I’m one of the guilty who saw the tweets about 20SB nominations and thought “huh, I should do that” and never did. So I am officially not allowed to complain about the lack of diversity in the final nominees. At first I was surprised to see so few names on there, but then I wasn’t actually – cause I could have said something and I didn’t.

I do however comment fairly often on my followers blogs, I am a semi active 20sb member, and I try to blog consistently. Recognition is always fantastic to recieve, but I certainly don’t blog to get awards. The 20sb awards are really cool and I like the democratic system. My little blog got nominated for crying out loud!!! As fir the “popular” 20sb members gettin more than a few nom’s I think it’s awsome and well deserved.

Great post, btw!

Now I’m trying again… and this whole drama reminds me of how far we get from writing sometimes. That can be a good thing (look at all the support for Brandy that came about these past few days) or a bad thing.

Liz

I also want to thank LiLu, Lovely, Jennifer, and Erin for reaching out to me personally as well.

I’ve really appreciated everyone’s who’s been commenting thus far!
At this point I think we all can agree that 20sb has been built up on a bedrock of truly awesome people. They have poured so much of their heart not only into their own blogs and relationships but also into the making 20sb the amazing place it is now and are continuing to shape into a fricking awesome place.
20sb is still learning and still growing. Just like we are in our own lives making this transition, so is our community. We have people doing phenomenal things and there is infinite possibilities laid in store for us for our future. But we have to be active in the community. As I mentioned, I myself am guilty of complacency (which is a good part of why I was so shocked to be nominated). Though it can be intimating, more of us need to step up and be active members of the community. As MinD has pointed out, yes sometimes it feels that you put so much in but still don’t see the results. We had a pathetic number of people involved in the nominating process — and I think seeing that should really inspire us to step up. I’m still not saying that the nominees didn’t deserve their recognition because they surely do! They worked hard to be where they are.

I stand by my statement that we need to spend more time, regardless of award time or not, and just recognize those around us who are doing great things, who are great writers, and who are just genuinely great people. 20sb is such an amazing place already — as Brandy pointed out the love and compassion that can come when you ask for help can be overwhelming — I can’t wait to see what will happen and what can happen when even more people decide to step up and really own it.

Anyway. Thanks again for everyone thus far!