first., this contest is dumb btw

Boy, nobody gives a shit about this "contest"...

Could you have the competitors blog somewhere else so I don't have to read them?

At least have them blog about OCI

Obviously, the Marinheads came out in droves to vote. Marinheads = TTT. Sophist = T14.

please spare us the lame farewells.

Well I guess I am going to have to get behind Sophist to keep the Marinheads away...

Why no KASH in these results???

Please include a none of the above option in the next round of voting. Wouldn't you at least like to see how much of ATL's leadership is really unhappy with these bloggers? If the message comes through loud enough, you'd have a good reason to choose some new people and try again.

Protest poll results:

1.9%

Alex
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

0.9%

Exley
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

6.6%

Marin
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.4%

Frolic & Detour
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

9.0%

Sophist
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

69.3%

Kash
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

10.8%

None of the above

Total votes: 212

This site gives me a place to escape the workplace, which for lawyers, is a well needed respite.

What will become of us if Marin wins? I'm a man without a country...

Have any of you read Dealbreaker? It's like a ghost town in comparison to this site.

Guys, I think it's time to give it up. I'm sure that Kash has valid and cogent reasons for declining the EIC position, which was surely offered to her.

12:41 - Yes. It's called J-school:

http://kashmirhill.blogspot.com/2008/06/introduction.html

I still can't get over how awful Ann Althouse is. I have to be honest. I had never heard of her before. But reading her writing is like reading a fourth grader's ESL homework. I think she was lied to for years and told she was smart. She believed it and this is what we get: A complete moron.

15: I have a friend at NU's J-School who says that education is fairly meaningless in the Journalism world. Experience and clips are everything. I wonder why she's going.

Agreed. I'm not done talking about how wretched Ann is. Wretched.

The finalists should have to put lolcats in their posts so that we can see if they can actually be funny.

The lolcats around here are some of the best stuff and we need to know that the new contributor can keep up!

19: talk about damning with faint praise. If the lolcats are the best thing around us, we need help. Probably of the professional variety.

OMG!!!! ANN ALTHOUSE update:

So, there is a breast contraversy about which Ann Althouse is super sensitive:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/26/ann-althouse-losses-it/

Linking back to the original post (the one that sparked the contraversy) you can see that Ann Althouse's OWN blog has an advertisement for some Pamela Anderson PETA video, but Pamela is naked, clutching her giant breast with one hand.

Ann, you are a twit!

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2006/09/lets-take-closer-look-at-those-breasts.html

Doubt ATL will change that much whoever ends up being the new EIC. Didn't Lat say he'd continue to contribute and sort of watch over the site in his new position?

Exley's farewell post should be 2 words: "I'm sorry"

More stupidity from Marin's blog, http://livinginnarnia.blogspot.com/2008/08/gone-fishin.html

What grown woman, or really anyone over the age of eight, refers to their father as "Daddykins"?

This whole site is in the shitter.

24 - actually, have you ever in your life heard a child under the age of eight use the term "Daddykins"? Spontaneously? Is this a word that children would even recognize? My sense is that in this day and age, it's a word that's used only ironically, and only by adults.

I like how Lat is utterly refusing to acknowledge the 100% hate for all of the candidates manifesting itself in the comment threads. He's just plowing ahead like everyone's on board with his dipshit contest.

26:

Ironically or by JP's.

#27, I like that too. He gets 1800 votes in his contest, and hundreds upon hundreds of comments posted to the candidates' various submissions, and he just plows ahead like everyone's on board with his dipshit contest. And he acts like the 212 votes cast over at the protest poll are meaningless in comparison.

Put this "Contest" on its separate page. That way those who care will go see it and those who don't can still enjoy the damn site. Or at least mark the posts by these idiotic new writers with an "idol" avatar so we can avoid them.

Not many comments on this thread. Are people just sick of ATL Idol already? I am.

None of these candidates has any draw power. In fact, quite possibly the most annoying candidate (Marin) won the first round.

The minimal comments stink of apathy.

ATL will go to the Marinheads, who won't continue to visit ATL with the same force as Lat's following. This site will fade into obscurity and eventually no one will care. Yawn.

i'm sick of this sh*tty contest.

this is the stupidist idea i have ever seen. please make it stop.

I HATE ANN ALTHOUSE. SHE IS A TTT.

Marin's latest (counterproductive) attempt to influence the ATL vote--by blogging about her “amazing” lifestyle:

http://livinginnarnia.blogspot.com/2008/08/ways-in-which-you-are-jealous.html

And

"you will be sitting at your desk and your jealousy will escalate."

http://livinginnarnia.blogspot.com/2008/08/gone-fishin.html

(She is on vacation with "Daddykins" in Aruba. We are supposed to be impressed, because Marin is shamazing".)

BTW, Marin is a "map intern" for Gawker's Stalker feature under the name “Robespierre”. (See http://gawker.com/stalker/, scroll down.)

Compare with Marin’s bio claim:

“Marin developed and wrote the "Stalk of the Town" feature for Gawker and continues to post celebrity sightings for the site.”

http://abovethelaw.com/2008/07/atl_idol_meet_the_finalists.php#more

(Also see Living in Narnia BY ROBESPIERRE HTTP://LIVINGINNARNIA.BLOGSPOT.COM/)

i think Lat will actually take secret (or not so secret) pleasure in watching the site run into the ground by lesser mortals like marin. whatever he's got planned as his next career move, it probably beats the hell out of writing variations of the same jokes and stories (basic motif: "at least we're not as dumb as him/her/you") over and over in order to play to the bitter humor of joyless, whiny and overworked lawyers. sucks for us.

Dear 37:

As has been announced on this site and reported on other blawgs, Lat is moving to NY to oversee the management of ATL, Dealbreaker and Fashionista, and he will continue to write for ALT occasionally.

Therefore, David Lat's fortune's will remain very much tied to ATL.

In fact, Lat’s job title requires him to work toward the opposite of seeing ATL run “into the ground”. Clearly, however, if Marin gains control of this site, it is going in a new direction.

Re: #36:

Would a person credited on a website as a "map intern" of a celebrity sightings page be considered to be the creater and writer of that feature?

What the heck is a "map intern"?

That sounds one step below "intern".

Re 36 and 39: See, for example: http://gawker.com/news/stalk-of-the-town/ricky-martins-cup-of-lies-333097.php

Re 36 and 39: See http://gawker.com/tag/stalk-of-the-town/

Lat, the new format sucks.