The Weblog Awards

Welcome to the 2002 Weblog Awards™. I'm Nikolai Nolan, and I'll be your host, again.

The Bloggies™ are publicly-chosen awards given to weblog writers and those related to weblogs in 30 categories. And not much more introduction is necessary, except for a link to last year's winners. Here are the rules:

the procedure

From January 1, 2002 until 10:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (GMT-5) on Sunday, January 13, weblogs were nominated.

That Saturday, January 19, a panel of 5% of those submitting ballots received an e-mail. It listed the weblogs that have receieved the most nominations, and the number varied among categories. They had until 9:00 PM EST Wednesday, January 23 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) voted in the cases of ties for fifth place. This panel was on an opt-in policy.

On Thursday, January 24, the finalists were announced and voting opened again to choose the winners.

Voting closed at 10:00 PM EST on Tuesday, January 29. The winners were announced in BlogIRC on irc.turlyming.net on Wednesday, January 30 at 10:00, and posted here soon after.

the as-concise-as-possible official rules

For this contest, a "weblog" is a page with dated entries that has a purpose (in whole or in part) of linking to other sites. For instance, sites that are intended to be just personal journals or site news pages were not eligible.

This contest was open to any weblogs that existed for a period of time during the year 2001, so weblogs that were discontinued during 2001 are also eligible.

the prize

Because of the large amount of categories, I didn't personally give a cash award to every winner, but the Weblog of the Year owner(s) received 2,002 US cents (US$20.02).

Christine Selleck contributed US$20.02 for the Best-Designed Weblog winner.

Patrick Breitenbach contributed US$1.00 to no particular category. Best Temporary or Periodic Weblog was chosen randomly.

Adnan Arif contributed US$20.00 for the Best Weblog About Politics winner.

Arnab Nandi contributed US$20.00 for the Best-Kept-Secret Weblog winner.

Rick Schrager contributed US$20.00 for the Best New Weblog winner.

Jish Mukerji, once again, contributed an actual award for the Weblog of the Year winner.

Thanks also go out to Jim McCann for programming expertise that smoothed the nomination process, and Dinah Sanders for the Bloggies.com domain name.

the categories

Yep, there were new categories this year. Alas, some categories had to be removed to make room for them. We say goodbye to:

Best Weblog Resource
Best Pitas-Powered Weblog
Best Manila-Powered Weblog
Best Blogger-Powered Weblog

But be happy; there are four new categories:

Best Merchandise of a Weblog
Best American Weblog, suggested by a lot of people
Best Weblog About Music, suggested by Firda of
Weblog Wannabe
Best Weblog About Politics, suggested by Mike of
What's On It For Me

The contest is now closed, and here are the winners! Thanks to everyone who voted.

best merchandise of a weblog
T-shirts, mugs, sugar packets, any kind of schwag that promotes a weblog.
Winner
Wil Wheaton Dot Net

Nominees
Noah Grey (withdrawn) Loobylu Boing Boing Little Yellow Different

best weblog webring
Winner
Webloggers

Nominees
BlogPhiles GreyLogs / GreyJournals BlogSnob Blogs by Women

best meme
A replicating idea that spread about weblogs.
Winner
Tourist Guy

Nominees
Kaycee Nicole, Nine Things About Me That Are True and One That Isn’t, 24-Hour Blogathon, StorTroopers

best article or essay about weblogs
Winner
Weblogs: A History and Perspective

Nominees
You’ve Got Blog Blogging as a Form of Journalism Credo of the Web Log Writer Deconstructing “You’ve Got Blog”

best weblog directory or update monitor
Winner
Blogger

Nominees
GLBT Weblogs and Journals Blogdex DayPop Weblogs.com

best web application for weblogs
Something that helps you publish, make comments, anything that has to do with developing a weblog.
Winner
Movable Type

Nominees
Blogger GreyMatter (withdrawn) DiaryLand LiveJournal

best australian or new zealand weblog
Winner
Loobylu

Nominees
Wetlog Side Bar WaferBaby What’s New, Pussycat

“I so don't deserve even a nomination for a Bloggie for the 2001 period. Go vote for Shauny instead.” Wetlog

best asian weblog
Weblogs from the continent of Asia.
Winner
Weblog Wannabe

Nominees
Tokyo Tales CheeseDip.com SerialDeviant.org The BWG Update

“Well, that's certainly one way to force me back to the keyboard - get nominated for a Bloggie.” Tokyo Tales

best european weblog
Winner
PlasticBag.org

Nominees
MyBlueHouse Not.So.Soft Prolific.org Feral Living

“The fact that - unbeknownst to Wil - I am currently working on a script for a Wil Wheaton vehicle, sort of a silent B/W Creature of the Black Lagoon remake, with Wil cast as a creature (heavily pierced with fishing lures) who falls in love with a girl prevents me from voting for him in this category, since it would look like a conflict of interests.” Feral Living

best latin american weblog
Winner
ItzPapalotl

Nominees
Strikter.net Minid.net EduardoArcos.com MisDemonios.com

best canadian weblog
Winner
Luminescent

Nominees
Formica Goluboy BobUpNDown.com Acts of Volition

“I know how to say ’Would you like to sleep with me tonight?’ in French.” Goluboy

best american weblog
Weblogs from the United States.
Winner
Wil Wheaton Dot Net

Nominees
Davezilla.com Opine Bovine Little Yellow Different Jish.nu

best tagline of a weblog
Winner
Wil Wheaton Dot Net: “50,000 monkeys at 50,000 typewriters can’t be wrong”

