jb says: Hi Rebecca, welcome over to our side.

Now I think we see the point.

Adding chain letter to chain letter, I was just tagged with my second *@$^&@$^!! thinking blogger award. Frig. As much as I appreciate the sentiment – and I do my best to thank the giver and wiggle out of having to pass it on – the mechanism is like a bad smell. It’s just a self-promoting, traffic-building scheme disguised as “just-trying-to-recognize-good-content-in-the-blogosphere”.

jb says: Hi Kate. I got another one, Saturday, too. Makes you think.

I think that is all I have to say.

jb says: There’s a lot of evidence of your thinking abilities on Mortal Ghost, Lee.

Like any meme, “the 5 original nominees each nominate 5 others, and those 25 all nominate five others, which made 125, and they all nominate 5, which made 625, and then 3000, and then 15000, 75000, 400000.” Like any meme, you don’t have to participate if you don’t want to. The reason why I said I will not participate in memes in the future is because they tend to be not relevant in terms of content. Take the Z-list for example. What good is it? You click a link and end up in a site that is totally not your taste. Say what you want, but you are simply picking on me while trying to criticize the concept of meme. And I’m afraid you picked one that makes may come across as the most sensible meme for a lot of bloggers!

What I intended to achieve with this meme was to support quality content on the web. What’s more, if a blog makes another blogger think, then most likely the content is not only good – but also relevant. And it usually is.. when I tag a person in the science community, it usually goes around within science themed blogs. Though, one thing was unexpected and that is how it got around a whole lot of blogs. I thought it would die off in a couple generations because some would decide not to participate. And I think they shouldn’t if the meme is already everywhere. What would be the point if every blog is a “thinking blogger.” But you to criticize like this is not necessary. In fact, when you do.. you are creating the opposite effect to what you intent to do. After reading this, people will be curious and will want go check my blog even more.

Now John.. you be honest. What was the real reason to pick on this specific meme?

jb says: OK, Ilker, I accept what you say at face value, and if I maligned you, I apologize. But I also have no ulterior motive, nothing to gain by beginning this thread.
However, whatever your original motivation, the way in which the meme was presented and the way it spread through differing blog communities, was mostly due to it appealing to individual vanity. Many people felt that they had been given some community based or corporate accolade and responded in the way of some of the best Oscar speeches. Not the kind of response one would expect from a thinker.
If I haven’t answered your question already in this and other forums, I can only spell it out. I picked on this specific meme because unlike most others, it did not present itself as such, was generally misunderstood and instead of making people think (an impossible concept anyway) it led to self-deception and confusion.

I suppose this may come across as sour grapes, since I wasn’t one of the hundreds, possibly thousands, to be ‘nominated’, but the more I kept seeing those ‘thinking blogger’ icons, the more I was reminded of chain letters, and am glad I don’t have to deal with the sticky situation of turning down this ‘award’. To each their own, of course!

jb says: Yup, to each their own. Whatever floats your boats. I’d like to reach beyond the cliche but can’t find a way at the moment without appearing tongue in cheek. It’s not an easy road to be able to say what you see, to criticize with a degree of objectivity, and at the same time to avoid setting yourself up as judge and jury.