In this world, there are always people who wanted to hurt you and bring you down. But there are always people who are always there to stand beside you. Those are the people you should cherish and be grateful of. Those people who bring you down are just insecure of you because you are a great person. :)

what is funny to read are criticisms from people who didn’t even attend the event. I know how much effort you placed in this event. it’ll get better. Thanks so much for everything.

well… we can’t please everybody and some people do love to whine, basta we know that you and abe and jayvee did a good job spearheading this event :)

Congratulations! The blog awards night was a success, despite what some people say about it. The organizers did a great job! And I’m happy I was able to help you guys. :)

chin up, gail, hold your head up high.

you and abe and jayvee did great. ’nuff said.

Judging by the photos I saw of the event and the winners list and the content of their blogs,Im sure it was a success.

Mga inggit lang ang mga nagcricriticize. Sa Pinas naman laging may mga contra pelo. Expect that. If they dont talk about it mas malungkot ka.

Sabi nga nila good and bad publicity is welcome at least pinaguusapan ka. You should be worried if nobody even bothered to discuss or comment about it. Siguro gusto lang nilang ma improve ang susunod pang mga awards. Di mas maganda yon.Di ba?

kain na lang tayo ng spaghetti and your mango pie! :)

This will be our Lenten sacrifice :)

Makes you wanna literally kick an EMPTY PAIL, huh? >:)

Gail,
First and foremost, congratulations! I can tell how much work it took to make the event a success. Judging from the pictures, it looked professionally organized. You can never please everyone specially those who refuses to see the good things first.

Masama ang loob ko sa recent Philippine Blog Awards …………kasi hindi ako naka attend. Other than that, job well done! Next year ulit! Hehe :D

hey gail, you’re some kinda famous ah ;) congratulations on the blog awards, despite what others say.

Hay…OK lang yan Gail…
Lets keep ourselves composed…Hinga ng malalim..

Sayang ang beauty, wag ka nang magalit :)

For tolerance of each others belief:
Dedicated to Pinoy Bloggers

But unfortunately, there are some that aren’t—and even encouraged promoting discord.

Hay, surely, people love intrigues and this is how the issues are magnified.

You guys did a great job. But we all are too human to make mistakes. And I think you yourselves (Abe) have already acknowledged whatever were the shortcomings during the event. I just hope that people would learn, let-pass and forget about these “issues”, move on and hope for an even better event to happen next time.

There are always people like that. No matter what one do one cant please everybody

you, yuga and jayvee are doers. all of you worked hard to put your great idea into fruition.

others may have had the same great idea but they have a different opinion on how these ideas should have been translated as action.

the difference between you (the organizers) and the other people (those who criticize) is that you did everything to make your idea into a reality. and they… well, they DIDN’T do anything to make their idea come to life.

imho, negative criticisms are given by sour grapers who did not have the guts nor the talent to put an idea into action. unlike all 3 of you who had the balls to do what you thought was good.

paikot ikot ba?

anyway, deadma ka na lang, gail. mamatay na lang sila sa inggit. kayo ang organizers, hindi sila. kung may gusto silang iba gawin, e di gumawa sila ng sarili nila!

Aside from the prayer thingie and the proxy thingie, I think the Blog Awards were more or less ok. The venue was great and I’m guessing the post awards party was great too (I wasn’t there but people seemed to have a good time).

I hope the organizers would realize that entries that appeared on blog were meant to point out irregularities that I found (and quite surprisingly, by a lot of people as well) quite foul and improper. Much has been said on the manner it was made, but the point stands that bigoted things have been done – bigoted things have indeed been said. Yes, he’s your tireless volunteer… yes, I get that. Before you absolve him of anything, kindly read what he said again. People who do acts like that deserve to be called out and be made an example for others to not follow. You are sending a message – a message that you would tolerate such bigoted statements as long as the person who said it is a volunteer. To your credit, you have defended him really well – deviating from the meat of the matter and settling for peripheral issues for the most part.

you really think that asking atheists and other people who felt offended to just grin and bear it was a good idea? do you honestly think that is was logical just because “prayers are standard” (completely untrue)? I don’t think so. you let your biases show by defending people who defended a fundamentally improper act – bigotry.

