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Dubious Awards -An Examination
Awards on the net are cherished and treasured both by the awarders and by the awardees. They provide differentiation and recognition. Not every site wins the platinum level. Not every site even wins the award.
But . . . there are exceptions.
Some awards only provide an illusion of excellence to the recipient and free advertising to the awarder.
A few sites present the awards and just invite you to take them and post them if you wish. I've encountered one site that asked you to "score" your own site in a dozen different categories and then choose the bronze, silver, gold or platinum based on your own evaluation.
And, now, most recently, I've received awards sent by an autoresponder to everyone who applies.
Until now I just ignored them. But now I've decided to give them their very own page.
Many of the sites are outright honest about their intent (as long as you take the time to look). It is only the casual viewer who might be "deceived" and think that the site was "awarded" based on merit. A few may actually be trying to deceive. I won't decide;
I'll present the facts and let you decide.
The intent is not to condemn, only to inform. The reader must make their own conclusions, distinctions and decisions.
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Vivek Award
I tested this award by applying with a special email address and a dummy, non-existent website URL. It won an award.
Update (Feb.2002): The original information is from 1999. In Feb 2002, the website still "exists". I've applied again. We'll see what happens.
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Majon's Web Select Award
If you go to this site you discover two levels of awards.
The site says:
Therefore, we offer two levels of recognition for your site. Our Seal of Excellence can be downloaded by anyone [and] added to any site you think is worth visiting. Please download any of the following icons
indicating the "seal of excellence" to let others know that you have worked hard to design and develop your web site service and/or information. . . . Our icons/seals are trademarked but may be taken freely and used wherever appropriate provided a return link is placed to
http://www.majon.com
The site seems to be open and forthright about this "level" of their award. The only people who would be "deceived" would be the visitors to "your" site.
However they also offer a "higher" level of award. Read on.
For outstanding web sites that rise above the rest in content, design and usability we invite you to nominate a site for our Most Prestigious Award. To get your web site considered for our most prestigious award please
email your submission to award@majon.com.
So, I emailed a "dummy" special test email address and a url that doesn't exist. Within a couple of hours I got back the "higher" award!
This is the "higher" award. Also shown below are the "lower", "self-service" awards.
Update (Feb.2002): The original information is from 1999. In Feb.2002, the website still "exists", but email to the award program bounces.
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Majon's Web Server Seal of Excellence Award (version 1)
For information, see Majon's Web Select Award, above.
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Majon's Web Server Seal of Excellence Award (version 2)
For information, see Majon's Web Select Award, above.
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Majon's Web Server Seal of Excellence Award (version 3)
For information, see Majon's Web Select Award, above.
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Majon's Web Server Seal of Excellence Award (version 4)
For information, see Majon's Web Select Award, above.
Note that unlike other versions of the "lower" award, this one does not show the "Seal of Excellence" name within the GIF image.
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Majon's Web Server Seal of Excellence Award (version 5)
For information, see Majon's Web Select Award, above.
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Best of the Web Award from Sexyman
Great job on your webpage. Before I award it to you I want to say that this award is hard to get and I don't give it out to everyone.
Unfortunately, it appears to be much easier to get than claimed. The reply I sent to the original award message triggered an autoresponder that sent another award. A further test message from a test email address without
specifying a web address also resulted in an award. My request for clarification has not been answered.
I had originally posted this award on my site (Group 12). I have removed the award and pointed to this page.
Update (Feb.2002): The original information is from 199. In Feb.2002, the website forwarded to a new URL. At the new URL signing the guestbook is a prerequisite to applying for the award. But the guestbook link fails.
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GuestDirect's Gold Standard Award
Once again it appears that "Gold" refers more to the theme of the site than the value of my webpage. Because I was suspicious of this award, I submitted a website that did not exist. The domain name has not even been registered
with Internic. In about a day I received the award.
I had originally posted this award on my site (Group 17). I have removed the award and pointed to this page.
Update (Feb.2002): The original information is from 1999. In Feb.2002, site has disappeared completely.
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 Awards — All the Awards:
This page has all my awards, graphics, text,
the whole shebang. It takes the longest to load and is the most fun to look at. (Actually, it is beginning to take just shy of an eternity to load. Of course, if you have an ISDN or cable modem connection . . . .) If you choose this page, there is almost no
reason to look at the other awards pages. Note that because some browsers "time out", you may need to click on an individual award image to force it to load to your browser.
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Awards — The Awards List:
This page is exactly the same as the
"All the Awards" page. But it has no pictures. It has the award name, comments and a link to their award site. If also has links to the Group pages.
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Awards — The Alphabetical List:
This
page is an alphabetical listing of my site awards with links to their individual awards pages.
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