General Criteria For All Awards

(Modified August 22, 2004)

Basic Criteria

Current URL must be submitted
You must enter the correct URL when you submit your site. If we cannot find your site we cannot grant it an award.
We must be able to reach your site
When we click on the URL that you submit, your site must exist (I know this seems obvious, but you don't know how many times we get submissions for non-existent sites!) Lately many free hosts have been shutting off access on many of their higher-traffic sites after they have used a certain amount of bandwidth. If we find this is true of your submission, we will try again in a couple of weeks.
We must be able to understand your site
Your site must be in English or Spanish, or have an English or Spanish version. We do not intend to discriminate against other languages or nationalities, but we can only read those languages.
Able to contact the webmaster
Since we believe the web and internet is about communication, we require a way to reach the webmaster. This can be a mailto: link, a form, and ICQ number or even a graphic with the email address. A guestbook can serve this purpose as well.
Load time must be reasonable
Your site must load relatively quickly. We expect any page (especially the index page) to load in a minute or two at the most.
No security warnings
We run our browser in high security mode. This means any ActiveX and similar browser controls will fail. Sites which cause this issue without it being clearly noted in the comments section will be immediately rejected.

Content

Family Safe

Is your site suitable for the entire family? Basically, would I feel comfortable looking at your contents with my wife and children? 

Strong content and originality

Your site must be about something. Nothing is totally original, but there should be something new and fresh about your site.

Your site must communicate something

The internet is primarily about communication, therefore your site must communicate something. This must be a stronger message than "click my banners" or "help me make money". For example, a web log communicates a persons daily life and feelings, a personal site might have someone's pictures and opinions and a business site might inform as to the benefits of a product as well as providing support.

You must display awards

An awards page for the display of award honors should be present on your site.

Design and Layout

Navigation must be useful and well defined

We want to look around your site and see what you've got to say. You need to provide a good method for doing so. A menu, list of pages, site map, and/or a local search engine are very good ways to accomplish this.

A strong sense of balance is a must

This means the site must, well, look good. There must be space between images, tables used effectively and so on.

No under construction signs

All good web sites are always under construction. Therefore, the presence of under construction images is not necessary and will detract from the chances of winning an award. It is understood, however, that a page here and there may be blank or "under construction" as a site evolves.

Legal And Ethical

Copyrights are respected

In other words, if you use someone else's works you give them proper credit and, where necessary, you get permission.

Your links which are internal to your site work

External links do break occasionally (the web is constantly changing) but most of them should be operational.

Your site must be readable

We must be able to read your text without straining our eyes or our sanity.

Spelling and grammar must be good

You should spell and grammar check your pages.

Your site must not crash our browser

We check sites using Internet Explorer 6.0. If you wish us to use another browser, please note it when you submit your site.

Privacy Policy

Commercial sites must include a comprehensive privacy policy.

Optional

Other characteristics which will help but are not required include:

  • Good use of ALT tags on your images.

  • Effective use of Metatags

  • Good use of color

Some characteristics which, while they will not necessarily cause failure, will detract from your chance of winning an award:

Immediate Rejections

All sites are welcome to apply for our awards with the exception of the following.

  • Any site hosted on Tripod or MSN groups. These two hosts, in particular, display an obnoxious number of advertisements and modify browser behavior. If your site is hosted here, then please find a real hosting company.

  • Any site that promotes alcohol, tobacco or gambling.

  • Any site that uses scripts which we consider to be unethical . These include scripts which modify the back key, trap visitors in the site or popup countless windows.

  • Any sites with Pornographic or sexually explicit content (images, text or multimedia). Our site is family safe, which means we do not link to pornographic sites.

  • Any sites with Warez, cracks, hacking or hacking-related links or espousing illegal activities will be considered. 

  • Any sites which are comprised only of links.

  • Any sites which consist only of advertisements.

  • Any sites which espouse racism, racial superiority or make derogatory statements about other group based on their color, race, religious belief, sex or sexual persuasion.

  • Any sites which preach hatred or are about animal abuse.

  • Any Psychiatric sites, sites which promote hypnosis or sites which recommend psychiatric drugs. ANY SITES ABOUT "MENTAL HEALTH" ARE NOT ELIGIBLE FOR OUR AWARDS.

  • Any sites which violate copyrights, steal bandwidth or recommend any illegal activities. 

  • You must be over the age of 14 in order to apply for an award. This is because of a law which does not allow children to submit private information without their parents permission.

  • Any sites which primarily promote MLM schemes.

  • Any sites which degrade Scientology, paganism, Wicca, Christianity, Judaism, Islam or any other religious beliefs.