Blog award nominations: to accept or not to accept? That is the question….
In my three years as a WordPress blogger, I have received several nominations for blog awards. While I am flattered that people read and enjoy my blog enough to nominate me for awards such as the “Blog on Fire award” and the “One Lovely Blog award”, I have several reasons for turning down nominations. Initially, in my blogging youth, I did accept them but I recently made the decision to say thank you and decline the award.
Blog awards: a question of netiquette…. (Public domain image source)
- The main reason why I say no is because I dislike the ‘chain letter’ aspect of blog awards: they all require the recipient to pass on the award to a specific number of blogs. Yes, it’s great to share the blogging love but I prefer to do that by commenting on posts which I like. I love giving and receiving blog comments and, with a few exceptions, I rarely follow blogs whose authors never respond to comments. In my opinion, the comments section of a blog post is like a conversation. You wouldn’t ignore someone if they spoke to you in real life, would you?
- Another reason is that I don’t follow a huge amount of blogs; I have a select few which I like to read regularly. Because one of the conditions of accepting a blog award is to nominate other blogs, I would simply run out of blogs to put forward. I wouldn’t want to ‘spam’ my favorite blog authors by bombarding them with awards.
- Responding to awards is time-consuming. I appreciate the sentiment behind award nominations and I hope I don’t offend anyone by declining them. But they do require the recipient to spend a lot of time putting together an acceptance post.
- Admittedly, sometimes it can be fun to accept awards and answer the questions which come with them, but if I accept one award then I feel obligated to accept others, so it’s easier just to say no to all of them.
Cultural Life 
I love this post for basically everything you mentioned, Grace. Like you, I initially accepted basically all blog awards that came my way (sidenote: blogging youth is such a great term!) and I think “back then,” there was less of a chain-letter feel to them. Or I’m biased but eventually it got to be a bit much and I too put in a decline policy.
I do think that for newbie bloggers, blog awards can be a source of affirmation (which we all know we never get tired of) and motivation. But having been fortunate enough to have pretty much gone around the block with nearly every blog award there is, I find that they don’t do much except boost your ego and look pretty. Like you, I also don’t follow that many blogs and as people have seemingly dropped off the blogosphere, my blog circle has gotten even smaller but much more intimate, which is exactly how I like it at the moment. I feel like you can tell a lot about a blogger based on their interactions with others so I never quite understand the bloggers who never respond, even to comments that are clearly thoughtful and sincere. It puts me off following them, even if they have stellar content because who likes talking to a black hole?
Clearly I have a lot to say on this but to prevent this from turning into an essay, I’ll stop here. 😉
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I agree with you that blog awards can be great for new bloggers. When I was a new to blogging, it felt really good to be nominated for awards. And it still does feel good to know that other people read and appreciate my words. After all, without my readers, my blog definitely would not be the same. But my blog and its audience has changed and grown a lot during the past three years and writing award posts is no longer something I feel comfortable doing.
I love having a small blog circle! It makes me feel much more connected to the blogs I follow.
“It puts me off following them, even if they have stellar content because who likes talking to a black hole?” — yes, me too. I understand that it can be difficult to reply to every single comment, especially for bloggers with busy lives and a big readership, but it’s disappointing if they never acknowledge any comments.
Thanks for your lovely, long comment. It is much appreciated. 🙂
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I agree 100%. I always feel a little bad not accepting the award. Sometimes I answer the questions from them in the comments section. But award posts really don’t fit in with the other posts I write.
This- “You wouldn’t ignore someone if they spoke to you in real life, would you?” just motivated me to go reply to as many comments as I could. I’m so bad at it and there is no excuse! Thank you for the important reminder!
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Yeah, saying no does feel a bit mean, which is partly why I wanted to write a post explaining my reasons for declining awards. I want people to know that I’m not throwing the award back in their faces and that I do genuinely appreciate the thought behind award nominations!
Ah, don’t feel bad about not replying all the time! When I wrote that, I was referring to blogs whose authors never, ever respond to comments.
Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
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I accepted the first time. I’ve since had a policy of thanking the person who nominated me and not doing anything else. I really don’t have time, but I truly appreciate and love the attention and kindness people show me by giving me the award. It is flattering to be recognized by one’s peers. Thanks for this post!
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Yes, that is going to be my policy from now on, although I am grateful for the thoughts behind the nominations. I agree that it is very nice to be recognized by other bloggers; it feels like a form of validation.
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I’ve accepted them so far, but I am a fairly new blogger and I appreciated the push it gave to have others read my blog. I have liked nominating other blogs, but I do dislike chain letters and there is a true similarity. I see myself adopting your policy eventually. I have created a page of blogs I enjoy to hopefully substitute in the future. I would say the awards piece is really for newer blogs. As you say your focus and community change after you have been doing this for a longer time.
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I did the same when I was a new blogger and award nominations really helped to boost my blog traffic, as you say. They also helped to boost my motivation to continue blogging because, no matter how long you’ve been blogging, it’s always great to interact with other bloggers. 🙂
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I agree with all your points. It was the chain letter aspect that prevented me from getting involved with awards in the beginning, and while I’m always very honoured to be nominated, I’d actually prefer comments on my posts. And as for people who don’t reply to comments – again agreed. In fact, it’s the one thing that is most likely to make me ‘unfollow’ someone. There are very few blogs I follow where there’s no interaction between the blogger and myself – I’d rather be genuinely ‘followed’ by a few people whom I have something in common with and ‘follow’ back, than have invisible thousands who never come near me and vice-versa…
Guess I’ll never be a successful blogger with that attitude though, huh? 😉
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I prefer comments too. When I first started blogging, I hardly received any comments and now, it’s really nice to be able to publish a post and know that I will almost always receive comments.
I agree about the “invisible thousands”; that’s not what I would want either. I like my small blog circle. It takes time to build up a blog community and after blogging for three years, I’m really happy with where I am at the moment.
Thanks for your comment. 🙂
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I don’t really seem to have the kind of blog that lends itself to blog awards, but I’ve had a few blogger friends nominate me. I have mixed feelings about it- I’m not at all a chain letter person. No one has nominated me for the ice bucket challenge. A friend tagged me the other day to list favorite books, and I listed mine but didn’t nominate anyone else.
So that’s how I’ve handled it so far- if I have the time, I answer the questions and give a little blog love back. But I’ve never nominated anyone else, and I just say that I’m not going to do that. I think it’s okay to handle something like this however we want- for me this is a comfortable middle ground. But it works because I don’t get a lot of nominations I suppose.
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That sounds like a good middle ground. Maybe someone should create a blog award where it is optional to nominate other people, or where it is okay to simply pass on the award without the recipient having to write a lengthy acceptance post.
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And can I add that I also prefer a small blogging circle, and I don’t get bloggers who don’t reply to comments. It’s definitely something that affects whether or not I remain interested in reading someone’s blog. If you have too many comments to reply to, then maybe you’re too popular for me 😉 Some bloggers just don’t seem interested in interacting at all, in which case I think they should remove the comment option.
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Yep, I don’t understand why some bloggers never interact. It makes me wonder whether they actually appreciate their reader comments. Of course, it is their choice whether or not they want to respond, but judging from the comments on this post, readers like replies! 🙂
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You make some great points Grace and I have read other bloggers posts about the “chain letter” aspect of some of these awards. I think that the wisdom you show is good. Have a great fall!
Regards
Jim
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Thank you. 🙂 I think the chain letter aspect probably discourages other bloggers from participating as well. I hope you have a great fall too!
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I don’t participate in chain letters and haven’t accepted any blog awards though I have thanked a nominator. I must admit I often read posts without commenting. When I see there are lots of comments I don’t feel I can add anything new or interesting, it doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy reading the post, I certainly enjoyed reading this one :-).
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Thank you for commenting. Comments are always much appreciated! I’m glad you enjoyed the post. 🙂
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I’ve done a post on this as well, explaining why I don’t accept blog awards. After all, they’re not really “awards,” like you said — just chain letters based on some idea of popularity!
