Thank you to our fans and readers who nominated Wade on Birmingham in the Birmingham News’ “Birmingham’s Best 2009” reader survey.
It’s especially flattering, given that we celebrated our fourth anniversary earlier this week and we actively seek no recognition other than your continued readership and feedback.
(And given our propensity to mock such media-sponsored popularity contests, it’s perhaps nothing short of a small miracle.)
This site was nominated for Local Web Site, along with …
Congratulations to our fellow nominees!
So which site should you vote for by Oct. 19?
First, let us point out that “Web site” is so broad in this day and age to be meaningless. Birmingham has a rich community of homegrown blogs and talented folks using the Internet to inform, entertain and connect residents and outsiders.
Second, three of the sites are corporate media. Nothing wrong with corporate media (it’s how this blogger spent most of his career), but we find it rather discouraging that generic template sites pass for the best available in the metro area.
(And we again say: AL.com should remove itself from consideration as it is the ballot’s host site. No restaurant finalist would ever be allowed to serve as the sole polling place for its category.)
Third, our friend and Birmingham Blogging Academy colleague André Natta runs The Terminal. He is by far one of the most dedicated and passionate bloggers around and deserves a medal just for the herculean accomplishments he has made for this city. So extra kudos for him!
Lastly, this site. We would happily trade any vote cast for this site (or others) for your vote at the real ballot box. A scant 15,302 voters participated in city election runoffs this week, with a couple of races settled by 98 votes and 63 votes. While you’re happily snuffing out your free time on Facebook quizzes and voting on Web-based popularity contests, this city burns.
Thus ends the sermon.
But let us again say thank you to our readers. Without you, such recognition would not be possible. If you vote, vote for the truly outstanding that Birmingham has to offer, not just based on friendships and passing familiarity. Demand excellence, then celebrate it.