Where are 2005's best posts?

They're here. A compilation of the best posts we (and our readers) could find, from 2005.

The best way to navigate this post is to Jump to topic:

The best posts: Blogosphere • General interest • Funny business • Politics • Iraq • Katrina • Ethics • How-to • Localblogging • Essay & first-person • Sports • Economics • Science • 'Best-of-blog' posts. (Topics are listed roughly in descending order of relative number/quality of compelling posts.)

About this compilation: What we've learned by doing this • FAQ • Pitching the 'Best Posts' to publishers • How YOU can further this project while promoting your site

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Of interest to writers in the 'sphere: Insightful or useful to bloggers.

• NOW: That's what I call blogging! 43 top web hits, from across the blogosphere. (Hilarious.)

• Gerard Van der Leun is doing some of the finest writing in the "blog medium" today. In the style of Kipling, he lays down The Law of the Blogger. Defining a new phobia for a new medium: Fear of Instalinking (with a 'second opinion' here). And here are more of Gerard's cyber-notes. [top]

• As if there was insufficient hubris involved in declaring one year's 'best' posts, The Kommissar raises the stakes by anointing The Greatest Post Ever. Yes, it's another traffic-driving contest, but the linked posts have merit. (Few were entirely satisfied with the picks, but that's what happens when the Komrades at Central Planning run things.)

• The life-cycle of bloggers. Step 1: Start reading blogs. 2: Start a blog. 3: Become a stats whore. 4: Confuse 'real life' with 'online life'. 5: Retire from blogging. 6: Return in 72 hours. 7: ... [top]

• Why bloggers must keep their posts in The Vertical Blog Tunnel as long as possible. (That is: Cultivate loyal readers who are also bloggers.) Read this as many times as it takes to sink in, then read the post it refers to, and all the links that close it out. A great study of why some blogs 'work' better than others. (Wise bloggers know that any blog that produces a post this insightful is worth a return visit.)

• Why is the mainstream press so interested in 'people-fired-for-blogging' stories? If I were cynical, I’d suspect that the media was afraid of something. [top]

• The insightful and elegant Nonist site attracted considerable buzz with A Public Service Pamphlet on Blog Depression, along with Frailty, thy name is blog, and Blogging as a giant hamster wheel.

• Are you an 'elite' blogger? Here's a simple test.

• The sociology of blogrolls.

• The most popular posts on the official Google site during '05. [top]

• How to alter the wording of your Truth Laid Bear Egosystem ranking, and some hacks for Blogger users, and an introduction to Technorati tags.

• How to get Slashdotted, 'the easy way'. [top]

• Top Ten web moments of 2005: Any list that leads off with Gary Brolsma's joygastic, immaculately-synched Numa Numa dance-for-the-ages needs to be included here.

• How not to start a blog in ten easy lessons (illustrated): The Pajamas Media story. [top]

• Advice for new bloggers. (And probably some older ones as well.)

• More things bloggers should not do, and the Church of Connectivity. [top]

• Dean Esmay asks why there's such hostility toward Pajamas Media. Dean's readers advance many theories. Best: "Because nobody ever got famous swatting at gnats."

• This Seobook post is a great resource for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of how search engines rank sites/posts. (This subject, like so much on the web, is a moving target.) [top]

• A mere mention of Ted Rall, and all hell breaks loose.

• Jason Calacanis offers his netcentric predictions for 2006. [top]

• The ten 'most powerful women' in blogging (and a few sleepers).

• The increasing specialization of blogs, and the most influential 'economic' bloggers. [top]

• Just as no bar or hotel today hangs a sign touting 'phone service', broadband will be ubiquitous when these novel signs no longer exist.

• How bloggers led the way after the tsunami. (Not a blog post, but an article on blogging.) [top]

• Morbidly fascinating: MySpace bloggers, very young and very full of life, who died tragically.

• On the 'net, where shrill hysteria and outlandish accusations are the norm, why would anyone opt for self-restraint? Vulgar morality. [top]

• There are a number of worthwhile posts on blogging (some of which we have highlighted in this post) in this thread. From Grow-a-Brain.

• How bloggers make (or try to make) money from their efforts, and Adverblogging: American Express pays some bloggers to do their thing. [top]
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Of interest to Internet users in general:

• Kottke is online 24/7. Here's the best stuff he found this year.

• Similarly, Jersey City's WFMU is steeped in musical culture. Here's their pick of this year's posts with MP3 attachments. Take 'em for a spin on your iPod. (Note: This is yet another post that has vanished from the ether. As a replacement, we offer this WFMU MP3 archive. [top]

• Best Photoshop images of 2005, as voted by Fark readers.

• Digg came from literal nonexistence this year to emerge as a 'net powerhouse that surpassed the mighty Slashdot. Alex Bosworth's insightful post examines the dynamics of Digg, a social system made up of: Readers (those who only show up to reap the fruits of the Digg machine), Diggers (the 10-20% who click 'Digg'), Hardcore Diggers (those who wade through the queue of submitted stories to move the deserving stories up and dump the unworthies - Digg's movers and shakers), Submitters (those providing Digg's raw materials), and Publishers (content creators hoping that Digg will energize and empower their efforts).

These groups interact and get their own rewards within the system. Alex concludes (paraphrasing) that: "Blog publishers create content they want dugg, submitters scour the 'net for stories they can add to their 'published on the homepage' list, digg queue watchers looking for cool links before anyone else has seen them, and digg readers reap the benefits and provide that highly-sought mass audience. Plus, because Digg now has so many users, the 'Network Effects' brings great rewards for the sysops (the owners of digg.com). And, it seems to me that the Hardcore Diggers is the group with the most power in the system. Publishers have an interest in getting their stories dugg, so who better to court than the Hardcore Diggers?" [top]

• Molly believes a process of defining a new professionalism for Web developers and designers is underway.

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Funny business: Humor's a tough nut. Some folks like the Stooges, others prefer Gilbert & Sullivan. And then there's those of us who want to see the Stooges perform Gilbert & Sullivan.

