First, let me start off by thanking everyone who participated in the Carnival, either by nominating someone or by voting. You gave us all a bunch of great posts to revisit, all 'winners' in their own right. There were 49 posts nominated, and the Rainers whittled the list down to 11 of their favorites. A three way tie for 8th caused us to expand this list from 10 to 11.
No one can accuse us of being a shallow or insensitive group. When I look at all of the top 11, I see compassion and passion, both about our profession and about our concern for others. If you are new to ActiveRain, here is a GREAT reading list to get your familiarized with some of the things we've talked about, and some stellar examples of what a blog can be. You'll find diverse voices here, all delivering compelling messages.
The votes have been tallied and YOU selected Craig Schiller's The Gift of Tears as being the most memorable post of 2006. As someone who was brought to tears of my own reading Craig's post, I know what William Collins saw when he nominated it. If you missed it, make sure you have Kleenex nearby.
The other posts you selected as those that touched you in 2006:
- We Need to Charge for What We Know, Not What We Do by Lenn Harley. Lenn reminds us of what we are reallly selling. I happened to nominate this post.
- An Example of Plagiarism Right Here on ActiveRain by Kristal Kraft. Lenn Harley nominated this post because she thought it demonstrated the serious problems we face on the internet. My editorial: that particular 'event' rallied the community as we went through it.
- ActiveRainaholics Anonymous by Jay Thompson gave me a belly laugh, and that is why I nominated it. If you feel out of control, read Jay's post.
- Your Values Are Your Brand: Part 1 by Jeff Turner. Jessica Hughes nominated this one because she felt this poignant post was profound and demonstrated integrity and values. We agreed with you Jessica.
- Jeff Turner delivered again, this time with I Promise: Those are Some Strong Words, nominated by Margaret Rome.
- Mary McKnight's Real Estate Blogging Rookie Mistakes. William Collins picks another winner for a post he felt was one of the most informative and educational.
- Kristal Kraft makes another appearance for her post Circling the Drain, Jessica Hughes second winning nomination.
- The list would not be complete without something by Broker Bryant, whose So what do you to do justify your high commission elicited lots of feedback from the Rainers. Bryant knows his audience (us) and nominated this one himself.
- Jessica Hughes had Jeff Belonger in tears for being funny, with Rich Came to Denver. I spent most of that day laughing, and Jessica had me in stitches. Apparently many of you felt the same way.
- Last but not least, Jay Thompson nominated How I Spammed ActiveRain by Paul Sullins. This is the oldest post that was nominated, and Paul was one of the early people instrumental in the growth of the network. This nomination was seconded by Matt Heaton.
Congratulations to the bloggers who wrote these posts and shared them with the rest of us. Big thanks to those who saw something good and took the time to nominate. And to those of you who voted.
I am hoping that these ActiveRain carnivals are something that the community would like to see continue in the future. I have had great fun organizing them, but I think it is time to let this evolve and grow under different peoples' direction and creative vision. I've asked Rich Jacobson if he would be the organizer of next month's carnival and he has graciously accepted the task. There are others who have volunteered to host in the past, and Rich will pass along the torch to someone else the following month. I'll be more than happy to advise and assist anyone who wants to organize a carnival in the future. Believe me, I have some thoughts on the topic! So with that, I sign out and thank all of you who have participated in the last few months.
award photo by Scott Beale / Laughing Squid and modified by me.
P.S. AR has the official poll results, just so everyone knows this was audited.
Craig!
Congratulations to all. They really are memorable.
Thanks for all you did for this and all of the Carnivals, contests, blog tours, etc. Maureen Francis.
Thanks Maureen and Dmitry. I greatly appreciate the entry.
I love this place.
Lenn
Maureen, You really did an excellent job putting this all together. I really appreciate the time and effort you put into this.
And the winner, well what can I say, Craig's post, was by far, the the most emotional and heart felt post I have ever read on AR. I am more than pleased that the community agreed and choose this to be number one. Well deserved win. I hope his brother is looking down with a smile on his face.
Oops! Forgot to congratulate all the winners. What a great selection of posts.
Maureen - OUTSTANDING job putting this together!
