“best of” lists: the unbearable truth bared
In the wake of the controversy (see, e.g., Kevin O’Keefe, Eric Turkewitz, David Gottlieb, and Carolyn Elefant) created by the recently-announced “The ABA Journal Blawg 100” list of the “best web sites by lawyers, for lawyers” (featured in our prior post) — and just in case you’re too dull-witted or naive to have figured it out — I thought I’d provide a quick list of things to keep in mind when you encounter a best-of list created by a newspaper, magazine, or other publication, or any website, or produced by either a for-profit or nonprofit organization or interest group:
- virtually no one puts together a “best of” list merely because a bunch of people really deserve to have their efforts or abilities honored
- the Lister has an ulterior motive for the compilation, usually to garner attention for itself or him/herself, in order to create more of whatever it needs to achieve corporate or personal goals (such as, making income, swaying opinion, raising money, getting dates, etc.)
losing the contest
I discover
the lord’s mum won…………………………….…… by Kobayashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue
- therefore, a publication or website is surely trying, with its Best Of List, to get more readers, by attracting individuals especially interested in the topic covered by the list, getting coverage in other media, getting lots of word-of-mouth referrals (and, eventually, getting more advertisers, and hopefully an audience for the next edition of its List)
- human nature being what it is, the Lister especially expects the Honorees on the Best of List to tell as many people as possible about the great Honor and to refer/point others to the source of the List
because the staff compiling a list, especially if merely human, has only limited knowledge about the universe of actors, and because the Lister has its own ulterior motives and related perspective, it is very likely that the list will be both under-inclusive and over-inclusive if your actual standard is excellence and worthiness- it is even more certain that those not selected (and their kith and kin, or friends and fans) will be miffed, irked, insulted about failing to make the list and that those who complain the most in public have their own motives for doing so
- people with “niche” or specialized interests, or who dwell in tiny demographic categories or market segments, often feel left out of global, generalist Best of Lists — as Honorees, fans, and consumers (and they need to get over it)
the best New Year’s
present!
her pink cheeks
…………………… by Kobayashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue
- it’s always very difficult to decide how large to make a Best of List. [In “When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?,” George Carlin, remarks on the strange popularity of the number ten, and winnows the Commandments down to just two (be honest, be loyal).] If the List is too small, the Lister doesn’t get enough built-in Honoree Goodwill, and runs the risk of insulting someone powerful and important within its sphere of interest.
If the List is too big, getting the honor is not as valuable, and — more important — the utility of the list plummets, as it’s no longer an easy tool for finding high-quality Listees and fails to eliminate the transaction costs of searching (which is an actual important side-effect of Best Of Lists).
In early October, when expected to come up with a Ten-Best-Blawg list of my own, your humble f/k/a editor lamented, opined and confessed:
Purporting to choose the “best blawgs” is especially difficult and misleading because (very much like choosing the “best” poem in a haiku contest), what you’re really doing is revealing your particular preferences and predilections (”favorites and friends”?) and — unless you happen to be Ed at Blawg Reivew or Bob Ambrogi, who regularly peruse hundreds of weblogs — demonstrating the very limited scope of your normal blawg-surfing habits.
Given the above “truths” about Best of Lists, it should surprise no one that the ABA Journal:
- probably created its Blawg 100 list mostly to do what every publicly-issued, bottomline-oriented publication wants to do: get attention for itself and more readers (and, thus, eventually be able to charge more for online and in-print advertising)
- was successful in motivating Honorees to spread the word
- focused on weblogs that — as it explicitly touts — are “for lawyers” rather than for clients and other humanoids
- tended to include topics/segments within the profession that are of greatest interest to ABA leaders and potential advertisers (and even the poor staffers who got stuck with the thankless job), and exclude those — like family law and personal injury law — that for some reason are not of foremost interest to bar leaders and likely advertisers
Of course, there are many, many blawgs that did not make the ABA Journal Blawg 100 that are well-worth the attention of the general public, the legal profession, and especially the narrowly-focused seeker of legal information (which might be why the ABA Journal’s Blawg Directory includes thousands of weblogs in about 80 categories). No Best of List is immaculately conceived and none will ever be miraculously perceived as perfectly executed nor universally acclaimed.
p.s. It goes without saying, here at the home of Prof. Yabut and skepticalEsq, that the entire notion of an online voting competition for “best” or “favorite” weblog in particular categories is statistically meaningless and, in general — to use a little legal jargon — silly as hell. If you’ve read this posting, you will be able to figure out a few of the reasons why the ABA Journal decided to hold the contest anyway.
worm-eaten–
the best chestnut!
the best!spring rain–
better than the flowers of others
my little thicket…………………… by Kobayashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue
.