• Jake Bronstein had a busy year. A 'performance comic', he's bathed in a public fountain, freed a supermarket fish, used a color copier as a photo booth, had his wallet stolen and gotten it back. And he's photographed it all. [top]

• Huffington's Toast was one of the most consistently milk-out-of-the-nose funny sites we read in 2005. (Since we rarely drink milk, that's saying something, even if we don't know what.) An Open letter to Jane and Al, from Michael Moore at the Fat Farm takes the form of 'Camp Granada', but the entire site is rife with more-or-less equal-opportunity ripostes.

• On the 'real' Huffington site, Steve Martin proves he still knows funny, with a piece that should be subtitled 'How to be an Online Pundit WIthout Really Trying'. [top]

• Engadget 1985. No, it certainly didn't exist then, and that's what makes this satirical piece priceless.

• Mr. Beth admits is coerced blackmailed says: Loving me is a Dirty Job. [top]

• Ze Frank demonstrates his communication skills (video).

• The USDA's Nutrition Pyramid has been scrapped. Here's what they're replacing it with. [top]

• An exception that proves the rule is Darth Vader: The Blog. We couldn't pull a 'funniest' post to share, because it's the concept of Vader keeping a blog that's funny, rather than any individual posts. This was a popular theme this year, which will probably endure: Fake/funny blogs from celebs du jour. During her 15 minutes, "Harriet Miers' blog" was enjoyed by many.

• More Star Wars: This clumsy (and apparently bootleg) Chinese frame-by-frame translation back to English suggests that we must look pretty inscrutable to them. Mind the explanatory links under the translations. (This post is not exactly undiscovered country - note the 510 comments.) Inspired, is this. [top]

• Even more Star Wars: Dressing up for the convention (a photo essay).

• Miracle Whip on 34th Street: An over-the-top (or not) Baltimore Christmas (photo essay). Also from this site: If they had pocket protectors in the 18th-century, you just know Ben Franklin would have been wearing one. [top]

• The Family Circus meets H.P. Lovecraft, from Accordion Guy.

• The Decadent West takes the question: "How many 5-year-olds could you take on in a fight?" and breaks it down to a, uh, disturbing degreee. (Warning: Language. But otherwise, it wouldn't be decadent, would it?) [top]

• Translating Public Relations-speak into English. An anlysis of a press release by the great Daring Fireball site.

• Some read The Sneeze (Half zine. Half blog. Half not good with fractions.) and consider Steve the funniest human ever to live. Others read it and reconsider the meaning of 'life'. You decide. [top]

• A Patton story you won't find in the history books. (And here's a 'best-of' post from this blog.)

• On the Internet, sometimes they DO know you're a dog: A troll thinks he can safely assault Michelle Malkin via email. Within hours, he loses his job. (You'll have to scroll down to catch the drama.) One of the more widely-shared 'net moments of the year. [top]

• The Celebrity Anagram Interviews: In which the answer is an anagram of the celeb's name.

• Keeping score, on Deadwood. (Contains strong language - unless you actually watch Deadwood, in which case it's probably no big deal.) [top]

• Scooby Doo meets Hunter S. Thompson, from IowaHawk. Indeed, has anyone considered that only mind-enhancing substances could make that rowg rawrk?

• The Manolo, he presents The Gallery of the Horrors. [top]

• We like the moon. (And cheese Zeppelins.) [video] Don't ask, just click.

• Worst. Interview. Ever: Comic Book Guy interviews Mary Mapes.

• Things not to say at the family Thanksgiving table. [top]

• Suburban Turmoil is worth a look for the page design alone, but check out What they don't tell you about birthin' babies. It's not the pain, it's the indignity.

• An open letter from a frequent critic offers help and advice to G Dub. [top]

• Wuzza on first? Bud Abbott considers names for his blog.

• Unmasking the mysterious cloaked figure. [top]

• Better living through science: The anti-terrorist pickup truck is guaranteed not to be targeted by suicide bombers. The PunkROKR fuses the best of the iPod with the best of Motorola's best-selling phone, proving that more is - well, more.

• Six Meat Buffet wraps up 'Twelve Days of Christmas Gifts' for his liberal friends. Assuming he has any left. [top]

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Politics: As if we could avoid it.

• What's the difference between libertarian and liberal?

• "It was a tragic year for the Democratic party and for responsible politics...the Party became a kind of unrelated bloc of factions, each refusing accomodation with another." Senator Eugene McCarthy, Democrat, 1988. [top]

• "I learned much of my politics in my grandmother's kitchen... Not my partisan politics, mind you... she was as Republican as they came... What I learned from Grandma was that hard work was unavoidable, there was always time for decency and compassion, and political rhetoric was bullshit." A great post from Street Prophets.

• The ten worst (best?) quotes from the Democratic Underground, 2005. Related: A sparkling analysis of the left-wing blogosphere. [top]

• A psychoanalyst puts the left-wing on the couch. Related: Philosophical underpinnings of leftist beliefs.

• A la Gauche notes right-wing anti-abortionists' bloody Christmas message, pits Bill O'Reilly against Ludacris in a battle of the vulgar, shows how to Google-bomb Sean Hannity, describes what constitutes an 'ethnically offensive' team mascot, and alerts readers to the ongoing genocide in Sudan. [top]

• The 'babe theory' of political movements: The ideology associated with the most attractive women, wins.

• Worst examples of leadership in 2005. [top]

• Using advanced communications tools to build bridges and unite, rather than divide. By Joi Ito.

• Let's finally get serious about separating religion and state. An unserious piece from Xanga. [top]

• There are plenty of things that would work for Africa but won't be done, partly because of those who are demanding that things be done. Scribal Terror

• Africa again, from a New York Times editorial: The road to hell is paved with Live 8. [top]

• Picking the wrong time to protest Global Warming.

• Hugh Hewitt will stop at nothing to emulate his beloved President. [top]

• The problem with declaring unrealistic guarantees of prosperity and happiness to be 'human rights', by Paul Noonan. (More about "the new rights" from property-rights-minded Hamstermotor, who encourages all squirrels to vigorously defend their nuts.)

