Where can you find the most interesting weblogs? Which blogs have made their mark this year? Who will do anything for a nomination? Those questions will be answered in the one and only...
The Bloggies™ are a set of 30 publicly-chosen awards given to weblog writers and those related to weblogs. This is the fifth ceremony, with previous winners listed on their respective sites: 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004. Everyone's invited to take part in the awarding process, so read below to find out how you can nominate and vote for your favorite blogs!
In the 2005 Weblog Awards™, a "weblog" is a page with dated entries. The contest is open to any weblogs that existed for a period of time during the year 2004, so weblogs that were discontinued during 2004 are also eligible.
Only one nomination form and one finalist voting form may be submitted per person. E-mail addresses are required for this reason, and you must use your own address. If you resubmit a ballot, your old one will be erased.
In the nomination phase: URLs are required. The maximum number of weblogs you may nominate for a category is three for most categories and four for Weblog of the Year. At least three different weblogs total must be nominated. You may nominate your own weblog, but the total nominations for your own weblog must be less than one third of your total (legitimate) nominations. There is no limit to the number of categories a weblog may be nominated for.
Nominees have to fit the category they are placed in. The system alerts me of suspicious ballots, and I also may exclude ballots when I suspect the voter isn't following the rules. This means no bots.
These rules may change at any time, but they probably won't.
From Saturday, January 1, 2005 to Monday, January 10, anyone was able to nominate their favorite weblogs.
On Tuesday, January 18, three panels of 50 voters received an e-mail. It listed the weblogs that received the most nominations in ten categories. They had until 10:00 PM EST on Saturday, January 22 to privately submit their five favorites (six for Weblog of the Year) for each category. The five (or six for Weblog of the Year) receiving the most votes became finalists. I (Nikolai Nolan) only voted for the panel in the case of a tie for fifth place.
On Sunday, January 23, the finalists were announced and voting is open again to choose the winners.
Voting will close at 10:00 PM EST on Sunday, January 31. The winners will be posted sometime between Sunday, March 13 and Tuesday, March 15.
The Weblog Awards™ ceremony will be held at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival for the third time in Austin, Texas, USA in March. Webloggers including previous Bloggie™ winners and prize contributors will present certificates and prizes to those present.
Those who aren't attending may join the excitement on IRC, in #BlogIRC on irc.turlyming.com. Winners will be announced live and a play-by-play of the ceremony will be given.
After the ceremony, the results will be posted on this page.
Because of the large amount of categories, I won't personally give a award to every winner, but the Weblog of the Year owner(s) will receive 2,005 US cents (US$20.05).
Also, contributors can donate their own prizes to the category of their choice, and if the contributor has a site, it will be linked from this page. If the contributor is going to SXSW, he/she can also have the privilege of announcing/presenting the category sponsored at the ceremony. To donate one, the contributor can bring it to SXSW, mail it to the winner, or send an online gift certificate or cash to the winner. Prizes that are more creative than my $20 are encouraged.
Send me an e-mail to get your prize added. Sorry, "to be announced" prizes to reserve categories won't be accepted this year. I'll send out a list of winner's e-mails to the contributors after they're announced, but all other prize arrangements will be handled by their respective donators.
Since I intend for the Weblog Awards™ to remain an independently-produced ceremony without corporate sponsorship, starting this year I'd like to restrict the contributor links to individuals, non-profit organizations, or companies that contribute to the blog universe in some way.
South by Southwest Interactive offers Bloggie™ finalists a special discount to attend the ceremony in March. The cost of Interactive registration for Bloggie™ finalists is $175.
The Webby Awards offers Bloggie™ finalists free entry in to the Webbies' Blog category.
Most categories will remain as they've always been. But because of revision or removal, it's time to bid farewell to:
In exchange, these spiffy new categories take their place:
A replicating idea that spread about weblogs.
US$50.00 gift certificate to Amazon.com from Andy Wibbels
Flickr Podcasting The Grey Album Is My Blog Burning? Photo Friday
New Kids on the Blog Random Reality Bites Blogs, Bandwidth, and Banjos: Tightly Knit Bonds in Weblogging How to Blog Warning: Blogs Can Be Infectious
Something that helps you publish, make comments, anything that has to do with developing a weblog.
US$20.05 gift certificate to Amazon.com from Playground Finder
Self Help for the Bleak from Naked Blog
HaloScan Del.icio.us Movable Type Flickr MT-Blacklist
AUS$20.05 from Ben Hosken
Bizgirl What's New, Pussycat? Boudist Spiceblog Kitta.net
Weblogs from Asia, not including the Middle East.
Weblog Wannabe Noodle Pie Tokyo Times Xiaxue Life in Mono
360 Degrees of Sky A Family in Baghdad Subzero Blue Benn Loxo du Tàccu Where Is Raed?
Weblogs from Europe, not including the United Kingdom and Ireland.
