Mormon Matters » Niblets http://mormonmatters.org A weekly podcast exploring Mormon culture and current events. Wed, 08 Feb 2012 23:17:06 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 2006-2007 dan.wotherspoon@me.com (Mormon Matters) dan.wotherspoon@me.com (Mormon Matters) 1440 http://mormonmatters.org/podcast/MormonMatters144.jpg Mormon Matters http://mormonmatters.org 144 144 http://www.mormonmatters.org/rssmm.xml A weekly podcast exploring Mormon current events, pop culture, politics and spirituality A weekly podcast exploring Mormon current events, pop culture, politics and spirituality mormon, lds Mormon Matters Mormon Matters dan.wotherspoon@me.com no no 2009 Niblets Results — Analysis http://mormonmatters.org/2010/02/08/2009-niblets-results/ http://mormonmatters.org/2010/02/08/2009-niblets-results/#comments Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:00:13 +0000 Ziff http://mormonmatters.org/?p=9702 There were 1058 ballots cast in this year’s Niblets voting (counting a ballot as an IP address from which at least one vote was received). This represents a substantial decrease (21%) compared to last year’s 1347 ballots. On the bright side, I only found one minor case of likely ballot stuffing, so I just ignored it in looking at the results.

I’ll get to the actual results in a moment, but first I have just a few preliminary notes. First, here’s a figure showing how many ballots voted on each of the 22 questions. (Up to three responses were allowed on Question 22; I counted a ballot as answering it if at least one response was chosen.)

I’ve put the topic of each question in the figure. It looks like the big four questions people were interested in were best big blog, best group blog, best blogger, and best commenter. I guess this is not unlike the Academy Awards, where everyone sits through awards like best portrayal of a Martian podiatrist in a supporting role so they can find out who won the biggies like best actor and best picture.

This next figure shows how many ballots answered how many total questions (from 1 to 22). For example, at the left end of the figure, nearly 300 ballots answered exactly one question.

Just like last year, by far the most common number of questions a ballot was used to answer was one: 296 of the 1058 ballots did this. At the other end, only 66 die-hards submitted a ballot answering all 19 questions.

This last figure shows how many total questions, on average, a ballot answering each question answered. Sorry–I know that’s a bit to unpack. What I’m saying is that for each question, I looked at all the ballots answering that question and then checked those ballots to see how many total questions each one had answered. Then I took the average of that total. For example, 680 ballots were used to answer the first question about best big blog. Those 680 ballots were used to answer a total of 6651 questions, or about 9.78 per ballot. Why do this? My hope was that this would show, at least to some degree, which questions were most likely to attract voters who were interested in only a single question (or a small number of questions).

It looks like the most frequently voted on questions were most likely to draw ballots from single or few question voters.

Okay, let’s get on to the main voting results. For each question, I’ll put up a figure showing votes for each of the alternatives. I’ll also put up a figure showing how many total questions, on average, a ballot voting for each alternative answered. Like with the third (green bar) figure above, with this I’m trying to find whether voters who voted on a small number of questions disproportionately voted for some alternatives over others.

Q1: Best big blog

Past winners:

  • 2005: Times and Seasons, By Common Consent (shared)
  • 2006: By Common Consent
  • 2007: By Common Consent
  • 2008: By Common Consent

BCC beat fMh by a very narrow margin: 271-267. This was such a small margin that I thought it might be interesting to look back over the week of voting to see how the margin evolved. Given that the vote totals were available for viewing throughout the vote, it seems likely that any back-and-forth between the blogs was not a coincidence, but rather reflected deliberate attempts by voters for each blog to push their favorite ahead.

Here are the cumulative vote totals, hour-by-hour, across the week of voting.

It looks like BCC took a fairly large early lead, while fMh lagged and did not even overtake Mormon Matters for second place until noon on Monday. BCC led by 21 votes at the end of the day Monday, but fMh overtook it completely on Tuesday and even held a one-vote lead for two hours between 4 and 6pm. But BCC then regained the lead and steadily pushed the margin up for a couple of days, getting it all the way to 30 votes by the end of the day Thursday. fMh had a big push on Friday, completely erasing BCC’s lead, and going up by 8 votes by the end of the day. Saturday was huge for BCC, though, as it outpolled fMh, 32-7 to retake the lead and go up by 17 by the end of the day. And in spite of one last push on Sunday, fMh never got the margin below 3 again.

This figure shows average number of questions answered by ballots voting for each blog.

fMh was generally voted for by voters who answered fewer questions.

Q2: Best group blog

Past winners:

  • 2005: Nine Moons
  • 2006: Zelophehad’s Daughters
  • 2007: Zelophehad’s Daughters (best small blog)
  • 2008: Segullah

Segullah wins for the second year in a row!

This figure shows average number of questions answered by ballots voting for each blog.

Segullah was generally voted for by voters who answered fewer questions.

Q3: Best humorous blog

This category hasn’t been used in previous years.

My Religious Blog takes the Niblet!

This figure shows average number of questions answered by ballots voting for each blog.

There wasn’t much variation in how many questions voters for the different blogs answered.

Q4: Best solo blog

Past winners:

  • 2005: Dave’s Mormon Inquiry
  • 2006: Dave’s Mormon Inquiry
  • 2007: Category not used; Dave’s Mormon Inquiry received more votes than any other solo blog in the “Best small blog” category
  • 2008: Keepapitchinin

Keepapitchinin takes the Niblet for the second year in a row!

This figure shows average number of questions answered by ballots voting for each blog.

There wasn’t much variation in how many questions voters for the different blogs answered.

Q5: Best new blog

Past winners:

  • 2005: Snarkernacle
  • 2006: Mormon Mentality
  • 2007: Juvenile Instructor, Mormon Matters (tie)
  • 2008: Keepapitchinin

As Sistas in Zion wins in a landslide!

This figure shows average number of questions answered by ballots voting for each blog.

