Despite the fact that I became a part of LAMB (The Large Association of Movie Blogs) a while ago, I started to appreciate its benefits much later as my confidence as a blogger grew. One could say that summer 2012 was a lot about me growing up as a person and as a movie lover which lead me to be apart of LAMB on a higher capacity. Last Saturday, Joe posted an interesting piece of news on LAMB’s main site which got me thinking about the quality and quantity of movie blogs. More specifically, there are 1422 movie blogs! and I can’t help to think that sadly just a small portion of those are worthy of my attention.
This could be either a moment of revelation or digging a grave for myself, because when we start to think about quality some of you might think I lack of it on many levels. But, to my defense, I do feel like most of my technical downsides are due to WordPress’ restrictions since I don’t feel rich enough to give them money to upgrade. Content is something I’m working on and a lot of effort is put into BOT because I also see myself as low quality when it comes to the range of movies I watch – but knowing your flaws has a certain value as well. Anyways, my point being, I think that out of those 1422 I could be considered as a quality blog rather than quantity and mostly because of the time and effort I have been putting into my slowly developing baby. As my reader, I hope you agree with me and continue reading this post because I do want to end up with an idea at some point.
The number of blogs I follow is relatively low because I’m a very picky person when it comes to blogs. I not only look at the content but I find visual elements to be crucial. Think of it as a process of watching a movie, a blog is supposed to have all the right elements working together in order to give the viewer the best kind of experience. Blogs like movies take a lot of time, effort and commitment, and the combination of those is the first thing I notice when I open a new blog: 75% of the time I close the blog right away and it might seem cruel and mean, whatever, but I have no doubt that many have done the same with my blog. Why would I waste my time on a blog that doesn’t capture me on the first glance? Yes, it sounds like a prejudice but continuing my thought of comparing blogs with movies, loving everything you see is impossible.
Reason why I’m building up this topic is actually because I find it super hard to sort through quality among the amount of movie blogs that are out there. I feel as if the quantity is taking over quality and more and more good blogs suffer and are left out from my reading schedule due to my inability to recognize them among the *cough-cough* trash. Call me evil, call me a b*tch – I’m just being honest and stating that there are a lot of movie blogs that aren’t worth to be bothered with. Since there are so many, I have noticed in my behavior that I sometimes even dismiss blogs just because they don’t have “continue reading” because a lot of time would be spent on just scrolling to find something that interests me. I find it cruel yet I see it as an only possibility amongst the quantity – to be ruthless. When it comes to content, I see myself going for the blogs similar as mine which is completely understandable, yet I still want to be challenged by different bloggers but I simply can’t find them anymore. In the beginning it was all about going and reading the “popular” ones but now, as I’m motivated to follow more, I’m simply lost. Plus, popularity doesn’t always mean quality but it is the main factor at LAMB but then again, how can new-comers make it to the top if I can’t find them?
Another question I want to raise is, how to make quality stand out more from the pile of movie blogs as the time goes on? I appreciate the enthusiasm of people becoming movie bloggers and yet, I feel like not everybody are up for the task. Again, I might be digging a permanent hole in the ground for myself because I might not be “quality blog” in some circles. Still, I’m ready to take the chance and say it as it is, there are people who are passionate about film and thrilled to be writing it all down, and then there are people who are movie bloggers. The difference being, while some write long and analytical essay types of posts others go for the short reviews stating that “the movie sucked” with no apparent explanation. I prefer the former where as the latter for me falls under the “commentary culture” where people have the interest but lack passion and execution.
At this point I feel like I’m raising a more serious topic than just sorting out LAMB’s and giving them a certain qualification of some sorts because now I’m beginning to think about Lammy’s. Are the movie blogging awards about actual quality or popularity? If I’ve been active now for couple of months, on a more higher level, yet, I’m not as let’s say “popular” as some of the others, does this mean I lack quality or is it just because I’m lost in the quantity of 1422 blogs? Either way, I do think there is a need to do some spring cleaning because as an avid fan of quality, the quantity is making my head hurt as much as the plot line of a romantic comedy – which is a lot of pain!
METTEL RAY 
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