Comments on: Carnivals

By: Gavin Robinson

Gavin Robinson — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 11:56:15 +0000

Usually so few people submit anything that the probabilities of someone else picking you are very low. I used to trawl the blogosphere myself and submit up to 10 extra posts for MHC to make up the numbers but I haven’t done that for the last 2 editions.

By: Lafayette C. Curtis

Lafayette C. Curtis — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 12:59:16 +0000

I also refrained from submitting my own post because I wanted to know if other people found it interesting enough. It wasn’t as good an idea as I thought, because both of the posts I’ve submitted (from somebody else’s blog) got featured, while mine didn’t–which means that I probably should get over my self-modesty and be a bit more bold in doing a bit of shameless self-promotion.

Oh well.

By: Gavin Robinson

Gavin Robinson — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 07:38:04 +0000

In my early days of blogging I used to submit my own posts because it’s a quick way to get better known. These days I try to submit posts (my own or other people’s) to various carnivals because I know they might be short of submissions. Having said that I’m often too busy to do it, which is probably a big reason why other people don’t submit much.

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:24:29 +0000

It is interesting how people interpret it. Much like Brett, I very rarely put my own posts forward – I’d prefer others to judge whether they’re interesting enough. I see it more as a chance for me to tip the hat to other bloggers whose posts I’ve found interesting.

By: Gavin Robinson

Gavin Robinson — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:56:05 +0000

I’m shocked! Maybe there were more submissions because we skipped a month, or maybe Osprey are more choosy than most hosts. When I host I never leave out a submission unless it’s irrelevant and/or very wrong (or if there are multiple submissions from the same blog I’d only pick one).

Also I’m not sure if everyone realises that you can submit other people’s posts, although I’ve reiterated it a few times. It’s hard to know what people are thinking, and there might be lots of different reasons why submissions are often low.

By: Brett

Brett — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:41:37 +0000

I submitted three links this time around, none of them got up! So maybe the rejection rate is a bit higher than you might think :)

I never self-nominate for carnivals, partly because it does feel arrogant, I guess, but also because I’m interested in seeing what (or if) other people find interesting on my blog.

By: Gavin Robinson

Gavin Robinson — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:14:52 +0000

That’s what I thought but I’ve also noticed that when people who didn’t submit themselves get included they sometimes seem a bit too flattered. Getting into a carnival means you’ve written a decent post but it’s not necessarily the great honour that some people might think. Given the low number of submissions for history carnivals (MHC does better than some editions of HC and Carnivalesque but still only gets between 5 and 10 subs in a typical month) it’s hard to get rejected unless you submit something that’s ineligible or total rubbish. I wonder if low submissions are partly because not enough people have the confidence to submit their own posts or think it would be arrogant to keep putting themselves forward.

By: sharon

sharon — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:40:04 +0000

Well, most nominations come from the author of the post IME. Getting nominated by two other people isn’t bad going.

By: Gavin Robinson

Gavin Robinson — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:23:57 +0000

But one of them was from me.

By: sharon

sharon — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:58:45 +0000

Three. (I think that’s a record for any carnival I’ve ever hosted, actually.)