Following on from the initial nominations and then the finalist voting, the 2008 Weblog Awards closed this week. The votes have been tallied and the final results are now in.
Apparently during the seven days the voting was open, 933,022 clicks were counted across 48 categories. The popularity of the awards is just staggering and the competition was mighty.
As we've said before Formula 1 was very well represented this year, and given the US-centric audience it seems we fared pretty well both categories.
Best Online Community
Congratulations go out to Strobist who took this one with ease. Andy mentioned in the comments that they would be tough competition and he was proven to be correct. In fact it's such a good community I joined myself.
In the end, Sidepodcast came home 8th with 3.4% which represents a fantastic 393 votes.
The eco-mentalists had the run on us in the end, but when the sport you follow has already turned it's back on the entire of North America, we think the Sidepodcommunity can take 8th place with pride. Full results can be seen on weblogawards.org.
Best Podcast
EconTalk took well deserved top honours in the podcast category. Their subject matter is a little above me, but to be honest we were just proud to be nominated.
Sidepodcast came home 7th with 2.2% of the overall votes, totalling 330 clicks.
How we didn't end up last I shall never know. Every other show is a massive name in the world of podcasting and last year's winners TWiT were just ahead with less than double the votes. Full results can be seen on weblogawards.org.
To the Future
That must be enough nostalgia from us. 2008 is done and dusted and F1 is already looking to the future and beyond. It goes without saying we very much appreciate every single vote from every single person, your efforts are much appreciated.
We may never reach such lofty heights again, but we thank you all for taking us there.
I'm not sure if we've mentioned it enough times yet, but we might've been nominated for a couple of awards this week.
We mentioned back in November last year that we were after preliminary votes for Best Online Community in the 2008 Weblog Awards, because we felt the wider world needed to know just how completely wonderful the F1 community is.
Amazingly, everybody's efforts paid off and Sidepodcast was selected as one of the top 10 finalists in that category.
It Only Takes a Minute
Voting starts today, which means we again need to ask everyone to choose their best clicking finger, and register a vote for the most distinguished Formula 1 community on the Internet.
Clicking the image above will take you to the voting page, then simply make your selection count. You're allowed to vote once every 24 hours, so please bookmark the page, tie a knot in whatever you need too, and ensure you come back and do the same thing tomorrow. Please do it again the next day, and so on until voting closes Tuesday 13th January (at 10pm GMT).
So many of you have contributed so much to the Sidepodcommunity over the past 12 months, you deserve global recognition for being a frankly fantastic bunch of friends. There's nowhere else on the web we'd rather hang out than with the guys and girls who make this place what it is. It's our first port of call in the morning, and the last thing we check at night.
Getting this far already feels like some much warranted recognition though. Taking a quick look at other nominees reveals some tough competitors including several forums, one of which has almost two million members, and a photography group containing over 24,000 discussions. Christine and I were speechless upon seeing the top 10 list, getting this far is a milestone everyone here should be proud of.
Could It Be Magic
As taken aback as we were by the first nomination, an appearance as a finalist for Best Podcast was entirely unexpected. Not least because just recently we failed to get noticed in the Blubrry Podcast Awards, which is dedicated to, well, podcasts. Now here were are sitting amongst nine other remarkable nominees, many of whom we've been listening to for years.
Given that we're already begging for votes today, we'd also appreciate just one more click from your illustrious pointing device if you'll be so kind.
It's by no means being defeatist to say we haven't got a hope in hell of achieving anything in the podcast category, because even Christine and I were quite tempted to vote for This Week in Tech, so enamoured are we of the shows Leo Laporte releases. It's one of only two crossover podcasts that the both of us listen to and putting it bluntly... we are not worthy. Even looking at the list of nominees makes me quite giddy.
I honestly couldn't care less if we came plumb last in this category, it's already made our year seeing the Sidepodcast name up there. Every show that made it through is a quality production and every one is worth a listen and worthy of the win.
Take That and Party
In addition to those two nominations, F1 well and truly put itself on the map in this year's Weblog Awards. Both F1 Fanatic and BlogF1 made it as finalists in the Best Sports Blog category.
For the life of me I cannot fathom how a sport that so fundamentally turned its back on North America, can pick up four entries in what is a predominantly US based competition, but that's an argument for another day. Sadly because both sites sit next to each other in the list, we're being forced to choose between the two when it comes to that single precious vote.
As a final note, there may be some fancy 'embeddable' polling options released tomorrow, which means you'll be able to vote directly from this site rather than clicking through. We'll create a post for them as soon as they become available, but please keep clicking. Your F1 community needs you!
