Time to write my last word on this. 

The heat has gone out of the controversy.  I now have the option of doing nothing, and keeping quiet, but that would leave me with an unfulfilled feeling.

My conclusion is that wrong was done, and has not been righted.  The discussion has shown up flaws in the judging process which undermine the credibility of this year’s Awards. The sponsors have been let down.  I feel let down, not so much by Damien Mulley inc, but by those who don’t think this matters much.

I don’t mind being a crank; I’m proud of it.  I think of myself as someone who never finds it easy to stay in step.  

But I’ve gained a lot out of what’s happened.  Simply leaving a comment on all but one of the winning blogs was a great experience.  I got to see blogs I’d never have otherwise looked at.  I’ve been incredibly impressed by the look of all the blogs.  And I’ve started reading a few.  It looks to me as if there are some very creative people blogging.

I wish I hadn’t written about the matter. 

It has distracted me a lot from my main work.  Fortunately, I was active on David McWilliams’ blog at the same time; that kept me from devoting too much time to this tiny corner of Ireland.  The future of our country is a lot more important than the future of the Irish Blog Awards.

I’m not writing to justify my position. 

I’d like this post to be clear and easy to understand, but I gave up the effort to persuade others to agree with me a long time ago.  When I finished the Open Letter to the winners, I stopped trying to persuade.  I handed my view over, and said I’d trust bloggers to make up their own mind.  To be honest, I didn’t mean that I thought Irish bloggers would see sense or anything like that. I expected most bloggers to be irritated by the controversy, and want it to go away.  I was being a bit disingenuous and political.  But, at least, I didn’t contribute much to the great discussion that went on on Dan Sullivan’s blog.

If anyone deserves praise for complaining about how the Awards were arrived at, it was Dan.  And he was criticising in 2008, while I was inactive as a blogger (because of a bout of severe depression that lasted over a year).

I’d like to leave behind a chronology

so that future bloggers can find reference points, and academic researchers helped to find primary material

(1) I was a judge in 2007, and blogged about being a judge.

[In March 2007, I sent a draft copy of my post about being a judge to Damien Mulley in advance of publication, as follows

"On 3/1/07 [1 March 2007], Omaniblog wrote:

 Dear Damien,
 That’s a really nice thank you letter [sent to all judges].  It made me feel really good and
 appreciated for the small bit part.

 (1) Omani is honoured to be included in the list of judges.
 (2) Omani would love to be interviewed with other judges.
 (3) I’m sending you advanced copy of a blog I’m intending to release in a few hours - if you have any concern about it, give me a ring on asap. But you can rest assured I’ve not revealed the scores I awarded…

To which Damien replied:

That’s brilliant, reads very well. Has my thumbs up!

Damien ]

(2) After 2007 Awards, I sent Damien Mulley an email containing some recommendations for the future

(3) I missed the 2008 Awards [because I was severely depressed from September 2007]

(4) I read the rules for 2009 Awards soon after they were published:  I disqualified my own blog on the grounds that I hadn’t blogged at all in July & August 2008. It never crossed my mind that there was anything unclear or open to interpretation in the wording.

(6) In February 2009, I went to the Irish Blog Awards 2009 @ the Cork Airport Hotel and blogged my way through the evening [with 23 posts]. It really didn’t matter to me who won any Award.  I had no idea who deserved to win.

(8) Next day, Sunday, I had an IM (instant messaging) conversation with someone [who has not seen this post before publication] as follows….

11:07am

interesting…

what did u make of the awards last night?

11:08amPaul

looks like the awards movement is in good health

11:08am

go on, dish me some dirt it wont go any further…

11:10am

did u know that at least 2 of the winners on the night failed to meet the qualifying criterion DM himself laid out?

11:10amPaul

oh really? say more

11:10am

i was a judge…

at least for the first two rounds…

and in the rules it stated that nominees "must have been actively blogging between july 15th and dec 15th 2008"

11:11amPaul

i wasn’t eligible because I hadn’t posted regularly

yes. I noticed that rule

which two didn’t do that?

11:12am

ah but two blogs picked up gongs, one of which only started in dec 2008, and another which was on hiatus from march 2008 to dec 12th

11:12amPaul

what?

you sure? of course you are

11:12am

i feel bad spotting this, because it sounds like sour grapes…

and i’d never say anything on my own blog about it…

11:12amPaul

I’ll take a piece on this and put it out in my name

11:13am

slugger o’toole also noticed the one that only started in dec

best specialist blog, www.irisheconomy.ie

11:13amPaul

if this can happen among bloggers it’s the equivalent of what’s rotten in ireland

11:14am

also did u know that … was part of the nomination process

11:14amPaul

i have no reluctance to speaking out on this

…

11:14amPaul

can’t anyone nominate a blog

…

11:15amPaul

so if I’ve got it right there’s one blog that won which was ineligible and another who was playing games

11:15am

noooooooooo

i dont blame the ppl who won the awards

11:16amPaul

perhaps… but people have a duty to disqualify themselves don’t they

11:16am

true, but maybe they didnt read through the rules as i did

which one would assume would be their defence

11:17amPaul

ignorance of the rules is no excuse

if I could read the rules and disqualify myself so could they

11:17am

well another one who didnt qualify was ….

