Not necessarily the best of the web.

April 11, 2006 1:17 PM

2006 Webby Award finallists announced. So, if your favorite home/welcome page My Yahoo or Wonderbra? Two nominations for Metacritic. Other Meta-related sites, not so much... Best of the web?!
posted by insomnia_lj (36 comments total)

Wow, I can't believe DrawBall wasn't nominated for the Art category.
posted by patr1ck at 1:31 PM on April 11, 2006

The Webbys haven't been relevant since 1995.

(Yes, yes, I know. That's the joke.)
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 1:33 PM on April 11, 2006

Where the heck do these nominations come from? Every year, its a ton of websites I've never heard of..
posted by mrbill at 1:42 PM on April 11, 2006

mrbill: You have to enter yourself. It costs $245.
posted by reklaw at 1:50 PM on April 11, 2006

Which explains why the World Bank could be nominated for an 'activism' award.
posted by Adam_S at 1:54 PM on April 11, 2006

Best of the web?!

Yes. Best of the web. That's what awards do; they tell us what is best. Do not question it. Learn to accept it; nay, to love it.
posted by davejay at 1:56 PM on April 11, 2006

I hate the webbies because I have to rearrange all my bookmarks to fit all these in. I have to read them all every day, right? Because they're the best, right? Right?
posted by disclaimer at 1:58 PM on April 11, 2006

I think it's pretty funny that BoingBoing and McSweeney's paid. Google, too.
posted by reklaw at 2:00 PM on April 11, 2006

Pretty lame to pay to nominate yourself for an award. Mucho whuffie for that.
posted by sonofsamiam at 2:04 PM on April 11, 2006

I think it's pretty funny that BoingBoing and McSweeney's paid.

Hell, McSweeney's is nominated twice and it's a per category fee. Must be some kinda irony thing.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 2:08 PM on April 11, 2006

What a joke. A very shallow historical site about segregation is an activist site?
posted by brundlefly at 2:11 PM on April 11, 2006

pathetic
posted by doctor_negative at 2:16 PM on April 11, 2006

That is pathetic.
posted by graventy at 2:16 PM on April 11, 2006

uh...what doctor_negative said.
posted by graventy at 2:17 PM on April 11, 2006

The institute I work for got nominated (Health section, AO surgery reference, vote for us! etc.), tho I didn't work much on that.

Our project manager shouted out "heeey we've been nominated for a webby!" when he got the email. We all responded with a lack-lustre, sarcastic "yaaaay........" :D
posted by slater at 2:31 PM on April 11, 2006

You don't have to pay the entry fee every time. A lot of sites come from internal nominations among the webbys reviewing staff. I doubt any blogs paid the entry fee.
posted by mathowie at 2:43 PM on April 11, 2006

Awards with entry fees are scams. And that's not the mean reds talking either.
posted by fenriq at 2:45 PM on April 11, 2006

When I was a Marine, I had to write my own summary of action and citation for the Navy Achievement Medal. The irony is that the nominating officer had an English degree. Granted, it is the lowest of commendations, but still...
posted by mischief at 2:58 PM on April 11, 2006

Man, there are 70 categories this year. How are they going to get through the ceremony on time? Shorten acceptances speeches to 4 words?

I don't know if anything's changed, but in 2001 my startup was a finalist after we were dead and broke. I'm certain we didn't pay anything to be considered.
posted by Nelson at 3:07 PM on April 11, 2006

any award that takes itself seriously yet nominates MySpace for anything but 'crap of the year' has lost all credibility...
posted by WhipSmart at 3:11 PM on April 11, 2006

Feh - tearing out the New Yorker's "Special Advertising Section" was more fun than scrolling through that list. I feel bad for the handful of non-corporate citizens nominated.
posted by unmake at 3:12 PM on April 11, 2006

PleEze doNATE $$$ to mEE so EYE can nomitate myself 4 a webee N Bcum faymoose! I am th3 champyun, I is a champion!
posted by blue_beetle at 3:21 PM on April 11, 2006

Favorite Web Siote announcement:

On Hiatus
posted by Postroad at 3:23 PM on April 11, 2006

That wonderbra site is well built.
posted by quadog at 3:24 PM on April 11, 2006

Area Man Nominates The Onion for Best News Webby.
posted by phirleh at 3:25 PM on April 11, 2006

Too many all-flash sites...
posted by twsf at 3:57 PM on April 11, 2006

If you have the latest patch where MS "fixes" Active X a lot of the Flash Sites are a lot less spiffy.
posted by Artw at 4:31 PM on April 11, 2006

If you're short on time and want a laugh, check out Weird.TV. I'm not sure who that comedian is, but he's hilarious as all heck!
posted by rinkjustice at 5:05 PM on April 11, 2006

Jerkcity on Webby nominations pretty much sums it up.
posted by Ryvar at 5:44 PM on April 11, 2006

Shorten acceptances speeches to 4 words?
Pabst Blue Ribbon, Man!
posted by longsleeves at 7:08 PM on April 11, 2006

Four isn't nearly enough.
posted by dhartung at 7:29 PM on April 11, 2006

I think MeFi has been hating on the Webbies for its entire existence. I've come around to actually kind of appreciating them for what they are... and when else in the year do you get to look at sites that spawn pop-up flash windows?
posted by anildash at 7:45 PM on April 11, 2006

Awards with entry fees are scams.

I thought alot of them worked that way. Lions, Pencils, Clios, etc. Maybe not.
posted by ryoshu at 9:26 PM on April 11, 2006

Surely nobody in the world has experiencewonderyou.co.uk set as their homepage? Not even people who work for Wonderbra.

Why doesn't experiencewonderbra.co.uk redirect to that site?

I'm guessing this is one of the entrants who had to pay $245.
posted by tapeguy at 10:54 PM on April 11, 2006

That's what I thought, too, quadog. But it's actually kinda disappointing once you get through the first couple layers.

Terrific support, though.
posted by swell at 11:57 PM on April 11, 2006

Surely nobody in the world has experiencewonderyou.co.uk set as their homepage?

As of today I definitely do.

That site was a revelation. Truly the best of the web.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 4:46 AM on April 12, 2006