It looks like a couple of the less-voted-for blogs in this category were generally voted for by voters who answered fewer questions. This should be taken with a grain of salt, though, because with few voters to base the average on, one voter voting for an extreme number of questions–whether 1 or 22–can push the average around quite easily.

Q6: Best blog layout/graphics

Past winners:

  • 2008: My Religious Blog / Nine Moons

Times and Seasons takes the Niblet! I guess this means voters gave a thumbs up to their new look.

This figure shows average number of questions answered by ballots voting for each blog.

There wasn’t much variation in how many questions voters for the different blogs answered.

Q7: Best overall blogger

Past winners:

  • 2005: Wilfried Decoo
  • 2006: Wilfried Decoo
  • 2007: Kevin Barney
  • 2008: Ardis Parshall

Tracy M. takes the Niblet! An interesting pattern I noticed is that this list was dominated by women. Kevin Barney was the highest-ranked man at #4, and the highest-ranked man who did not fall below at least one woman blogging at the same blog was Andrew Ainsworth at #14. So I now have a new theory about why women are not given the priesthood. It’s because you all are such better bloggers than we are, and we don’t want to interfere with that. ;)

This figure shows average number of questions answered by ballots voting for each blog.

There’s a lot of variation here, but not much of a pattern. Well, MCQ’s high total sticks out. Clearly he had the support of the most engaged voters. Bloggers who knowTM choose MCQ.

Q8: Best commenter

Past winners:

Congratulations to MikeInWeHo on taking the Niblet! Here a point of interest is that three of the top four commenters are not even Mormons. So is this an extension of the general Mormon inability to produce great artists at a lower rate than the rest of the world (considering commenting as an art form)? Or is it just a manifestation of the fact that sometimes people outside an organization can see it most clearly? Or perhaps is it just a fortunate accident that Mike, Jack, and CWC are all around to bless us with their words of wisdom at pretty much the same time?

This figure shows average number of questions answered by ballots voting for each blog.

Chris H. and Brian Duffin were generally voted for by voters who answered fewer questions.

Q9: Most memorable comment

Past winners:

  • 2008: DKL, on taking it on the jaw from Jesus to protect a troll from His wrath

Failing to take the top commenter spot, Bridget Jack Meyers wins for most memorable comment.

This figure shows average number of questions answered by ballots voting for each blog.

There is very little variation here.

Q10: Funniest thread

This category was not used in previous years.

Congratulations to Karen H. for her creation of the thread that was voted the funniest.

This figure shows average number of questions answered by ballots voting for each blog.

There is very little variation here.

Q11: Best post title

This category was not used in previous years. In 2008, Kris Wright’s “I Was Naked, and Ye Shot Me” was nominated in the write-in category for funniest post title and took 5th.

Congratulations to Kaimi for taking the funniest title Niblet. Note also that the subject of Kaimi’s title was none other than author of the most memorable comment, Bridget Jack Meyers. Coincidence?

This figure shows average number of questions answered by ballots voting for each blog.

There is not much variation here.

Q12: Best humorous post

Past winners:

BCC’s Police Beat Roundtables take the Niblet for the second year in a row!

This figure shows average number of questions answered by ballots voting for each blog.

“A Screwtape Letter” and “Deserving Charity” were generally voted for by voters who answered fewer questions.

Q13: Best historical post

Past winners:

Congratulations to John Hamer for taking the Niblet for best historical post!

This figure shows average number of questions answered by ballots voting for each blog.

The Patriarch series and “Joseph Smith’s Cane” were generally voted for by voters who answered fewer questions.

Q14: Best personal post

This category hasn’t been used in previous years, but the “best post” winners in both 2005—Wilfried Decoo’s “Coffee“—and 2006—Ardis Parshall’s “Dressing the Dead“—fit well into it.

Tracy M. takes the Niblet!

This figure shows average number of questions answered by ballots voting for each blog.

All ballots cast for David had all 22 questions answered.

Q15: Best spiritual post

Past winners:

Congratulations to JA Benson for taking the Niblet for best spiritual post.

This figure shows average number of questions answered by ballots voting for each blog.

“Tears in Heaven” was generally voted for by voters who answered fewer questions.

Q16: Best doctrinal post

Past winners:

Brad takes the Niblet for best doctrinal post!

This figure shows average number of questions answered by ballots voting for each blog.

“Compassion for the Unworthy” was generally voted for by voters who answered fewer questions.

Q17: Best current events post

Past winners:

Brad takes the Niblet for best current events post! Wait! Is there an echo in here? Never mind: congratulations on winning Niblets in two “best post” categories, Brad!

This figure shows average number of questions answered by ballots voting for each blog.

There is not much variation here.

Q18: Best Mormon-themed podcast

This category hasn’t been used in previous years. However, in 2006, Mormon Stories as best podcast won the write-in category.


BCC wins the Niblet for best Mormon-themed podcast! (This category will be fun to watch for in 2010, with John Dehlin recently deciding to bring Mormon Stories back, thus expanding the field again.)

This figure shows average number of questions answered by ballots voting for each blog.

Mormon Expression was generally voted for by voters who answered fewer questions.

Q19: Best book/article review

This category hasn’t been used in previous years.

Congratulations to Amri Brown for taking the best article or book review Niblet!

This figure shows average number of questions answered by ballots voting for each blog.

The two least voted for choices were generally voted for by people who answered nearly all the questions.

Q20: Best contribution to or post about the Bloggernacle

Past winners:

  • 2008: Tracy M., chronicling the struggle of her husband’s unemployment

Congratulations to Tracy M. for taking a third Niblet! (I’m sure nobody would blame you, Tracy, if you’d rather have an easier life and fewer Niblets. But given that you were going through so many difficult experiences anyway, I think we all appreciate that you’ve chosen to write about them so movingly.)

This figure shows average number of questions answered by ballots voting for each blog.

Tracy M. was generally voted for by voters who answered fewer questions.

