BritBlog Roundup

OK, so here’s an idea. I guess most of you are familiar with the various Carnivals and Roundups that go on each week around the web? Carnival of the Capitalists, Vanities, Recipes, Bonfire of the Vanities, Blog Mela, Asian World and so on?

I think it’s about time we had one for British Blogs.

Soo, here’s the suggested rules. We’ll take the nationality  stuff from those for the British and Irish Lions (why not? after all, they are touring this summer). This means that anything posted by a resident of the UK or Eire is eligible, as is anything by a citizen of either country resident elsewhere.

So that’s who is eligible, now what is eligible? Any one post per blog per week (and only one entry per person per week, please). Whatever you think is best about your blog that week can and should be entered.

There is one slight wrinkle here. You can send in something that is not by you. I don’t even know whether there are tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or millions of blogs that fall within the above rules, but I do know that it is impossible for any one person to actually read them all. So at least part of the purpose of this is to take advantage of the few hundred who read here regularly, get them picking the best of the other blogs they read, and then, hopefully, over time and going through the iterations, the thing will spiral  out to the blogs read by people four and five links down the line. So yes, there is a selfish motivation here, I’m hoping to use all of you to lead me to where the good stuff is.....sorry, the stuff that is so remarkably good that it’s even better than what you  produce.

A few basic points. Anyone who reads more than one or two of the posts here knows that I have a particular political view. This BritBlog Roundup is not going to be run on those lines. Whatever gets sent to me will be linked subject to the basic rules of moderate good taste (no p0rn or viagra ads but obscenities are fine) and the libel laws. Yes, this also means people who disagree with me (yes, even Jim) and whatever cherished prejudices I may have.

The other Carnivals and Roundups do bring an increase in traffic to those who enter them (Capitalists and Vanities are usually good for three or four hundred hits on an entry) and I would hope over time to be able to match that sort of performance. There’s none of us making any money out of this so it must be the desire to get our views across that motivates us, right? Think of this as a way to do so further, get a few more people to sample what you write.

Any subject, any view point, whatever you think was a great piece from your or someone else’s blog. Only one entry per person, and unless there are exceptional circumstances (like two blindingly good pieces from one blog) I’ll only link to one entry from a particular blog.

I’ll run this here for the first few months, try to get it established. If, as I think might happen, I need to start travelling on business in the summer, we might make it a travelling show, one that moves from site to site each week.

So, what you need to do is send an email to britblog AT gmail.com containing the link to the piece you like most. Please provide the following:
1) Name of blog.
2) Title of piece.
3) URL of post.
4) Trackback if available.

Links and entries should be sent in by noon GMT on Sunday and I’ll try to have it up by opening of play on Monday. Of course, this week it’s going to be a little thin, me giving only 24 hours notice, but let’s try it and see what happens eh?

I’m entirely open to ideas on the name, BritBlog Roundup...anyone with a better idea please drop me a line to the regular email. And if there’s anyone out there with decent photoshop skills could they have a go at getting the British Lions crest suitably changed?

Already the questions are flooding in. When does the week begin and end? As entries have to be in by Sunday noon, let’s assume Sunday noon.