Had the entries not been written in that manner, I doubt if people would’ve been read a good number of people. A lot of people agreed that changes needed to be done regarding that issue and hopefully, the organizers would not because it was I who posted it.

And yes, the whole vague post is more foul than actually calling out the people you want to call out. you’re denying them the chance to respond to your rhetoric. I think that’s a quite cowardly and unfair. Any reasonable person that this sort of anonymous name calling is more pathetic than a direct statement. Look who’s doing the “cloaking” now?

To end, I would like to clarify that I never personally attacked the organizers of the Philippine Blog Awards. If you continue to think that way, kindly read again.

@benj: Did I say you personally attacked the organizers? Kindly READ AGAIN.

So. It’s ok to personally attack Jomar, because you think he deserved it for saying his opinion? How prejudice is that?

FYI, we already acknowledged your issue about the invocation. And even offered you to volunteer next year so nothing like it happened again. But if you truly wanted to help improve the awards, you wouldn’t have to resort to name-calling. And you gave me three different excuses why you can’t volunteer. If you felt so passionately against how the Awards turned out, then be man enough to actually implement your cause. Or would you rather just absolve yourself from the responsibility of actually doing something other than ranting? Now that’s what I think is cowardly and unfair.

Calling Jomar bigoted, zealous, and presumptuous… Not to mention blinded by faith to the point of insanity… Wow. You don’t think that’s a personal attack? You still think that’s a criticism to improve the awards? REALLY NOW.

Oh, and by the way, I didn’t mention names because I do not want to stoop down to your level of name calling and embarrassing other people just because they don’t share your opinion. This entry was addressed to a lot of people. And since you were the one who reacted violently about it, you brought whatever this entry resulted in upon yourself.

Again.

I define prejudice this way – it’s the act of having a preconceived notion against a person even before someone does something bad. Given that definition, I don’t think calling out Jomar as a bigot doesn’t count as something done as a result of prejudice.

Why?

Again. It was a retaliatory post in reaction to an inflammatory opinion by the said person. Telling aggrieved parties to just “grin and bear” it isn’t exactly a good thing. I have no idea why you continuously choose to defend that. do you honestly think that that sort of mentality is not bigoted? We’ve been having correspondence for the past couple of days and not one sentence from you has even touched that issue. Barring time travel, jomar’s comments preceded your “name-calling” issue.

Calling Jomar bigoted, zealous, and presumptuous… Not to mention blinded by faith to the point of insanity… Wow. You don’t think that’s a personal attack? You still think that’s a criticism to improve the awards? REALLY NOW.

I have no idea where you deduced that. : |

I made those statements (and I’ve said this repeatedly) against not because of his position as a volunteer – it was done after he posted those inflammatory comments telling the non-religious folk to “grin and bear it”. Again is telling someone to shut up because one is in the minority proper to you? you have never addressed this. does your silence imply that you agree with jomar?

Stop misconstruing my points, please. please. please.

Let’s discuss things based on logic and what actually happened for once and do away with the peripheral issues.

Again, to clarify, the second entry has nothing to do with the Philippine Blog Awards. Yes, it was a personal criticism (and that was quite obvious, i think) as opposed to something meant to improve the awards.

you see Gail, when the rights of others are trampled upon, people will react (in varying degrees). If you don’t think jomar’s post was inflammatory, then the argument stops there. We’ll have to agree to disagree on that one.

Now, if you understand why those comment made me more upset, then you shouldn’t even be asking those questions.

If your issue is the invocation, then you’re a long way from it. If you really are concerned about it alone, you won’t see the need to call anybody names. Look at other blogs. Those who didn’t appreciate the invocation. Did they call Jomar zealous, bigoted and presumptuous? Only you did.

I define prejudice this way – it’s the act of having a preconceived notion against a person even before someone does something bad. Given that definition, I don’t think calling out Jomar as a bigot doesn’t count as something done as a result of prejudice.