Q21: Best contribution to interfaith dialog

This category hasn’t been used in previous years. In 2008, Bridget Jack Meyers won for “Nicest ‘Evil Villain’ / Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing,” which might be thought of as a tongue-in-cheek version of this category.

Congratulations to Bridget Jack Meyers for taking a second Niblet! Also for taking the same category (kind of) as last year.

This figure shows average number of questions answered by ballots voting for each blog.

Mark Cares Weblog was voted for by people who answered nearly all the questions.

Q22: Write-in category

Past winners:

Congratulations to fMh for taking the write-in Niblet for best community! (Now does this make up for losing to BCC in the best big blog category?)

This figure shows average number of questions answered by ballots voting for each blog.

There is a fair amount of variation here, but I’m not sure it’s all that interesting.

Okay, that’s it. Thanks again to everyone at Mormon Matters–particularly Bored in Vernal– for inviting me to look through these entertaining results and write this up!

]]> http://mormonmatters.org/2010/02/08/2009-niblets-results/feed/ 23 Niblets Winners 2009 http://mormonmatters.org/2010/02/01/niblets-winners-2009/ http://mormonmatters.org/2010/02/01/niblets-winners-2009/#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:00:06 +0000 admin http://mormonmatters.org/?p=9609 Niblets voting has now concluded.  We hope you have all enjoyed this year’s effort. 

Join us one week from today to view Ziff’s professional summary!!

Niblets winners 2009 are cordially invited to use this button:

View Winners below——-

Best Big Blog

Best group blog

Best Humorous Blog

Best Solo Blog

Best New Blog

Best Blog Layout/Graphics

Best Overall Blogger

Best Commenter

  • MikeinWeHo

Most Memorable Comment

Funniest Thread

Best Post Title

Best Humorous Post

Best Historical Post

Best Personal Post

Best Spiritual Post

Best Doctrinal Post

Best Current Events Post

Best Mormon-Themed Podcast

Best Book/Article Review

Best Contribution to or Post about the Bloggernacle

  • Tracy M. for sharing her life publicly

Best Contribution to Interfaith Dialogue

Write-in Category (Top 3)

  • Best Community: FMH
  • Most heartbreaking-wrenching-joyous-all-mixed-into-one: John Remy’s excommunication
  • Coolest Maps and Diagrams: John Hamer
]]> http://mormonmatters.org/2010/02/01/niblets-winners-2009/feed/ 6 Vote Here — 2009 Niblets Awards http://mormonmatters.org/2010/01/25/vote-here-2009-niblets-awards/ http://mormonmatters.org/2010/01/25/vote-here-2009-niblets-awards/#comments Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:00:53 +0000 admin http://mormonmatters.org/?p=9348 Voting is now closed.

Voting for the 2009 Niblets has begun.  You may click the selections to view the links as many times as you wish. Then make your final selection and click the “vote” button. Once you click the “vote” button on each category, you cannot change your vote.  You may make one selection for each poll except the last one; for the write-in category, you may choose up to three selections.  Each person may vote one time. Polls will close at the stroke of midnight on January 31st.

Here we go . . .

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]]> http://mormonmatters.org/2010/01/25/vote-here-2009-niblets-awards/feed/ 32 Niblets Nominations http://mormonmatters.org/2010/01/23/niblets-nominations-2009/ http://mormonmatters.org/2010/01/23/niblets-nominations-2009/#comments Sat, 23 Jan 2010 11:10:22 +0000 admin http://mormonmatters.org/?p=9420 Nominations for the Niblets Awards are now in. A few minor changes have been made to screen for category, and to avoid duplication. Nominations that did not fall under 2009 were eliminated. New blogs were accepted if they had a very small bit of introductory posting before 2009.  When an author had two or more posts nominated for the same category, one representative post was chosen. The order of appearance is alphabetical; however, when links are included they came out alphabetical by link.

A few more nominations have come in by email and will be added as soon as possible.

Voting will start on Monday. Until then, enjoy perusing these Bloggernacle favorites for 2009 and let us know if there are any problems, questions, missing or wonky links, etc.

Best Big Blog

Best group blog

Best Humorous Blog

Best Solo Blog

Best New Blog

Best Blog Layout/Graphics

Best Overall Blogger

Best Commenter

  • Annegb
  • Ardis Parshall
  • BBell
  • Brian Duffin
  • Bridget Jack Meyers
  • Chris H.
  • CrazyWomanCreek
  • Derek
  • Douglas Hunter
  • Hawkgrrl
  • Jacob J.
  • Kaimi
  • Kristine
  • Mark B.
  • MFranti
  • MikeinWeHo
  • Naismith
  • Queuno
  • Ray
  • Steve Evans
  • Tatiana

Most Memorable Comment

  • Ardis Parshall’s comment #5 on 5 is the Loneliest Number
  • Brad’s comment #95 on Are Right-Wing Mormons More Likely
  • Bridget Jack Meyers’ comment #16 at Like a Virgin
  • Margaret Young’s comment #3 on They Fought as they were Taught

Funniest Thread

Best Post Title

Best Humorous Post

Best Historical Post

Best Personal Post

Best Spiritual Post

Best Doctrinal Post

Best Current Events Post

Best Mormon-Themed Podcast

Best Book/Article Review

Best Contribution to or Post about the Bloggernacle

Best Contribution to Interfaith Dialogue

Write-in Category (Choose 3)

]]> http://mormonmatters.org/2010/01/23/niblets-nominations-2009/feed/ 32 2009 Niblets are Here!! http://mormonmatters.org/2010/01/15/2009-niblets-are-here/ http://mormonmatters.org/2010/01/15/2009-niblets-are-here/#comments Fri, 15 Jan 2010 11:00:18 +0000 admin http://mormonmatters.org/?p=9200 Mormon Matters introduces the 2009 Niblets Awards!


