awards and top lists

topgold

I'm getting increasingly upset at the way many people in the Irish internet industry are nominating and giving awards to a crony circle. The latest staging of this questionable practise occurred with the October 2000 Internet Business Awards.

Hackwatch lays open the farce. I viewed the .cfm results on the run-up to the event and I'm really troubled by what appears to be an unethical process.

We need to police ourselves and not permit this kind of system to exist. Less sophisticated users wouldn't realise the web of deception that is spinning around Irish internet awards. I think technical communities like this one on boards.ie should start shouting down awards organisers who do not operate with an independent audit of both the process and procedures. Sitting around and blindly letting this kind of process to continue debases the integrity of the web in general.

It takes a lot of work to build trust in the electronic dimension of business. I don't trust the awards process in wired Ireland.

Bernie Goldbach
webshoptalk

Kali

i dont think web awards hold too much weight with the vast majority of web users.
if they like a page theyll return.
if the dont they wont.
no star ratings, or page of the month crap is going to alter that fact.

it only seems to be among ppl who actually run sites that give two cents about them.. but why when they mean nothing to the general public?

topgold

A lot of people buy magazines like Web Ireland because they want suggestions about locations on the web. When new users read about award-winning sites, they normally think the sites won meaningful awards. It means you've misled the public if your vote tallies are corrupt.

Star ratings and page of the month mentions give sites a little boost in viewership. So it's fair to assume that "winning" sites will get more visitors than those finishing out of the running.

I resent awards programmes that present trophies to candidates with a nod and a wink. There is a tendency to that kind of awards competition in the Irish market today.

Bernie Goldbach
webshoptalk

Cloud

Unfortunately the whole thing was a bit of a shambles.

As a nominee, we only received an invite to the ceremony a day beforehand (and I as part owner received none at all). In fact, I'm not sure if boards.ie actually received any official confirmation that they were a nominee, apart from being nominated by others through the NIBA site and seeing it listed on the e-lection page.

I'm sure the same did not apply to the "major" names involved.

John.
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Irish Newspapers
http://www.irishnewspapers.com/

topgold

There is a considerable amount of frenzied discussion about this entire issue, with the pot stirred by Hackwatch and reverberations on the Irish Internet Association's Webmaster Shoptalk. Both Topgold and online.ie have discussions running parallel to this one.

I hope Web Ireland fully appreciate what they've started.

regards
Bernie Goldbach
webshoptalk

dahamsta

I was there, and although I appreciate the invite from Mike Fagan (I think curiosity got the better of him), I didn't appreciate the awards at all. National Inbreeding Business Awards would have been a better title in my opinion.

Ok, maybe I'm a bit biased against Eircon at the moment, given the fact that they're sending me threatening letters, but the amount of awards that flipped back and forth between Indigo and Eircon was a pathetic sight, considering they're one and the same company. But of course it wasn't just them.

As JMCC says though, it was really just a chance for Web Oirland to slap themselves, their advertisers and their buddies on the back. It was embarassing.

adam

[This message has been edited by dahamsta (edited 10-10-2000).]