Who gave you the right to embarrass anybody? For somebody who strongly believed in equality and not trampling on other people’s rights, this seems really contradictory.

I already told you before, if you READ CAREFULLY, that I don’t think prayers are a standard. Jomar thinks that it is, and I respect that. I don’t agree with him, but I don’t call him bigoted, zealous, and presumptuous for believing that. Maybe you should start respecting other people’s opinions other than your own.

And I never told you to shut up because it was improper. I am telling you that you have no right to trample upon a person’s right to dignity and respect. I am telling you to take a look at yourself and see what you are saying. I am telling you to have RESPECT for other people’s opinions other than your own.

If you want to do away with the peripheral issues, then go ahead. Your issue was the invocation, then why was there a need for you to insult Jomar and embarrass him online? He believed it was a standard. You didn’t. That’s his right, and that’s your right. But you didn’t have the right to attack him that way. Because you’re equals.

I don’t think your volunteering (or not volunteering) is a peripheral issue, if that’s what you meant. But I don’t like to assume. Although I strongly believe that would be a solution to your problem. After all, you can’t take our word that we will take note of it in the next bloggers’ event. I believe that it would ensure that you won’t need to worry about having an invocation that will offend you. If you think ranting and insulting people online are better than actually doing something about it, then I really think we will never see eye-to-eye in this issue.

We believe in action. Words are NOTHING without action.

Take a look at Tess’ comment on Abe’s blog. She didn’t agree on the way some things were done, but she’s willing to help out to ensure that the next one is better.

The blog awards is a group effort. Nothing good will come out of insulting people and arguing with everyone who thought the invocation was ok. But in action, there will be.

Ok, sure. I would give you the benefit of the doubt and pledge my participation as a volunteer for the next PBAs.

We’re really not meeting eye-to-eye on the jomar issue though. I think that you’re downplaying it a bit too much. I guess it’s better to stop it now. I guess you can’t grasp the whole “put up and shut up” message that that comment implied.

But I think I’ve helped a lot by putting it into your attention that a lot of people felt that praying was improper. If you consider that “all talk, and no action”, then you’re seriously denying that from this, it was exposed that it was a mistake.

I think ideas also count as “actions” towards a common goal. But that’s just me. the whole action/talk mantra has been all so repetitive in just about every comment I’ve read. I have no idea why you refuse to credit people with ideas – in fact, even tess raised that.

He may have given you that “put up and shut up” impression, but that didn’t give you the right to attack him and embarrass him. It was his opinion, and I respect that. I agree that we will never see eye-to-eye on this, because I respect other people’s opinion and don’t see the need of why they should be called zealous, bigoted, and presumptuous when I don’t agree with them.

Spreading discord is not helping. We have no problems on crediting people for their ideas and feedback, but we do when somebody is using “criticisms” to personally attack somebody else. Excuse me for thinking that, but the three excuses you gave me when I asked you to volunteer really gave the impression that all this ranting is just all talk.

You may be getting tired of “this mantra,” but that’s the whole point of it all. It’s hard to grasp why somebody who’s so passionate of his cause to the point of insulting and embarrassing somebody online, would let trivial things get in the way.

Thank you for volunteering. As I have said, you don’t need to be physically there to volunteer. But taking part in the brainstorming is a lot better than ranting or insulting other people. It’s action.

Huy! Anoba… tama na yan. Hehe. Points have already been made. Gail and Benj will be closing the issues at hand. Conversing thru personal email is more appropriate I suggest, and not thru blog comments. (Parang chat eh, hehe).

The PBA 2007 for me is a milestone event. In fact, it inspired me to take blogging more seriously. But the event is over now. Life goes on…

This situation has been blown beyond proportion. The noisy pail needs to be silenced. And I do believe that the full pails need to stop stroking the empty pail’s ego so that this issue can stop.

@Ade: That’s funny coming from a “concerned” pail.

@ Marcvill: Taking swipes at me, eh?

The empty, noisy pail…

“When you hit an empty pail on the side, it’s noisy. But if it’s full of water, it’s not. It doesn’t even make too much sound.”