It’s back!  The opportunity to honor the unique and talented Mormon bloggers of 2009. It’s a chance to look back on the  year and remember the great things that happened in the Bloggernacle, to come together in a spirit of comaraderie and fun!  Mormon Matters will be hosting this event to highlight YOU and your favorite 2009 Mormon blogs, and we are pleased to announce our continuing collaboration with Ziff of Zelophehad’s Daughters, the mighty numbers cruncher, who will handle results presentation at the end of this event.

We’ve fine-tuned the process a little bit this year.  You’ll see that the categories are just a little bit different.   Please include a link to the 2009 blog/post/comment that you nominate if you wish it to be considered. Put your link in [brackets] so that it will get through our spam catcher.  As always, you are welcome to nominate yourself — isn’t that what blogging is all about?? Oh, and try to think of some other bloggers to recognize, too.  For-profit blogs  will not be considered.  This thread is the place to make any  thoughtful comments, concerns or suggestions on the categories or the process.  They will be duly considered by our panel.  Nominations will take place from now through Jan. 24th.  So, without further ado, here are our 2009 Niblets categories:

Best big blog:
Best group blog:
Best mommy blog:
Best humorous blog:
Best solo blog:
Best new blog: (must have put up its first post in 2009)
Best blog layout/graphics:
Best overall blogger:
Best commenter:
Most memorable comment:
Funniest thread:
Best post title:
Best humorous post:
Best historical post:
Best spiritual post:
Best doctrinal post:
Best personal post:
Best current events post:
Best book/article review:
Best contribution to the Bloggernacle in 2009:
Best contribution to interfaith dialogue:
Write-in category:

Thank you for your participation. It’s YOU that makes the Niblets great!

]]> http://mormonmatters.org/2010/01/15/2009-niblets-are-here/feed/ 114 2008 Niblets Results http://mormonmatters.org/2009/07/20/2008-niblets-results/ http://mormonmatters.org/2009/07/20/2008-niblets-results/#comments Mon, 20 Jul 2009 12:00:22 +0000 Ziff http://mormonmatters.org/?p=6411 Who won the Niblets? If you revisited the voting page late in the voting and looked at the poll results, you may already know. But I have a few different takes on the data that weren’t in the poll results. So I hope you’ll keep reading.

Preliminaries

There were a total of 1347 ballots cast in the 2008 Niblets. The WP-Polls plugin records each voter’s IP address, so I’m counting a ballot as an IP address from which at least one vote was submitted.

In just looking at the data, I found a couple of cases that appeared to be clear ballot stuffing. Now I know that many of us vote more than once in the Niblets if we have access to more than one computer. But these were much more egregious. Several repeated ballots from the same IP address range (i.e., differing only in the last 3 digits) were submitted, separated by only 2-3 minutes. I assume this means the voters were able to force their ISPs to reassign a new IP address at will, and they were using this ability to cast many extra ballots. But whatever the reason, I excluded extra ballots submitted from the same IP address range within a one hour window. There were 25 such ballots, leaving a final ballot count of 1322.

The first question I looked at what how many ballots answered each of the 19 questions (note that for Question 19, which allowed as many as three answers to be chosen, I counted a ballot as answering it if at least one answer was chosen):

whichqanswered

Voters clearly found some questions more interesting than others. As you can see, the questions about blogs (Q1-4) were answered most, and at the other end, we may have heard enough about Mitt Romney (Q15).

Also interesting is the fact that even the most frequently answered question was answered on only about 60% of ballots (Q1: 796/1322 = .60). This was really unexpected. I wondered if perhaps the same person’s vote was inadvertently being spread across multiple IP addresses—if their ISPs had automatically reassigned them in the middle of a ballot. I looked at IP addresses for a bunch of incomplete ballots cast close together in time to see if there was a pattern of similar IP addresses answering complementary sets of questions (e.g., one ballot answers Q1-5, the other answers Q6-19). I found no evidence of this pattern at all.

The only other explanation I could come up with for so many incomplete ballots was the one already discussed on the Niblets voting thread: single-issue voters. That is, lots of ballots were cast by people who visited only to ensure that their chosen candidate won on a single question. To check this possibility, I looked at how many of the 19 questions each ballot answered:

nqanswered

Wow! Over 30% of ballots cast (411 of 1322) answered only a single question. And the second most popular number of questions answered was two. Clearly there is something to this explanation.

Let me look at one more figure before I get to the results. So which question did the 411 single-question voters answer?

whichqanswered1vote

So it looks like the one-question voters cast lots of votes on the blog questions (Q1-4), some on Best doctrinal post (Q12), and a few on the last four questions (Nicest evil villain, Navel-gazing, Biggest contribution, Write-in) but almost none on any of the questions in between. The first four and the last four groups of questions kind of hang together, but I don’t know why all the love for Best doctrinal post.

Results

In order to account for single-issue voters, I’ll count votes in three ways:

  • Using all 1322 ballots
  • Using only the 911 ballots that answered at least two questions (thus excluding the single-question voters)
  • Using only the 373 ballots that answered at least half of the questions (9+ of the 19), to get at the people most interested in the majority of the Niblets (and therefore ideally those interested in the Bloggernacle community more broadly)

For some questions, these different vote-counting approaches didn’t lead to different rankings, so I’ll only show one set of results. But for the questions where the rankings are different depending on how votes are counted, I’ll show them all, as I’m sure they will provide a basis for many fun arguments. :)

Q1: Best big blog

Past winners:

  • 2005: Times and Seasons, By Common Consent (shared)
  • 2006: By Common Consent
  • 2007: By Common Consent

2008 results:

q1min1

(There were no differences in the rankings when looking only at ballots that answered 2+ or 9+ questions, so I won’t show the figures for them.)

BCC wins for the third year in a row! Who can displace them?

Q2: Best group blog

Past winners:

  • 2005: Nine Moons
  • 2006: Zelophehad’s Daughters
  • 2007: Zelophehad’s Daughters (best small blog)

2008 results:

q2min1

(There were no differences in the rankings when looking only at ballots that answered 2+ questions.)