• Newsweek assures its overseas readers that 'America is Dead'. But if that's so, why aren't they telling their American readers? [top]

• Remember when it was liberals who wanted to change the world and the right who wanted to marinate in nostalgia?

• Hostility in the face of changing needs and technology through the years: Great moments in labor relations.

• Maybe not all that cruel, but it's certainly unusual: The Gitmo 'terro-gator. (Flash toy) [top]

• Using behavioral statistics to determine how Judge Roberts will persuade the Supreme Court.

• Desperately seeking grace under pressure: Stanislav Petrov and Russ Feingold. [top]

• The Barista figured she was on safe ground in offering up a Democratic Party feel-good rally to her readers in True-Blue Montclair, in the heart of Democrat-dominated New Jersey. The response was surprisingly hostile.

• The top ten (plus thirteen) categories of MSM/DNC bias, as noted daily in media news accounts. From The Cassandra Page. [top]

• A daughter of a Democratic Senator with civil rights roots says agree to disagree, and move on in Iraq. Also: The agony of abortion.

• Arklahom Boy fisks Rabbi Boteach [top]

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Iraq:

• Michael Yon's 'most important photo' of the Iraq war. Also: Yon on how real-life fighting unfolds: "Once the shooting starts, a plan is just a guess in a party dress." (Yon's photo had been taken down for a time because of a dispute with the Army. This has since been resolved.)

• Yon's writings remind Captain Bogs of other lessons from Vietnam. [top]

• A letter from a battlefield hospital brings several commenters to tears.

• A homemade 'greeting card' telling a hospitalized soldier to die practically melts down a server at Two Babes and a Brain. [top]

• A grim milestone approaches in an unending war, from Transterrestrial Musings.

• A tribute to Corporal Jonathan Bowling. [top]

• Nearly 300 women from all over Iraq attended the Second National Iraqi Women’s Conference. Events such as this were covered almost exclusively by bloggers.

• Photos of Iraqi children at play in Baghdad during the three-day Eid holiday. [top]

• Covering the Iraqi elections, by Iraq the Model.

• Solid backing for the State of the Union Message from The Diplomad. Don Surber is moved by a subsequent speech he calls "Bush's Gettysburg". [top]

• Deconstructing "Mother Sheehan". (Also: Photos from her book signing.)

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Katrina:

• One of the great blogs to emerge in 2005 was Operation Eden, a magnificent photo-essay of the aftermath of Katrina. It soars above the insipid cliches (many of which proved wrong) offered by the commercial media as 'definitive' post-Katrina news. Here's an excerpt from a Christmas post:

"Something amazing is happening in my mom's little town of Pearlington, Mississippi, something inspiring and hopeful, something full of love and renewal. A grass roots movement is growing from the mud and despair of Katrina, and it's making my heart grow by three sizes just to know it exists. I want to nurture it, protect it, share it with you. Its spirit was embodied in one amazing day this week, a day that represents to me all that is right with the world, all that is good and caring in the human spirit."

• Katrina response timeline from Rightwing Nuthouse was probably the most-linked (even by the left), and was by most accounts the most complete account of the response to the hurricane.

• General Honore's press briefing coined an indelible catchphrase that spread quickly. [top]

• Overindulging on media horror tales that later proved to be bloated and false, some leftist bloggers went wild with allegations and hatred.

• "One of the defining media moments of all the hurricane [Katrina] coverage" (Chicago Sun-Times) was a lie. From WuzzaDem. [top]

• Leaving New Orleans as Katrina is about to hit, Ernie the Attorney writes: "Katrina is going to completely change the City I live in."

• How DirectNIC kept the computers running while everything else in New Orleans melted down. Without their heroics, and the heroics of medical workers and a few others, the damage would have been vastly worse. No single post is highlighted, this is a singularly-focused blog covering issues the media ignored. A primer in the raw for future disaster-preparedness. [top]

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Ethics: Many bloggers claim to have the right answers, but wiser bloggers seek the right questions.

• What it means to be poor. The most heartbreaking post of the year.

• What's the matter with kids, today? (Maybe it's us.) [top]

• Postsecret centers on a simple idea, compelling enough to have kept it in the top-ranked blogs throughout the year. (The site been turned into a book.)

• Why book publishers are trying to run a shakedown scheme on Google, and why it probably won't work. [top]

• Mourning the roads not taken. From Dustbury.

• Lessons from a decent man, whose decency lived on after his passing. SIgmund, Carl & Alfred [top]

• Hard to believe that Dawn Eden might be alone on a Valentine's Day, but love is real and V-Day is manufactured. Rather than conjure up some romance to suit the occasion, she'll wait for the real thing.

• Bigotry and hatred aimed at a party guest tell a larger tale, at Alarming News. [top]

• On leadership: Is God, or the Devil, in the details? Perhaps it's both.

• When every 'help wanted' ad looks the same, it's essential to learn to 'hire different'. Uncommon wisdom from Creating passionate users. (Also: Finding the 'happy spot' in application creation.) [top]

• Family values: They're not just for Republicans anymore. A refreshing post rejects "Rose-colored Republican glasses" but hangs in there to ask difficult questions about the impact of divorce. A slew of commenters wrestle with it.

• Sophistpundit's Personal Foundation for Discussion. [top]

• A rise in female predatory behavior: Listing over 100 instances of females raping minors.

• Annual advice to graduates. [top]

• A thoughtful piece on autonomy and liberty: At what price of discomfort and inconvenience will we embrace these ideals?

• Do we have implicit biases? How can they be measured? Does political correctness mask society's problems? From Tedrow Drive. [top]

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How-to:

• 'How to become an early riser' seems like a benign subject, yet it became one of the most widely read posts of the year.

• Related: Alarm clocks are bad. How to wake up and feel better. [top]

• How to hack an elevator so it stops only on your floor.

• Ever come across an mp3 file on the Internet that you wanted to download for your iPod, but lacked the time? How to deal with it. [top]

• How to get into Playboy Magazine. (The real deal, not what their PR people will tell you.)

• How to measure your communication effectiveness. [top]

• A case study: How Sony's bouncy ball commercial maximizes its impact by extending its reach into the classroomsphere and the blogosphere.

