I’m pretty fed up with the Carnival of Real Estate. It is what it is, and there have been times over the past year when it has blown tender kisses toward the sublime. But much too often it has chosen to rut around in the mud, and, in any case, it is much too much of everything to be anything at all.
This is not good.
There is a Carnival of Real Estate Investing and a Consumer-Focused Real Estate Carnival, both of which seem to do a decent job of staying on-topic. The Carnival of Real Estate should be devoted to excellence in real estate weblogging, broadly defined. Instead it has become a Carnival of Solipsism, a space where the inherent subjectivity of judging has given way to an overarching, overreaching subjectivism: The universe is whatever that week’s judge says it is. An entry that would have been judged the best by any rational standard can get buried beneath the judge’s whim, the testy assertion of a right to supplant enduring standards of excellence with a momentary fit of pique.
In rebuttal, one word: Bah!
For a first thing, I am done with the Carnival of Real Estate. I have supported it since its birthing. BloodhoundBlog has entered a post for every new edition, winning, despite everything, more than any other weblog. No more. I will no longer submit posts from BloodhoundBlog to the CoRE. If individual contributors wish to enter their posts, that’s their business, but I will no longer make an official entry from BloodhoundBlog, nor will I enter any of my own posts.
Second, I have recast The Odysseus Medal as a new carnival of real estate weblogging. This is the description of the new carnival from its home page:
A weekly carnival for real estate, mortgage, real property investing and housing weblogs — very broadly defined. The Odysseus Medal is awarded to the highest quality writing in real estate weblogging.
The Odysseus Medal competition will be hosted at BloodhoundBlog every week, and it will be judged by me alone. That is arrogance personified, but by doing things this way webloggers will be assured of a consistent standard of excellence, as determined by a writer well-qualified to judge excellence.
And excellence is all The Odysseus Medal will be concerned with. To be eligible, a weblog post must be about housing or real property, very broadly defined, but, beyond that, it must be crafted to the highest level of quality. There is room in the world for everything, but at the top of the mountain there is space for one thing only, and that one thing must be the best.
Here’s a simple fact: Good writing begets better writing. I expect the brilliant people who write for BloodhoundBlog will tell you that writing here has made them better writers. By making an example of the best writing in the RE.net every week, each of us can learn to be that much better in our own writing.
Near that point, all the BloodhoundBlog contributors except me will be eligible to win The Odysseus Medal. I promise not to play favorites, but I do promise that they will win when they deserve to. As my own little Greek curse, I will get to be the weekly arbiter of excellence, but I will never, ever get to win The Odysseus Medal.
I’ll flesh out rules on The Odysseus Medal page over the next couple of days, but, as you might imagine, there won’t be many. More than one post from the same blog? Why not. From the same author? Can’t you tell the lesser from the greater? Waste my time with spamvertising or half-developed ideas? Very bad idea.
If you write for BloodhoundBlog, the best work you do here will be entered automatically. For everyone else — and for BloodhoundBlog contributors from your home weblogs — get thee hither for the entry form. Deadline is Sunday at 12 Noon MST, with a fudge factor for victims of Daylight Savings Time. Shortly I’ll have Cameron write some voting software so we can also select a People’s Choice Award from my short list of candidates.
If you write well and want to write better, this is the real estate weblogging carnival for you. You’ll know going in that your best work will be recognized for what it is, without having to fear whatever erratic judging standards might come into play in any particular week.
Technorati Tags: blogging, real estate, real estate marketing
Greg Swann says:
And, Boom!, just like that we have an entry. Nothing will be judged until Sunday, but I do admire that hard-charging enterprise.
August 6, 2007 — 6:48 pm
Michael Wurzer says:
The one time I entered the CoRE, I won. I thought about entering again with a few of my better posts but generally lacked incentive as the CoRE seemed more focused on link love than anything else. I am, however, interested in good writing and so hopefully I’ll find reason in my writing to enter here.
August 6, 2007 — 6:48 pm
Greg Swann says:
> I am, however, interested in good writing and so hopefully I’ll find reason in my writing to enter here.
Go for it. You write well, and you reason with great depth.
I’m going to add another prize, The Black Pearl, for the best tool, tip, technique or tactic of the week.