Counting only ballots that answered 9+ questions:

q2min9

(Answers that moved up or down are bolded. Arrows show which direction they moved relative to the previous figure.)

Depending on which set of results you like, either Segullah or Juvenile Instructor gets the Niblet. Past winner ZD is booted all the way down to fourth (or third). Was it something we said?

Q3: Best solo blog

Past winners:

  • 2005: Dave’s Mormon Inquiry
  • 2006: Dave’s Mormon Inquiry
  • 2007: Category not used; Dave’s Mormon Inquiry received more votes than any other solo blog in the “Best small blog” category

2008 results:

q3min1

Counting only ballots that answered 2+ questions:

q3min2

Counting only ballots that answered 9+ questions:

q3min9

Ardis Parshall’s Keepapitchinin breaks DMI Dave’s strangehold on the category! But then, I guess this was kind of anticlimactic since Dave wasn’t even nominated. Perhaps we lost track of him in his move to Beliefnet?

Q4: Best new blog

Past winners:

  • 2005: Snarkernacle
  • 2006: Mormon Mentality
  • 2007: Juvenile Instructor, Mormon Matters (tie)

2008 results:

q4min1

Counting only ballots that answered 2+ questions:

q4min2

Counting only ballots that answered 9+ questions:

q4min9

Another win for Ardis’s Keepapitchinin!

Q5: Best blog layout/graphics

This category hasn’t been used in previous years.

2008 results:

q5min1

(There were no differences in the rankings when looking only at ballots that answered 2+ questions.)

Counting only ballots that answered 9+ questions:

q5min9

Depending on which results you prefer, either My Regis Blog or Nine Moons gets the Niblet.

Q6: Best commenter

Past winners:

2008 results:

q6min1

(There were no differences in the rankings when looking only at ballots that answered 2+ questions.)

Counting only ballots that answered 9+ questions:

q6min9

I previously identified Ray as the most prolific commenter (in 2007). Now he’s also the Niblet winner as the best commenter.

Q7: Most memorable comment

This category hasn’t been used in previous years.

2008 results:

q7min1

(There were no differences in the rankings when looking only at ballots that answered 2+ or 9+ questions.)

DKL takes both first and second place! I guess that’s similar to taking a one-two punch from Jesus. ;)

Q8: Best overall blogger

Past winners:

  • 2005: Wilfried Decoo
  • 2006: Wilfried Decoo
  • 2007: Kevin Barney

2008 results:

q8min1

(There were no differences in the rankings when looking only at ballots that answered 2+ questions.)

Counting only ballots that answered 9+ questions:

q8min9

Ardis, not satisfied with taking best solo blog and best new blog, also takes best overall blogger, and by a sizable margin.

Q9: Best humorous post

This category hasn’t been used in previous years.

2008 results:

q9min1

(There were no differences in the rankings when looking only at ballots that answered 2+ questions.)

Counting only ballots that answered 9+ questions:

q9min9

Here’s a question where the results differ quite a bit depending on how the ballots are counting. When all ballots are counted, TAMN of Seriously So Blessed is the narrow winner. When only ballots answering 9+ questions are counted, one of the BCC Police Beat Roundtables is the winner by a pretty large margin.

Q10: Best historical post

This category hasn’t been used in previous years.

2008 results:

q10min1

(There were no differences in the rankings when looking only at ballots that answered 2+ questions.)

Counting only ballots that answered 9+ questions:

q10min9

Ardis also takes best historical post, adding to her virtual trophy case.

Q11: Best spiritual post

This category hasn’t been used in previous years, but the “best post” winners in both 2005—Wilfried Decoo’s “Coffee“—and 2006—Ardis Parshall’s “Dressing the Dead“—fit well into it.

2008 results:

q11min1

Counting only ballots that answered 2+ questions:

q11min2

Counting only ballots that answered 9+ questions:

q11min9

Either Kristine or Russell Arben Fox prevents Ardis from winning a Niblet in every single category in which she was nominated. :)

Q12: Best doctrinal post

This category hasn’t been used in previous years, but the “best post” winner in 2007—Kristine’s “Why I Liked President Beck’s Talk (Mostly)“—might fit into it.

2008 results:

q12min1

Counting only ballots that answered 2+ questions:

q12min2

Counting only ballots that answered 9+ questions:

q12min9

The Niblet goes to AdamF or Julie M. Smith. It looks like lots of the single-question ballots that answered only this question were voting for AdamF’s post, as it fell dramatically in the rankings when only ballots that answered at least two questions were counted.

Q13: Best current events post

This category hasn’t been used in previous years.

2008 results:

q13min1

(There were no differences in the rankings when looking only at ballots that answered 2+ or 9+ questions.)

TAMN of Seriously So Blessed takes the Niblet!

Q14: Best SSM/Prop 8 post

This category hasn’t been used in previous years.

2008 results:

q14min1

(There were no differences in the rankings when looking only at ballots that answered 2+ or 9+ questions.)

Caroline of the Exponent takes the Niblet!

Q15: Best Mitt Romney post

This category hasn’t been used in previous years. It should be noted, however, that “Most overdone theme: Mitt Romney” took third in the write-in category in the 2006 Niblets, and in the 2007 Niblets, “Mitt Romney ad nauseam” was voted the worst thing in the Bloggernacle and “Theme to be least missed in 2008: Mitt Romney” took second in the write-in category.

2008 results:

q15min1

(There were no differences in the rankings when looking only at ballots that answered 2+ questions.)

Counting only ballots that answered 9+ questions:

q15min9

The Niblet goes to Scott B. Or to Scott B. in a tie with Bruce Webster.

Q16: Nicest “evil villain”/wolf in sheep’s clothing — Now corrected to include Andrew S!

This category hasn’t been used in previous years.

