Welcome to the Omani Blog Awards 2005
Before we start, I would like to thank Devilish for supporting the idea when I got in touch with him at the start to get on with this, secondly, I would like to thank Petite For Life for taking initiative and starting this weblog for us to host the event and organise as well from the same point.
I am not doing this on my own and I would like to have some feedback and suggestions from all our fellow Omani bloggers out there, I believe that the Omani Blog Awards would be a great event to have because of three main reasons:
- It is an opportunity to celebrate the Omani weblogs that we are addicted to and thank their owners for their great efforts in maintaining these weblog.
- It would functions as an incentive for bloggers to look after and update their weblogs even more.
- It is an opportunity to learn more about Omani weblogs.
Blog categories, should there be any? The majority of the Omani blog, whether topic based or personal diary format blogs, should both qualify for this event. Professional weblogs and corporate blogs should not qualify.
Another issue about qualification is activity, I think that we should set a minimum time age limit for the blog to qualify (e.g. 2 months) blogs that were been around for less than two months should not qualify. Related to this is the matter of amount of content, I think that there should be a minimum number of entries made to the blog to qualify, I suggest 20.
Now moving on the actual event, I suggest that we make a 'submission post' where people should reply with their blog URLs to enter the event. After a specified period for submission, (e.g. 2 weeks) we start a poll with all the qualifying entries, qualifying members should them make announcements at their weblogs requesting their visitors to vote for them to win the award. The winner does not get any physical prize, but will be titled at the Best Omani Weblog for 2005. The link for the blog will be highlighted at this page and a special graphic would be given the winner to publish it at their blog.
OK, those are my ideas, comments?
posted by Blue Chi @ 11:20 PM
21 Comments:
Intresting :) and it help to movitivate people to blog ..
the criteria set above are good .. if I came up with anything else I would let you know :)
An excellant idea....! I hope it encourages more Omani bloggers.
I'll also add a link to this site.
I fully agree that non-Omani bloggers currently in Omani with Omani content should be allowed to join. I feel it's essential to have Omani content in the blog.
It wouldn't be right to have non-Omani bloggers with absolutely nothing about Oman or Omanis participating.
Initially there shouldn't be any categories.... But to encourage more "variety" in new Omani blogs, I'd suggest a Special Award for a non-personal diary blog.
Minimum activity for qualification is a must. 5 months instead of only 2 and 20 entries is best.
In recognition of the pioneer Omani bloggers, I'd suggest you also have a 1st Runner up Best Omani Weblog 2005 & 2nd Runner-up Best Omani Weblog 2005. Both should be provided with a "Special Graphic" as well.
Can I suggest you create a little "graphic" for us to include at our blogs to link back to here....?
Thanks my 2 cents....
Cool! I'm glad someone is doing it.
Hey if you guys need any help, I'd be happy to give a hand :)
I think it's a great idea. I'm not sure about the timing though. I'd have held the contest closer to the end of year. I think in August and September you have a proble of people being on holiday, and also students being in transit between home and uni or still setting up their internet connections, etc.
Another thing, I think submission should be open to everyone. Ya3ni anyone should be allowed to come and nominate a blog, not just their own blogs. It would be a shame to miss out on a blog just because its owner didn't submit it to the contest or if the owner didn't know about the contest.
Every blog that participates should be given the badge graphic to put on their site and link back to the contest in order to bring more traffic here. The bigger the number of people who vote the more weight and importance that the award has.
Sounds like a great idea, yet I would suggest categories and more than one award. There are blogs which have been created specifically as diaries, others as informative and some which lay in grey areas, thus I suggest awards for each segment.
The badge would be a useful tool to have on our blogs so as to refer back to this web-log, thus allowing people to place their nominations for the various categories.
Kudoson this initiative :)
Thanks guys on your replies, I'll summarise all the suggestions that we got so far: (Guys that want to help, you can do this by simply telling us what you think of these suggestions!)
In relation to qualification:
- Non Omanis that blog from Oman about stuff that are not related to Oman should not qualify.
- The minimum age of a blog should be five months instead of two.
- Submission of a website should not be limited only to the owner of the blog, but anyone should be able to nominate any qualifying blog to participate.
In relation to categories:
- Calkoon suggests that there is a special award for the a non-personal diary.
