Nominations for William Law X-Mormon of the Year 2014 are going well — and now it’s time for the biggest event of Main Street Plaza‘s yearly calendar!! It’s time to recognize the best LDS-interest content published and posted to the Internet in the past year!!
As usual, the precise list of award categories will depend on your suggestions and on the types of content that were especially strong in 2014. To give you ideas, I’ll list off last year’s categories. Feel free to browse through the winner buttons in the sidebar for further ideas of categories that might potentially yield awards this year.
Year-long awards for people and websites:
- Best New Blog
- Best Discussion Forum
- Best Humor/Satire Site or Blog
- Best faithful-perspective Mormon Blog
- Best LDS-Interest Audio/Video Channel/Series
Awards for Individual Works:
- Best LDS-Interest Book (Novel)
- Best LDS-Interest Book (Short Fiction Collection)
- Best LDS-Interest Book (Memoir)
- Best LDS-Interest Book (General Non-fiction)
- Best LDS-Interest Comic or Image
- Best Mormon-Themed Meme
- Best Poem
- Best Musical Work
- Best Post Title
- Funniest Humor Piece
- Most Poignant Personal Story
- Best LDS Journey Story
- Best Moving on from Mormonism Discussion
- Best Original Research Regarding Mormonism
- Best History Piece
- Best Philosophical/Theological Discussion
- Best Scripture Study Series
- Best LDS Church Watch
- Best LDS-Related Political Commentary
- Best Response to Apologetics
- Most Interesting Interfaith Interaction
- Best Religion-and-Race Discussion
- Best Religion-and-Gender Discussion
- Best Religion-and-Homosexuality Discussion
- Best Erotic or Sexual Piece
- Best Review
- Best Recipe
And here are the nomination guidelines:
- Please nominate as many people, sites, and articles as you want. However, please do not nominate more than two individual works by any one author.
- You are encouraged to nominate your own works. No one knows better than you do which pieces were your best. No more than two, though.
- Please nominate works that first appeared during 2014.
- Please try to nominate people and works that have some connection with Mormonism or with Outer Blogness (eg. either the work touches on Mormonism, or the author is a current or former Mormon and/or is an active participant in our community).
- A category must have at least three nominations in order to be included in the voting and awards phase.
- You may suggest your own categories — however please do it as early as possible in the nominations process, to give others plenty of time to add nominations in your proposed categories.
- Any other proposed changes to the categories or to the guidelines are welcome — feel free to discuss it in the comments.
- The nominations will be open for two weeks (or two-and-a-half, depending on my procrastination schedule). I will reorganize the categories and add my own nominations a few days before creating the polls to allow you to get in last nominations in the final list of categories.
I can’t wait to review all of the best works from 2014!!!
I’ll nominate this blog post of mine for “Moist Poignant Personal Story” (unless you think another category is more suitable): http://www.lifeaftermormonism.net/profiles/blogs/exposing-the-numbers-behind-lds-growth-in-latin-america-a-mission
Best Discussion Forum: exmormon subreddit
Best LDS-Interest Book: Amercian Crucifixion by Alex Beam
Best History Piece: FMH Year of Polygamy series by Lindsay Park et al. The entire series is excellent and would work as a college level course. It is the most outstanding contribution this year, in my opinion.
Best History Piece: Mormon Expression episode #280, “Mormonism and the Red scare.” John Larsen et al.
Best Response to Apologetics: a blog post responding to Greg Trimble by Mithryn.
Best Response to Apologetics: Mormon Expression episode #276 “How to build a transoceanic vessel.” by John Larsen et al.
Best Moving on from Mormonism Discussion: Mormon Expression episode #283, “How we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the church isn’t true.” by John Larsen et al.
Most Poignant Personal Story: I found out too late. by _Wilted_Flower
Most Interesting Interfaith Interaction: My kids vs. Grandma in an epic truth battle. by greyghostmachine.
Best LDS-Interest Comic or Image: …on Kate Kelly’s pending excommunication. by Pat Bagley.
Best LDS-Interest Comic or Image: Hey, Stan! Don’t speak evil of the Lord’s anointed! recaptioning the famous South Park episode by 4blockhead.
@1 I think that’s probably a good category for it — what a story!
@2 & @3 Thanks for the great start!!
Once upon a time, some other discussion fora had a serious competition for this award. Now it’s starting to look like it will be impossible for anyone but the exmormon subreddit to ever win again… 😉
Also, I forgot to post my usual warning:
Please include the relevant links in all of your nominations. But be aware that the blog software will probably flag your nominations as spam if they include more than three links. There are three possible ways of dealing with this problem:
1. Post your nominations as a series of shorter comments, or
2. Post a link-free comment warning me about your nomination submission, and I’ll fish it out of the spam queue, or
3. if all else fails, email me: chanson dot exmormon at gmail dot com.