• How to land a man. [top]

• From Mark Boulton's elegant site: Five simple steps to designing grid systems.

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Essays and other 'first-person' writing:

• An amazing, almost minute-by-minute liveblogging as the London subway bombing unfolds, from last July. And an Englishman in New York has his eyes opened.

• Possibly the Essay of the Year: Tribes, by Bill Whittle. It's also one of the longest pieces in this collection, but worth it. [top]

• Watch a Hollywood deal go down. And down. And down...

• It's a Wunder-Kraut life: "The day my youngest daughter was born, we found out about her clubbed left foot. This post is about what it took to make it from that day to now - when she can run." (Includes video.) And here is a 'best-of site' compilation. [top]

• Death Hippie notes that not enough people use medieval weapons.

• Lowering the flag on Saul Bass' most famous creation, by Michael Bierut. [top]

• Toot, whistle, plunk and boom: Nostalgic analysis of a classic Disney short, at Ward-o-Matic. [top]

• An adventure with road kill.

• Mitch Berg's Coming of age story. [top]

• Wealthy sports franchise owner & blogger Mark Cuban tries to figure out how he became the originator of 3 of The New York Times' 91 ideas for 2005.

• There are wide distractions and narrow distractions, and the 'net is one very wide distraction. Paul Ford struggles to narrow the focus, so he can get some work done. [top]

• The 'Real ID' act, and the fallacy of 'identification' cards as a security measure.

• Two days after last July's London bombings, an extraordinary commemoration of the end of World War Two was held. [top]

• Brainster offers his views on religion and anti-religion, unusual topics for this blog.

• Finally realizing that Curious George promotes animal cruelty. [top]

• 'Libertarian Girl' mystery unmasked.

• Apparently only four people have never read The Da Vinci Code. Geoffrey K. Pullum wishes he could be among them. [top]

• Kottke goes pro.

• When 'smart' just gets in the way. [top]

• A medical blog analyzes Terri Schiavo's CT brain scan.

• Checking out of the Heartbreak Hotel, from Audience of One. [top]

• Ken Adams: Why no one respects the mainstream news business, and What really happens when the minimum wage is raised.

• America is a good idea, or: We have met the enemy, and he is us. [top]

• What writers assume about their readers in a politically polarized era: The art of insulting half your audience.

• The egg and I. And Japan. [top]

• The Ten Percenter, by Phila Lawyer (now defunct).

• Left brain female remembers: "I'm not raising my daughters to become victims." [top]

• Where the sidewalk hates: Welcome to the desert of the real.

• Special moments make juggling family, work, and Christmas worthwhile. [top]

• Experiencing the sudden rush of widening horizons.

• A wannabe writer wonders where to go from here. [top]

• Buggsy's Onions.

• Part one of a series debating church/state issues [top]

• Remembering Peter Jennings.

• A Hollywood extra recalls his times in show biz. [top]

• Harsh lesson: Online discourse enters the brutal real world.

• Selfish drivers don't use blinkers. (Originally an an op-ed article in The Orlando Sentinel, published 9/6/2005.) [top]

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Sports:

• The New England Patriots weren't always the sports world's most prominent symbol of excellence. A not-so-brief history of their years of infamy and sudden rise.

• Remembering a baseball giant who played in a time when ballplayers were indentured servants. [top]

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Economics:

• Willisms impressed with closely-researched articles such as The Bush Economy (why is he blamed for '01 and not credited for '05?), The roots of Germany's economic woes, Why 'guaranteed' employment guarantees prolonged recessions, and Lower Taxes = Greater population increase + Stronger Economy.

• Econbrowser drew its biggest crowd with How to talk to an economist about peak oil. [top]

• Who benefits from 'fair trade'? (Using coffee as an example.)

• Mainstream media meltdown: Stats on all the forms of major media and how they fared as of April, from The Long Tail. [top]

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Science

• Evidence that islands are not evolutionary dead ends

• From Pharyngula: Idiot America: The War on Expertise, The proper reverence due those who have gone before, and our favorite - Planet of the Hats. [top]

• Science and Politics: I want bigger government!, Regressives, Left and Righty excesses of pseudo-science, and The Perils of Ideological Continua and Coordinate Systems. [top]

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"Best of blog": Some good blogs offer their best posts.

• The Nonist offers Conversations on the plurality of worlds, Drama vs. comedy (or: The most invaluable and time honored art of making something out of nothing), The secret history of the revolving door, The myth of ironus.

• At Neddie Jingo, Al Swearingen guest-blogs. And at the other end of the obscenity-meter, a great tribute to Pogo. [top]

• Camp Katrina marches in with a first-person account of a child's gift to a soldier in Mississippi on hurricane relief duty, Star Wars hurricane names, and a New York Times omission that led to a 3,000 hit day.

• From the articulate Texas Songbird: The 'Tar Baby' card is played, The Million (more or less) Man March lives down to expectations, and hidden agendas at a rally for Stanley "Tookie" Williams. [top]

• Best of Yahoo 360: We were unfamiliar with Yahoo's unique blog service before this compilation began, just as we were (and are) unfamiliar with MySpace, LiveJournal, and other blog-community (if that's the word) services. But 360 certainly spoke up, and we were made aware of some of her members, its strong sense of community, and its problems (primarily technical - several complained about the difficulty of getting content online). Here are some submissions from Yahoo 360 members: The Bus Driver who wanted to be God, Do you hear what I hear?, 'Tis Blessed To Receive.

Rachel: On New Year's Day, are you resolute? Or do you have resolutions?, Christmas Past, Chistmas Future, Christmas Present.

Renee offers research into the subject of abusive relationships, of all kinds and ages.

Javacat: A Peeping Tom in the automotive age. [top]

Hammack goes furniture shopping with the wife, gets educated ("What's a tope?") and passes it along. (Also: Sexist airline signs.)

• Best of Batesline includes Michael Bates' battle with the local paper (among year's most-read posts): Threatened by the Tulsa World, The battle continues. Also: I hate minibars, Attack of the Zombie Blogs, and Beards vs. Politics. [top]

• Best of Elvira: The fateful day when Ubba the Gringo dropped the bottle, and Hit me with your best kvetch elicits a great comment thread.