Nominees
AllAboutGeorge: “One man's life: it’s enough to make you URL” MetaFilter: “More addictive than crack” Little Yellow Different: “Like Speed Racer. But gayer” Feral Living: “A victim of kind, but unscrupulous friends”

“This Bloggie-nominated slogan was the result of two minutes’ thought while trying to come up with a MeFi text ad slogan.” AllAboutGeorge

best webcam of a weblog site
Winner
East Coast / West Coast

Nominees
Jish.nu Forty-Two Daily Sardonicism SuperHyperDemonChild.com

“The cool thing about this little Web competition is that I know who I'm up against, and I get to trash talk them to my heart’s content!” SuperHyperDemonChild.com

best non-weblog content of a weblog site
Winner
Davezilla.com

Nominees
Fairvue Central Fury.com Opine Bovine Noah Grey (withdrawn)

best programming of a weblog site
Comments, sorting, customization, homemade stuff you like to see in a weblog.
Winner
MetaFilter

Nominees
Fury.com Noah Grey (withdrawn) Prolific.org DollarShort.org

“As for Prolific.org...not too sure about that. Especially the ’best programming’ nomination. Frankly, that's just hilarious and can’t be anything else than a mistake.” Prolific.org

best-designed weblog
Prize: US$20.02
Winner
BluishOrange

Nominees
Noah Grey (withdrawn) Journal of A.LifeUncommon.org DollarShort.org Powazek Productions: Personal Log

“My first reaction: Oh no! They used that picture!” - Journal of A.LifeUncommon.org

best temporary or periodic weblog
Weblogs for events, competions or the like that aren't continuous.
Prize: US$1.00
Winner
SurvivorBlog 2

Nominees
Advent Calendar 2001 PuppetMaster InfoShare SXSWb

best weblog about music
Winner
U2Log.com

Nominees
MusicRag Slatch People Talk Too Loud Mermaniac

“I think you should all go vote for Slatch.” People Talk Too Loud

best weblog about politics
Prize: US$20.00
Winner
Fark.com

Nominees
Kill Your TV Dot Com Little Green Footballs WarLog: World War III The Daily Dish

best computers or technology weblog
Weblogs completely about computers and/or technology.
Winner
Slashdot.org

Nominees
TechDirt Lambda the Ultimate Geeknik.net GeekNews

best weblog about weblogs
Winner
F...ed Weblog

Nominees
MetaCubed Blog of the Day Blog You The Weblog Review

“We'll gladly post your testimonials online in the interests of proffering not-so-winning endorsements to secure our inevitable loss at the Bloggies.” Blog You

best topical weblog
Weblogs with a definite topic other than general/personal, music, politics, computers and technology, or weblogs.
Winner
The Leaky Cauldron

Nominees
Librarian.net The Obscure Store and Reading Room Disturbing Search Requests Lines and Splines

best glbt weblog
Webloggers in the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered community.
Winner
Little Yellow Different

Nominees
UltraSparky East Coast / West Coast PlasticBag.org JillMatrix.com

“I have nothing very gay to say today, which will surely destroy my chances to win that Bloggie for the best GLBT Weblog.” UltraSparky

most humorous weblog
Winner
Wil Wheaton Dot Net

Nominees
SpaceCheese.com Davezilla.com Little Yellow Different BulletProofPunk

“SpaceCheese.com is nominated for linking to the most nominated weblogs.” SpaceCheese.com

best group or community weblog
Winner
MetaFilter

Nominees
Plastic Disturbing Search Requests Surreally.com Slashdot.org

“Anonymous voter-type person visiting our humble little weblog, welcome! We may or may not know you, but we love you anyway.” Surreally

best-kept-secret weblog
Best weblogs that are not in the top 200 spots of the all-time Blogdex at the time of nomination.
Prize: US$20.00
Winner
What’s New, Pussycat

Nominees
SpaceCheese.com Daily Sardonicism Hoopty-Loops SixDifferentWays

best new weblog
Weblogs that began during the year 2001.
Prize: US$20.00
Winner
Wil Wheaton Dot Net

Nominees
Ain’t Too Proud to Blog SixDifferentWays The Bazima Chronicles DollarShort.org

“Look, I have cleavage.” The Bazima Chronicles

lifetime achievement
Webloggers who have been blogging at least since January 1, 2000. This award can only be won once.
Winner
Evan Williams

Nominees
Noah Grey (withdrawn) Rebecca Blood Matt Haughey Brad Graham

“No one should receive this award. It's the kiss of death, I tell you. Try getting anything except matronly aunt or butler roles in Hollywood once they give you the lifetime Oscar.” The BradLands

weblog of the year
This is it: the category for the best weblog overall.
Prize: US$20.02 and a
nifty award
Winner
Wil Wheaton Dot Net

Nominees
Davezilla.com Opine Bovine Harrumph Little Yellow Different Noah Grey (withdrawn)

“Hello, my name is Susan Lucci.” Harrumph