2008 results:

q16min1

Counting only ballots that answered 2+ questions:

q16min2

(There were no differences in the rankings when looking only at ballots that answered 9+ questions.)

The Niblet goes to Bridget Jack Meyers. She clearly must have very realistic-looking sheep’s clothing if she’s able to fool the hard-nosed T&S crowd into having her guest blog! :)

Q17: Most blatant example of navel-gazing

This category hasn’t been used in previous years.

2008 results:

q17min1

Counting only ballots that answered 2+ questions:

q17min2

(There were no differences in the rankings when looking only at ballots that answered 9+ questions.)

That’s two and a half Niblets (the half is for Best humorous post) for Seriously So Blessed if you’re keeping score. Ardis still has the lead with four.

Q18: Best contribution to the Bloggernacle

This category hasn’t been used in previous years.

2008 results:

q18min1

(There were no differences in the rankings when looking only at ballots that answered 2+ or 9+ questions.)

Tracy M takes the Niblet!

Q19: Write-in

Past winners:

  • 2005: (The category was not used.)
  • 2006: Best podcast: Mormon Stories
  • 2007: Best controversies: Mormon grad students on welfare (Devyn S. at Mormon Mentality); Waldorf style nursery (Artemis at FMH)

2008 results:

q19min1

(There were no differences in the rankings when looking only at ballots that answered 2+ questions.)

Counting only ballots that answered 9+ questions:

q19min9

BCC’s sideblog takes the Niblet!

Concluding Bits

With the voting dataset assembled, I was able to ask two more potentially interesting questions. I’ll share what I found in case you’re interested too.

First, on what days were most ballots cast? I expected that there would be many cast at the beginning, and then fewer with each passing day. This is what we got:

ballotsperday

So I was approximately correct, but I didn’t anticipate the small recovery near the end. Perhaps this is when everyone put in their single-question ballots!

Which questions did voters spend the most time on? The WP-Polls plugin records the time each question is answered, but only to the nearest minute. As you might guess, most votes were cast less than a minute apart. I tried looking at the average time between consecutive questions, but these values are highly skewed, and influenced by a few people who appear to have left the page entirely in between questions only to return another day to finish. I ended up settling on counting how many people spent more than one minute between each pair of questions. Since varying numbers of people answered each question, I looked at this as a percentage:

timebetweenq

Note that the figure starts with Question 2 because I don’t have a time before Question 1 to count from.

It’s difficult to draw inferences from this figure because the percentages are based on only those ballots where people voted for two consecutive questions, which as we saw at the beginning, is a fairly small number of ballots. Those who are missing from this calculation may have in fact pondered one of the questions at such great length that they never got around to answering it. But to the degree that we can make an inference, it looks like voters ran quickly through the beginning questions about blogs, but slowed down with the later questions. This would make sense given simply the amount of material to read even if you only read the post titles and comment summaries, for example. The question voters were most likely to spend some time on was Question 7, Most memorable comment. Perhaps this suggests that they were following the links to go read the comments, which would have been good. I can definitely see doing this while not doing the same with the nominated posts, as posts tend to be so much longer than comments, and I tend to have a short attention span. :)

Okay, the floor is yours now. Did your favorite blogs, bloggers, or commenters win? Or were they unfairly dismissed? Is there more (or less!) you’d like to see in next year’s Niblets?

]]> http://mormonmatters.org/2009/07/20/2008-niblets-results/feed/ 75 Voting — 2008 Niblet Awards http://mormonmatters.org/2009/07/06/2008-niblets-rock-the-vote-here/ http://mormonmatters.org/2009/07/06/2008-niblets-rock-the-vote-here/#comments Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:00:11 +0000 admin http://mormonmatters.org/?p=6126 And the nominees are . . .

1 – Best BIG Blog (links provided)

Time to Vote!

[poll id="12"]

2 – Best GROUP Blog (links provided)

Time to vote!

[poll id="13"]

3 – Best SOLO blog:  (links provided)

Time to vote!

[poll id="14"]

4 – Best NEW blog:  (links provided)

Time to vote!

[poll id="15"]

5 – Best blog LAYOUT/GRAPHICS:  (links provided)

Time to vote!

[poll id="16"]

6 – Best COMMENTER:  (sorry, no links!)

[poll id="17"]

7 – Most memorable COMMENT:

Time to vote!

[poll id="18"]

8 – Best overall BLOGGER:  (sorry, no links!)

[poll id="19"]

9 – Best HUMOROUS post:  (links provided)

Time to vote!

[poll id="20"]

10 – Best HISTORICAL post:  (links provided)

Time to vote!

[poll id="21"]

11 – Best SPIRITUAL post:  (some links provided)

Time to vote!

[poll id="22"]

12 – Best DOCTRINAL post:  (links provided)

Time to vote!

[poll id="23"]

13 – Best CURRENT EVENTS post:  (links provided)

Time to vote!

[poll id="24"]

14 – Best PROP 8/SSM post:  (links provided)

Time to vote!

[poll id="25"]

15 – Best MITT ROMNEY Post:  (links provided)

Time to vote!

[poll id="26"]

16 – NICEST “EVIL VILLAIN”/Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing:  (links provided)

Time to vote!

[poll id="27"]

17 – Most blatant example of NAVEL-GAZING:  (links provided)

Time to Vote!

[poll id="28"]

18 - Best CONTRIBUTION to the Bloggernacle in 2008:

Time to Vote!

[poll id="29"]

19 - WRITE-IN category:  (you may vote for up to 3)

Time to vote!

[poll id="30"]

Thanks for doing your civic duty by voting, and thanks to all the contributors who made 2008 a banner year for the Bloggernacle!  We’re sure there are many more outstanding contributions than could be covered by this nomination process.  See you all again in 6-7 months for the 2009 Niblets Awards!

Comments welcome below.