Read on how Gail elaborates this quote :)…

whew. thanks God the noise has gone out. ooopppsss. thanks benj too ;) peace everyone! sana naman dito na matatapos ang issue na to. sa mga susunod na events po pwede po tayo magbrainstorm sa ating . don po tayo mag-ingay, magplano at magkumustahan :) yun lang po. hanggang sa muling pagbblog-hop.

hala nagkamali pa haha. sorry po. sensiya po. mailing list nga po pala dapat yun ;)

nde po ‘to spam. nagkamali lang po talaga *lol

The noisy pail needs to be silenced. And I do believe that the full pails need to stop stroking the empty pail’s ego so that this issue can stop.

oo, saging — err balde — lang kami! pero maghanap ka ng balde sa buong pilipinas! balde ang linalagay sa ilalim ng poso! balde ang linalagay sa ilalim ng poso.

*whappak*

araguy. hugs everyone? :D

ngek. ganon pa rin haha. ayoko na. basta yun na yun. kuha nyo naman na siguro hehe. gail, sensya na nagmukhang spam :)

Congratulations to all the PBA ‘07 winners. Job well done volunteers & organizers!

Nakaw, nag-chat na ang mga balde hehehehe

@marcvill: honey, sabi mo “blogging seriously” ha. Let your comment bind you, you pail!!!

@pinoyblogosphere.Com: hindi naman spam, subtle advertising lang haha

@ade: you’re a funny pail wehehehehehhe

@jorge: saging?! hala na, san nanggaling yun? :D weheheh

ahaha naging chatroom na ng mga balde ang blog ni ate gail. lol

basta ako. nasabi ko na minsan ang opinion ko. at ayoko na ulitin pa. past is past. lets all move forward to a better phil blogging community.

sana magkaisa na tayong lahat…
====================

off topic, gail, di na namana ko kaka sama sa blog summit. may duty ako weekends 3x ko na na indian ito ah… :(

i think you guys did a great job. there’s a big room for improvement. but i applaud you guys for making this event possible.

parang mas organized pa nga kayo compared to the phil. web awards 2006 e, considering 9th year nila last year and this is PBA’s first year to hold a grand event. ang dami niyo pang nakuhang sponsors.

More rhetoric?

This will be of help

Look up bigotry and prejudice. thanks.

So know everybody’s ganging up on me? Hardly surprising.

I sincerely hope that this doesn’t send the wrong message to the people responsible. tsk tsk. Shame… shame…

Hopefully next time something happens, people use logical arguments to prove their cases – not pathetic anecdotes and rhetoric that are amazingly applauded in the name of convenience.

“ganging up on you”?

for crying out loud, benj, nobody contests your point. your point was valid — even your disagreement with jomar was accepted. most everyone here who’s commented on the issue has said that they agree with the “standard” quote.

that said, your “hardly surprising” dig seems to me dangerously close to falling into the victim-mentality crap.

you’ve read my views; i won’t dare speak for everyone else, but though i don’t take issue with your stand (which was truly relevant and valid), i cannot agree with your fire and brimstone manner. you yourself said it best: “Hopefully next time something happens, people use logical arguments to prove their cases – not pathetic anecdotes and rhetoric that are amazingly applauded in the name of convenience.”

logical arguments. not rhetoric. in the event we disagree on something, benj, this i will expect of you. i will expect to engage benj of atheista.com, who has expressed the hope that people will use logical arguments to prove their cases, not howard stern the shock jock and his insult antics supposedly effective in “waking people up.”

your call.

^ If the people you’re debating against can’t even define words (i.e. bigotry and prejudice among others) correctly, should you stick to that approach? I mean, seriously. Let’s don’t have double standards when looking for logical fallacies here.

Give it a rest. You’ve made your point. Enough is enough.

I was very surprised with all the “noises” I’ve been reading about the awards show. It amazes me how some people don’t realize that the organizers and the volunteers didn’t have to do this. Yah know. And I agree, there’s a difference between constructive criticism and name calling. Calling someone “vapid” or “annoying” is nowhere near a constructive criticism.

Hay naku.