Dear readers, it’s about time GiB thanked you all for your readership and support. And to celebrate the occasion, based on some of our latest-greatest Google Analytics statistics, please allow GiB to bestow upon you our GiB Reader Awards!
But first, GiB wants to make a call out loud to potential GiB contributors out there to consider taking part in GiB. Your stories, your opinions on gay life in Beirut matter to GiB and we want to hear them and post them, so do get in touch!
Now without further ado, the 2010 GiB Reader Awards (presented by Lady Gaga)...
The GiB-In-The-Making Award goes out to…
All of you readers who emailed GiB with questions on things to do and places to go, as you were contemplating your trip to Lebanon (usually also Syria), whether you ended up coming or not. Now tell us… did gay Beirut live up to your expectations? Well guess what, they just closed down Acid on us!
The Lebanese Porn Award goes out to…
The 30+% of readers who landed on GiB via the listings on GayDemon and bestmaleblogs, the two popular online gay directories based in the U.S. that are used mostly for porn: Sorry to disappoint you folks, but GiB ain’t showing Lebanese hunks with huge dikcs anytime soon… and you don’t have to apologize for spending merely 30 seconds on average on GiB!
The Adventurous GiB Award goes out to…
The 150+ readers who reached GiB by googling “gay sauna beirut”, “beirut gay sauna”, “gay bath beirut” , “hammam al nuzha gay”, “beirut bathouse gay”, “hammam tripoli gay” and came across the post Up for a Scrub? So tell us guys did you end up trying the sauna? How was it??
The Keep the Faith Award goes out to…
The UNIQUE VISITORS from Azerbaijan, from Zambia, from Tajikistan, from Uzbekistan, from Cameroon, from Mongolia and from Nepal (please do tell your friends!) and to the UNIQUE VISITORS from China and Cuba (is GiB banned there or something?)
The Intellectual GiB Award goes out to…
The 400+ readers who opened the page for the post “Arab Naïveté and the Silk Cocoons”, GiB’s single-most read post according to the stats. I wonder, is it because of the catchy title, or are you guys really into this kind of weird metaphors and allegories?
The Curious GiB award goes out to…
The 2000+ visitors who found GiB by googling things like “gayinbeirut”, “gib beirut”, “gay beirut blog” or “gays in beirut gibs”, and who spent more than 5 minutes on average reading GiB’s stuff. Way to see it in action, Beirut word-of-mouth really works wonders!
The Foreskin Attentive Award goes out to…
The ~60 readers who landed on GiB by googling things like “are lebanese men circumcised”, "are lebanese men generally circumcised", “lebanese cut or uncut”, “circumcised in Beirut”, “christian circumcision beirut”, or “lebanese circumcision”, only to find a mitigated answer in the post r u c/uc?. Question to the reader who googled “lebanese karam circumcised”: now tell us… did he turn out to be cut or uncut?
The Nosy GiB Award goes out to…
The 25 readers who googled “hamed sinno gay”, “hamed from mashrou3 leila gay?”, “hamed leila gay” or even “hamed sinno is homosexual”, and probably went on reading Party in a Steel Factory or Tattooed All Over. Now tell us… did you ever find out? Are you sure? Sure sure sure? But wait… isn’t he also the guy who waved a rainbow flag on stage at Byblos in front of major politicians, for the first time in Lebanon’s history (Photo)?
And last but not least…
The BFF GiB Award goes to…
Our folks in the online/blogger community in Lebanon, GiB's fiercest advertisers, supporters and commentators, to Dani, LGBT Monitor, GiAD, Ra’fat, Beirut Boy and all the others… Seriously, it would not be the same without you!
… If GiB can be proud of one thing today, it's got to be that it's doing a fairly decent job taking part in The Gay Electronic Intifada of Lebanon ... but gosh how we hate the sound of that word!
Thanks for linking to my article! :)
ReplyDeleteHappy 10 month anniversary GiBs! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad we're in this together.
Here's to ten amazing YEARS to come.
My pleasure Rita... nicely written piece. Do you have any other writings on the topic, and where do you place Lebanon's LGBT blogosphere in the equation?
ReplyDeleteBeirut Boy, nshalla! Let's keep it up and see what happens :)
Aww...thanks for the compliment. Yes, I do have another article about it (it's older than the intifada one). Here's the link: http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2009/elhaddad240209.html.
ReplyDeleteRight now, I think the explosion of Lebanese LGBT blogs is AMAZING! As I was reading this post I was thinking about writing a follow-up to the intifada article and mention the blogs and I could link to your blog, Beirut Boy, The G Life, and Lebanon Rebel as well as the "standard" Lebanese LGBT Monitor and other sites like last time.
What do you think?
Great idea! I think 'explosion' might be a big word to use to describe just the Blog part of it, but if you consider all the press and publiciy that the topic of gay life in Beirut is getting in the media in Lebanon and abroad, and looking at the emergence of gay tourism, it is no less than an explosion in my mind.
ReplyDeleteBack to blogs, one must also put them into perspective as an often short lived venture. I remember a leb gay blog I used to read called “Valley of the twenty-something” (http://2xist.blogspot.com) years back - whatever happened to it?
Oh, that blog is still there but has less of an LGBT focus and is more about personal poetry and things like that. So wouldn't really be considered as part of the Lebanese LGBT blogs currently. I think four blogs in a year is an explosion ;)
ReplyDeletehahaha funny post ! <3 I do like your writing style Mr GiB ;-)but I would prefer a page organisation which has more caracter :P I mean orange is not cool , it lacks colours , features , images , icons etc...
ReplyDeleteUn lecteur fidèle from France
PS: Sorry for my very bad english !!!
PS2: Have a look at gayclic.com
merci lecteur fidele de France! c'est tres bien fait gayclic..je vois ce que tu veux dire par rapport aux couleurs/interactif/logos...
ReplyDeletej ai un ami qui insiste pour qu on passe a wordpress ce qui rendrait tout ca plus facile, mais j ai la flemme de faire la transition a ce stade... pour l instant dis toi que gayclic c'est un site en bonne et due forme avec sans doute du staff, ils ont 4 ans nous meme pas 1:P et GiB#1 notre graphis designer attitré a pleins d'idees du genre mais jamais assez de temps!
tu es libanais toi ou tu as ete a beyrouth? si oui ca te dirait d ecrire un review, une histoire qui t est arrivee, ou juste ce que tu en as pensé? On est ok pour du contenu en francais!
Je suis libanais , homo , en couple , vivant en France après avoir passé mes 18 premières années au Liban. Même si je n'ai jamais eu les talents d'écrivain , je pourrais participer à un review en français bien sur. Vous souhaitez un sujet en particulier ?
ReplyDeletequelque chose qui te tienne a coeur! tant que le suhet c'est "gay" et "beirut", ca marche! Une opinion, une sale experience, une belle histoire, une comparaison avec l'Europe, tes dernieres vacances... ce qui te tente!
ReplyDelete