August 6, 2007 — 7:04 pm
Michael Cook says:
Greg,
Your humbleness is only matched by your low sense of self righteousness (j/k). I do admire you for stepping up to fix a problem instead of just complaining like most. Hopefully that first jab wont taint any of my future entries. Good luck with the new Carnival.
August 6, 2007 — 7:26 pm
Greg Swann says:
> Your humbleness is only matched by your low sense of self righteousness
😉
> I do admire you for stepping up to fix a problem instead of just complaining like most.
Have you seen Terry Gilliam’s Brazil? My favorite character is Harry Tuttle, the Robin-Hood-like underground repairman.
August 6, 2007 — 7:51 pm
Jeff Brown says:
Finally, a carnival I’m willing to enter – and let the chips fall where they may. Coming in next to last in this one will be far more rewarding than what I’ve experienced so far.
You’re not as arrogant as you are with your unyielding charge to excellence. Only those who either cannot recognize excellence or resent it will call this arrogant.
Bravo!
August 6, 2007 — 8:38 pm
Jay Thompson says:
Excellent, and thanks!
August 6, 2007 — 10:38 pm
David G from Zillow.com says:
Hi Greg. Sorry to see you leave the CoRE; your participation will be missed as will the example you set when you were the host.
Your new project sounds cool. It is also not a blog carnival – since it only has one host – so why not continue to submit to the Carnival of Real Estate?
On quality, I agree that not all carnival hosts are created equal but disagree with you that that’s a problem. Perfect really is the enemy of good and my experience has taught me to cherish diversity over excellence. Since the excellence here at Bloodhound is the product of diversity I’m surprised you don’t value it more highly.
August 7, 2007 — 9:47 am
Greg Swann says:
> It is also not a blog carnival
Oh, good grief.
> Perfect really is the enemy of good
Ahem.
> my experience has taught me to cherish diversity over excellence.
Except at the supermarket and the hospital, I hope. My take is that mediocrity always sucks — most especially when values are deliberately inverted to celebrate mediocrity.
August 7, 2007 — 9:59 am
Michael Cook says:
Jeff,
Seems like you are kissing up for some favorable treatment in the new carnival. Shame, shame.
Greg,
Did you lose weight? Your picture seems thinner. Good luck with the new carnival judging.
August 7, 2007 — 10:11 am
David G from Zillow.com says:
Especially at the supermarket and the hospital; imagine what a disaster it would be if all PHD’s chose to specialize in pediatrics or if plantains were the only fruit on earth. diversity != mediocrity.
August 7, 2007 — 10:44 am
Greg Swann says:
> diversity != mediocrity
You equated the two in your last comment:
>> my experience has taught me to cherish diversity over excellence.
Let me spare you a rejoinder: There are defects in the Carnival of Real Estate which you are willing to admit, although you would rather not detail them. Instead, you would prefer to talk about the defects you anticipate in the alternative I propose. There: Now we’ve told the truth of everything without implying that hospitals would be improved by hiring homeopathologists and auto-mesmerized witch doctors — or just incompetent physicians, for that matter.
August 7, 2007 — 10:57 am
David G from Zillow.com says:
You misread me Greg. I said diversity is more important than excellence not that diversity is the opposite of excellence. Read my earlier comments again.
There are defects in everything but I’m not criticizing your project or defending the Carnival of Real Estate. What I am doing is asking you why launching the Carnival of Greg precludes you from participating in the CoRE and I still don’t think you’ve answered that.
August 7, 2007 — 11:21 am
Greg Swann says:
> What I am doing is asking you why launching the Carnival of Greg precludes you from participating in the CoRE
In order not to continue to buttress what is too often a celebration of mediocrity or subjectivity or stridently-defended inanity. I have campaigned for a year to bring standards of excellence to the Carnival of Real Estate. My time is obviously better spent on other pursuits. I answered your question in the original post:
> I am done with the Carnival of Real Estate. I have supported it since its birthing. BloodhoundBlog has entered a post for every new edition, winning, despite everything, more than any other weblog. No more.
Your supermarket may exhibit what you regard as a valuable diversity. All I can see is the dirt everywhere. I’m shopping elsewhere from now on.
August 7, 2007 — 11:31 am