It's Webby time.

April 29, 2002 1:02 PM

It's Webby time. You may now commence (or, in some cases, continue) mocking Tiffany Shlain.
posted by jjg (35 comments total)

For those of us on slow cable connections could someone post the nominee list here?
posted by riffola at 1:12 PM on April 29, 2002

the server appears to be responding extremely slowly at this moment, and I am on T1, so I guess we wait a while.
posted by firestorm at 1:14 PM on April 29, 2002

Why mock Tiffany? Wouldn't you rather get your own hi-res image instead?
posted by bunktone at 1:26 PM on April 29, 2002

Here they are, straight from my cache to you.

Activism
AlterNet
CorpWatch.org
Idealist.org
PETA.org
tolerance.org

Best Practices
Amazon.com
Google
National Geographic
Peace Corps
US Army Basic Training

Broadband
120Seconds.com
bThere
GUGGENHEIM.COM
KaZaA
Oddcast

Commerce
Amazon.com
BabyCenter
Cooking.com
Travelocity.com
Williams-Sonoma

Community
BeliefNet
Burning Man
Idealist.org
Nerve.com
The Warren Ellis Forum

Education
eNature
Exploratorium
JASON
MarcoPolo
Students Against Testing

Fashion
Hint Fashion Magazine
Lumière Magazine
SoWear
STYLE.com
ZOOZOOM.com Magazine

Film
Donnie Darko
IFILM
Metacritic
Waking Life
Without a Box

Finance
10K Wizard
Financial Engines
[marketocracy]
Yahoo! Finance
Yodlee

Games
Banja
EA.com
Gamasutra
Netbaby
PopCap Games

Government & Law
Copyright Website
Council on Foreign Relations
Library of Congress
NASA
U.S. Geological Survey

Health
Breast Cancer Action
drSpock.com
lifeclinic.com
Planned Parenthood Golden Gate
teenwire.com

Humor
Fuckedcompany.com
Heartless Bitches International
Legodeath - A Museum of Horrors
The Onion
SatireWire

Kids
Channel One
OLogy
Pinhole Spy Camera
SFS Kids
teenwire.com

Living
Do-It-Yourself Network.com
epicurious.com
greenhome.com
National Gardening
Time Out New York

Music
all songs considered
Freemuse
Hearts of Space
Live365
LOOPLABS

Net Art
Nominees to be announced May 6, 2002.

News
allAfrica.com
Arts & Letters Daily
BBC News
Debkafile
Poynter.org

Personal Sites
abnormalbehaviorchild
The Committee to Free Lori Berenson
hungry for design
Jeff Harris
PrayStation

Politics
California Voter Foundation
Center for Responsive Politics
The Hill
Political Money Line
washingtonpost.com/OnPolitics

Print & Zines
Mr. Beller's Neighborhood
National Geographic Magazine
ONTHERAIL
Salon.com
The Smoking Gun

Radio
BBC Radio 4 website
kpig.com
RTÈ Interactive Radio
Transom
Youth Radio

Science
Becoming Human
NASA Earth Observatory
eFunda
Eric Weisstein's World of Mathematics
SciTech Daily Review

Services
Embark
evite
GoToMyPC
Ryze
TicketWeb

Spirituality
Beliefnet
Glide Memorial Church
GraceCathedral.org
Islamic Studies
Vatican

Sports
2002 FIFA World Cup
Backpacker.com
ESPN.com
San Francisco 49ers
Surfline

Technical Achievement
Nominees to be announced May 6, 2002.

Travel
IgoUgo
Lonely Planet Online
site59.com
travel intelligence.net
World Hum

TV
BBCi
CSI:Crime Scene Investigation
E! Online
The Osbournes
Who Wants to be a Millionaire

Weird
All Your Base Are Belong To Us
Cut Off My Feet (Freck's New Feet)
Devices of Wonder
Mind Control Forum
spamradio
posted by jjg at 1:27 PM on April 29, 2002

The list looks pretty good, though there are a few holes. I don't know why live365 shows up in music, but not radio, I've never heard of a good lot of the nominees, but that shows that the medium is growing.
posted by mathowie at 1:27 PM on April 29, 2002

Whew. MeFi wasn't nominated in either news or politics. We must be doing something right.
posted by yhbc at 1:34 PM on April 29, 2002

I like the Personal Site nominee list, hope Joshua wins. Best Practices is new right? I think that's good category.
posted by riffola at 1:38 PM on April 29, 2002

*yawn* Oh, oh, sorry.