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts. 🙂 Judging from the response this post has received, I’m not the only blogger who feels that blog awards have a distinct chain letter feel to them.
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My sentiments precisely. I have been offered a couple, thank the offerers nicely, but don’t take it any further. I don’t TELL them I’m not taking it further, as I don’t want to offend, but , I too, dislike the chain letter aspect.
I ‘follow’ very few blogs, only because I lack the time to handle loads and loads of posts arriving in my reader, which I don’t have time to read, but I DO like ‘blog hopping’ for a few minutes each day, lighting on individual posts, and liking them, and sometimes commenting as well.
The awards, TBH, make me squirm a little, but that is also my embarrassment to do with the questions etc, I’m sure that I reveal lots about myself (of my choosing) in my posts and comments, but have no desire to reveal my favourite holiday destination, food, most embarrassing experience or whatever the questions are, and suspect few would really find the answers interesting anyway – its a sort of fake trivial intimacy. What i DO like is the little communities that spring up organically on blogs when people get into dialogue with each other – but no one, other than the contributors choosing to do this , has forced this to happen.
PS I’m nominated you for the ‘Refusing To Be Nominated’ blog award. You don’t have to do a thing!
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Thank you very much for the nomination! 😀 And thanks for your lovely, long comment. I’m glad you enjoyed my post and stopped by to comment.
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This was a helpful post, thank you!
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I’m glad you found it helpful. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
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Hi, I found this page via google and not wordpress (gasp) and have found it very helpful.
I’m not out of my blogging nappies yet but would like to feel clear in my own head about where I stand on awards.
I agree with your points. My first impression on receiving a nominations was that it was a bit contractual. I follow lots of blogs (bear with me I think this may be a childhood phase) but my engagement varies hugely from skim reading to devouring every word.
I think I may have to go award less – thanks for helping me decide.
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Thank you. 🙂 I’m glad my post was helpful for you in making your decision.
When I first started blogging, I followed quite a few blogs too, but during the past few years I have built up a small collection of blogs which I regularly read. I think that’s something that happens over time — you gradually start to become part of a blogging community.
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I’m so glad you wrote about this! I was thinking about doing something similar sometime soon. I’ve been nominated for maybe 7 or 8 of these (sometimes the same award from different people) and have always just said “Thank you!” and done nothing with them. The main thing I dislike is the chain letter aspect you mentioned. It just doesn’t seem very meaningful to me beyond the fact that I’m truly honored that someone really enjoys my blog. Like you, I don’t have time to read the blogs of everyone who follows me and I don’t know that I could come up with 15 blogs off the top of my head to nominate, PLUS I wouldn’t want to pass that sort of obligation on to continue the cycle. Anyway, thanks for posting on this. I sort of felt like a Scrooge about it, but I’m glad to know I’m not the only one!
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I understand exactly what you mean. 🙂 I’m glad my post helped!
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Thanks for this post!
Little question from a beginner: How exactly do you thank the person who nominated you? I’ve had a comment on one of my posts nominating me with a link to that website. If I don’t want to accept awards, should I thank that person on their website and ignore the comment (I have not approved it yet)? Or should I approve the comment and thank the person by replying to that comment?
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Hi, thanks for your comment!
In response to your question, I think either of those options would be fine. 🙂 I’d probably choose to approve the comment and reply with a thank you and a brief explanation of my decision not to accept awards.
Happy blogging!
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Thank you very much for your advice!
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This is a very helpful and informative post. I was recently nominated for an award and while I very much appreciate the acknowledgement, I don’t want other bloggers to feel obligated to write an acceptance post if I nominate them in turn, as it does start to feel a bit like chain mail. I think I will take the middle ground as some others on here have suggested and simply write an acceptance post without nominating anyone else. Thank you for sharing!
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I’m glad I was able to help. 🙂
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So I did end up nominating a few bloggers and making a note suggesting that they don’t have to participate, I simply wanted to acknowledge their work. I hope it’s ok that I referenced your post here, as I thought it might be helpful for other bloggers to read.
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