But if you don’t see your comment, don’t get the idea that your nominations were intentionally rejected — they weren’t!
Best humor/satire blog: http://exmomemes.blogspot.com
@6 I wasn’t even aware of that one! I’ll have to add it to Outer Blogness!
This is one of the things I like about Brodie season — I try to find all the new blogs myself, but there are always a few I miss. 😉
Best plausible explanation of the BoM
http://mormonleaks.org/
Best Mormon-themed meme: http://m.imgur.com/fZG1jC0
Church of the fridge….funny post
http://churchofthefridge.com/blog/magnify-your-boobs/
Best Scripture Series…Gospel Doctrine for the Godless
http://godlessdoctrine.com
Thanks — keep ’em coming!
Here is the link to the corresponding thread on the reddit, in case anyone puts any nominations there.
Best LDS Church Watch: Church of the fridge blogUnder the pretense of love by Elizabeth Day
Funniest Humor Piece: Brother Jake explains church discipline by Brother Jake
Best LDS-Interest Audio/Video Channel/Series: Radio West by Doug Fabrizio et al. The following discussions were timely and interesting:
Mark Lawrence, Lynn Wardle, Timothy Johnson
John Hamer
Laurie Goodstein, Jodi Kantor, Caroline Kline
John Dehlin
Alex Beam
Kate Kelly and John Dehlin
Ally Isom
Kate Kelly, Neylan McBaine, Amanda Hendrix-Komoto
Terryl and Fiona Givens
David Bokovoy
Colleen McDannell
Patrick Mason, Andrea Radke-Moss, Richard Turley
Best Musical Work: Infants on Thrones – Too Sexy (http://infantsonthrones.com/too-sexy-a-small-halloween-treat)
Best LDS-Interest Audio/Video Channel/Series:
http://infantsonthrones.com/
or Brother Jake
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0u7ZMWqkr7cKD_rvEXZUuQ
Best Humor/Satire Site or Blog:
http://infantsonthrones.com/
or Brother Jake
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0u7ZMWqkr7cKD_rvEXZUuQ
Most Poignant Personal Story:
Nick Bigney – http://infantsonthrones.com/death/
Best Review:
http://infantsonthrones.com/little-factories/ or,
http://infantsonthrones.com/the-mountain-of-the-lord/
Funniest Humor Piece:
http://infantsonthrones.com/satan-files-for-bankruptcy/
By the way, any chance you could fix the banner/link to infants on thrones on “other cool site” section? It just takes me to the banner picture. Thanks!
Donna Banta explaining how to do visiting teaching the right way.
http://wardgossip.blogspot.com/2014/12/dealing-with-visiting-teacher-dodgers.html
For Best Religion-and-Race Discussion, I’ll shamelessly self promote: Mormonism and Respectability Politics
Best response to (pastoral) apologetics: Pay No attention to the man behind the curtains — Living and Lived Mormonism
Funniest Humor Piece…Tom Perry’s Coffee podcast from Infants on Thrones! http://infantsonthrones.com/coffee/
Best Mormon themed meme:
http://exmomemes.blogspot.com/2014/08/priorities.html?m=1
funniest humor piece: http://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/2moavo/a_few_confessions_on_bad_choices_ive_made_since/
Most poignant personal story: http://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/2pawvc/i_found_out_too_late/
Best response to apologetics: http://signaturebooks.com/2014/08/a-response-to-translation-and-historicity-of-the-book-of-abraham-by-dr-robert-ritner/
Best discussion forum: /r/exmormon
Thanks for all the nominations — keep ’em coming! 😀
@16 Thanks for catching that link error. It’s fixed now. It was probably like ever since I added it to the sidebar. lol, embarrassing.
It feels a bit awkward, nominating yourself but since it’s encouraged, and since I’m quite happy with my annotated essays so far, here it goes. Best new blog:
http://www.mormonism101.com
Best New Blog:Godless Doctrine
Best Discussion Forum: Reddit Ex-Mormon
Best LDS-Interest Audio/Video Channel/Series Infants on Thrones
Best Mormon-Themed Meme: credit reddit user/young_mossy
Best response to apologetics: Debunking FAIR’s Debunking (www.cesletter.com/debunking-fairmormon)
Jeremy launched this in February 2014.
Best Historical Discovery!! Ok, maybe this goes under humor or sarcasm.
