The Gay Bloggies, part 2
I’m competing in the Gay Bloggies this year. It’s in the form of a webgame. A webgame where people vote.
More than a year ago I was nominated for the the same awards, similar to the Weblog Awards that are announced every year at the SXSW conference except with categories like “Best porn star,” “Sexiest Queer candy” and sponsored by a bunch of gay porn all-male adult entertainment websites. I didn’t win the “Best Gay Asian” category, and after a year of therapy and mild sedatives to dull away the thought of being the “WORST GAY ASIAN EVER,” I’ve moved on with my life.
When they invited me to join the contest, I hesitated. Blogging now is very different than when the first community of bloggers developed in 2000 - it was a time before 9/11, corporate blogging or social networks like MySpace gave non-computer nerds an internet presence. Nowadays, it feels like people are more self-aware about putting things up on the Internet to reveal to the entire world, and rightfully so - the blogs I skim across now seem to have blog titles like “15 WAYS TO MAKE MORE MONEY OFF YOUR BLOG” or “20 WAYS TO EFFECTIVELY ENGAGE YOUR BLOG READERSHIP.” (And yes, there is a little hypocrisy in writing that since creating 8Asians and dabbling in corporate blogging. Thank you for noticing.) Gay blogs in particular seem to be hyper-glossified (thanks for the word, pk) with posts about celebrity gossip or targeted ads for gay cruises or HIV medication. Hey, I’m a blogger that wouldn’t mind getting paid, but that doesn’t necessarily mesh with my vibe, either.
Then I found out they were offering $2,000 for the winner. And subscriptions to gay porn sites, but mostly $2,000. Two thousand dollars is also the answer to the question, “How much money will Ernie sell out to compete in a contest sponsored by what is, essentially, a gay porn portal?” Ding.
So here I am, competing against a former go-go boy and a porn star and a bunch of guys with really good abs and Dan from The Real World: Miami. (A sidenote: Dan actually sent me a really nice e-mail to me, saying that he called into a radio show and was going to “wipe my face on the floor.” Which is really awesome when you think about it - it’s kinda like Omarosa from the Apprentice popping out of the television “The Ring” style and telling you that you totally suck. Kinda.)
I feel like I’m probably not going to win, but it’s an experience I’ll take full advantage of. It’s been a while since I’ve been motivated to write on a regular basis, and I’ll probably repost some of the stuff I’ve written there on LYD as well. You can visit the contest here, but a word of warning - while my content will be tame for the most part, I can’t gaurantee the same about the banner ads and the links and my competition. (In other words, quite possibly NOT SAFE FOR WORK. Alas.)
10 Comments