11:17amPaul

another case of irish people saying they didn’t read it

economy.ie won. i don’t think …. won

11:18am

she didnt blog between march and dec 2008, got five posts in before the deadline and won ….

11:18amPaul

oh

11:18am

well i got several "well done …." tweets lol

and i certainly don’t begrudge her

11:19amPaul

so did she qualify by the skin of her teeth

11:19am

but i don’t see the point in making the rules

11:19amPaul

the rules are the rules

11:19am

i guess it comes down to the definition of the term "actively"

11:19amPaul

i take a firm line on this

11:19am

there could be wiggle room there

one post could be considered "active"

11:19amPaul

i have no difficulty saying what I mean by actively

11:20am

but i take it to mean at least one post per week

11:20amPaul

one post is not active

11:20am

which is the essence of blogging is in not?

11:20amPaul

i’m going to check up on this and go public without mentioning you

11:21am

i guess my overall agenda here is that DM missed an opportunity to make these awards more transparent and hasn’t done so in 4 years

11:21amPaul

so I need to check 2 blogs out

when I was judge in 2007 I thought it was transparent

but now I’m beginning to question: who is auditing the awards process?

11:22am

lol looking back on this conversation i’m making machiavelli look like a choir boy

11:22amPaul

Damn it. I thought all i had to do was sort out my twitter

11:23am

i just wanted the opinion on someone who had been there on the night

i have a feeling DM has a perfect explanation for everything

11:23amPaul

i won’t publish if you tell me who you know borrowed from Anglo

lol

11:23am

lol

11:23amPaul

a perfect explanation for someone winning who doesn’t meet the published criteria?

11:24am

who knows maybe DM is in the golden circle

11:24amPaul

well

if he’s guilty of this, he could be guilty of anything

11:24am

lol

11:24amPaul

he must be held accountable for this

11:25am

well i have to run let me know if u unearth anything further

11:25amPaul

he’s taken the praise

me too

11:25am

and the praise surely hasn’t hurt his career has it lol

11:25amPaul

jeese i wish i didn’t know what i know now

11:26am

lol

sorry i poisoned your mind

11:26amPaul

no. the truth must out

11:26am

and i am very much aware that i could be totally mistaken, but then again slugger o’toole also made a reference to it

11:26amPaul

okey doke…c ya later

maybe we can jointly publish a new expose blog under assumed names…

11:28am

here’s the slugger link

http://sluggerotoole.com/index.php/weblog/comments/blog-awards-in-cork-tonight/

bye

11:28amPaul

Thanks v much

no. the truth must out

11:26am

and i am very much aware that i could be totally mistaken, but then again slugger o’toole also made a reference to it

11:26amPaul

I’ll check back

11:27am

okey doke…c ya later

maybe we can jointly publish a new expose blog under assumed names…

11:28am

here’s the slugger link

http://sluggerotoole.com/index.php/weblog/comments/blog-awards-in-cork-tonight/

bye

(10) I went first to Slugger O’Toole, and from there to Dan O’Sullivan.  After that, I had it from 3 sources that Irish Economy.ie should not have qualified for consideration, let alone won an Award.  I decided to stay focussed on one issue: the fair victory of irish economy.ie.  I decided not to get involved in any other issue.  I did not want to become a general critic: my contribution was best kept as precise as possible. [But I noted every alleged weakness in the process.]

(12) I posted on Facebook and received a comment from Damien Mulley;  at 3.46pm I wrote on my blog;  I wrote to Damien informing him that I intended to send an open letter to each of the Blog Award winners.

(13) I wrote an Open Letter to Irish Blog Award winners.

(14) Next day, Monday, I went to each winning blog and left a simple message asking them to read what I had written.

(15) Apart from correcting a couple of misunderstandings of my position, I stayed out of the discussion.  For the first time ever, I did not respond to comments on my blog. [I’d like to apoligise to all those who left comments.]

(16) Later that day,  I got a comment to Omaniblog from Sharon  author of a great blog [which I’d never seen]. This comment alone was enough to convince me that  I was not living in cloud-cuckoo land.  Such a wonderfully clear bit of writing.  I published it as a separate post @ 546pm. I hoped this might cause some people to change their point of view.  I don’t think it changed the minds of any who went into publication, but I bet it persuaded many readers that all was not right.

(18) Throughout, I’ve been keen to keep the existing Awards and throw out the bathwater.  It needs changing to ensure it is seen to be not only fair, but professional.  There have been too many cases of poor judgement this year.  

(20) The future of the Irish Blog Awards has not been well served by the argument that the Awards are the property of Damian Mulley.  Thanks to his enterprise, the Awards have outgrown his personal fiefdom.  They have acquired national status, and, with that position, comes a responsibility to make the Irish Blog Awards 2010 as good as they can be.  Only by learning from what’s been done, and by being prepared to critique the mistakes and injustices of this year, will the Blog Awards prosper in the long run.