Friday, February 16, 2007

Catholic Blog Award Voting: Preliminary Results

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Being that I'm a political wonk from way back, I resurrected some of my rudimentary skills and did a quick analysis of the preliminary Catholic Blog Awards voting figures released this evening.

Below, you have the fourteen categories in which there was voting and the top five vote-getters in each category. Below them is the vote count for regional bloggers who had received nominations in the preliminary voting.
Congratulations to all of them.

To the left of their names is their vote total in terms of the percentage of the total votes cast for that category. The number of blogs receiving votes in a category and the total number of votes cast in the category are below the percentages.

Father Z, our Roman agent, did well this year, placing first in the Best Clergy category, third in Best Individual, fourth in Best Insider News and third in Smartest Catholic Blog. Congratulations, Father Z!

Others from our area who placed well included our own I.C., the Ironic Catholic, that anonymous humorist from Bemeely, Minn., who has split our sides many a time this past blogging year with her often hysterically funny posts. She placed fourth in the Funniest category (I think it was a fix) and garnered respectable voting totals in several other categories.

The real dark horse surprise this year was the Minnesota Mom, a newcomer to St Blog's Parish scene who captured a fifth place finish in the Best New Catholic blog category. I'd bet a lot of folks were surprised by that.

This is the first year that the voting was not limited to the top five nominees. The major purpose of the contest is to give exposure to blogs that normally don't get it. Hundreds were nominated and their URL addresses are hotlinked with their vote totals. Copy them to your own computer and at your leisure visit them all and add your favorites to your Blogroll.

If you have a spare two dollar bill, you might consider contributing (via PayPal) that amount to the people at the Catholic Blog Awards webpage who put a lot of effort into this, not to mention their own money.

Thanks to everybody who nominated, campaigned and voted. It was fun. And I've already added new blogs to my daily and weekly routes.



Best Apologetic Blog

29.62% Jimmy Akin: 218
8.97% The Cafeteria is Closed: 66
8.42% Pontifications: 62
6.79% Rorate Caeli: 50
5.43% The Curt Jester: 40
30-736

Best Blog by Clergy/Religious/Seminarian

12.07% What does Prayer really say?: 91
7.29% Pontifications: 55
5.97% Cardinal Sean's Blog: 45
5.97% Dappled Things: 45
5.84% Hermeneutic of Continuity: 44
1.59% A Son Becomes a Father: 12
1.33% White Around the Collar: 10
0.93% Monastic Musings: 7
0.13% Future Priests of the Third Millenium: 1
50-754

Best Designed Catholic Blog

9.34% The New Liturgical Movement: 73
6.65% Open Book: 52
6.39% Happy Catholic: 50
6.39% Rorate Caeli: 50
5.50% The Cafeteria is Closed: 43
0.90% Faith Mouse: 7
49-782

Best Group Blog

16.13% The Shrine of the Holy Whapping: 115
11.50% The New Liturgical Movement: 82
7.29% Jimmy Akin: 52
7.01% Rorate Caeli: 50
4.21% Moniales OP: 30
3.93% American Chesterton Society: 28
0.56% Stella Borealis: 4
0.28% Our Word: 2
44-713

Best Individual Catholic Blog

10.22% Open Book: 89
5.74% The Cafeteria is Closed: 50
5.28% What does Prayer really say?: 46
4.02% Alive and Young: 35
4.02% Daily Danielle: 35
1.72% Abbey-Roads2: 15
1.26% The Ironic Catholic: 11
0.34% Adoro Te Devote: 3
0.23% Monastic Musings: 2
0.11% The Weight of Glory: 1
0.11% Orbis Catholicus: 1
93-871

Best Insider News Catholic Blog

18.85% Whispers in the Loggia: 135
10.75% Open Book: 77
10.47% Rorate Caeli: 75
10.20% What does Prayer really say?: 73
6.56% The Cafeteria is Closed: 47
0.70% Stella Borealis: 5
32-716

Best New Catholic Blog

8.83% Rorate Caeli: 69
6.40% Cardinal Sean's Blog: 50
4.74% Alive and Young: 37
4.23% Et Tu Jen: 33
3.97% Minnesota Mom: 31
3.07% The Ironic Catholic: 24
1.54% Abbey-Roads2: 12
0.64% The Recovering Dissident Catholic: 5
0.26% Ironic Catholic: 2
81-781

Best Overall Catholic Blog

11.98% Open Book: 100
5.99% Jimmy Akin: 50
5.27% The Cafeteria is Closed: 44
5.03% Happy Catholic: 42
5.03% Catholic and Enjoying It: 42
3.83% What does Prayer really say?: 32
0.36% The Ironic Catholic: 3
67-835