A Rare Copy of Joseph Smith’s Egyptology 101 Final Examination
Best Historical Piece
Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo
I nominate:
http://mormonsarefunny.blogspot.com/2014/11/you-can-leave-church-but-church-cant.html
Best post title (Mine):
A few Confessions on Bad Choices I’ve Made Since Leaving the Church
Best Original Research Regarding Mormonism (Mine):
Temple Name Oracle
For best LDS-Interest Audio/Video Channel/Series:
My Book of Mormon Podcast
For best Religion-and-Gender Discussion:
A Sexual Abuse Survivor Responds to Joseph Smith’s Polygamy
For funniest humor piece:
http://wardgossip.blogspot.com/2014/06/exmormons-brace-themselves-for-romney.html
Also, for best new blog:
http://mormonsarefunny.blogspot.com/
And I’ll also shamelessly promote my own seemingly never-ending scripture study series:
http://questioningthechurch.blogspot.com/p/bom-commentary.html
Best humor/satire site or blog: God’s Meeting Minutes: http://godsmeetingminutes.blogspot.com
Most fantastic r/mormon AMA:
Kate Kelly
http://www.reddit.com/r/mormon/comments/1ztvk9/hi_im_kate_kelly_founder_of_ordain_women_ama/
Avi Steinberg
http://www.reddit.com/r/mormon/comments/2k1c3q/hello_lovely_people/
Tom Kimball
http://www.reddit.com/r/mormon/comments/2ot839/another_fantastic_rmormon_ama_this_time_with_tom/
Best LDS-Interest Book (Novel): A Song For Issy Bradley (by Carys Bray)
Best LDS Church Watch: http://www.mormonfileleaks.com
Hooray! It’s time for the Brodies again. Chanson you are awesome for doing this.
I nominate Sheep Dip for best new blog and for best humor blog. http://sheepdipped.com
Johnny Townsend has an astounding 4 books out this year! All are short story collections, although Gayrabian Nights includes stories by authors besides himself. The other 3 are his works entirely.
Behind the Zion Curtain http://www.amazon.com/Behind-Zion-Curtain-Johnny-Townsend-ebook/dp/B00QD3OS8I/ref=sr_1_20?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420561806&sr=1-20&keywords=johnny+townsend
Selling the City of Enoch http://www.amazon.com/Selling-City-Enoch-Johnny-Townsend-ebook/dp/B00J48GEPE/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420561891&sr=1-6&keywords=johnny+townsend
Gayrabian Nights http://www.amazon.com/Gayrabian-Nights-Johnny-Townsend-ebook/dp/B00QDA8YZE/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420561905&sr=1-3&keywords=johnny+townsend
A Day at the Temple http://www.amazon.com/Day-at-Temple-Johnny-Townsend-ebook/dp/B00LJKSUXE/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420561964&sr=1-9&keywords=johnny+townsend
Best LDS-Interest Audio/Video Channel/Series – My Book of Mormon Podcast
Best one-on-one discussion: John Dehlin interviews Sandra Tanner at the Utah Lighthouse Ministry
Weird Mormon Shit
http://weirdmormonshit.tumblr.com
Weird finds from old Improvement Era magazines mixed in with other, uniquely mormon shit.
Items include Spencer Kimball’s conference talk where he joked that white missionaries are regularly donating blood to a hospital in order to hasten the work of turning Native Americans’ skin white.
This is the level of weird we’re talking about.
Best interfaith interaction:
http://testimoniesofotherfaiths.blogspot.com/
I’m no writer nor do I pretend to be but I really like my post titles;
“Obedience is the first law of heaven aka the brethren…” also, “No more Jack Handy quotes…”
I do feel the best podcast is infants on thrones
Best church watch blog: http://www.mormondisclosures.blogspot.com
Sorry link to my blog http://www.mormonosity.blogspot.com
Best humor site http://myinlawsaremormon.tumblr.com/
Best LDS Church Watch: Mormonism Research Ministry’s Viewpoint on Mormonism, especially their series on LDS’ essays:
Translation and Historicity of the Book of Abraham
Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo
And nicely done retelling of information leaked onto the web:
Mission President Compensation
Best epistimological discussion (new category?):
http://thoughtsonthingsandstuff.com/fix-your-faith-crisis-with-this-one-weird-trick/
Best Church watch article:
http://thoughtsonthingsandstuff.com/lds-tithing-bare-necessities/
http://latterdayperspective.com/
I’m not sure what category. It’s not technically a blog, as there’s no consistent posting. And it’s technically not original research. But the result is quite awesome.
@46 Looks interesting — I’ll find a category for it. 😉
Thanks, everyone for the great nominations!! Keep ’em coming! 😀
Shot-heard-around-the-world about mormonism or best title: The New York Times, Laurie Goodstein: “It’s Official: Mormon Founder Had Many Wives”
I’ll nominate my review of Johnny Townsend’s “Selling the City of Enoch” for Best Review. http://wardgossip.blogspot.com/2014/05/selling-city-of-enoch-by-johnny-townsend.html
Also for Best Moving on from Mormonism, Postmormon Girl’s “Re-learning Normal: Post-Mormon Edition.” http://postmormongirl.blogspot.com/2014/10/re-learning-normal-post-mormon-edition.html
I was going to nominate Against the Greater Light for Best Scripture Study Series, but noticed it’s already up here. 🙂
One more nomination. Mormon Faith Crisis for Best New Blog. http://mormonfaithcrisis.blogspot.com