Trollheart

There's no doubt that it's hard to whittle this down to one entry when there are so many people updating so many journals – an embarrassment of riches, you might say. And of course, I haven't read every single post in every single journal, nothing like it. However, for sheer oddness this one I think wins it. Other than Funny Post of the Month, I don't think I've ever before awarded this to a member who posted in someone else's journal, but that's just what Machine did when he wrote this review of It's a Big Joyous Celebration, Let's Stir the Honeypot by Teen Suicide in Occulthawk's journal. Even the Hawk approved of it! Sure, it could have done with, oh I don't know, some page breaks or formatting, and makes one of my traditional walls of text look like a small country stile, but hey, we're not going to be that pedantic, are we? Are we? Great review, and a well deserved shared award, you two guys. But mostly Machine, of course.

http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ml#post1916807


Funny Post

of the Month
The winner of this fought off stiff competition, because by Jiminy, there were some funny posts made this month!
We had this one from Merit, in response to a question (not sure whether serious or just trolling) from Occult: (Note the last line in Merit's response!)
Speaking of Occult, he wasn't short of the odd funny quote himself. Check this out!

Mindfulness of course has a shot with this:

But in the end, the award had to go to
Rubber Soul, for this unintentional but hilarious mistake in his journal! And special shout-out to Akai, who spotted it, because I never would have otherwise. Thanks man!

Hard, for once, to figure out who to award

to. There are really four nominees, these being Rubber Soul, Mindfulness, Machine and Merit. But in the end, I think I have to go with Mindfulness, because of the huge improvement in his journal and also the amount of work he's put into it this month. Take a bow!


There's only one possible recipient of this award, and it has to be the return of the Ki(ng) with his new video games awards journal. Kind of thought he might be gone for good, but no, he's back and firing on all cylinders. Welcome back, man.


Just to show that there's still a decent mix of the old and the young* here, we have new journals from
Rubber Soul
Mindfulness
Merit
Exo
Machine

and continuing brilliance from
Occulthawk
Neapolitan
Goofle
Innerspaceboy
MicShazam
Mondo
and of course Blank

* both of which refer to journals, not members. If you've had a journal before then you're considered old, if you're starting one this year, you're young, so rejoice!


I mentioned this last month, and now it's time to kick it into gear. Basically, it's pretty simple. Last one vertical wins the award! Nah, seriously: this year I'll be doing my best to read more of your journals, get into them more, and make a determination as to which is the best of the year. It's for 2018, but I will be taking into account previous work input. I'll be looking for basically four things:
a) Good, insightful writing
b) Reasonably regular updates
c) evidence of passion for what you write
d) Decent knowledge of what you're writing about

I'll explain those a bit more shortly. I want to make it clear that I will NOT be taking into account views, as this is not necessarily any indication of quality, and that's what I'm looking for. If your intention is to appeal to the lowest common denominator by, say, posting your most outrageous YouTube videos or all your albums, fine, do that. But don't expect to be considered. For a journal to win the uncoveted Journal of the Year award its author will have to do more than just slap a bunch of videos or images together.

So what will you have to do, if you want to win? Well, as I said above, you need to fulfil certain criteria I've established, and I'll take them in order now.

Good, insightful writing: Nobody is expecting you to write a novel or a treatise on anything (though of course some members here have that capability and talent, should they wish to utilise it) but use proper grammar, spelling and have some sort of, if not theme flowing through your journal, then at least ensure it makes sense. Make sure I can follow it, understand what it's about, what you're trying to say, what your plan is, if you have one, what you want to achieve with it. Try not to just quote articles or link to them; write your own interpretations of them if you use them, but better yet, just use them (if at all) as a source for your own words. Use humour by all means, but don't become Norg. Nuff said.

Reasonably regular updates: Not everyone can update every week, nor do I expect it. You do what you can, when you can. But for a journal to be considered for this award, I need to see some sort of effort to keep it regular, keep it current. If you haven't updated for six months, well, don't expect to be considered, unless you up your game this year. And even if you do kick up the regularity, don't do it sporadically. A journal that is well written and updated twice a month or more will receive more attention from me than one which is well written, updated in February, then not again till September, and so on.

Passion: Who the hell writes unless they care about what they're writing? Unless they're getting paid to write dry old copy, of course. But here, if you have bothered to begin a journal, you surely enjoy or have an interest in what you're writing about. That should come through in your writing. If it doesn't look like you're really that bothered, or you're not putting in the effort, that will be a mark against you. You can do that, obviously – nobody is stopping you – but you will hurt your chances of being considered for any awards.

Knowledge: Anyone can blag their way through a journal, cribbing information from Wiki, RYM, Discogs or any other source. But if you really don't know your subject that will show, and will go against you. Besides, why would you bother to or want to write about something of which you have no experience or knowledge? The old writer's adage, “write what you know” has never been so true and appropriate. Of course, you can research and gain knowledge, but you shouldn't write about something before or until you know what you're writing about.

What's the prize? What do you mean, what's the prize? An award of course.
Oh all right, if you insist.
The winner will receive a download file containing his or her choice of five complete discographies (or as much as I can find available) of his or her favourite artist(s).
Second prize will be three discographies
Third prize will be one discography.

Prizes can be delivered by whatever method you wish, though file sharing sites are probably the best option. That can be discussed with the winners.

So, if you want to be in with a chance of winning, either keep up the good work you're doing now, step it up if you're not exactly pushing yourself, or improve what you are doing. Results will be announced just before Christmas, so you might have yourself a nice little Christmas present.

I will allow people to vote if they want, but I tried this before and nobody bothered, so I wouldn't be surprised if there was no interest. At any rate, even if you do vote, it's my choice so I'll only use your votes as a basic guide, maybe a tie-break in the event I can't choose. For your information, and to either spur you on or make you grin with pride, the following are at the moment all in the running:

(These are in alphabetical order by member name)
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ravaganza.html
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...nnerspace.html
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...e-listens.html
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ramblings.html
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ong-picks.html
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...s-spotify.html
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...018-bitch.html
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...p-lighter.html
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...55-2017-a.html

If your journal is not here, don't despair. This is merely a basic list of the ones that have impressed me so far, and there's almost a year to go. Some journals are as yet too early to be considered, but do show promise. Others may not be here simply because I haven't had the time to read through them and see what they're like. Potentially, everyone has a chance to be in this list, but you should also know that journals can drop out of the list. If someone updates furiously for three months and then stops doing so for six, for example, that journal is going to be in danger of no longer being considered for any awards. Of course, if you've previously had a journal but let it slide, and want to have it considered for an award, you can do that: just get working on that shit.

I should also add, I know some people have an aversion to these sort of friendly competitions and prefer not to be included, so if that's you let me know and I'll remove your journal from the list under consideration. All rights and preferences will be observed and adhered to.

Oh, and no sabotaging anyone else's journal!

So that's it for this first update of 2018.
See you all in a month.
Toodles!

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018