The Webbies! Wow! I hope Salon.com wins! And The Onion! Cause like, they've never been nominated before, and they really deserve recognition. Cause everyone knows that there is NOTHING BETTER than Salon.com and The Onion. Bohohoho! They're a chuckle a minute.

Everything else is just bollocks.
posted by benbrown at 1:52 PM on April 29, 2002

I wish we had some kind of *real* web awards.

nah, maybe I don't. maybe I just wish all the lame ones would just go away.
posted by rebeccablood at 1:52 PM on April 29, 2002

It's good to see that cutoffmyfeet.com is getting the recognition it deserves.
posted by ph00dz at 2:01 PM on April 29, 2002

It's strange to see that two years ago, there were three blog-like things up for best personal site, and given the explosion in weblogs since, you'd think two years later there'd be at least one nominated somewhere, especially on personal site, but I can't find one.
posted by mathowie at 2:16 PM on April 29, 2002

I haven't heard of any of the personal sites. How do these people get nominated?
posted by mkelley at 2:25 PM on April 29, 2002

I don't see how the Committee to Free Lori Berenson site (though ostensibly admirable) qualifies as a personal site. Especially over aforementioned blog-like sites.

But, yeah, it's just the webbies.
posted by gohlkus at 2:37 PM on April 29, 2002

As much as I will miss Alan Cumming's hair, after everything that happened last year, I can't tell you how relieved I am that no weblog service was nominated.

TOE-MAY-TOE!
TAH-MA-TOE!

... let's call the whole thing off.
posted by insomnia_lj at 2:42 PM on April 29, 2002

I haven't heard of any of the personal sites. How do these people get nominated?

It's the same way all those unknown sites get SXSW nominations every year: they pony up. But somehow, I suspect Amazon, Salon, ESPN, etc. didn't have to bother with the submission process.
posted by jjg at 2:51 PM on April 29, 2002

mkelley - you or someone has to fork over some money and then of the people that paid to be nominated, the list is voted on by a committee.
posted by centrs at 2:59 PM on April 29, 2002

It seems like the same sites are repeatedly nominated. Oscars/Emmys/Obies/etc. honor *new* achievements; wouldn't the Oscars be boring if "Citizen Kane" was awareded Best Picture every year? Maybe narrow the categories some and honor sites that haven't been previously recognized...
posted by precipice at 3:33 PM on April 29, 2002

I'm really confused about the "Personal" category:
1. Doesn't a committee, by definition, make a site somewhat impersonal? And it's assumably not even about the person/people who are creating the site.
2. Praystation, for as long as I've known about it, has never been personal by any interpretation. It's Joshua fucking around with his art.
3. HungryForDesign spent at least a quarter of the past year with nothing but a line drawing of Burt Reynolds on the front page which acted as a mailto: link. Now, it's got a bunch of series of the guy's art, with only the slightest bit of comment and no navigation to speak of.
4. Jeff Harris' site lets you write about what you were doing on a given day. Oh, and there's a picture of what Jeff was doing, too. Actually a neat idea, but of questionable personal, uh...-ness.
5. AbnormalBehaviorChild appears to be an art/portfolio site. I can't find anything personal there, either, but that might be because it suddenly decided to take the interface away on its own, go full-screen and start making annoying noises at me. Looked interesting otherwise, though.
posted by Su at 3:53 PM on April 29, 2002

Well, if you consider that personal sites last year meant Blogger (a service) and DancingPaul (a nicer version of hamsterdance), this year seems like a step up. Still, your point is valid.

Given that the Webby Awards always seem to be a few years behind the times any way, perhaps they should stop fixating on "cool features" and give the award to links.net instead.
posted by insomnia_lj at 5:08 PM on April 29, 2002

The webbys have traditionally awarded style over substance, but after seeing the islamic studies nomination, with its table borders turned up to 11, maybe that tide is turning.
posted by mathowie at 5:22 PM on April 29, 2002

Praystation, for as long as I've known about it, has never been personal by any interpretation. It's Joshua fucking around with his art.

I don't understand this point at all. What could be more personal than that?
posted by rodii at 5:49 PM on April 29, 2002

I am mounting a massive write in campaign for monkey's genuine web site under the personal site category in their People's Voice section. It's the ultimate low tech website. It's also quirky, different, charming, funny and has a strange appeal across age groups. It has little hidden links to what I can only assume are inside jokes and it has some rather interesting off hand remarks (to dance, art, literature and cultural events. Plus, the monkey answers his own e-mail.
posted by amphigory at 5:53 PM on April 29, 2002

Good observation regarding that site, Matt.

