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Webby Award 2004 Winners Announced
ivar writes "Over at the official site, the 2004 Webby Award Winners have been announced. There were a few surprises given the last publicly viewable rankings - I guess they keep the last few days in secrecy for a reason." The press release announcing the winners has more detail, noting: "Reflecting the egalitarian spirit of the internet, winners ranged from Wikipedia.org (Best Community), a free, community-built encyclopedia, to the official site for the Oscar-winning documentary The Fog of War (Best Film), to web powerhouses like Google (Best Practices and Best Services)."
There's nothing worse for the web than Flash. Can't be bookmarked, needs a plugin, version dependent, source can't be studied, and the W3C has no control over it.
Valid XHTML 1.1 and CSS are the way to go, no matter who or what's writing it.
BLING BLING. Meet the architecture that's changing everything.
The 2004 Webby Award Winners have been announced.
I don't understand. Wikipedia and Google are cool and everything... but what about Slashdot??
Probably the best community page on Wikipedia to get to know people in the community is Wikipedia:Wikipdians. It's a listing of all the differnet indices of Wikipedians. (I personally started Wikipedians by age and the Facebook)
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
I thought the Webby's were made irrelevant back at the end of the 90s. With so many web sites and services, this award has no meaning what-so-ever. Oh well, I guess some things don't know when they're dead.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
The BBC also have an article about this, predictably considering they also won three awards. They won best news, sports and educational coverage, which really does show how great a resource they are.
If you don't yet know what that is, head there now to see for yourself. You're doing yourself a disservice by not looking :-)
While you're there make sure to contribute to the topics which are marked red (no explanation yet). That way the great service will become even better and we can all benefit from it.
I know of several schools in my country which instruct their students to go look for information there (in case the student knows english, not our native). I suppose it will only get better since academic institutions are beginning to refer to it.
"Intellectual Property" should be an affront to anyone capable of independent thought.
Wikipedia (and affiliates) should be on that list because the interface is clean. It's easy to get around and go off on tangent while searching something. It's open...and it's educational. I learned a lot of cool facts.
Like where the " All your base are belong to us " come from. And yes, ive just proved that I am not worthy of reading Slashdot because I didn't know wtf that came from.MY SECRET DIARIES
The Webby award site has dumbass javascript pop-up windows that link to the award winning web sites. Way to go people... take an award-winning web site and cram it into a 1/4 size pop-up for all the world to appreciate.
Sorry to see Groklaw not on the list, especially in the law group. I've learned more about the law in the last year from that site than I learned anywhere else...by far. It is also an example of a true community site that formed by self-selection. People just flocked to the site and made it what it became. The power of many-eyes in action, this time to discuss legal cases that could greatly impact our tech lives.
I know that Flash is not popular here on Slashdot. No flamebait or trolling intended, but you gotta realize we are no longer in the world of lynx. You may still use it, I may still use it on occasion (just like you and I may still use vi or emacs), but the general public wants multimedia content. While it is true that Flash requires a plugin, so do many other things (such as java on mozilla). The necessity of a plugin does not make something inherently bad (IMO).
Flash allows for cross-browser, cross-platform web development. If I create a Flash animation I do not have to worry about how it will appear on Mac/Linux/Windows/Netscape/Mozilla/IE/Opera. It will be consistent across all platforms. The same cannot be said for HTML and CSS. Even though standards have been set, rendering software does not always abide by those standards (mainly this only applies to MS).
Long story short, and I know it's slightly OT, I think Flash is a great way to present good looking multimedia content with a (relatively) small footprint. What does bother me are websites that do flash-only, or use flash unnecessarily. You should not design an ENTIRE site in flash, and if you do you should at least provide a non-flash site for your users.
Just my $.02
Just like driving a car:
(D) to go forward
(R) to go backward
I nominated www.thehun.net and I dont see it as a winner. This contest was rigged. We all know they get 10x as many hits as slashdot. ;)
As it is currently inaccessible, possibly due to webby-driven traffic. Oh, the irony.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
It used to be that winning a Webby ment your website wouldn't be around for the next year (they had this great knack at picking websites that were on the verge of shutting down).
This year: Google wins two categories. I'm frightened.
I read the internet for the articles.
Happy Trails!
Erick
http://www.busyweather.com/
I'm probably being trolled here, but I'll bite: given that human rights are meaningless without the means to defend oneself against human rights violators (from muggers to Government employees) - how can you support free speech, freedom of religion etc. without supporting RKBA (Right to Keep & Bear Arms)?
And in case you're wondering, I'm not American, I'm a New Zealander. Not all RKBA supporters are American.
I LOVE Wikipedia, but I find myself staying away from it due to the tangents that the parent post mentions. Maybe it is my adult ADD (ha), but I can't keep focused when I am there. I start by looking something up about Alan Turing and then all of a sudden I am reading about the Republic of China (yes, this topic is ~5 jumps from the page on Alan Turing). It kind of reminds me of Everything2.com... i just wish I could keep myself more focused!