]]> http://mormonmatters.org/2009/07/06/2008-niblets-rock-the-vote-here/feed/ 237 Last Chance for Niblet Nominations http://mormonmatters.org/2009/07/02/last-chance-for-niblet-nominations/ http://mormonmatters.org/2009/07/02/last-chance-for-niblet-nominations/#comments Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:00:58 +0000 admin http://mormonmatters.org/?p=6091 Niblet Nominations are now CLOSED.

Enjoy perusing these links over the weekend, and the voting will commence on Monday!

Best big blog:

By Common Consent
Feminist Mormon Housewives
Millennial Star
Mormon Matters
Seriously So Blessed
Times & Seasons

Best group blog:

The Exponent
Faith Promoting Rumor
Juvenile Instructor
Mormon Mentality
Mormon Metaphysics
New Cool Thang
PoliticaLDS
Segullah
Zelophehad’s Daughters

Best solo blog:

Green Mormon Architect
Hieing to Kolob
Keep A Pitchinin
Life on Gold Plates
Mormon Insights
My Religious Blog
Mormon Organon
Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord
Seriously So Blessed
Soy Made Me Gay
Temple Study

Best new blog:

The Apron Stage
Clobberblog
Depressed (But not unhappy) Mormon Mommy
The Faithful Dissident
Irresistible (Dis)Grace
Keep A Pitchinin
LDS Philosopher
Linescratchers
Mormon Heretic
Mormon Insights
My Religious Blog
Red Brick Store
Seriously So Blessed
Soy Made Me Gay

Best blog layout/graphics:

Dave’s Mormon Inquiry (2008 version)
Millennial Star
Mind, Soul, and Body for the striking photo by Anne Geddes, unknowingly copyrighted, which the author does not have the heart to take down from his completely and totally uncommercial blog.
My Religious Blog
Nine Moons
Seriously So Blessed
Temple Study

Best commenter:

AnneGB
Ardis
Blake
Bored in Vernal
Brian Duffin
David H.
DKL
gst
Hawkgrrl
jessawhy
Kevin Barney
Kevinf
Marc Bohn
Margaret Young
Mark IV
Ray
Roasted Tomatoes
Sister Blah 2
Starfoxy
Steve Evans
Tatiana
Thomas Parkin

Most memorable comment:

DKL comment #36
DKL speaking to a troll comment #170 and comment #182
Russell Arben Fox comment #54
Ruth comment #72
Ryan comment #19
Steve Evans comment #994 on “Police Beat Roundtable #10”
Steve Evans comment #23
TStevens comment #18

Best overall blogger:

Andrew Ainsworth
Andrew S.
Ardis Parshall
Bookslinger
Bored in Vernal
Devyn S.
ECS
Hawkgrrl
Julie M. Smith
Kaimi
Kevin Barney
Kiskilili
Lynnette
Margaret Young
Nate Oman
Steve Evans
Steve P.
Tamn

Best humorous post:

Amri Brown’s “Serious Thoughts on the One Exception to the No Facial Hair Rule”
Andrew Ainsworth’s “What Children Know”
BCC’s Police Beat RoundTable #10
Burgess “Not Your Ordinary Grounds Crew Poetry”
Burgess “Yeah, I’m that Poet You Kind of Remember”
Burgess “Let the Men wear Sideburns!”
Caroline “Ways NOT To Teach About Chastity”
David’s “If God Were A Woman”
Eric Nielsen’s series on the Secret Life of Earl Johnson
jamesbarjoseph’s “Nothing Wavering”
Julie M. Smith’s “What the Smith Boys Said This Year”
Kiskilili’s “The Legend of Patriarch Hollow”
Mattsby’s “General Conference LOLcats ”
M*’s April Fool’s Day pages spoofing FMH.
Tamn’s “The Down-There Doc”
ZD April Fools — “Renouncing the Philosophies of Women Mingled with Scripture”
ZD Sunstone Program Parody
Rebecca J’s

Best Historical post:

Ardis Parshall’s 3 part “Codes and Cyphers in Mormon History” (also nominated “The Childless Ones,” “A Utah War Primer,”
“Polynesians in the Desert.”)
Bored in Vernal “Populating Worlds: Joseph Smith’s Legacy”
Bored in Vernal’s “A Mormon History Mystery”
Christopher’s useful and important thoughts on Mormonism’s place in American historiography
David’s “Teaching About Racism (Including the Priesthood Ban) in Sacrament Meeting”
Dichotomy’s “LDS Gay History Timeline”
edje’s series of posts on the Galveston Hurricane of 1900
EmilyCC “Feminist Genealogy”
Heidi Harris “The New Woman in Central Utah”
Jared T’s “Millions Shall Know Brother Joseph Again”
John Hamer “Book of Jasher”
Mogget’s modernity and catholicism series
Mormon Heretic’s “Was Priesthood Ban Inspired?”
TT’s “The Terrible 90′s for Mormon Scholarship”

Best spiritual post:

Andrew Ainsworth’s Dark Night of My Soul
Andrew Ainsworth’s “Why I Am Not A Disaffected Mormon”
Andrew Ainsworth’s “What is Heaven? What is Hell”
Ardis “I’ll Let God Keep the Records”
Elizabeth’s “Everything I Need to Know I’m Learning In Divinity School”
Eve’s “To Some it is Given: Knowledge, Doubt, Mercy”
Gay LDS Actor, “God’s Love”
Heidi Harris “And this time there will be no Angel”
John Hamer’s “A Veil Runs Through it”
Kevin Barney’s “Squareboy”
Kristine’s “When Saw We Thee an Awkward Pre-Teen”
Lisa’s “Hollow”
Mraynes “From Mother to Daughter”
Russell Arben Fox’s “Auld Lang Sin”
SMB’s “Spoken Fatherhood: Communion and Community”

Best doctrinal post:

