NOTE: For the sake of transparency I may be biased as I am organising an awards ceremony for Irish bloggers.
I’ve just looked at the shortlist for the Golden Spiders Best Personal Website / Blog Award. Oh dear.
- http://www.joncheung.com
- http://www.kellymcerlean.com
- http://www.kilrowanartsfestival.com
- http://www.mountainviews.ie
- http://www.oconnellpeel.ie
The people behind the blogs may be lovely people but I do think that there are better and worthier blogs out there. Did these nominees have to pay to be entered? Lucky for me that the Irish Blog Awards, which I can confirm will be held in January, will be cost free to enter and will have a good few categories to recognize the many different talents of the Irish blogosphere. I’ll be announcing the nomination process and categories for the awards next week and everyone will have the whole of December to nominate blogs. Piaras is giving me a hand with the organising of this and we should have a date and venue confirmed fairly soon.
If you still need help with the WordPress templates, or the nomination/submission forms let me know, I should be able to help. Cheers.
oh, and see:
http://www.creativeireland.com/forum/ubb/Forum1/HTML/004332.html
[…] Any awards that you have to pay to enter is obviously suspect, so take this short list with a pinch of salt. Golden Spiders Awards 2005 shortlist. Also more rumblings about the spiders on Creative Ireland. (via.) […]
I was involved with a book website and last year we were told that we were a cert for best community website shortlist… and would we like to buy a table for 1800 euro?. This year we got a mail to say we were indeed on the shortlist… only to be mailed a few days later to say there had been a mistake (needless to say we hadn’t purchased a table at that stage).
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I was referring to the Golden Spiders obviously, not your wonderful shiny new awards Damien. 🙂
[…] Damien Mulley points out that the Golden Spider nominees have been announced. I’ve just had a look at the ones under the Personal /Blog site. They seem to have included anyone who was prepared to pay the entrance fee. At least there used to be an entrance fee when they were trying to get us to enter. I’m not sure what it is now, maybe someone could tell me. Fairplay to Kilrowan Arts Festival for doing a website. I alwasy think that far too many people are put off on the basis of what it costs. They’ve put one up which gives all the details that you would need to get in touch with them. By having a web presence they are making themselves available to all who Google. However the fact is that the site (or page rather) is almost noteworthy in how badly it is designed (certainly viewing it in Firefox) and would not compare to the blog site or your average blogger. […]
There is no fee for entering the Golden Spiders competition in Personal / Blog category.
None of the entries would be characterised as principally blogs, though some have sections that might resemble a blog. They are websites or web applications.
It’s hardly fair to mix blogs with personal websites anyway. They are different forms. Any designed website is going to look far stronger than a blog.
They look great on me cv and all… back in the start when they did go to the good websites, they felt like a massive achievement.
Fair dues to dot.ie who ran them then also, they gave me & my crew half price tickets to the awards also. Mind you were were 16! hahaha….
Fortuna – are you sure about the fees? When I checked the site during the nomination period there seemed to be a fee for ALL nominations.
Michele
There is no fee for personal/ blog entry. Ask the organisers if you don’t believe me. I think this is probably also the case for the charity category.
The organisers are mostly making their money from selling tables or seats.
Hi – may I make the point that the Kilrowan Arts Festival website is intended to have an amateurish look to it, since it is entirely fictitious! It is the first clue in an online treasure trail that leads to my personal website (www.kate-thompson.com) via other websites that have been constructed for the characters who appear in my latest bestselling novel. It is an elaborate piece of fun with lots of in-jokes for the reader (for instance, if you look closely at the image of ‘Hugh Hennessy’, who runs the ‘festival’, you will see that actually he is being impersonated by one Ciaran Hinds, who is currently starring as Julius Caesar in the BBC epic – ‘Rome’.
Hi guys, you’re comments are very interesting indeed! I am infact a nominee for the “personal website/blog” award which is on tonight in dublin. To answer all your questions, no i didn’t have to pay any fees. my friends put me forward for the award and they deffo didn’t pay anything! i do however have to pay for the ticket which is steep at 200euro. i can’t go anyway but i think the nominees shouldn’t have to pay for their ticket especially if you’re in the “personal” category. Its ok for companies who can claim the costs back but for the guy off the street he’s paying out of his own pocket. Anyway who do you think will win in our category? i’d love to hear your constructive comments. i think if you’re a hill walker then the mountain view one must be very useful. Cheers, Jon
Dear Damien,
But it’s NOT just one page! Haven’t you worked it out yet? There’s a Chinese Box of a website there! It’s a brand new concept – the very first Web-Linked novel ever published. I wish I could give the title, but I think Net Nanny bars the ‘S’ word. Anyway, it’s called ‘S**, Lies & Fairytales’, and it’s available in all good book shops now. Check out http://www.kate-thompson.com for details. Thanks for enhancing our presence on the net. I’ll send you a Christmas card if you let me know your snail mail address, & I’d be glad to buy you a drink! Very best, Kate.
Kate, if the website was fictional and built to be part of your book, would that not be classed as marketing? I like the idea. It’s a nice bit of viral marketing but as you said the site is fictional. Can this really be classed as a personal website or blog as such?
Oh and I’ll be happy for you to send me one of your books if you like. My mum likes that genre type.
Oh and congrats to http://www.kellymcerlean.com who won the award.
Hi, Damien –
I guess the Kilrowan Arts Festival idea is a kind of viral marketing, but the trail does lead to my own personal site. Incidentally, the whole thing started as a bit of fun for my readers, and just grew wings. I’m pretty sure it’s a www first.
If you send and your mum’s name and address to kate@kate-thompson.com, I’ll put a signed copy of the book in the post to her. I hope she enjoys it!
All best – Kate
Since Internet usage in Ireland is so low, perhaps there should be grants for such things to get people to go online? Imagine getting a Government grant to get your readers to use the Internet?
[…] While I was away details of the Digital Media Awards were announced. These are the yearly awards that Ashville Media run. I was asked to judge a new category for the 2007 awards which is for blogging. It was pointed out to me when I was asked to be a judge that unlike the Irish Blog Awards these awards are pay to play type awards. Now I’ve gone on record before and slammed the Golden Spiders for their awards and the curious way that a sponsor of one category ends up winning another category. I’ve also expressed my unhappiness with the Netvisonary awards where if you are shortlisted and want to attend the event, you have to pay. […]