April 26th, 2008
Would you accept a compliment about your hair, from a stylist with horrible hair? If a mechanic said your car was junk, would you take them serious if their own car didn’t run (Steve Buscemi excluded)?
How about an award for the best of the Web, from a company that has a horrible website? A website with 58 validation errors, one that uses XHTML code sometimes but calls out HTML? Built in dreamweaver, broken in a few browsers, scrubbed together with code that hasn’t been in use since the late 90’s and dripping with empty table tags?
I know we’re in the generation of singular experts, built on 6 months of training and pronounced as soon as you can plop a blog on the internet, but it breaks the heart to see junk defining what is good and what is bad. I imagine all art takes this route over time, as trends move in and out of fashion, but have the merit to bury it; don’t flaunt it.
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2 Reader Comments:
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April 29th, 2008 6:48 am
Douglas
These so called “awards” charge hefty entry fees and pretty much give you a vanity award for “marketing” purposes.
This is copied directly from their FAQ:
“How much does it cost to enter?
The entry fee for the WebAward Competition is $195 USD per category entered. The non-profit category has a reduced entry fee of $99. The entry fee serves two purposes. First and foremost, it supports the operation and marketing of the annual WebAward Competition. Second, it creates a barrier to entry for many sites that simply do not belong in a award competition of this caliber. Our expert judges volunteer their time and can not review sites just looking for a free icon. We are truly dedicated to judging and help promote the best of the web!”
Seems rather fishy to me; they’re trying a little too hard to justify themselves there.
Brady, I didn’t think anyone in the industry payed attention to these vanity contests because they’re just scams; am I wrong?
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April 29th, 2008 4:00 pm
Brady J. Frey
No one in the industry cares, for the most part - I usually worry more about managers or professionals outside the industry looking for quality examples as a client. They may catch on the absurdity of the situation, but they could really be looking for help defining what is a quality example… especially in the internet where the technical/design divide can cause mass confusion.
I guess the counter to that debate is: if a professional can’t see through that smoke and mirror trick, are they the professional you want to work with?
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