AdamF’s “Never Lead Us Astray. And Dissonance”
Andrew Ainsworth’s “Elder Wirthlin’s Last Message of Love”
Andrew Ainsworth’s “The Ammon Approach”
Joe Spencer’s “Jesus Christ, the Divine Redeemer of the World”
Julie M. Smith “Is There Another Approach”
Kiskilili’s “Fathers are Irreplaceable”
Kiskilili’s “Inconclusive musings on gays in eternity”
LDS Philosophers two conflicting Paradigms series
Lynnette’s “Repentance as a Response”
Lynnette’s “Can Women be Exalted?”
Secco’s “Uzzah Killed for Blind Obedience”
TT’s “The Future of Heavenly Mother”

Best current events post:

Tamn’s “Tamners Goes to Washington”
Bryce’s Wall-e post
Jared T. “Summary of the 30th Anniversary Priesthood Commemoration held June 8, 2008 at the Tabernacle”
Jupiter’s Child’s “BYU Religion Dean on Premortal Life”
Matt B.’s incisive piece of social analysis about Utah and the greatest sport on earth

Best Prop 8/SSM post:

BCC’s Police Beat RoundTable
Caroline’s “What I would Say to my Bishop About Prop 8”
Clint Martin’s “How to Support a Same Sex Marriage Ban without Coming off as a Tool”
Clint Martin’s “My Secret Gay Agenda”
Julie M. Smith’s “Blood on the Doorposts”
Kaimi’s “Answers”
Ray’s “When Moral Issues Become Political Issues”
TT’s “Children and SSM: An Analysis of the Divine Institution of Marriage”

Best Mitt Romney Post

Andrew S’s “Why Mitt Romney got Romney’d in the Election”
Blake’s “Prop 8 Comment”
Bruce Webster’s “Mitt Romney’s New Ward”
Ray’s “Proposition 8 and the Presidency: A Week of Reviling”
Scott B’s “Reasons this Mormon is Glad Mitt Quit”

Nicest “Evil Villain”

Aaron Shafavoloff from “Mormon Coffee”
Andrew from “Irresistible (Dis)Grace”
Bridget Jack Meyers from “Clobberblog”
Chanson from “Letters From Abroad”
Christopher Smith from “Mild Mannered Musings”
Todd Wood from “Heart Issues for LDS”

Most blatant example of navel-gazing:

Jana’s picture of her belly-button
J. Max Wilson’s “A Critical Look at LDS Blog Portals, Parts 1-4”
Lynnette’s “Using Human Reason to Think About God”
Ray’s Farewell to the Bloggernacle
Seriously So Blessed
Nominating self for every Niblet Award: Steve Evans
What Mormons Like
Ziff’s Nacle numbers posts

Best contribution to the Bloggernacle in 2008:

Tracy M’s intimate and candid details of her struggle with her husband’s unemployment.
Beginnings New, intelligent and meaningful helps for YW leaders
Today in the Bloggernacle / Bloggernacle Back Bench (Emily Jensen)
The addition of JA Benson at M*
John Hamer’s “The Miraculous Plates of Voree Examined”
DKL’s political coverage
BCC’s Police Beat RoundTable
All the fun and laughs over at Myregisblog
PoliticaLDS

Write-in category:

Most Missed: Mormon Stories
Most bewildering to people with no sense of irony: Seriously So Blessed
Who I wish would blog more often — Ashley Sanders at Project Deseret
Funniest Thread: In the Colonies the Stormtroopers are Starting to Lay Down the Law
Best chronicler of otherwise forgotten Mormon’s from history: Ardis Parshall at Keepapitchinin for her continuing stories of ordinary church members in often difficult circumstances.
Most Useful Blog: LDS Science Review
Best Numbers Crunching: Ziff
Best doctrinal blogger – Joe Spencer @ Feast Upon the Word blog.
Funniest post tile: “For I was an hungered, and ye shot me” (Kris Wright at BCC)
The blog with the most humble bloggers and commentators: M*
Best and most unique contributions to a discussion of presiding: the Three Weird Sisters, With Beards poetry (see comments #64 and #76)
Best Sideblog: By Common Consent
Best sidebar linksters: Marc Bohn and Kent Larsen
Unsung Hero: Doc

]]> http://mormonmatters.org/2009/07/02/last-chance-for-niblet-nominations/feed/ 46 Welcome to the Niblets Nominations!! http://mormonmatters.org/2009/06/28/welcome-to-the-niblets-nominations/ http://mormonmatters.org/2009/06/28/welcome-to-the-niblets-nominations/#comments Sun, 28 Jun 2009 14:39:40 +0000 admin http://mormonmatters.org/?p=6039 Mormon Matters introduces the 2008 Niblets Awards!

Comments are now closed.  If you have further nominations, click HERE.


niblets

The opportunity to honor the unique and talented Mormon bloggers was sorely missed this year. So we decided to give you a chance to look back on 2008 and remember the great things that happened in the Bloggernacle. Mormon Matters will be hosting this event to highlight YOU and your favorite 2008 Mormon blogs, and we’ll be back again in 2009 to do the same. We are pleased to announce our collaboration with Ziff of Zelophehad’s Daughters, the mighty numbers cruncher, who will handle results presentation at the end of this event.

So without further ado, let’s announce the categories. Cut and paste this list in the comments if you would like to be part of the nominations process. As always, you are welcome to nominate yourself — isn’t that what blogging is all about?? Oh, and try to think of some other bloggers to recognize, too.  Final voting will take place after the nominations are finalized.

Best big blog:
Best group blog:
Best solo blog:
Best new blog: (must have put up its first post in 2008)
Best blog layout/graphics:

Best commenter:
Most memorable comment: (please include link)
Best overall blogger:
Best humorous post: (please include link)
Best historical post: (please include link)
Best spiritual post: (please include link)
Best doctrinal post: (please include link)
Best current events post: (please include link)

Most blatant example of navel-gazing: (please include link)
Best contribution to the Bloggernacle in 2008:
Write-in category:

Thank you for your participation!

]]> http://mormonmatters.org/2009/06/28/welcome-to-the-niblets-nominations/feed/ 108