I took a look at the copyright notices on it and thought "Copyright 1997 through 2002? Yeah, it looks like they haven't redesigned the site since 1997."

The funny thing is, they pretty much haven't.
posted by insomnia_lj at 5:53 PM on April 29, 2002

I wonder this every year and now that I'm a registered and card-carrying Metafiltarian I can ask - why does everyone dislike Tiffany Shlain so much? She gets knocked around on MetaFilter from the time the Webby nominees are announced until after the awards ceremony every year. Why?
posted by iconomy at 6:23 PM on April 29, 2002

They also have smaller sponsors and have NOMINATED one of their sponsors (Google).

But hey, how about nominating the top show on cable and the top show on network TV to duke it out with their mediocre web sites. Again, I'm sure that one's totally about building a new media and not just trying to get people to pay attention to a fading awards show.
posted by foist at 7:33 PM on April 29, 2002

Rodii: Actually, I sort of came to that idea just as I was hitting the Post button, and I understand your question. Unfortunately, I haven't found the words I really want to explain. Maybe it comes down to some sort of distinction between personal and personable. Or something. It seems that he actively tries to keep himself out of the equation with his sites ie: I had no clue for the longest time that he also did once-upon-a-forest or any of the others. Anyways, while I admit the wording is rather bad, I don't think I retract my statement. Unfortunately, I can't really clarify it at this time.
posted by Su at 7:37 PM on April 29, 2002

Su, I see what you mean. With some sites, the person behind the site becomes visible (or appears to) as you follow it. With others, the site itself is the object. The Webbys don't seem to make such nice distinctions.
posted by rodii at 8:01 PM on April 29, 2002

As far as I've always believed, "personal" sites always took the form of a narrative that describes the person, the events in their life, and their reactions to said events. Some sites, while created by a single person, focus on design or photography than narrative, and therefore fall outside of this genre. (I'm inclined to call those 'portfolio sites'.) In contrast, I would hardly consider somebody's Geocities page with links to their resume and their e-mail address "personal". (Those are merely 'home pages', in my mind.)

Perhaps this is why people struggle to define a 'weblog' and why the term 'weblog' has itself gone through a metamorphosis over the past few years; they're a combination of personal narrative, straight link pages, portfolio work, and more.

Of course, my opinion is far from de facto but, having been involved in the personal Web since '93, this is how I've seen it as the Web has grown.
posted by Danelope at 8:10 PM on April 29, 2002

You may now commence (or, in some cases, continue) mocking Tiffany Shlain.

Or, better yet, you may now commence (or in some cases, continue) mocking the Webbies.
posted by dack at 8:35 PM on April 29, 2002

i entered my site in the personal category. i won't be doing it again.
posted by bwg at 11:27 PM on April 29, 2002

Passed over again. I've gotta stop giving them blowjobs in the blind, blind hope that I'll get a nomination.
posted by Neale at 12:03 AM on April 30, 2002

giving them blowjobs in the blind, blind hope

Handy Wonderchicken Tip #327 : Wear ski goggles whilst blowing. Not only will it help you look fashionable, but they will keep all that burning judge-pudding out of your eyes when it's time for the money shot.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:00 AM on April 30, 2002

"you or someone has to fork over some money and then of the people that paid to be nominated, the list is voted on by a committee."

actually, that's not true. i found out last year that if they don't like any of the nominees, they bring in other sites that have not ponied up. there were a few of the personal site nominees last year that were added this way. having spent $75 to have my site considered, i was a little put out.

i think that they should state somewhere in the application that they do this. and like bwg, i won't be entering any of my sites again.
posted by heather at 9:05 AM on April 30, 2002

Why do they have a section to write in your favorite web site and then not show who has been written in except for those with a large percentage of the vote ? I know, they probably have thousands of write ins, but, c'mom, they have the technology! Browsing the "Peoples Voice" nominees has the potential of being the more interesting than their choices. Especially after looking at the nominations in the few categories I am interested in. I am very disappointed in the quality of their choices.

Out of curiosity, what do the "Winners" really get for winning this competition. I know, they get some award that looks like a slinky and they get to make a 5 word speech, but, really, what tangible (and intangible) benefits does a winner receive? Increased traffic, increased credibility? Catapulted a career? A one-time shot on some late night TV show. What? Has anyone around here won a "Webby"? Let's have some personal experiences.
posted by amphigory at 9:43 AM on April 30, 2002

I met one of the guys from the Onion after he accepted the Webby and his coat seemed to have a much healthier shine than before.
posted by user92371 at 1:20 PM on April 30, 2002