To answer a few questions....

...the Blogisattva Awards are, and were, not intended to become a popularity contest. As the founder of the Blogisattvas himself said, they are intended to shed light on bloggers who's ability to write insightful articles impact the buddho-blogosphere.

Our panel, which is still coming together, is very diverse-- that was our intention when reviving the Blogisattvas.

The process, for how this will all work is this, for those that are unsure. It is different than how the original Blogisattva's were awarded, and since we are an all volunteer panel, this seemed to be the best and most fair way to get it done.

Nominations will be taken until November 1st. Upon receiving the nominations, the panel will convene and pick 5 deserving bloggers from each category and will have a run-off vote. This run-off vote will be done by the public, the blogosphere. Our nomination process uses forms built through Excel spreadsheets, which is how the end voting will be put together as well. We believe this is the way to keep things fair and square.

Our intention has always been for this to be something fun. There is no conspiracy, there is no corporate take-over. I can barely put food on my table and pay the bills, no corporation involved here folks. This is supposed to be fun, and that's how it'll stay with us.

I've enjoyed being part of the process and I hope you are exposed to some new and refreshing blogs come the end of the year.

Nominations Are Open!

Feel free to use the Submit Nomination tab to nominate your favorite bloggers /blogs. The nominations are open for the time frame of Dec 1, 2009 to this Nov 1, 2010; so there is still plenty of blogging to do before the finalists are announced. We have already had quite a few entries!

We will finish up all the details soon and they will be made available up on the guidelines tab.

We still need a couple of folks to finish filling out the rest of the panel, so if you are interested please contact us at this email address.  If you have any questions, comments or suggestions please feel free to make them here in the comment section or send us an email. (edit: The panel has been filled, thanks for everyone's interest!)

One last item, if you would like to have a logo for people to click on your blog so they can nominate you, or another blogger, you can use the following graphic and point it to http://www.blogisattva.org/p/submit-nomination.html.

Thanks and good luck!

Blogisattva is making a comeback!

With Tom's blessing, he is giving a small number of us access to this blog in order to revive the Blogisattva Awards.

A note will be posted within the next couple days as we pull some things together and then start the nomination process.

Thank you Tom for allowing us to help and giving us the opportunity to revive the Blogisattva's!!

Kyle has taken it upon himself to get the BA's a domain, to make it easier for people to find us. The new url is http://www.blogisattva.org and it of course, directs folks to this blog. Please update links if you are pointing any toward the BA's!

thinkBuddha and Monkey Mind Honored

Both Will Buckingham's blog thinkBuddha [link!] and James Ford's Monkey Mind [link!] have been honored recently for excellence.

thinkBuddha was named by the [London] TIMESONLINE, in its February 15 edition, as one of the 100 best blogs in the world. The Times' article estimates that there are now 200 million blogs on the internet. Hey, that's not bad! Will's blog is one in two million; in the upper crust, better than 99.99995% of the blogs out there. Yowza!

In the Times' bloggers' article about the top 100, Bryan Appleyard waxes enthusiastic. He writes,

Blogs let you jot down what you think, feel or know and, at the speed of light, publish it to the world. They now cover everything from quantum theory to politics to low-life celebrity gossip and intimate personal confessions. They can be vast publications written by teams of writers, or fragmented jottings from a student pad. They are the most successful, addictive, potent and radical application of all the new technologies and applications spawned by the personal computer.

Boy howdy, that!

The citation of thinkBuddha's excellence is on page five of the article, where the six best original thinkers are named, and reads as follows: “A blog that brilliantly suggested a Buddhist bus in response to the atheist and Christian advertising signs now stuck on traffic jams around the country. The Madhyamaka bus would bear the slogan: 'Neither an entity nor a nonentity moves in any of the three ways. So motion, bus and route are nonexistent'. That settles that.”

Monkey Mind got some love from the UU Blog Awards 2008, getting a silver 2nd place award in the category "Best Religious Writing or Theological Commentary" and a bronze 3rd place award in the category "Best Political Commentary - Single entry" for the post "A Briefest Reflection on American Politics and Liberal Religion."

Ford is a Unitarian Universalist minister who heads the First Unitarian Church of Providence, Rhode Island. He is also [quoting his blogsite] "a long-time Zen practitioner ordained as a Soto Zen priest and one of the guiding teachers for the Boundless Way Zen project, currently serving as school abbot."

At the Boundless Way webspace, we are told this re the UU - Buddhism connection:

"Many western-born Buddhists, particularly those of European descent, have found Unitarian Universalist congregations welcoming communities within which they could raise their children. And these Buddhists, including our three guiding teachers, have been active in returning the favor by offering Zen and other Buddhist practices within those congregations.

"Today there is an ongoing and fruitful dialogue between western Buddhists and Unitarian Universalism expressed in part through the UU Buddhist Fellowship. Boundless Way Zen sees as one part of its mission a furthering of that dialog."

Will Buckingham and thinkBuddha have been nominated for nine Blogisattva Awards. Will is the recipient of the 2008 Wordsmithing Award. James Ford and Monkey Mind have been nominees for eight Blogisattvas, including seven last year. James/Monkey Mind won in the category "Best Buddhist Practice or Dharma Post" last year for the blogpost "Briefest ruminations on the death of a child"

Award Nomination Announcement to be Delayed

I am sorry to inform that the announcement of award nominations for 2009, honoring buddhoblogging in calendar year 2008, will be much delayed.

The delay is due to the sorry circumstance of the poor awards administrator who is facing daunting financial and legal problems.

There is every expectation that the Blogisattva Awards will go forward this year and in future years and, maybe, forever, bestoying glory on splendid Buddhism blogs.

The awards administrator is sorry about the delay as he knows that a delay diminishes the hoopla that should properly come to any blog honored with a Blogisattva.