April 27, 2000

7:37 PM

Did everybody else completely ignore this? Or am I the only one who didn't know that tonight is the 5th Annual Cool Site of the Year ceremony? Why do they even bother anymore?
posted by ratbastard (15 comments total)

I found out about it earlier on someone's log. I think it would be a pretty big deal if you were a nominee. Damn ugly site tho . . . and advertising to boot.
posted by 33east at 7:42 PM on April 27, 2000

>I think it would be a pretty big deal if you were>a nominee.

Kinda like the Webbys.
posted by jkottke at 7:59 PM on April 27, 2000

Zeldman's going.
posted by ericost at 8:04 PM on April 27, 2000

I remember when the cool site of the day was actually cool. I think the beginning of the end was when they got the domain. I may be merging memories here, but it seems to me that the first of the "new" cool sites of the day was The Spot. Or maybe it was their cool site of the month.

Definitely jumped the shark around then....

... which, by the way, has one of those self-referential things going on...
posted by dhartung at 8:46 PM on April 27, 2000

whats "cool site of the day/year"? is it like one of those things where you pay them lotsa$$$ and paste thier link every 300 pixels on your site to get them to mention you?*

*This is satirical in nature, now you laugh.
posted by Jeremy at 8:54 PM on April 27, 2000

80% of the pages on the net these days have some form of "cool site of the day" on them. The novelty of actually having the domain doesn't make their sites *cooler* or anything.

Now if they had an annual memepool ceremony, I'd be interested.
posted by lzealand at 10:10 PM on April 27, 2000

Web awards are highly over rated. I must admit that I did appreciate seeing a few entries in CSOTY and the Webbys (Kottke.org, The Remedi Project, Cocky Bastard, etc)… otherwise, it was all hype (or lack there of), advertising and political agendas. This weeks ALA pretty much sums up how I feel about the web as it stands today.
posted by nick at 10:36 PM on April 27, 2000

it's not a big deal even for a nominee - unless you're a commercial business. if you're a gaming site with 2 million visitors, and you win, you could end up with 3 or 4 million visitors, and thus, more ad revenues. that's what it's about.

when glenn started it in '94, the web was a creative playground. it still is ... but to MOST people, it's ebay and amazon. and most web awards now are about finding the next ebay and amazon.

on its own terms (as a promotional event that raises money and gets press attention) it was a success this year - a far cry from last year's robin leach fiasco.

theremedi did not win in the design category; some site called the void won. the ad graveyard didn't win. (i didn't expect it to.) the onion did not win either. some site called funnymail or fun-email won in my category.

it was a "people's choice" award: the site with the most votes wins. sites that won spent money and time recruiting votes. (CSOTD banner on your front page, bulk email to your readers asking them to vote for you, that kind of thing.) if you didn't do that, you had no shot.

i've been to several of these things. they are all about startup companies. they are not about independent creative work. most of the attendees have never heard of the fray, kaliber (insert your favorite here). i no longer feel out of place, and i no longer worry when nobody has any clue what my site is about or why it was nominated. it's like visiting another country. if the food is good and the people are friendly, what more can you ask?
posted by Zeldman at 11:46 PM on April 27, 2000

I think that the High Five / ALA awards are the only awards now that I'd take seriously.

Though this Robin Leach thing is legendary - I could hardly believe Dereks writing about it at the time!


posted by tomcosgrave at 1:32 AM on April 28, 2000

Eh.

Until there's a serious organization that is dedicated to promoting the Web medium as art, color me disinterested.

Then again, once someone actually *makes* art on the Web, let me know.
posted by solistrato at 6:39 AM on April 28, 2000

P.S. Jason - reeeeeeal subtle. ;)
posted by solistrato at 6:40 AM on April 28, 2000

I liked seeing the webby site if only that it made me aware of quality websites I didn´t know about.

I´m interested in awards based on other criteria, like the 5k contest. After all, "cool" is a pretty broad and uninteresting descriptor.

A contest of chat-rooms to see which is the easiest for picking up people? Porn sites that get the most people off?
posted by lockecito at 7:51 AM on April 28, 2000

Uh.... well for those of us stuck on a mountain; where the deer and the antelope do obscene things on your front lawn....

Who won what????? 24 hours later, shouldn't the "Cool Site of The Year" page post something?????

I take it Zeldman didn't win for the "Ad Graveyard", and I really didn't see anything worth voting for otherwise....
posted by EricBrooksDotCom at 7:54 AM on April 28, 2000

As I recall, last year, it took CSOTY more than a week to post the list of winners.

Crikey, it's not like they didn't know ahead of time who was going to win. Just one more strike against them.
posted by ratbastard at 9:52 AM on April 28, 2000

The winners are posted now. Apparently there's at least one more definition of "cool" in the dictionary that I wasn't aware of.
Besides that, they have a category which is actually called "Cool Wacky Site of the Year".
Where are the "Cool Madcap Site of the Year" and the "Cool Zany Site of the Year"? I'm disappointed.
posted by the webmistress at 6:32 AM on April 29, 2000