Philippine Blog Awards 2005

Photo Blog Site Trophy

Photo Blog Site of the year award

I just got this really neat trophy from Philippine Blog Awards. It took some time since I somehow overlooked their email and wasn’t able to give my address for delivery. Again, my gratitude goes out to the award winning body who honored this site with this award as “Photo Blog Site of the Year” and the regular visitors of this site.

But recently, there’s been some controversy surrounding the PBA (Philippine Blog Awards) and the recent results of the winners. It started with Kid Flash X’s of [email protected] podcast comments on calling it “Bogus”, “A joke” and questioning “Who are these people?” who won the awards. And on the latest episode, riding on the fame of controversy is questioning the “Award Giving Body” itself. In truth, it’s the first time I even heard of these guys or the site itself. I didn’t somehow see them in PBA’s hundreds of nomination list, either they didn’t enter their site or nobody nominated them.

The PBA has been giving awards since 2003, but it was only until now (to my knowledge) that the results caused quite a stir in the blogging community. Probably because “Blogging” has gained ground and was really popular in 2005. Everyone seems to want to have their own blog-spotlight. And there have been a number of popular Philippine blogs out there listed on Yugatech’s Top 100 Philippine Blogs based on Technorati, that didn’t make it to the winners list.

Hahaha! Honestly I don’t know what to make of this controversy. [email protected] may have a point on their recent podcast that PBA should have valid criterias for judging as well as proper marketing, and should realize how big the blogging community is right now. My only qualm with them is to question “Who these people are?” who are listed in the finals or the winners. This isn’t a popularity contest and popularity doesn’t necessarily make a “Good Blog”. I share the same sentiments with Sean of Length of Words on his Blog Theory on what comprises a good blog.

Well, for me it’s up to the people who read this blog whether they find if I deserve the award or not. But I’d be a hypocrite not to say that I do enjoy having this award, because I honestly didn’t expect to have it since the guys at the finals with me are really really good. Yet I am thankful for it.