Every year, a few folks run beauty pageants in the blogosphere.  Some do it to bring attention to themselves, and others do it to bring attention to the blogosphere.  For the new blogger, it’s a validation of their existence and worthiness, a recognition that their efforts aren’t unnoticed.  For the less new blogger, it’s more sport than anything else. 

It brings the winners vast wealth and prestige.  Actually, it brings the winners nothing more than a few new readers for about a week, who will then decide whether to stay or go based on what the blogger has done lately.  There’s no prestige, and certainly no wealth, to be had from winning anything online.  Not even bragging rights.  But it can help to establish the vitality of the blogosphere, and in that way reflect whether the continued existence of blogs is worth the effort.

The 2009 Weblog Awards are now open for nominations.  They have a category for Best Law Blog.  Anyone can nominate any blog, and they have.  It doesn’t mean that every blog nominated will be put to the vote; most of the nominations will fall by the wayside and only about ten will make the cut.  This will include perennial favorites, like The Volokh Conspiracy (winner in 2008) and Above the Law (winner in 2007).

The question is who else will be included in the Best Law Blog category, and this question could serve as a referendum on where the direction of law blogs is heading.  It’s a question that concerns me greatly, as I’ve watched the growth of blogs by lawyers or law students grow exponentially, but in a disturbing direction.  Rather than write about issues of law, many write about social media and marketing for lawyers, and call their efforts law blogs.  Some have nominated themselves for the Best Law Blawg award.

Already, the blogosphere (and note that I don’t call it the blawgosphere, which in my view relates to law by definition) has shown a marked shift away from substantive law toward lawyer advertising and promotion.  Will these blogs (not blawgs) represent law blogs going forward?  Will lawyers no longer be measured by their substantive posts but by the numbers of twitter followers or their 10 rules for successful blogging?  Will the online space once inhabited by real lawyers be taken over by lawyers pretending to be social media gurus?

As regular readers are painfully aware, I find this trend terribly distasteful, a huge effort by those who have none of the requisite skills, talent or track record of success in the practice of law trying to establish themselves, and make a living, by teaching other lawyers who are even less computer savvy that the future of being a successful lawyer is emulating used car salesmen.  No need to be a good lawyer or demonstrate competence in the representation of clients, since it’s all about one’s use of social media.  If you need to read more, SJ is replete with posts about the evils of lawyer advertising and self-promotion.

The point now is that real lawyers have a choice available to them.  The lawyer social media gurus will be promoting themselves unmercifully to win recognition in the 2009 Weblog Awards, unlike anything I’ve seen in the past.  They want to be validated as the voice of the lawyer, as the way of the future, as the legitimate representation of who and what lawyers will be in the future.  Do real lawyers want blogs about how to twit, or how to blog, or how to capture millions of clients while only working three hours a week, to reflect what lawyers are to the world?  Or would you prefer that lawyers be represented by thoughtful, substantive blawgs that discuss the law.

Stop by the 2009 Weblog Award page for Best Law Blog.  Nominate your favorite blawg.  If it’s already there, second (or third) the nomination.  It’s not terribly important which one it is, as long as it’s a blawg that reflects what you believe to be the essence of what it means to be a lawyer.  But use this opportunity to send a message to the marketers, the social media gurus, that they are not blawgs, they do not reflect the law and they will never represent the essence of lawyers online.  Lawyers are not all about marketing, self-promotion and the quick buck, but about the law.  Wouldn’t it be nice if a little dignity prevailed?