afterthought (7 PM, est): Speaking of Blawg 100 Honorees and the related Popularity Contest: Have you noticed that almost all of the blawggers (but, thankfully, not Ernie nor “Ed“, or even our show-boating Prof. Yabut) have chosen to display a “badge” designed by the ABA Journal that says “Vote for this Blog“? (Indeed, some are using a really big version of that message.) You might be surprised to know, therefore, that we all had the option to post a badge saying “Vote for your favorites.” Now, I don’t want to be judgmental, ’cause I’ve long advocated allowing lawyers to be tacky despite the profession’s image problems. But, I wonder what the chosen badge says about the needs and creeds of the lawyer-weblogger.
better than me
at long distance!
the fart bug…………………… by Kobayashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue
afterthought/afterlife (Dec. 3, 2007): Speaking of lists and controversy, Blawg Review #137 is up at the oft-entertaining and insightful Infamy or Praise weblog. Unfortunately, by completing his Dante-themed Blawg Review trilogy and thus focusing #137 on the Divine Comedy’s third cantica, Paradiso, Colin Samuels (who led me into temptation regarding Purgatory a year ago) has again taxed my patience and consumed far too much of my blawg-surfing time this morning. (If you like that sort of artsy-pretentious thing, or are enjoying a Snow Day and have plenty of time to kill, I guess you’ll have a divine experience, but it has confirmed my beliefs both about the disutility of themed-blawg-reviews — they are often “annoying, strained and distracting” — and about the tediousness of spending eternity in Paradise.)
his quiet funeral—
a man who did
most of the talking……………….. by barry george - from frogpond XXVIII: 1
The only redeeming element of Blawg Review #137 is that it comes in the form of written words (rather than a podcast), so that I easily could skip and skim the excess verbiage, such as Dante quotes and parody verse, and find the highlighted hyperlinks to deserving recent blawg postings (such RiskProf’s look at Risk and Race, questioning the application of Civil-Rights-Act disparate impact analysis in the context of credit scoring).
father’s eulogy…
it’s not the first commandment
i’ve shattered. . . . . …………….. . . by ed markowski
Colin did note that f/k/a is one of only three weblogs to be featured in each of his Blawg Reviews. Thanks, CS, the check’s in the mail. On the other hand, his reference today to this very post about Best of Lists, states that “David Giacalone of the f/k/a blog was somewhat dubious about the value of the ABA’s list. He questions the magazine’s motives. . .” I don’t think I’ve questioned the value of Blawg100, nor denigrated the ABA Journal’s motives. I’ve merely pointed out the probable motives, to help readers avoid the expectation of perfection and decide for themselves on its value. Like Anne Reed, quoted at Blawg Review #137, I think that “whatever the effort’s weaknesses, some good will come of it.”
Colin, you’ve done your penance (and hopefully learned your lesson), and I look forward to a more seemly, unthemed Blawg Review, the next time you host this carnival of legal weblogs.
the son who
argues everything
I study his face in a puddle………………………………………. by George Swede - Almost Unseen (2000)

Now it can be revealed: Rich McNally, the self-proclaimed “lunch pail lawyer” and 
On Nov. 21st, we wrote
It has been two weeks since the
Sadly, as happened yesterday, my computer is acting up, acting sluggish, and acting like it might crash any minute now. I therefore am going to quickly point to a number of recent posts by Scott H. Greenfield at Simple Justice, without doing them even Quickie Justice.
The
As part of its weblog focus, the new ABA Journal includes the article “
As we 
Therefore, the question Richard Susskind prefers to ask is: “from the clients’ point of view, what tasks of lawyers will be better undertaken in the future by systems?”
The f/k/a Gang won’t bet on whether the End of Lawyers is near, but we confidently predict that there will always by a demand for haiku from lawyer poets such as
…………………….. by 
We’ve told you often about the 200-page
In October, we got all dreamy-eyed
See
Just last week, we
If your giftee would prefer to eschew the soft, artsy haiku realm,
As noted above, we plan to do a positive mini-review of
In case you’ve already learned all you need to know about your
The
For a gun control twist, see Ambrogi’s “

He’s always styled himself the family’s
“
If you’re one of the many, mildly-manic fans of Matt Morden’s haiku and senryu, you surely have been wondering just when we’ll have a full volume of his one-breath poems to munch, mull over, or otherwise savor. Seeing Matt’s work in an occasional journal, or even at his personal weblog 
I’m still not used to reviewing haiku books, and am as reluctant as ever to try to summarize or encapsulate any book with a string of literary, artsy-sounding adjectives and motifs. So, I’m going to let Matt’s poems and a few of his friends do the talking, except for this simple summation:
By bringing 72 of his poems together as Exhibit One, Stumbles in Clover provides more than ample evidence that Matt Morden is one of the finest