As some of you know, Simple Justice was honored to be name as a finalist in the competition for Best Law Weblog 2007. You will see a button on the left about it.
Other finalists are major players in the blawgosphere. These are the blogs of law professors, and the salacious elites. They have been around for a long time, and have a lot of very dedicated fans. They are going to eat me alive. In the scheme of this popularity contest, we can’t compete.
How Simple Justice found itself in this company is hard to answer. But it’s my belief that it represents the small, dedicated group that has formed what Mark Bennett coined the practical blawgosphere. We are the practicing lawyers who blawg about the real world of lawyering. We reflect small areas of practice, and we will never attain the greatness of a Volokh Conspiracy or the dirty pleasures of Above the Law.
These other blawgs represent broader interest groups than inhabitants of the practical blawgosphere could ever amass. And their numbers reflect it. The biggest day of readership I’ve ever had at Simple Justice was when Orin Kerr at Volokh posted a link to the Flores decision here.
So while it’s an honor to receive recognition, I do so on behalf of my brothers and sisters in the trenches, who spend some time posting on their blawgs to enrich the lives and understanding of others. I am even more honored to be in their company, to be included in their blogroll and links, and to have their knowledge and experience to draw from in trying to come up with something worth saying every day. These are my heroes (in no particular order):
Mark Bennett, Gideon, Jamie Spencer, Anne Reed, Shawn Matlock, Malum, Jon Katz, Robert Guest, Eric Turkewitz, Andrew Bluestone, Skelly, David Tarrell, Scott Henson, Norm Pattis, Ken Lammers, Stephen Gustitus and my co-finalist, Nicole Black, without whose help Simple Justice might never have gotten off the ground.
We are not competitors for the eyes and minds of readers. We are all small pieces to a puzzle that, when put together, hopefully adds up to something worthwhile. Simple Justice will never be able to compete with the big boys, but we awfully damned proud to be part of the practical blawgosphere.
If you want to vote, consider it a vote for this sordid group of misbegotten lawyers who toil to produce something for others to read. I consider my good fortune to be a finalist to be a direct reflection of the efforts of my friends in the blawgosphere, because without them I would have nothing useful to say.
Other finalists are major players in the blawgosphere. These are the blogs of law professors, and the salacious elites. They have been around for a long time, and have a lot of very dedicated fans. They are going to eat me alive. In the scheme of this popularity contest, we can’t compete.
How Simple Justice found itself in this company is hard to answer. But it’s my belief that it represents the small, dedicated group that has formed what Mark Bennett coined the practical blawgosphere. We are the practicing lawyers who blawg about the real world of lawyering. We reflect small areas of practice, and we will never attain the greatness of a Volokh Conspiracy or the dirty pleasures of Above the Law.
These other blawgs represent broader interest groups than inhabitants of the practical blawgosphere could ever amass. And their numbers reflect it. The biggest day of readership I’ve ever had at Simple Justice was when Orin Kerr at Volokh posted a link to the Flores decision here.
So while it’s an honor to receive recognition, I do so on behalf of my brothers and sisters in the trenches, who spend some time posting on their blawgs to enrich the lives and understanding of others. I am even more honored to be in their company, to be included in their blogroll and links, and to have their knowledge and experience to draw from in trying to come up with something worth saying every day. These are my heroes (in no particular order):
Mark Bennett, Gideon, Jamie Spencer, Anne Reed, Shawn Matlock, Malum, Jon Katz, Robert Guest, Eric Turkewitz, Andrew Bluestone, Skelly, David Tarrell, Scott Henson, Norm Pattis, Ken Lammers, Stephen Gustitus and my co-finalist, Nicole Black, without whose help Simple Justice might never have gotten off the ground.
We are not competitors for the eyes and minds of readers. We are all small pieces to a puzzle that, when put together, hopefully adds up to something worthwhile. Simple Justice will never be able to compete with the big boys, but we awfully damned proud to be part of the practical blawgosphere.
If you want to vote, consider it a vote for this sordid group of misbegotten lawyers who toil to produce something for others to read. I consider my good fortune to be a finalist to be a direct reflection of the efforts of my friends in the blawgosphere, because without them I would have nothing useful to say.
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Your post raises a number of interesting thoughts that I may address at Blogwatch, because I have considered some of these issues for a while. But I’ll make some comments here as well. First, with no offense (because I’m a huge fan of your blog), I’ve already voted for Sui Generis, if only because Nicole has been blogging for so long on so many varied topics (humor, legal definitions and a range of NY law issues) without the recognition that she deserves. However, sometimes, recognition simply comes with age. Many of the excellent practicing lawyer blogs that you’ve mentioned (and I read almost all of them) have only been around for a year or less, while blogs like Volokh or How Appealing are going on their 5th or 6th year and still consistently maintain the same quality. As someone who has been blogging for close to five years myself and lost some steam in recent months, I can attest that it’s quite a feat to keep things fresh over the long, long term. As for ATL and WSL Law Blog, like you, I do consider them part of a separate category as the lawyers who write them are full time journalists/writers who are paid for their writing and as such, can invest more time in generating content.
Hi Carolyn,
First, if I wasn’t clear. I think the world of Niki and Sui Generis. If I didn’t vote for me, I would vote for her. In fact (since I get to vote once a day), I have voted for her already too. She is, without a doubt, the Queen of New York Law Blawgs. And, unlike the others, she is a solo who has put in a constant flow of effort and has been a major contributor to the practical blawgosphere, before one existed.
We’ve seen some of our new practical blawgosphere friends peter out already. We’ve seen it ebb and flow. Some days I just have nothing useful to say, and some of my posts aren’t worth the bandwidth they’re posted on. Other days I could write a dozen posts. All of us have a flashes of brilliance, and our “lesser” posts.
But I’m very serious that without these other guys, I don’t think I would have anywhere near as much to say or as much fun saying it. I still don’t think we’re ever likely to draw the crowds, or the recognition, that the group or paid blawgs receive, and so we just post in relative obscurity for fun.
Fun and education — my own and others’. That’s why I do it. I’ll never have the readership of a more general-interest blog, and that’s okay with me.
I agree.