• Best of Fausta's Bad Hair blog: Let's just move the U.N. to France, How Al Jazeera Sees the World, Observations on Revenge of the Sith (or, how long does it take Padme to get ready in the morning?), What happened to the French riots? and Che Guevara, Beautiful obscenities, and the forgotten dead. [top]

• Best of Jersey issueblogger Smadanek: New Jersey's public sector growth vs. population growth, Comparing campaign spending with election results, and Examining Corzine's Health Care Plan. Ken also discovers that there is a correlation between money and educational performance - but it's not the one you think. (More here.)

• Best of The Skwib: The Lost PowerPoint Slides (4th of July ed., William Wallace ed.), Thag (Want to be millionaire! Not like f#&*ing shaman!), Ask General Kang (Why do women check out your footwear first? Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior?), First draft of Harold Pinter’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Canadian voters in existential crisis, and A Counterintuitive Fairy Tale. [top]

• The best of The Ebb & Flow Institute, 2005.

• There's no doubt where Shining Plate and a Good Broadsword stands. The site's 'Greatest Hits' include Europe, the Whore, and Why I Hate Liberals. Any questions? [top]

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Local blogging: One of the hindrances to the growth of local blogging is that, when the subject is truly local, it often doesn't travel well. We don't know Marty Andrade's local Pizza Shack, nor the issues peculiar to Oklahoma. So, appreciation of these pieces may depend - literally - on where you're coming from. This is why Local blogging is our weakest overall category. Ironically, because of increasing weakness in local reporting, it is also our most important one.

Since we're in New Jersey, we got a number of local submissions.

• Rion Nakaya runs a (mostly) NYC-centric photoblog feast. Enjoy Central Park snowmen and graffiti by the East River. [top]

• Rosenblog finds fallacy in Easy parking as a social evil, notes that Gays often confuse disapproval of their sexual orientation with hatred and bigotry, and tucks into The dense fruitcake that is arcadia. Matt Rosenberg blithely runs counter to mainstream Seattle politics.

• Beck neatly sums up New Jersey's governmental problems. [top]

• Jersey blogger DynamoBuzz examines the fine line between being tough on an industry and driving it out of the state. Also, Why Jersey doesn't get more money from Washington.

• Jersey blogger Enlighten-New Jersey notes that “a litany of complaints is not a plan.” Also: Looking into Corzine's background during the recent gubernatorial election, and examining his self-proclaimed status as “one of the nation’s foremost experts on the economy and financial markets”. Enlighten also kicked off the Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers this year, one of the few ongoing local blog carnivals. And here's a funny piece re a Senior Citizen's ballot questions. [top]

• Farewell to the Pizza Shack.

• An Oklahoma parable and the dangers of a one-newspaper town. [top]

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• What we've learned by doing this compilation [return to top]

1) There's nothing quite like it. The Koufax Awards issues an award (not out when this was written) in the category of "best post". The Kommisar anointed the "Best Post Ever". The latter is tongue-in-cheek of course - there's no such thing as the 'best post ever'. Koufax is focused on "lefty" bloggers, and is being handled much differently than our own compilation. [return to what we learned]

2) It might have lasting value. Ultimately, the value of anything on the 'net is determined by everyone who uses the 'net. It does appear as if this was worthwhile, from the reactions we've seen so far.

Jamie Morrison at The Nonist said something revealing. He said he "thinks" he's seen many great posts this year, because he runs a blog and therefore looks at a whole lot of posts. But he had some difficulty remembering what he saw that was worthwhile. There's so much of it coming at you, and it just keeps coming. It's hard to keep track, and keep safe, the best stuff.Many of you can relate to that.

A lot of the best work vanishes, fast. Many links sent to us had already changed. Many posts that we found in our research - some of the most-viewed of the year - are on sites that have shut down and/or gone offline.

Millions of bloggers, thousands of good posts, but no way to access the statements that could describe the essence of a year, because traffic alone won't point the way. The 25 most-trafficked blogs (we'll assume for a moment that traffic is an indicator of excellence) produced only 4 of the most-trafficked posts. (Figures from BlogPulse.) This crudely demonstrates our contention that compelling posts are not necessarily the product of 'popular' blogs.

Quality posts don't necessarily set off traffic alarms. They fly right under the radar, through no fault of their own. Despite the wonderful self-publishing software tools we use, the primary work of a publisher is not (and never has been) to get books printed. The work of a publisher is to elevate and expose worthwhile ideas. In that sense, the blogosphere is almost completely barren of 'publishers'. Instapundit and Lucianne.com tackle the job, but such trusted editors are in too short a supply in comparison with the demand. Also, they don't produce a yearend archive, a wrapup - a time capsule.

Enlighten - New Jersey noted that one needs to be thinking about a collection like this throughout the year, because even great posts will fall through the cracks of time. If we do this collection again, we have a means in mind to help this be more than a last-hour marshalling of content. Not that we did badly with what we got. We had been concerned that we would see nothing but posts dated December, but that never happened. Still, out of sight out of mind is the rule with most blog posts.[return to what we learned]

3) An effort like this becomes more valuable in a year, more valuable still in ten years. Don't you wish you could see the 'best blog posts of 1996'? How about 1966? That's how this year's best posts will be valued one day.

But there's no getting around the human effort needed to discern and judge what one is looking at. Google can't do that yet. It's likely it never will. These posts need to be assembled, examined, explained, and ordered in a way that makes them compelling to read.[return to what we learned]

4) Many blog posts are 'outsider literature'. Some blogs have 'gone pro' and are offering content as commercial and mainstream as The New York Times or any other publication. But most still come from an outsider perspective. Those blogs are our primary focus. [return to what we learned] [return to top]

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• Our pitch for a book.

At this writing we are working with an well-established literary agency in an attempt to interest a publisher. (Once we have interest we will contact the individual bloggers for permissions, bios and other details.) A published book obviously would be of benefit to the ongoing project.

• We encountered many rejections.