Best Political/Social Commentary Catholic Blog

9.97% The Anchoress: 70
8.83% Catholic and Enjoying It: 62
6.70% The Curt Jester: 47
6.27% Jimmy Akin: 44
4.99% Hermeneutic of Continuity: 35
1.99% Abbey-Roads2: 14
0.57% Clairity's Place: 4
0.14% Stella Borealis: 1
60-702

Best Written Catholic Blog

6.17% Open Book: 53
5.47% Daily Danielle: 47
4.77% Jimmy Akin: 41
4.07% The Anchoress: 35
3.84% The New Liturgical Movement: 33
3.61% What does Prayer really say?: 31
13.00% Abbey-Roads2: 13
1.05% Adoro Te Devote: 9
0.58% The Ironic Catholic: 5
0.23% The Recovering Dissident Catholic: 2
0.12% Stella Borealis: 1
0.12% Our Word: 1
97-859

Funniest Catholic Blog

24.46% The Curt Jester: 192
7.26% Daily Danielle: 57
6.37% The Shrine of the Holy Whapping: 50
6.11% The Ironic Catholic: 48
4.71% Alive and Young: 37
0.25% Ironic Catholic: 2
48-785

Most Informative & Insightful Catholic Blog


100.00% Stella Borealis 867
** 1-867

Most Spiritual Blog

7.32% Pontifications: 52
5.35% The New Liturgical Movement: 38
5.21% Daily Danielle: 37
4.37% Moniales OP: 31
4.37% Vultus Christi: 31
2.96% Adoro Te Devote: 21
1.55% Abbey-Roads2: 11
0.99% Orbis Catholicus: 7
0.70% So Many Devotions So Little Time: 5
0.28% Monastic Musings: 2
67-710

Smartest Catholic Blog

9.77% Jimmy Akin: 77
7.99% Pontifications: 63
6.98% What does Prayer really say?: 55
5.33% Rorate Caeli: 42
3.93% The New Liturgical Movement: 31
0.38% The Recovering Dissident Catholic: 3
0.25% Stella Borealis: 2
0.13% Orbis Catholicus: 1
0.13% The Weight of Glory: 1
76-788

** No votes were actually released tonight for this category.

9 comments:

The Ironic Catholic said...

Ray, you're clearly better with numbers than I am (statistics make me shudder, you're a better man than I)...but I have to question this one below!

19.11% The Shrine of the Holy Whapping: 50
6.11% The Ironic Catholic: 48

I'm guessing that 6.11% should be 16.11%?
Hey, if they count the two votes under the "Ironic Catholic" name, I may be tied with the Shrine! Purty cool beans.

Congrats everyone.

The Ironic Catholic said...

I definitely think you should win Informative and Insightful by default. heh heh.

But what was up with that? Something like 1000 people voted, and there were no nominees for that category? No way.

Not being informative or insightful, I made no dog in that fight. ;)

Beth Lemer said...

can we add A Priestly Commentary to all this?

Unknown said...

Of course, Bethski!

Unknown said...

I would assume that Best Informative and Insightful Blog results got lost somewhere in Geek-Space.

I'm sure it will show up in the final tally and vote totals might drop.

Beth Lemer said...

I just wanna make sure everyone gets a fair shot in the blogosphere! ;o)

Cathy_of_Alex said...

Ray: Congratulations! Where are your nominee buttons? You get some you know.

I never saw that category of Most Informative/Insightful. Where did they put it? My guess is no one else saw it either.

Adoro said...

I saw that category, and I THOUGHT I nominated someone for it...maybe not.

You guys, if we'd known this would happen, then we could have nominated each other and taken that category hands-down!

Maybe there was a glitch in the system?

Adoro said...

OOps, I wasn't finished. As the resident long-winded novelist blogger, I enjoy the right to pontificate as long as needed in order to get my point across.

Personally, I'm thrilled to have gotten 21 votes in "Most Spiritual". Completely blew me away.

But I digress...Ray, great job with the stats and the posted comparisons. We really didn't do badly here in little ol' MN.

On another blog, (Cathy, was it yours? I think I've seen the sentiment elsewhere), I think I saw a complaint that professional writers should either have their own category or be disqualified.

I vote for their having their own categories which mimic the others.

I like the blogs that won, but most of them are pros. It's not a fair competetion for those who were "close but no cigar." How can they compete with corporate sponsorship?

My official request is that, for next year, those who are "Professional" should be given a different cagegory. For example; as Jimmy Aiken is a professional Apologist, it is not surprising that he won the vote for "Best Apologetic" blog.

I actually went out of my way to vote for some of the lesser knowns because I figured the big names would win. I'm a HUGE fan of the little guy.

I just think that some of the runners-up should have taken the prizes, and that likely would have happened if the pros had been excluded.