Slashdot Mirror
Scientific American Web Awards
ldopa1 writes "Scientific American has just announced their 2nd Annual Web Awards. The article outlines the very best of the best of the web in the following categories: Archaeology & Paleontology, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Earth & Environment, Engineering and Technology, Mathematics, Medicine and Physics. Sadly, Slashdot isn't on the list, but some great sites are. It's worth checking out."
Sadly, Slashdot isn't on the list, but some great sites are.
Why would Slashdot be on the list? Did JonKatz discover a fascinating fossil that put the archeological community on its ears and post his dissertation on it here?
Why would a news site win an award for original content?
(Disclaimer: I haven't read the criteria they use, so maybe Slashdot should be in the list - but I doubt it)
Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel.
This "Awards" are more of a mini directory listing than an true awards. The slashdot blurb states "The article outlines the very best of the best of the web", but on the actual site it is clear that there is no such claim. This is just a list of interesting sites, worth browsing in some scientific oriented categories. I think this is a good service. Hopefully it stays up for some time, and does not grow to much. I think large directory structures, like Yahoo's web directory listings are not terribly useful for browsing. I miss the early ninties when I could browse from home page to home page with individuals listing 5 to 10 interesting sites each. Now days I usually just browse from slashdot; in fact, excuse me while I return to browsing these science links.
1) Sites can suddenly disappear or (more frequently) slowly slid into inactivity.
2) A number of awards really aren't all that impressive because the award was either given by a friend, or has been handed out so many times (i.e. a "Pick of the Day") that the luster fades about as fast as David Lee Roth's stardom after Van Halen.
I've always liked the idea of an annual web awards, but given the very fluid nature of the web, I wasn't sure if the idea would really work. I suppose that other annual awards are given out for web work, but I think these are the first that aren't based (solely) on design and graphics.
Matt
Just in case you haven't gotten tired of posts theorizing why /. isn't on the list, try this:
It's not there because the rest of the world has yet to recognize Zealotry as a science.
No, it just means Slashdot hasn't won a web award since April of 2000.
**Shrugs** I don't know why most web awards matter to Marketroids, since all they really are is a method of advertising the websites that give out the awards. Just think of Danielle's Rainbows and Unicorns website--all those awards little Danielle collected, all pointed back to the other Unicorns and Rainbows websites that gave them to her. It's about as meaningful as a banner exchange.
The Webbies are a special case--people actually vote for this stuff, therefore the number of votes relates pretty closely to the traffic each website receives. And that is what matters, since website traffic == advertising opportunity.
So whether SlashDot wins awards or not doesn't mean that it's the best, or that it's going downhill. It probably just means their advertising rates since April of 2000 have been a bit lower.
!#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.