PLEASE NOTE: Due to lack of time, I find myself forced to close this award program for the time being. If you applied for an award and haven't received a response,
your site is still in the queue and will receive an award eventually (may not be this year, though!). I hope to reopen the program one day. Thanks to all who participated.
Purpose: The purpose of this award program is to recognize the hard work and dedication of webmasters who have created great websites that benefit the Internet community.
To apply: Send me an email with your name, your site's URL and title, a description of your site, and the name of the award you would like to receive. Please allow up to 4 weeks for review. All applicants will be notified whether they win or not. However, if this proves too much of a hassle, I may decide to only notify winners. If this becomes necessary, I will update this page to reflect the change.
Re-applying: If you're looking to improve your general award status (i.e. from silver to gold), just re-submit your site for review. If you are a specialized award recipient and would like to apply for a general award (or vice-versa), re-submit your site and mention that you are applying for a different award. Please allow 30 days between any applications. You may only apply for one award at a time.
Award Graphics: 1 general award (4 levels) & 10 specialized awards are available. To view them, please visit the Award Graphics page.
Rating: This award program is not yet rated.
Privacy: I do not give out or sell email addresses or any other personal information. Any information you submit is strictly confidential and will be treated as such.
You can see the awards my site has received on the main Awards page.
Criteria - Read Before Applying
DISQUALIFICATION FACTORS:
Profanity, pornography, nudity, racist or sexual references, vulgarity, hatred, abuse/cruelty, violence, or anything that makes your site unsuitable to be viewed by children or links to any such site.
Error/debug messages when trying to access your site.
Multiple popups everywhere on the screen. I can tolerate one popup per page, but that's about the max for me.
Any site that crashes/freezes my browser.
"Nothing but links" sites.
Long load time. My patience is limited. Your site will be disqualified if it takes more than a minute to load (by loading, I mean that at least partial content appears, even if a few images have yet to load). If your page is graphics-intensive (i.e. graphics site) and you post a warning about possible long load time, I will be more lenient.
No place to display award graphics.
Entire site under construction.
Navigation so complicated and/or poorly done that I get lost.
Too many broken links/images
No way to turn off music
Political sites (i.e. sites that bash or support either party and do so in an obvious manner that is demeaning to the other party) are excluded from this award program. Patriotic/military/tribute sites that make references to American history, presidents, wars, etc. do not count as political sites.
Sites submitted by webmasters younger than 13 years old (in compliance with C.O.P.P.A.)
CRITERIA:
Your site will be judged according to ease of use, creativity, design, and content. I do not use a point system, so this is just my own appreciation. I do not require that you sign a guestbook (I don't even have one!), and although I prefer to hand code my own HTML, I do not expect you to. I do not use HTML validators to review your site. Again, I judge according to my own impression of your site.
Navigation. Your site should be easy to navigate, and all of your pages should be easily accessible from any page. Each page should have a unique title so I always know where I am.
Load time. I use a 56K modem to review your site. Please make sure it doesn't take me half an hour to load your site.
Long pages. Pages that are too long should, if at all possible, be broken up into several. I will tolerate long pages if you have a "back to top" option every few screens.
Scrolling. I will review your site at 800x600 and don't expect to find a scroll bar at the bottom. A tiny scroll is OK, as long as I don't need to use it to read your page. I use Internet Explorer to review websites.
Easy on the eyes. Fonts should complement backgrounds. Colors should be harmonious. I shouldn't get eye strain when I look at your site. Your content should not all be centered.
Content. I don't have a required number of pages for content, but please make sure you have at least several pages worth. Make me want to bookmark your site, give me a reason to come back. Webrings, links, awards, guestbooks, forums, adoptions [snowglobes, teddies and the like] do not qualify as content. In my book, photos do qualify.
Images. Ideally, all images should have ALT tags, and size definitions. However, your site won't be disqualified just because a few images are missing them. Please don't overuse animations.
Links. External links should open in a new window. Internal ones should open in the same window.
Broken links/broken graphics. These should be kept at a minimum.
Under construction. I can understand that you would have a page under construction. However, anything above that will start to really annoy me. If you have more than 2 pages under construction, please finish your site before applying. Webrings that are pending approval are fine.
Frames. If your site uses frames, make sure they are tastefully done. That means no tiny little frames (especially ones used for content display), no sites with 6 different frames on the same page, and no sites that open internal links in another window instead of using one of the frames.
Language. Your site must be in English, or French. These are the only languages I understand.
Grammar/spelling. I'm very picky when it comes to correct grammar and spelling. I can tolerate a typo here and there, but please make sure you spell check your site and use correct grammar.
Email. Your email address should be on every page, and should work.
Music. I must be able to turn off music easily.
Popups. Ideally, your site should be free of popups, although I will tolerate a small amount.
Cursors. I'm not partial to trailing cursors but will tolerate them as long as they don't download to my PC (i.e. no comet cursors).
Flash. Sites with flash intros must have a "skip intro" option.
Types of Sites. I prefer to give awards to personal sites, but will consider commercial sites. I also prefer sites that are non-political. In addition, for sites that have a religious connotation, I would stronly prefer that they be Christian. Finally, websites and parts of sites (individual themed pages) are eligible.
Right-click. I do not like sites that are right-click disabled. My dial-up line forces me to sometimes stop the page and load the images individually.
Updates. Your site must be updated fairly regularly. Sites that have not changed at all in the last year do not sit well with me.
Award denial. I reserve the right to refuse an award to any site.
