Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Ratings Season: The ABA's Blawg 100 Amici



The ABA Journal produces an annual list of what it rates as the 100 best legal blogs.  They are soliciting advice on which blawgs readers think they should include  in the Blawg 100.  They invite interested people to use the Blawg 100 Amici formto tell them about a blawg——whether or not it is this one——that you read regularly that you think other lawyers should know about. If there is more than one blawg you want to support, please send us additional amici through the form. The ABA Journal editors in charge of this project promise to include some of the best comments in their Blawg 100 coverage, within their 500-character limit.

Editors make the final decisions about what's included in the Blawg 100; the editors insist that not all blawgs that receive the most amici are the ones that make the list. A blawg with no amici support at all can still make the list. "Friend-of-the-blawg" briefs are due no later than Friday, Sept. 9.  Please vote for your favorite law blog (whether or not it is this one!).

This  FORM from their web site:

Blawg 100 Amici

We're working on our annual list of the 100 best legal blogs, and we'd like your advice on which blawgs you think we should include.

Use the form below to tell us about a blawg—not your own—that you read regularly and think other lawyers should know about. If there is more than one blawg you want to support, feel free to send us more amici through the form. We'll be including some of the best comments in our Blawg 100 coverage. But keep your remarks pithy—you have a 500-character limit.

Friend-of-the-blawg briefs are due no later than Sept. 9, 2011.

About Blawg 100 Amici

Blawggers, by all means tell your readers about Blawg 100 Amici and invite them to send us messages on behalf of your blawg.

But please know that we disregard amici from:

• Blawggers who nominate their own blawgs or blawgs to which they have previously contributed posts.
• Wives and husbands who nominate their spouses’ blawgs.
• Employees of law firms who nominate blawgs with their own firm’s branding.
• Public relations professionals in the employ of lawyers or law firms who nominate their clients’ blawgs.
• Pairs of blawggers who have clearly entered into a gentlemen’s agreement to nominate each other.

There is no specific criteria that a blawgger can meet to be guaranteed a spot on the Blawg 100. And we think our list would suffer if there were. A blawg’s whole can be greater than the sum of its parts, and a blawg that never fails to post that daily update, has a beautiful design and an unwavering topical focus can very often have less of an impact than another blawg that is less consistent on all fronts.

That said, please keep these criteria in mind when submitting Blawg 100 amici: • We’re only interested in blawgs in which the author is recognizable as a lawyer or law student in the vast majority of his or her posts.
• The blawg should be written with an audience of lawyers or law students – rather than potential clients or potential law students – in mind.
• The majority of the blawg’s content should be unique to the blawg and not cross-posted or cut and pasted from other publications.
• We are not interested in blawgs that more or less exist to promote the author’s products and services.

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