provoking... and some are a little of each. And while they may not be the best in any category, there are those blogs you just have to come back to all the time, just to see what's going on. So instead, I'm going to base my nominees on how much of a pull I have to constantly check them, just to see what's there. Ezzie's Nominees: DovBear, Godol Hador, Hirhurim, and... PsychoToddler (you're surprised?). What do they all have in common, besides good posts? Interesting, clever, and often hilarious comment sections.

I hope you've enjoyed! Feel free to complain that I didn't include you in the comments! :)