The Bloggers With The Most To Say
Victory for the Blogosphere, AKA You're Awesome.
In September, I entered a blogging competition for a national wedding magazine. I made it through to the finals with six other girls and had to blog for the magazine for 6 months. The public vote came in July. Getting to know the other contestants I learned one thing: none of them had personal blogs or any form of social media other than Facebook. This was where the blogosphere stepped in.
An insanely awesome, ridiculous number of amazing people, MANY of whom come from this community, put up with my shameless plugging all month long and voted EVERY DAY for three weeks straight. The prize? A trip to one of the top 100 resorts in the WORLD, as well as a designer wedding dress and $1000 of jewellery. Craziness.
The results were announced yesterday.
We. Did. It.
I literally went into shock and couldn't breathe for a moment while it sunk in. And then the hate mail started over at the magazine's website.
http://www.weddingbells.ca/blogs/blogger-search/2010/08/03/bride-bl...
I'd had a pretty significant lead for the duration of the voting period, because as we all know the blogging community is AMAZING when it comes to banding together for a good cause or to support one of our own. This counted for an enormous amount of votes which sadly... the non-blogging public doesn't quite get, and decided I must have been "dishonest" and "cheated".
But then something magical happened. An OUTPOURING of supportive messages attacking the hater, standing up for me in a manner which can only be described as epic.
"Haters, be warned. DON’T MESS WITH THE BLOGGING COMMUNITY! Mess with Emily, and you’re messing with hundreds of other people."
"I’m taking this a personal insult!! For me, and the countless people Emily knows all over the world, thanks to her wonderful blog,
voting for her and giving her something amazing such as winning the
competition is a very small way of making up for the fact that we can’t
all come to her wedding!!!!!
You have clearly not read a single thing that Emily has written about these last few months, for if you did you would know that she was not capable of such an act that you are accusing her of! If anyone here is ’shady’ and ‘dark’ it is you, and everyone here reading
knows it’s just bitterness and hatred.EMILY JANE, WE ALL LOVE YOU HERE AND EVERYWHERE YOUR WORDS, AND
LOVE HAVE TOUCHED US!"
"I voted because she’s an amazing woman who would do the exact same thing for me. Emily has a HUGE group of friends and blog followers that supported her throughout this process,
voting every single day. She won this contest fair and square."
"I feel very strongly that the comments on this post (and replies) are a huge indicator of Emily’s friends and blog following. Girlfriend can WRITE, and promote, and encourage, and the blogging community is a POWERFUL thing."
"Well said everyone. Never underestimate the power of the blogosphere. Emily is part of an amazing online community and one of my favorite writers and she puts an awful lot of good energy out into the world and
deserves to win this. Keep your head up Em!"
This is just a handful of the incredible outpour of love and support, and I am floored by how awesome this community continues to be, thanks in large part to 20SB. I honestly feel blessed to be part of this incredible community - so many of you have been there for me when things are craptastic, made me laugh, cheered me on when things are awesome, and believed in me when I couldn't do it for myself. Some of my closest friendships started through blogging and for everything this community is, I am truly thankful.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart!! <3 <3
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