Before we found an enthusiastic agent, we encountered many rejections. This pattern will almost certainly be repeated by the publishers we pitch. The most commonly offered reason for passing on the project was: "Publishers (and readers) won't pay for content already available for free on the web". We strongly disagree. If this were true, then current blogpost-compilation books by Post Secret, Seth Godin and Overheard in New York (among others) were big miscalculations on the part of their publishers. In addition, if this publishing model were not viable, Wired News would not be able to repurpose Wired Magazine's content on its site, and see both entities thrive. (But they do!) We believe that that these publishers are showing foresight by tapping into a new source of literary creativity, at the front of the acceptance curve.

• The three main fallacies of the 'people won't pay' rationale:

1) The core assumption is that the book-reading audience and the blog-reading audience are one and the same. Not true! Some blog readers rarely read books, while many book readers rarely read blogs.

2) The primary value of this compilation is the research involved. Few people would ever find all these posts on their own. And if they did, most people would prefer to read this amount of material in books form rather than on a computer screen.

3) The unparallelled success and staying power of Readers' Digest demonstrates that there is a substantial audience for a 'guided tour' through the literary jungle. This goes double for the blogosphere, which is far bigger and wilder than the commercial printed media ever managed to be. Readers don't have time to assess the best of millions of choices on their own. They want help from someone who knows the lay of the land. [return to top]

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• Frequently Asked Questions

• Who's included?
• Will we do it again?
• What are in the best interests of the collection as a whole?
• Why is a book needed?
• Isn't it too late to publish a compilation of 2005 posts?
• Why are you trying to make money off this?
• "The blogosphere is far too dynamic to be captured in a book"
• Where are the 'best posts' from Mister Snitch?
• Can all the "best blog posts" of a year really be compiled?
• What makes a 'weak' post?
• Isn't it true that most blog posts aren't even worth reading?
• Were all the posts submissions?
• If there's so much poor-quality stuff out there, why were almost all of the submissions included?
• How did you end up with "better-quality posts" than an average Carnival?
• How can you make the collection compelling and readable?
• I don't agree with the pecking order you've established.
• What about all the other 'best blog' contests?
• Couldn't you just round up the 'best blogs', and let me find the 'best posts' for myself?
• How can I help this project succeed?

1) Who's included?

We're including almost all of what was submitted, as we promised. Some sites that had multiple submissions had to be pruned back (anyone who likes a site will go looking for more, anyway). And a few links just didn't make the cut, as far as we were concerned. But basically, if you submitted, you'll see the post or at least a similar post from the same site. (We were going to stop at 100, but we're well beyond that. Had we stopped at our original goal, we'd have done this collection a disservice.)

We have made the "best of the best" of the posts self-evident, by means of placement and subject grouping. Also, the most outstanding posts of this collection will be included in the printed version (which cannot include all submissions). [return to FAQ] [return to top]

2) Will we do it again?

If it's widely seen as valuable, we'll probably be incliined to refine the effort, expand it, and repeat what worked for next year. The 'net being what it is, we'll know pretty quickly if we achieve traction. [return to FAQ] [return to top]

3) What are in the best interests of the collection as a whole?

To be linked as widely as possible, to be as compelling as possible, to endure as long as possible, and to be seen by as many people as possible. This effort cannot continue if there is no widespread interest, and without a central location for 'best posts' much outstanding writing will be lost each year. [return to FAQ] [return to top]

4) Why is an accompanying annual printed publication necessary?

Publishing this book creates a focus for resources and interest that is vital to this project's long-term goals. The book also enables an outreach beyond the blogosphere, into a braoder readership. Blog posts, at their best, are "outsider literature" deserving of a place alongside "commercial" work.

Finding these posts required a substantial effort. This collection cannot be found by a simple Google search. Most of these posts would not be found on the blogs winning the various "Best Weblog" competitions, which are (mostly) traffic-driving contests. In order to contnue finding such posts, and to find more and better ones in the future, this effort must be sustained. A book helps enable sustainability.

One function of a 'Best Posts' book is to bring these posts to non-English speaking audiences. True, they could use Babelfish or a similar translation service, but how would they find the posts iin the first place? A book also makes these posts available to the majority of the world's people, who still have no access to the Internet. [return to FAQ] [return to top]

5) Isn't it too late to release a compilation of 2005 posts?

That's up to the publisher. It's likely that these compilations will come out in the summer or at Christmas, and extend from midyear-to-midyear. This first book would be a "2005-6" edition, for example.[return to FAQ] [top]

6) Why are you trying to make money off this? Shouldn't blogs be free?

Some blogs are certainly free. Others are (usually thinly) profitable commercial publishing enterprises. Money needs to be made simply because there is a great deal of work (and a modicum of risk) surrounding this sort of endeavor. Sitting near a beautiful blue ocean in Jamaica, that should be free. [return to FAQ] [top]

7) "The blogosphere is far too dynamic to be captured in a book".

Someone actually said this on another blog. And that's one way of looking at it. Another is that there's a proven business model for gathering top-quality material under one umbrella. (Readers' Digest and Time-Life are well-known for repurposing material in this way.) In researching this book, we've learned that not all blog posts 'date' badly, and some serve as good time capsules. Many of them go offline within a year or so, and without some sort of capture they are lost forever. (Several of the posts in this collection had to be deleted or retrieved from Google caches, because their link had gone bad.)

There are other reasons for having this material in book form. A book allows for layout possibilities and reading flexibility (i.e., the park, the tub, Africa) that a computer won't allow. A book gathers everything nicely into one place and generally makes the material easier to read. [return to FAQ] [top]

8) Where are the 'best posts' from Mister Snitch?

We thought we'd never ask. Here they are! [return to FAQ] [top]

9) Can all the "best blog posts" of a year really be compiled?

There are far too many posts created each year to know (or claim) that we've found every excellent one. Besides, the concept of "best" is too subjective to stand much scrutiny.

However, if you ask: Can we compile a representation of a year's best posts?, the answer is: Certainly! And that's really what the "Best Blog Posts" compilation is. [return to FAQ] [top]

10) But aren't blog posts pretty 'disposable'? Why compile them?

It's true that most posts have the halflife of a dead flounder in the sun. However, the sheer volume of posting alone suggests that exceptions to the rule must exist.

Some posts can encapsulate a moment, or define a year. Humorous posts, if they're truly funny today, should get a laugh tomorrow. The value of collecting the best samples of a year's work is suggested by the Internet Wayback Machine, which archives old sites. These posts are a curiosity today, but in ten years they might well be of much greater value.

The Nonist's Jaime Morrison tells us: "I've read many great blog posts this year, or at least I assume I must have, since I'm still online everyday endlessly cycling through sites. But it's such a time sensitive sort of medium, great posts come and are almost instantly swallowed by others... it's easy to forget."

For those who think that the 'Big Blogs' only link to other Big Blogs, it may surprise you to learn that a significant number of the posts linked by Instapundit during '05 are already 'missing links'. Probably some worthwhile ideas worth reviewing have been lost forever. The 'net is still a place of quickly changing fortunes, cooking up fresh opportunities daily. No one has anything 'sewed up' by a good margin, and the idea that data lasts forever is a myth. [return to FAQ] [top]

11) What makes a post not worth consideration?

Weak posts usually suffer from a poor approach and writing, rather than a poor choice of subject. Many bloggers either don't have the time to write well (understandably), or they lack the chops (not everyone writes for a living). Good writing is primarily in the re-writing. A good post requires no additional clarification. At best it should delight and surprise. Its meaning should be transparent and compelling.

"Gotcha" posts, where someone on the opposite side of the political sphere is caught in a stumble, are generally not moments for the ages. Writing must stand on its own, and not depend on the charged (and fleeting) passions of the moment. Too many posts, in retrospect, just don't hold up. [return to FAQ] [top]

12) I keep hearing that most blog posts aren't even worth reading. Is that true?

"90% of anything is junk", or so the old saw goes. (Maybe more, depending on who you ask.) That includes blogs, clothes, shoes, jobs, etc. But that's the point of this collection - to capture some of that 10%. [return to FAQ] [top]

13) Were all the posts from submissions?

No. We did a good deal of research, using various tools and plain hard work. Some sites, especially Baseline, checked for posts they had linked to throughout the year, and sent us their findings. [return to FAQ] [top]

14) If there's so much poor-quality stuff out there, why were almost all of the submissions included?

Here's our dilemna: If we treated this compliation like a regular Carnival, including all comers, readers might pass it by. Carnivals become bloated with submissions they're obliged to include. This leaves it to the reader to sort out what's worthwhile, forcing each reader to become an editor. In other words, Carnivals ask most readers to work harder than they should have to, or are willing to.

On the other hand: Weeding out submissions imposes an irreversible editorial bias. And this collection is based on broad support, not a juried (narrow) selection. This mandates inclusivess, because why would anyone support this effort if their favorite posts were not included?

It's important to encourage a broad base of contributors, to engage as many eyes and tastes as possible in the task of finding worthwhile posts. We cannot possibly be in enough places to see a representative range. This compilation is a bottom-up effort rather than a top-down imposition of tastes. It's primarily about the Best Posts, but it is also about new or unempowered voices. [return to FAQ] [top]

15) Well, how did you end up with "better-quality posts" than an average Carnival?

• Because this is an annual collection, each blog's best effort is captured, not just whatever had been written most recently. This meant better content than most Carnivals' fare.

• For this contest, most contributors were willing and eager to support posts that were not their own. That came about partly because continual drum-beating in support of one's own posts was not necessary to insure their inclusion. This was not a zero-sum game in which one blogger's inclusion meant another's exclusion. [return to FAQ] [top]

16) But, even with better-quality posts - if you're all-inclusive, how did you make the collection compelling and readable?

As we assessed the submissions, we created categories for them. Some categories seemed to comprise more compelling posts than others. Those we placed at the beginning, working our way down to categories with less-compelling posts.

Within each category, we likewise placed the posts we deemed 'best' at the top. This is how we edited and elevated the 'best' work without excluding items that some will prefer. [return to FAQ] [top]

17) I don't agree with the pecking order you've established. I see some posts at the bottom that I like better than the ones you placed at the top.

Folks who feel we've botched the job won't give us their support for next year. But, if enough people approve of our overall performance, we can go at it again with their help. We'll see what the public decides. Remember, though - the only reason for anything to be missing altogether is that you didn't suggest it. [return to FAQ] [top]

18) What about all the other 'best blog' contests?

Those contests rate entire blogs, but they don't single out posts representative of each blog's best effort.

Many of those contests are traffic-driving affairs: The blog that sends the most traffic to the award host's site wins. A traffic-driving contest has its merits - a site that can drive a lot of traffic may have a large, loyal readership for a good reason. Then again, we all know that popularity is not necessarily indicative of excellence.

Often, the voting in these contests has little or nothing to do with rewarding excellence at all. For example, we've seen posts on politically-charged sites urging their readers to vote for a particular blog just because the 'other (political) side' should not allowed to win. In such cases, winning a 'blog contest' is a vindication of one's political beliefs, and nothing more.

It should also be noted that a blog may contain some excellent posts but not be an excellent blog, simply because the author is unable or unwilling to blog frequently. No "best blog" award can recognize such a blog.

Many outstanding blog authors don't have the time to cultivate an audience. Or, if they do, they may not want to harass their readers into casting votes for them day after day. For many reasons, the larger "blog awards" leave many excellent blogs and blog posts unheralded. [return to FAQ] [top]

19) Couldn't you just round up the 'best blogs', and let me find the 'best posts' for myself?

The 'best blogs' don't necessarily have the best posts! For example, we think Instapundit is a terrific blog. But it does not have 'great' posts, because what Prof. Reynolds is trying to do is quickly inform you of an important post he's seen elsewhere. (That post might itself be a 'great' post, or it might just advance some story he is following.) His posts generally read something like this. Other sites might focus on great community interaction, while the posts themselves are no more than average. There are many reasons why a blog might be one of the 'best' blogs, without having the 'best' posts.