Just like driving a car:
(D) to go forward
(R) to go backward
I signed up for the 'Webby' nominations last year, and got a reasonable number of emails from them (not all-out spam, but maybe 6-7).
Maybe it's just me, but the whole tone of the thing leaves me with the impression that the Webby folks have an extraordinarily high (but unfounded) opinion of themselves. Reading the mails they sent, I was transported back in time to the mid-1990s, when The New Economy was going to leave the brick-and-mortar dinosaurs choking on comet dust.
I think we may have found the last few dozen people who haven't woken up from the Internet Bubble.
Flash has its good points, you are right. The main problem is the accessibility of it, and the disgusting trend of providing no non-flash alternative, or simply providing a message saying "Sorry, this site requires Flash. Bugger off." This is pretty much like telling everyone who can't see the pretty pictures, for whatever reason, that they are not wanted.
Regardless, as long as there's no content expressed solely in Flash, and as long as it is used effectively it's OK. As a dialup user, it pisses me off, but that's not the designer's problem.
Sorry, looking over this it's actually a bit of a mindless me-too post, but I just wanted to stress the importance of alternatives to animation (and images and imagemaps, for that matter). I guess you could call me an accesibility zealot, but I think the web needs more of those.
Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
-- Terry Pratchett, Hogfather
You have got to be kidding me. They make Fox look a paragon of unbiased reporting!
Interesting argument - yes, guns are less effective nowadays against Government violations because of the size, funding levels, & armaments of the Government agencies.
However, all the evidence suggests that guns are excellent tools of self-defense against private criminals - see Gun Facts for the proof.
The Onion has essentially been doing the same joke for years now. They're certainly one of the funnier sites on the Web these days, but I for one found both Modern Humorist and Red vs. Blue more funny and innovative. I can see it winning People's Voice, but I'm surprised that the Webby awarders didn't spice things up a little.
"I would give my right hand to be ambidextrous."
Carstuckgirls????
WTF is the web coming to???
I am become Troll, destroyer of threads
Every single Flash app is re-inventing the wheel. Unlike HTML, there are no common Flash widgets (or at least none that I've seen in various places). The usability is shot to hell. Users can't apply their own styles. Can I even cut and paste text from a Flash app? Most don't let me.
Flash does have it's place. The Washington Post and NY Times often have nice Flash side-bars that can make an electoral map or poll results come alive. But in general, I don't think Flash enhances the web experience.
Wrong - at least in it's current interation, most flash sites have selectable text, and if the designer is the least bit skilled (read: knows how to use the f^$^ing tools he's chosen) you should have little or no problems cutting and pasting.
.swf files to allow for the back button, etc. to work - those that you find that don't have this functionality mean the author doesn't bother to keep up with standards of his tools, and probably couldn't code his way out of a wet paper bag.
Flash no longer is used as a big single timeline by the majority of professionals either, the advances in ActionScript allow for a lot more linking of small
Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society - M. Twain
has had some relatively balanced articles by Al-Jazeera on it.
This seemed puzzling, until I looked at the FireSomething extension settings (which, if you aren't aware, randomizes FireFox's name) and found that my browser was currently known as "l77tspider" and reporting this information in the agent string, thus the spider-spotting! I removed 'spider' from the list of options and instantly no problems...
On a very /. side note, there is an option which allows you to provide a default name to report in case of difficulty, the standard one reads "All your Mozilla FireFox are belong to us". I changed it to "In Soviet Russia, Mozilla FireFox browses you!". I thought that was a little more up to date.
On a more relevant topic, I browsed most of the winning sites (or do so already) with Mozilla Vermiciousknid 0.8 and found no problems of that nature, not even a "best viewed in" logo or even a fscking stupid resolution recommendation. IMHO they should have won just for that!
Cheers,
Duncan
Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
-- Terry Pratchett, Hogfather
Might I point out that Lord Kenneth is a known miscreant who has pulled a number of stunts like this. Keep that in mind when evaluating the worth of his criticisms.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
dude, you're from new zealand, one of the most peaceful countries in the world. low crime rate, low violent crime rate, no nukes, no wars.
cities in america such as new york and washington have amongst the HIGHEST rates of gun murders and assaults in the world.
america is riddled with guns and riddled with gun violence. new zealand is NOT riddled with guns and, coincidentally, NOT riddled with gun violence. hmmm..
look at the school shootings in the US. kids carrying guns to school, guns they have often sourced from their own homes, ie; guns that were intended for self-defence as you describe.
do you really think you'd hold the same view if that was your reality?
am i missing something, or does it seem that this doesnt deserve an award?
http://art.teleportacia.org/exhibition/GRAVITY/
peoples voice winner under the net art category. wtf is this site supposed to be/do?! its a stupid rocket ship. a bad one at that.
01100111 01100101 01110100 00100000 01101111 01110101 01110100 00100000 01101101 01101111 01110010 01100101 00101110
There weren't any "surprises given the last publicly viewable rankings". There are two sets of awards given out: the Webby award and the People's choice award. The former is decided by the academy and the latter by popular vote. The publicly viewable rankings are for the People's choice award. The nominated websites usually advertise it on their front page and get their readers to spam the people's choice vote, reducing it to a most-visited-site contest. Therefore, IMNSHO, the people's choice award is not very meaningful. For the Webby award itself there is no indication of who the winners are going to be before the final announcement.
