Joblog has sparked a bit of a brainstorm with their disapproval of how the American's have treated African blogs, by lumping Africa with the Middle East...of all places...in the 2005 Bloggies.
The answer to the unhappiness....the first ever homegrown SA blog awards.
The Aussies also seem to have shunned the yanks with their Australian blog awards. Their voting and nomination process is not as advanced, but it seems to get the job done.
Follow me now with the train of thought on this one. Probably the best way forward is to combine elements of the already successful US and Aussie systems:-
A blog is set up in the name of the South African blog awards. A logical set of catagories, appropriate to South Africa are agreed apon. The obvious breakdown would be:
Best overall South African blog
Best post on a South African blog
Best overseas South African blog
Best writing of a South African blog
Best political blog
Best photographic blog
Best new blog
Best food blog
Updated catagories:
Best SA sports blog
Best SA Tech blog
Best SA Environmental blog
Best SA lifestyle blog
Best designed blog
In this year's 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.
Nominations:
Nominations for weblogs will be done via email. Only one nomination 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.
Voting:
To avoid trouble and to make things fair, voters will have to register themselves before the voting process begins. This will be done via email.
Once registered, voters can then cast their ballots for the nominated blogs over a predetermined timeframe. After manual counting and recheck and several visits to the Supreme court...the winners will be announced.
Updated:
Actually....once blogs have been nominated, the voting will take place via an online pole supported by Bravenet.com.
The prize giving will be held in Cape Town at the Po Na Na Souk Bar in Heritage square...a small gathering with big heart. Similar to the Bloggies the winner of the overall catagory will receive 2005 South African cents and the recognition as the king or queen for the year.
Should you wish to donate a prize which is better than the huge purse on offer for any one of the catagories...this is allowed. Just as long as you're not the brand manager of Vodacom and you want to hijack the awards...this will be deemed inappropriate.
Martin...hopefully you can design us a nice logo which will add an element of prestige to the awards.
This is totally open to debate....hate it, love it...change something?
Sweet!
Posted by: Don | January 27, 2005 at 11:16 AM
Sending in an email to vote sounds like a bit of a bother. Wouldn't it be easier to just set up an online poll, like in the bloggies?
Posted by: Laurence Caromba | January 27, 2005 at 11:25 AM
Great idea - but an online poll sounds better - and less shlep!
Posted by: Shaun | January 27, 2005 at 02:02 PM
Oh, sorry, what about other categories - such as Environmental or Sports etc?
Posted by: Shaun | January 27, 2005 at 02:03 PM
I think some more categories could do: Science, Environmental, IT...
Posted by: Loxon | January 27, 2005 at 02:03 PM
Ok...investigated an online pole from Bravenet.com, which should work well.
More catagories....
Best SA sports blog
Best SA Tech blog
Best SA Environmental blog
Obviously if there are no valid nominees for these then the voting catagory will fall away.
Anybody keen to design a logo for the awards, please feel free to brainstorm some ideas and email them to cherryflava@gmail.com.
Will post them up for comment.
Posted by: Cherryflava | January 27, 2005 at 02:31 PM
Great idea.
And what about a Best Cat Blogger? You know, they always make fun of us kitty bloggers - we need some recognition too ....
"They" being:
http://mindofmog.net/archives/2004/08/16/sisu-cat-blogger-extraordinary/
http://weblog.burningbird.net/archives/2003/02/04/ahhh-factor-test
http://abbie.blogspot.com/
http://allied.blogspot.com/2002/11/cat-nap.html
http://sisu.typepad.com/sisu/2004/08/this_was_a_real.html
http://teflsmiler.typepad.com/weblog/2004/10/know_your_place.html
.... etcetera, ad nauseaum.
Posted by: MikEnDruk | January 27, 2005 at 02:45 PM
Great idea, CherryFlava! Sending my nominations now...
Posted by: Gareth | January 27, 2005 at 04:47 PM
What about best lifestyle blog? sites like that Cape town atlantic seaboard trendoid site www.2oceansvibe.com for example.
Posted by: Daniel Levi | January 27, 2005 at 06:05 PM
Good suggestion....2oceansvibe.com-type blogs added.
Posted by: Cherryflava | January 27, 2005 at 06:17 PM
What is the nomination email address or are categories still being decided on?
Posted by: Gareth | January 27, 2005 at 06:55 PM
Way to go Cherryflava...where's the Middle East ? Is it between the Upper East and the Lower East ?
Posted by: Brian | January 27, 2005 at 10:16 PM
Catagories are still being sorted out....will let you know when we're ready for the nominations.
Posted by: Cherryflava | January 28, 2005 at 08:30 AM
Great idea guys, about time too. When are we opening for business?
Posted by: Jonty | January 28, 2005 at 08:48 AM
This is a great idea. If you need help with a voting engine, pop me a mail. I'd be keen to link to your awards from MWEB Blogs as well.
Posted by: Chris Roper | January 28, 2005 at 11:59 AM
Logo draft coming sometime during the weekend.
How about we do a release on Biz-Community to promote this? I think a single release is in the region of R500 - we can club together, or the Jo'Blog dudes can sell one of the mags on their limo?
Posted by: Martin | January 28, 2005 at 04:22 PM
Thanks Martin
I'm sure Biz-community will do us a favour for free if we're nice to them. I'll get my people to talk to their people and see what we can do.
Posted by: Cherryflava | January 28, 2005 at 04:34 PM
brilliant idea! :) if you need any help with web design/development - drop me a line!
Posted by: lor | January 29, 2005 at 02:53 AM
"The prize giving will be held in Cape Town at the Po Na Na Souk Bar in Heritage square...a small gathering with big heart. Similar to the Bloggies the winner of the overall catagory will receive 2005 South African cents and the recognition as the king or queen for the year."
No fair! What about us Gauteng people?
Posted by: Laurence Caromba | January 29, 2005 at 10:25 AM
We're actually about to buy some biz-com ad space, so I'll ask em to be nice to us and publicise this...!
Posted by: Rich...! | January 29, 2005 at 12:29 PM
How about a music related blog award?
Posted by: daniel | January 29, 2005 at 11:39 PM
Also, what about "personal blogs"? I think that the vast majority of SA blogs probably fit into that category. Or do those fall under "lifestyle blogs"?
Posted by: Laurence Caromba | January 30, 2005 at 01:24 AM
Guys, I think we should take it easy with the categories... I know people hate being squeezed into categories that they feel aren't *perfect* for them, but too many categories spoil the broth.
I remember when racing mountain bikes many years ago (something which was also just starting back then), they added all sorts of "intermediate" categories, spreading the few riders that there were thinly - getting an award in a category with 3 entries can look a bit silly...
Posted by: Martin | January 30, 2005 at 11:00 AM
I think that these blog awards will be brilliant!!! I can't wait. Where do I sign up? Where, huh? Where?
Posted by: Uwe | January 30, 2005 at 12:05 PM
Fab idea. Just let me know where to sign up...
Posted by: Aquila | January 31, 2005 at 04:08 AM