Here's a crude example of this principle: Let's compare this blogpulse list of "2005's top blogs" -

1) Boing Boing 2) Engadget 3) Michelle Malkin 4) Albino Blacksheep 5) Instapundit.com 6) Power Line 7) Gizmodo 8) Think Progress 9) Political Animal 10) Slashdot 11) Little Green Footballs 12) Eschaton 13) PostSecret 14) AMERICAblog 15) Captain's Quarters 16) Talking Points Memo 17) Penny Arcade 18) Business Opportunities Weblog 19) Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger 20) Gawker 21) BuzzMachine 22) The Huffington Post | The Blog 23) Informed Comment 24) The Volokh Conspiracy 25) Wonkette

...with its list of the blogs on which "2005's top posts" actually appeared -

1) Jenny Elkind 2) Instapundit.com 3) AMERICAblog 4) Krautboy/LiveJournal/Star Wars costumes 5) Committee to Protect Bloggers 6) Whatever 7) Broken Toys 8) Europhobia 9) Electronic Frontier Foundations 10) Wicked Wish 11) Batesline 12) Bruce Schneier 13) Engadget 14) Wicked Wish 15) Min Jung Kim 16) The Abstract Factory 17) Instapundit.com 18) Michelle Malkin 19) Steve Gilliard News Blog 20) Ongoing 21) Steve Pavlina's Personal Development Blog 22) John Battelle's Searchblog 23) EFF: Deep Links 24) Michelle Malkin 25) Daring Fireball

The 25 top-trafficked blogs produced only four of the 25 top-trafficked posts.

What does this mean?

• It indicates how the top fish in the ecosystem depend on the lesser fish (as much if not more than the reverse).
• It suggests that finding the "top blogs" will not necessarily lead to finding the "top posts". [return to FAQ] [top]

20) How can I help this project succeed?

If you are a blogger, there are two ways you can help this project succeed:

1) You can include one of the banners shown here in a post or in your sidebar. Since this is a post of long-term value, please consider placing it in your sidebar.

2) You can help us find posts for future compilations by placing one of these buttons in your sidebar. These buttons announce you as a sponsor, and drive reciprocal traffic back to your site.

Here's how it works. The buttons lead to a post designed to briefly inform readers about this series of compilations. Readers are invited to leave URLs where they found excellent posts, for consideration. In that same post, every site with a button in their sidebar is prominently linked as a 'Best Posts' sponsor.

If you incorporate one of these buttons, let us know and send us a link (email mistersnitch [at] hotmail [dot] com). The link can be to your front page or any page you wish, but we suggest a post saying something about your support for the 'Best Posts' concept along with a list of your site's own 'best posts'. (Blogs using the larger buttons and offering better placements get reciprocally higher positions in the 'sponsors' list.)

Assuming we do come through with a book, publicity from its publication will be used to drive traffic to this post. We will also take out ads on other blogs specifically requesting links to be considered for future books. In this way, we expect this 'contribution' post to drive reciprocal traffic to our sponsors. It's our way of saying thanks for their support.

If you are not a blogger, you could help by mentioning 'Mister Snitch' and this 'Best Posts' project on any other sites you visit, (when appropriate, of course!). Any links to our front page will always lead to the 'Best Posts' collection. [return to FAQ] [top]

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Best Posts of 2005 banners:

Copy and paste any of the codes below into a post or sidebar to help us announce the 'Best Posts of 2005'.


Code for 300 x 61, animated/large:

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Code for 240 x 49, animated/medium:

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Code for 300 x 61, static/large:

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Code for 240 x 49, static/medium:

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Code for 150 x 31, static/small:

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Code for 80 x 14, static/nano:

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Buttons for sponsors:

Copy and paste any of the codes below into your sidebar to help us find the best posts for future compilations. Email us (mistersnitch [at] hotmail [dot] com) with a link to your blog and we will reciprocate. (We'd like to link to your "best of blog" post but will link to anywhere you choose on your site.)


Code for 80 x 15, small/sponsor:

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Code for 150 x 35, large/sponsor:

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Best of Mister Snitch! - 2005

• Humor

Hurricane (after Dylan)
Whodunit?
Top ten rejected Jersey state slogans
Letting go of Christo
Hoboken changes name to HoBeCa!
Bill Gates changes his name to THE Gates
Batman vs. Bayonne
Bet you can't indict just one!
Hulk sue!
Men in Black (capes)
The Greatest Post Ever
Proper usage of the word 'Bling'
Blog whore of the year
If Dr. Seuss wrote 'Star Trek'
Lapsnorkling!
Best. Complaint. Letter. Ever.
Exclusive: Meatwad to replace MSNBC 'Katrina' logo
Dating and popcorn magnates - one and the same?
She was kind of evil. But she was our kind of evil.
Well, here's something you don't see every day
More Amazon madness
Sybil's Cave to become Batcave!

• Politics

Bad press for the President
Global warming nesting dolls
The debating game
In defense of the wingnut
Baby, we were born to walk
The 2005 Hoboken municipal election
No respect
Maybe it's just us
Deconstructing 'Street Fight': Why some insurgent candidacies take hold, while others fail
Famous Hoboken resident runs for Governor
Bet you can't indict just one

• Essays

How to write for Pixar
Images we found on Jan Peters' website
Love Potion Number Ten
There really is one born every minute!
The basic laws of human stupidity
Heirs to the Horn & Hardart
Sentimental journey
So you want to be a newspaper publisher
Our After 9/11 site is online
Stevens in collapse?
I say it's spinach, and I say - more, please!
A tale of two Tillies
The hidden face of 'public interest'
Podcasts - Small videos, big profits
Holy income property!
How to make a Fantastic comic book adaptation
When Han Solo left, he took the Force with him
The giant foam finger of fate
Revenge is a dish best served by Reply Mail

• About blogging

What makes a blog stand out
Blogging styles and traffic stats
The difference between bloggers & MSM
Why we linked to Camp Katrina
Of unspoken longings and site traffic
Think globally, blog locally
Blogging advice (not from us – mostly)
The Manolo, he does the marketing!
The Manolo, he loves the capitalism!
General advice to bloggers

[return to FAQ] [return to top]

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Categories: Best+posts+of+2005+compilation