20.05 Euro, a shipment of gourmet coffee, and an invitation for sightseeing in Dresden from Martin Röll
My Boyfriend Is a Twat Papel Continuo Chocolate and Zucchini La Coquette Near Near Future
Weblogs from the United Kingdom and Ireland.
£10 and a four-finger Kit Kat from Richard Bloomfield
Schott's Original Miscellany from Sam Breach
GreenFairyDotCom Londonist Hicksdesign PlasticBag.org London Underground Tube Blog
Isopixel Overcaffeinated Bibi's Box Denken Über KnowProSE.com
CAN$30 gift certificate to the iTunes Music Store from Digital Apoptosis
Souvenir of Canada and entries published into a hand-made book and submitted to the National Archives from Jason Shim
Marmalade.ca Bacon and Eh's Photojunkie The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century ChromeWaves.net
Weblogs from the United States.
US$20.05 from The Blog Herald
US$20.05 from Chris
US$24 gift certificate to I-Pets.com from Julie
Dooce Go Fug Yourself Eschaton Tequila Mockingbird Wonkette
Pesky'Apostrophe: "Always better than an unexpected period" Scaryduck: "Not scary, not a duck" The Gospel According to Rhys: "Chronologically inept since 2060" Dooce: "Not your average clenched-cheek sprint to the bathroom" Random Acts of Reality: "Trying to kill as few people as possible..."
Photoblogs and other weblogs that regularly feature photography.
A copy of BlogJet from Dmitry Chestnykh
A Lomo LC-A from John Poetzel
Rion.nu Satan's Laundromat The Narrative The Snowsuit Effort Daily Dose of Imagery
Many sites contain more that just a weblog. This is for those pages with something extra.
The Andy Warhol Diaries and The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellows from Johnny America
WorldChanging The Soxaholix Siteway The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog Gothamist
TastingMenu Simply Recipes The Food Section 100 Cookbooks Cooking for Engineers
Weblogs about music, movies, television, and/or theater.
A package of DVDs and music/film promotional material from The Gate
Stereogum Largehearted Boy Defamer Fluxblog Whatevs (Dot Org)
"History of the Political Parties" print from EchoDitto
Low Culture WatchBlog Wonkette 1115.org Pandagon.net
Weblogs completely about Web design and development.
SimpleBits Mezzoblue Stylegala ScriptyGoddess 456 Berea Street
Weblogs about computers and/or technology, other than Web design.
Slashdot Engadget Daring Fireball Near Near Future Gizmodo
Weblogs with a definite topic other than the ones in the categories above.
US$20.05 from Timothy Latz
The Policeman's Blog Treehugger London Underground Tube Blog The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog Bookslut
Webloggers in the gay/lesbian/bisexual/ transgendered community.
Prisoner Cell Block H DVD from Naked Blog
How to Learn Swedish in 1000 Difficult Lessons SistersTalk Tranniefesto Troubled Diva Hot Toddy's Toaster Oven
US$20.05 gift certificate to Amazon.com and a PEZ dispenser (candy not included) from Brad Youtz
US$20.05, a copy of Aaron Wall's SEO Book e-book, and a t-shirt from Aaron Wall
Go Fug Yourself Geese Aplenty Davezilla.com Dooce Defective Yeti
Weblogs with great writing, from personal journaling to professional journalism.
A hardcover book containing the winner's favorite weblog entries from Kevin Hale
Real E Fun Tequila Mockingbird Londonmark Dooce Greek Tragedy
Weblogs written by an exclusive group.
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen, a US$5 gift certificate to McDonald's, and US$8 from Johnny America
Go Fug Yourself Popgadget Boing Boing Low Culture A Fistful of Euros
Weblogs where everyone is invited to post.
US$20.05 from Delight
Slashdot Overheard in New York MonkeyFilter MetaFilter Fark.com
Karen Cheng Jason Santa Maria Loobylu Brookelyn.org ShaunInman.com
The best underrepresented weblogs.
Manhattan Transfer Mixed Media Watch Susan Mernit's Blog Teaching the Indie Kids to Dance Again He Looks Like...
Weblogs that began during the year 2004.
One month's advertising on The Blog Herald from The Blog Herald
Petite Anglaise He Looks Like... Preshrunk The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog Defamer
Webloggers who have been blogging at least since January 1, 2001. This award can only be won once, so Jeffrey Zeldman, Evan Williams, Jason Kottke, and Heather Champ are not eligible.
Two registrations for the 2006 South by Southwest Interactive Festival from SXSW
Tom Coates Ernie Hsiung Meg Hourihan Derek Powazek Firda Beka
This is it: the category for the best weblog overall.
US$20.05 from Nikolai Nolan
Gawker This Fish Needs a Bicycle Wonkette Boing Boing The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog Gothamist
Your e-mail address: