Comments on: Comments on 7259

Post number 7259

almostcool — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 09:07:33 -0800

The Webby Awards List is up... Didn't see it posted here yet and thought this list would spawn some interesting conversation.

By: starvingartist

starvingartist — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 09:20:26 -0800

Holy crap! Peter Pan was nominated in the "Weird" category! Did we help to cause that?

By: jpoulos

jpoulos — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 09:25:59 -0800

Maybe I'm a snob, but I found the the 5k about 100 times more interesting than anything nominated here. Except for the old standby's (salon, pbs/nova, etc.) it's all flash (pun intended) and no substance. I did notice that The Peter Pan site got a nod. Go Randy!

By: jpoulos

jpoulos — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 09:26:34 -0800

starvingartist: great minds etc etc....

By: xiffix

xiffix — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 09:27:17 -0800

Already being chewed over in metatalk...

By: kokogiak

kokogiak — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 09:27:26 -0800

Glad to see Mark Meadows boar.com/bore.com get recognized (in Personal Category). Always found his work interesting.

By: Succa

Succa — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 09:27:48 -0800

And the shaft goes to...www.metafilter.com! Honestly, I can't believe MeFi isn't nominated for anything. When will these hoity-toity dot-com foolios wake the hell up and start recognizing what community is all about? Haughey deserves a Webby! Dammit!

By: jpoulos

jpoulos — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 09:34:40 -0800

I hereby nominate Matt Haughey for the first annual Meffy award, MeFi's answer to the Webbys.

By: crunchland

crunchland — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 09:50:34 -0800

You mean sainthood isn't enough?

By: Succa

Succa — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 09:52:08 -0800

Try putting sainthood in your trophy case! Doesn't work, does it?

By: judomadonna

judomadonna — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 10:08:17 -0800

"From the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco, it's the 5th Annual Webby Awards! Brought to you by Burger King -- Yes, we have job openings! And by Flooz, Beenz, and Kozmo -- Use our worthless 'Net currency to get a 4% discount on crap delivered by a guy on a ten-speed."

By: lia

lia — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 10:14:42 -0800

I'm voting for Peter Pan as well! If you check his updates page, he's been doing interviews because reporters have been badgering him. Randy is strange, but even extremely jaded me has to admit that his outlook on life is fantastic. I hope he meets his Tinkerbell.

By: dangerman

dangerman — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 10:24:21 -0800

huh...Blogger.com is a personal site?

By: daveadams

daveadams — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 10:27:01 -0800

huh...Blogger.com is a personal site? I thought the same thing... although maybe since Ev is the only one left at Pyra now...

By: mathowie

mathowie — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 10:28:15 -0800

huh...Blogger.com is a personal site? Last year, Diaryland got nominated in the personal category, so y'know...

By: megnut

megnut — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 10:33:16 -0800

There's no category for web applications, so Evan submitted a nomination in the personal section, if I remember correctly. The nomiations were due back in December, when Pyra was still six people.

By: markkraft

markkraft — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 10:51:50 -0800

The Webbies always seem to leave me wondering "What the f*ck were they thinking?!" This year, it makes me feel as if they can't even categorize. Does it make any sense to anyone else to have Blogger and Fray competing with personal websites? How can that not skew the People's Voice Awards results, making it impossible for real personal websites to win this award? Neither Blogger or Fray belong under this category... there are about four other categories that they would kind of fit in, but Personal?! Fine... screw the individuals... Also, why is it that the "People's Voice" awards seem to require you to select amongst only those sites that they've already nominated? What's the point in that, if not to enforce their mindset on everyone else and reenforce their sometimes questionable choices? The people have spoken, and they have said "Mpphmmph!". Then again, they did honor Auriea in the past... deservedly so, though perhaps in a way that overshadowed other deserving artists.

By: maura

maura — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 10:58:27 -0800

the webby awards are only perceived as "relevant" because people like us TALK about them. they certainly don't mean anything, as even the most cursory glance at the nominees can tell you. i predict two more years will pass before they slide into CSOTY-like laughableness. ignore the pseudo-events and they will go away!

By: schlomo

schlomo — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 11:11:05 -0800

Maura, I think they have already slided into Grammy-like laughableness. God Save the Web from Award Shows!!!

By: douglasprc

douglasprc — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 11:15:35 -0800

Maura, I think they're particularly bad this year...

By: dangerman

dangerman — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 11:21:25 -0800

There's no category for web applications So why enter it? *shrug*

By: fraying

fraying — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 11:23:08 -0800

I cannot speak to the Webbies' nominating process, but last year they also put a mixed bag into the personal site category. They had a tool (Diaryland) and a collaborative site (Metababy). And I remember complaining about that then. The answer I got was that the personal category was for personal, but not necessarily individual, sites. There is a difference between the two. I didn't like it then, and I don't expect you you like it now. But it's their show so I guess they can do what they want. Of course, last year an individual (Halcyon) won. So there ya go.

By: schlomo

schlomo — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 11:29:32 -0800

Of course, Derek, award shows may be (mostly) crap but you deserve to win one anyway!

