At a snail's pace...

   I am getting all backed up by my limited access to the Internet. I have several things to address. I want to start with the Vivi awards.
   I did not address the awards prior to them being...um...awarded, for a couple of reasons. First, because I saw how some people were almost pathetic in their self promotion, and I absolutely did not want to look like some of those I saw crawling around J-Land begging for nominations, and then votes. It was really sad how much this meant to some people. I was also saddened that those people, who most desperately needed the attention, the outside affirmation, those for whom it might have been most therapeutic, did not win. Do not let their bitterness affect you.
   Second, because it didn't really mean much in my category. No disrespect meant to the other to blogs that were nominated for 'Marquis of the Blog,' but let's face it, nobody in J-Land had even heard of those guys before the Vivi nomination process began. I can imagine the conversation that took place via e-mail or IM while the organisers were setting up the categories:
   "Hey, let's have a best Canadian journal category."
   "There are Canadian journals?"
   "Sure, AOL is huge in Canada. There's Paul, and... Hey, does anyone else know any Canadian journalers?"
   There was even a message posted on the AOL journals message board to that effect. I was the one who went over to Technorati, made a search for the journals.aol.ca domain, and posted some results in reply. Don't get me wrong, I think the other two guys who were nominated write great journals. It's just that of those people who participated in the voting, most of them had at least heard of me before, and the other two journals were brand new to them. Best outcome from this situation, Jeremy and Mark have now received some attention. AOL J-Land has expanded to include them. If that has happened in the majority of the categories, and I think that it has, then these awards were truly a success.
   And, don't think I'm not pleased to have won. Personal validation is a part of what blogging is all about, and all the congratulatory comments and e-mails are very gratifying. But, I certainly would not have been sitting here holding my own personal pity party if I had lost. It's just the Internet, people.
   Next year's goal, to be nominated in a different category.

   On a related topic, why was it so hard to find Canadian journals to nominate? There have to be more than three out there. There are no official, public statistics available about how many AOL journals there are, but a source I consider knowledgeable estimates that the number could be on the order of several hundred thousand. Let's be conservative, and say 100,000. Some estimates say that as many as 66% of the blogs in existence are abandoned, having not been updated in more than sixty days. So let's say there are 34,000 active AOL blogs (OK, that's really way conservative. There are, for sure, a lot more than that. Just go with me for the argument's sake).
   (Think about that number for a minute. There are probably more than 34,000 active AOL journals. Quite likely two or three times that many. We had 901 votes for the Vivi awards [and that number can probably be reduced as well, as I am sure there are several people who worked out a way to circumvent the security in order to place several votes for themselves]. In reality, J-Land is but a tiny beauty mark on the face of the AOL journals Cindy Crawford. But I digress.)
   So, let's say there are 34,000 active AOL journals. The population of Canada is approximately 10% of that of The United States, and the proportion holds out over many statistics. If there are X number of something in the USA, there are likely X/10 of that something in Canada. Logically, there should be about 3,500 (or as many as 10,000) Canadian journals. Taking the same ratio, about 90 of them should be known in J-Land. We could find three.
   So, where are all the Canadian journals? There may, in fact, be fewer Canadian journals out there than we might expect, for a couple of reasons. Canadians subscribing to AOL get AOL Canada. Our software is slightly different, and our main information screen is different. It is possible that AOL Canada has not focussed on journals as aggressively as the parent company has in the US, resulting in fewer Canadian users being aware of their availability. As well, those Canadian users that do find out about AOL journals may not, as I have, get a journals.aol.ca address. I originally created two journals: this one, and a private test journal I use for fine tuning the look of entries before I publish them. This journal has an aol.ca address, but my test journal has an aol.com address. Why? I have no idea. That's just the way they came out when I created them. So, there may be hundreds, even thousands of Canadian journalers out there who are not immediately identifiable as such by their journal address.

   A little bit more searching, and I am still having trouble locating Canadian Journals. I did come across these:

Ebanks Adventures: written by the 'caymanadians,' a couple that are currently living in the Cayman Islands. It is not entirely clear, but one or both of them may originally be from Canada.

Rants n Raves from Canada: This one might fall into that category of 'abandoned blogs.' We'll see.

Juanaco's Journal: This one is fairly new. Although it is not explicitly stated, the subject matter appears to be Canadian.

My Journal: In this on it is explicitly stated. The journal of a grade 7 student. Almost a month since the last entry. Another one to wait and see about.

All About This Girl: Another young Canadian journaler. Another one that hasn't been updated for a little while.

the brown fly's views: A journal started by a new immigrant to Canada from the Philippines. Only one entry so far.

   I will bring you new Canadian journals from time to time, as I come across them. If you run across any, please let me know. And, hey, if you are a Canadian AOL journaler reading this, drop me a comment to say Hi.

tags:Blogs,Blogging