Congratulations to Craig for the winning post, and to all the others as being outstanding as well. I couldn't have picked a more deserving group of posts to be selected as winners! Each one of them was terrific, and my thanks to all for sharing as they do in their posts.
Happy New Year to All!
Ann
I totally agree - CONGRATULATIONS and THANK YOU! MF
congrats to Craig as well - that post TOTALLY DESERVED IT!! and to the rest of the winners as well.
Congrats to all. What a super collection of posts. Thanks to those that voted for my little post.
And a big giant thanks to Mo for pulling this together! I *know* it was a TON of work!
Hi Maureen,
Great job as usual. Rich will have some BIG shoes to fill but I'm sure he'll do a wonderful job.
Congratulations to Craig and all the winners.
I have lots of reading to get caught up on now...
Great post Maureen.
BIG thanks to my pal Mitchell for the nod. Gotta love him!
I have lots of reading to get caught up on now...
Great post Maureen.
BIG thanks to my pal Mitchell for the nod. Gotta love him!
Fantastic job Maureen! As you said, "When I look at all of the top 11, I see compassion and passion, both about our profession and about our concern for others." It definitely reflects the best of the Rain.
Of course, Craig's post was extremely deserving of top position. It took a lot of courage for him to bare his soul. I'm sure lots of tissues were used that day. I must have used up about 3 just trying to get through it as I couldn't see to read.
I am humbled and honored... and a bit tearful. I have been working on what I thought would be my post for tomorrow. I think I might have to change it.
THANK YOU Maureen for thinking of this... and thank you all for creating a spot in the cyber world where sharing onself feels safe and the right thing to do.
Me
Thanks for the work on this Carnival. I missed the winning post, and am pleased to be directed to it today, kleenex in hand.
Congratulations and thanks to the winners, you have all taught us how to make AR valuable.
Boy AR sure knows how to pick those articles. They are wonderful. Congratulations to all the winners. :)
Craig, that post brought tears to my eyes when I read it. I was unable to comment for a spell. I had to wait and go back and make a comment. You deserved to win this. You really did. :) That post was heart wrenching. And like my husband said your Brother is looking down at you and smiling very wide. :)
MF: Thanks for putting this together I KNOW this was not easy to do. :) You cracked me up with: <"Bryant knows his audience (us) and nominated this one himself."> I still think he should have not have done that. So the NEXT time he says IMHO I must question that. LOL. :)
TLW...ROAR!
Good job, everyone, and special congrats to Craig.
Thanks again, Maureen, for your diligence and hard work. Always a pleasure!
Thank you to LENN & JESSICA for nominating my blogs. I do appreciate the thought that you liked them. The plagiarism one took about 5 minutes to compose in my state of anger. The Drain took much more thought and time to pull together. I wish there was never a need for discussing plagiarism and copyright infringement. It's a sad state of affairs when people who are supposedly committed to a higher standard of living...aren't. Hopefully this post brought attention to this and will prevent future occurrences.
Craig's post was outstanding as well as all the others mentioned. It must have been a tough job to pull this together, thanks MF for coming up with yet another community building activity. You certainly are the "cruise director" for this 3 hour tour. ;)
kk
Maureen,
Thanks for the post and all the hard work that went into this Carnival. A great way to forge ahead in 2007.
As diligent as I am in reading blogs, especially from my favorite colleagues, I missed the #1 blog. I really appreciate all of you who read, condense, award and share so that we don't miss the best of the best. Thanks.
Thanks everyone for your kind words.
To the MEMORABLES, I have a post up on mioaklandcounty.com that mirrors this so that the outside world can see it. If you have an outside blog, I would be happy to add a link to you there. Just leave me a message with what site you want me to link to...
Wow, great post, but even better picture!!! I'm in picture envy right now!!!
Thanks for doing the legwork and once I get over the cool picture I promise to read each and every post!!
Maureen, what an incredible undertaking, you deserve a bouquet of flowers!
Congrats to each and everyone!
As someone very new to AR having just found out about it from Ardell's post in Rain City Guide this week, I am looking forward to some excellent reading, and what a great place to start!
Thanks everyone!
I'm pretty new, so I have some reading to catch up with!
Here's to a fabulous 2007!!!!