Hey, Taco, I see you found the "post anonymously" option.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
The local pizza delivery co has a 100% flash site. It takes orders and everything - very slick. However, it was developed with Flash 7 and the latest plugin for Linux is 6.0.81.0. When I click my location on the map, the web browser segfaults.
This illustrates the problem. Flash makes you dependant on one company for your display software. When they don't keep up the support, you get locked out. Hell is only flash site I actually would use regularly and it doesn't work for me. So much for cross platform.
No, I did not read the f***ing article!
because I'm right
:)
What exactly do you think you are right about? Google won an award for building the world's most useful website. This fact is completely independent of the fact that they refuse to take ad money from gun makers. Why should something so irrelevant as their ad choices determine whether or not they are eligible for a Webby?
In short, you have failed to consider the possibility that you were modded troll because your post was a troll. i.e., you used a completely unrelated news item to shout about some random pet peeve of yours. That's a troll, isn't it? If not, it's at least off-topic.
Anyway, it's moot now, since your post is now at +5. Congrats on successfully gaming the system...
Liberal (adj.): Free from bigotry; open to progress; tolerant of others.
Just about every site listed had a tilt to the left.
It's about as egalitarian as Pravda in the old days.
Nice to know that some things never really change.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
blakespot
-- Heisenberg may have slept here.
iPod Hacks.com
Being an Australian *looks at New Zealander* I find it funny when criminals that can't get their hands on guns get whacked with a cricket bat whilst attempting to rob a petrol station. This ofcourse leads to a failed robbery.
We do have the problem of robbery with a deadly syringe though still a cricket bat has a longer reach. Though I wonder, what bring a person to think they need a gun to protect themselves? what have they done personally to have to worry about this? Or why do they suffer from so much paranoia?
I'm sure Ghandi made his comment because india lost the power to fight back against an invading force. A democratic government is not an invading force, you do have a say you know.
i would agree, we don't see this in canada (or nz, i've since learned they have quite a high % of gun ownership) because the USA has a fundamental problem of violence (ie; guns don't kill people, people kill do).
however, as in my example above, the problem is accentuated by the fact that guns have in some cases been accessible to children, which is a result of people having guns in their homes.
if the guns weren't available, then they would not have been an option in those cases.
Sadly this is the end result of the mailing list system and also of the concept of a "banned user" (whatever that is, since they always come back).
A recent user (whose name should not be pronounced any more, but who is not a banned user) recently gave as one of the reason for leaving the fact decisions were increasingly taken over irc discussions. The media of decision change, but the clique or cabal does not - although predictably the most determined advocates of cliques and social control (such as those damaging this article) fail to see they are in fact participating in such a system of social control.
IRC offers another canal of discussion which is interesting, and it may actually help in resolve some misunderstandings, but, more likely, it will simply cement those who spend a lot of time as being somehow more credible or "right".
However, it remains that the medium of discussion is not the same as the medium of presentation - the real power is not with those who contribute, not even who contribute the most or best, but with those who spend the most time influencing so-called authority, and trying to gain "infrastructure owners' trust" thereby.
The wrong idea of using another medium to make decisions, that not all users are empowered to use equally, and the wrong idea of "punishing" those who do not accept the power structure, both arise out of the idea of "community".
Neither concept makes for good editorial decisions, for example, often good articles are deleted out of process because of who wrote them, not because of what they say, and articles are "reverted" to being wrong, when they have been corrected. But both are absolutely necessary if there is to be a "community", and absolutely wrong if there is to be an "encyclopedia". The time has come to choose between the two:
The mailing list and other advocates of so-called "community" make rulership and ownership choices that are arguably contrary to the spirit of the GNU FDL - mostly the fault of mediawiki software which matches its terms imperfectly - should mediawiki actually be ditched? no doubt "the community" which includes its developers will argue it must not!
They don't even recognize community bias, or make any attempt to find a representative sample of themselves to actually represent the "users" - who are, amazingly, totally shut out in the unique Wikipedia concept of a "user community consisting only of those who speak up on specific pages by name."
The idea of "virtual community" is stupid, and probably evil - it is epistemic community masquerading as real community with sad and predictable social consequences: people unable to tell a political dispute from a bodily threat, people unable to conceive of political methods of dispute resolution that are not themselves based on invasion and war.
Plus the more pathetic consequences of people thinking they are making friends by typing, when they are really only making conspiracies and alliances to do things that do not matter all that much.
Darwikinism and a battlefield of ideas are more rational ways to run an encyclopedia, and can reward competence and a history of good edits, not whining, lying, and relationships with the bosses:
"The community", like any community, rewards all the wrong things - its social capital is built on pleasing and helping *friends*, NOT actually serving users.
The mailing list system favours those incompetent people who speak up there, over comp