Today I’m announcing The 2003 Weblog Awards which will honor both established and new weblogs. Note that you can visit the page, but it’s not finished. For the graphically inclined among you we will need a logo for the page and a 88×31 winner button that the winners can post.
Voting for the awards will be open to all, but you will only be able to vote once in each category. I control the polling software (as opposed to a third party site) so I can enforce my own rules. I’ll start placing nominating posts for each category tomorrow. You can nominate yourself or another site. The final decisions as to the participants in each category will be mine, but I will try to take all nominations into account. There are enough categories that most sites that really want to participate will be able to find one they fit in.
Why am I doing this? I think most awards tend to favor established sites. While it’s fun to vote on the best overall blog, the results usually end up with the usual suspects cleaning up. I think I’ve created enough of a stratification system that blogs will be able to compete on an equal footing with their peers.
The categories as they stand now:
— Best Overall Blog
— Best New Blog (Established in 2003)
— Best Group Blog
— Best Foreign Blog
— Best Humor Blog
— Best Looking Blog
— Best Female Authored Blog
— Best Liberal Blog
— Best Conservative Blog
–Best Blog By Ecosystem Level:
Higher Beings & Mortal Humans
Playful Primates
Large Mammals
Marauding Marsupials
Adorable Rodents
Flappy Birds
Slithering Reptiles
Crawly Amphibians
Flippery Fish
Slimy Molluscs (and below)
That’s 19 categories that cover the blog universe from top to bottom (and side to side). I may add one more later. I’m going to limit the number of entries in each category (probably to 15, maybe more in the overall category). The best part for you is that the effort required to participate will be minimal, just visit and vote.
Stay tunned for more details and nomination posts tomorrow. I’ve not established a firm end date for voting, but I’m thinking about December 15th.
Update: The 2003 Weblog Awards is close to ready. Please visit and click on the polls (there are only 2 test polls tonight). Leave any issues in the comments here. You should only be allowed to vote once in each poll. Remember even though there are many categories the actual polls aren’t up yet. Try out the permalinks and navigation. Each poll will have it’s own link so that contestants can provide a link to the actual poll at their blog.
If you want to e-mail nominees instead of using the nomination posts (which will start tomorrow), please use: awards at wizbangblog.com
Update2: Follow this link to see all the nomination posts.
Great idea!
I find the inclusion of a category for “Female Authored Blog” highly offensive. There’s no need to separate the girls from the boys, considering that Michele of ASV is going to win Best Blog Overall anyway. 😉
Hmmm. I don’t find a Female category HIGHLY offensive.
But I do find it completely unnecessary.
Kevin: Your contest, but I’d get rid of that one.
It may well be unnecessary. I’ll have a decision on that category tomorrow. Considering that there are so many levels of categories it’s probably redundant.
Are any of the categories “necessary”? Is the contest “necessary?” Personally, I think the contest is a great idea, but claiming that one category is “unnecessary” strikes me as being a little odd.
Maybe I’m just not sensitive enough, but a “best female blogger” category doesn’t bother me in the least. Then again, if it bothers other people I don’t know that I’d argue for keeping it for any reason other than to be a giant pain in the rear. 🙂
1) I do not think there is anything wrong with best female blogger. Just like any of the other categories, it is a category that would interest a good many bloggers–so keep it.
2) How about the best “Kevin” blogger? I still remember the famous post about what all of the “Kevins” were blogging, but alas, I was not listed in the formal post [sigh]…
Great idea.
I was just surprised to see best female authored without a corresponding best male authored category.
Well I’m going on the theory (expounded on elsewhere) that the blogosphere is 75%+ male. I’m sure that’s no accurate but that’s the reasoning for a female category and no male category.
Slight problem with hanging chads–once I voted in one category, It told me I had voted already in every other category….I’m going to come back with IE and see if it’s a Mozilla issue….
Well, good for preventing cheating–it recognized me even with a different browser. Bad for poll testing–It won’t let me vote again, so I don’t know if it’s a poll issue or a mozilla one…. (And I really really wanted to vote for Choice 1 in the Best Large Mammals blog!!!)
I’ve fixed the page to remove the duplicate polls. I like the no cheating feature…
I see a problem with using the ecosystem as an award category since the ecosystem ranking is fluid especially at the lower ranks. Especially staying at one level after being nominated may be tough.