By: megnut

megnut — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 11:34:04 -0800

dangerman, ask ev.

By: CrazyUncleJoe

CrazyUncleJoe — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 11:40:13 -0800

Did you just tell derek that he deserves some crap???

By: dangerman

dangerman — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 11:47:30 -0800

ok, that just made milk come out my nose

By: fraying

fraying — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 12:09:58 -0800

And now for the positive side.... Paypal was nominated twice (finance and services), mySimon for commerce (great tool, even after cnet bought them), craigslist is a local organization that deserves a bigtime spotlight (community), Kuro5hin is one of the most forward-thinking community tools out there, and sissyfight in games *must* win, blogger deserves the honor - it's done more for the web this year than anything, live365 and sputnik7 - two of my favorite streaming sites - are both nominated in music, and feed, plastic, and nerve are all in zines! How to choose? A lot of these sites are great tools, amazing collaborations, and/or personal labors of love. Let's not lose sight of that.

By: evhead

evhead — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 12:31:46 -0800

I was as surprised as anyone that Blogger is in the personal site category. I really rather it wasn't, as I suspect that will hurt its chances. I don't remember submitting an application at all. If I did, I'm sure I would have put it in the services category. Perhaps they moved it. Perhaps someone else did it. I dunno. BTW, did it cost money to enter? If so, i'd like to check and see if I paid them something. I seriously don't remember entering. The only thing I remember is going there a few months ago, thinking I should perhaps enter and finding nominations closed.

By: dangerman

dangerman — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 12:33:27 -0800

Meg...Ev doesn't remember.

By: megnut

megnut — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 12:52:06 -0800

Dangerman, I thought Ev told me something about that once, but maybe I made up that memory?

By: dangerman

dangerman — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 13:05:58 -0800

That's alright...it happens when you get past your prime. ;b

By: tranquileye

tranquileye — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 13:11:54 -0800

The Reuters story identifies my biggest problem with the Webbies, and most other US-based awards: Choices by the 350-member International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences put an overwhelming focus on English-language, U.S.-centered sites, defying the very notion of the World Wide Web, and the fact that a growing majority of Web users live outside the United States, and prefer sites in a smorgasbord of languages. The sites nominated are great, really, but they are also overwhelmingly American.

By: bluishorange

bluishorange — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 13:25:00 -0800

BTW, did it cost money to enter? boy, did it ever. most people i know who have personal sites and are college students could never afford that sort of entry fee (myself included).

By: Rebis

Rebis — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 13:42:59 -0800

Hmmm... last year, I attended the Webby awards ceremony because of my tenuous ties to PHON.E.ME, one of the nominees in the Arts category. We lost--the winner in that category was the entirely brilliant WebStalker. BUT---it appears that this year they don't even have an Arts category any more.... I guess that web art, by definition, is not commercial enough to by considered worthy by the Webby powers that be.

By: markkraft

markkraft — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 13:53:19 -0800

It would be interesting to know just how many of the entries representing the "World Wide Web" came out of either S.F./Silicon Valley, the NYC metro, or the greater Washington D.C. metro region. Taking a look at the list of entries, I would say about 80% fall into one of the three categories...

By: aaron

aaron — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 14:02:12 -0800

Before commenting here, everyone should really read the Metatalk thread. And in case you still don't get what this is truly about after learning about the $75 entry fee, grab a copy of today's USA Today and look at the article about the Webbys on page D3. Notice that the only accompanying photo is not of any nominated site or any site's maintainer, but of Tiffany Schlain.

By: rory

rory — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 20:11:09 -0800

Yes, I've read the MetaTalk thread, and I'm still posting this here because that's turned into a bunfight. Re: 'personal sites' - their own definition on the rules page says that these are meant to be: Sites about individuals. These personal sites are created by you about you, by you about someone else, or by someone else about you. These do not include sites that are constructed to market your portfolio or your personal business. Which makes their line to Derek about 'personal but not necessarily individual' kind of suspect. By my reckoning, only one of the five Personal nominees - The Boar - comes close. douglaspearce.com ver15 looks like it once contained more about Douglas himself, but right now it's a photo gallery. Dancing Paul is made by a single person and mighty entertaining, but it doesn't tell us much about Paul apart from his booty-shakin', gettin'-jiggy-with-it tendencies. If they want to broaden their definition of 'personal', fine - I personally think that a personal site can be more than a site 'about' an individual - but if they set up these clear definitions in their rules, they should surely stick to them. And they certainly shouldn't shoe-horn web apps like Blogger and community art sites like the Fray into a category that doesn't, by their own definition, allow for them. Sigh. (I hasten to add that all five nominees are terrific sites.)

By: mikel

mikel — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 20:43:04 -0800

Bore rocks. Mark Meadows has done more beautiful stuff on the web than many people have even seen. Not to ignore Fray and Blogger and the other spectacular sites on the list (category issues be damned). But judging by these posts, it seems that people here at MeFi don't seem to know much about Mark and the various things he's been involved with over the years (including the excellent front page USAToday pic of his house going over the cliff in the mudslides a few years ago).