- Wardat suggests that there are three categories, personal, topic based, and mixed blogs.
If you think that this is necessary, who do you think should decide if this is a personal, topic based, or mixed blog, the person that submits it, or the people that run this blog?
Do you think that there are enough 'topic-based' blogs to have a separate category for it?
In relation to the timing of the awards:
Muscati suggests that we should not do it in August or September because a great number of bloggers will be busy as they start the academic year? Do you think we should start the submission in September and do the voting in October? Any other suggestions, is it too far, is it too early?
Misc:
Calkoon suggets that there is a 2nd place and 3rd place awards as well.
Regarding the graphic!
I already started working on a design for this blog and it should be ready in a couple of days along with the graphic to be used for the event!
I don't think there's a need to complicate things by categorizing the blogs. If it's Omani (belongs to an Omani individual) then it should just be qualified and people should then vote for the blogs they like the most. Keep it simple and straight to the point.
> First I’d like to thank Blue Chi for the idea ! n, thank Petite For Life for creating this blog !
> muscati got a valid point about students in transition phase, however someone else might also say Ramadan is in October, so blogging is probably gona be less in that month. It seems we might postpone nominations until November !? I agree on his idea of submission to open to anyone.
> I liked Warda’s idea ! We may have :
- Best designed blog Award
- Best active blog Award
am just brainstorming randomly, we could have whatever category we agree on !
> I also liked Calkoon’s idea of runner ups !
> Blue Chi,
- “In relation to qualification” : Agreed
- Calkoon suggests that there is a special award for the a non-personal diary.
- Wardat suggests that there are three categories, personal, topic based, and mixed blogs.
- “If you think that this is necessary, who do you think should decide if this is a personal, topic based, or mixed blog, the person that submits it, or the people that run this blog?”
ummmmmmmm let us hear more views first
- “Do you think that there are enough 'topic-based' blogs to have a separate category for it?”
I don’t think so.
- “In relation to the timing of the awards:……. Do you think we should start the submission in September and do the voting in October?”
Submission in Nov, n voting in Dec.
-“Calkoon suggets that there is a 2nd place and 3rd place awards as well.”
Good idea
- "Regarding the graphic!
I already started working on a design for this blog and it should be ready in a couple of days along with the graphic to be used for the event!”
Great
NaBHaN, “Keep it simple and straight to the point.” I agree, I think we should wait for more inputs from more bloggers.
I love the idea of having:
- Best designed blog Award
- Best active blog Award
For best designed blog, let's just give it to NabHan in advance... As for Best active Award, I think it'll probably win the Best Omani WebBlog 2005 award, or be included in the top 3. Hence it isn't necessary.
Having too many winners will devalue the award. 5 is more than enough for starters at least.
1) Best Omani Weblog 2005
2) 2nd Best
3) 3rd Best
Categories:
4) Best Designed Blog
5) Best Non-Diary Blog
(Either of the bottom two can be included in the first 3. I see the categories as an encouragement for greater variety & more attention when designing ones blog)
**I wanted to very quickly touch on the use of "non-diary", which I think is important. It's not intended to put down bloggers with personal diaries. I love the Omani blogs with diaries, as they touch on the essence on what it's like being an Omani or in Oman today. An invaluable source for future generations and I truly hope many more are started up.
Having "non-diary" is purely to draw attention to blogs with a difference. As it is, the majority of blogs worldwide are personal and I think that's going to remain the same**
I fully agree we should start the vote a little later. Submission in September with voting in October is perfect.
How about also having:
6) The Most Loved Omani Blogger ....??
but how will you decide on what best loved Omani blogger?
I think to start nominating in nov, and vote in december is best .. it gives bloggers time to work on thier blogs and categorise themselves on what area they wish to be.
but as bluchi pointed out, who decided if the blog is personal or not? coz many blogs have a mixture of two .. I guess its up to the committee of the award to decide that.
What do you guys think of having the nominations/submission in November and the voting in December?
I don't think that there is a need for the "most loved" blogger, because people should love you for the quality of your blog which should make you win the main award if it the 'love is enough'.
Best Design Blog, how many Omani blogs were 'DESIGNED BY' the bloggers themeslves? 2 or 3, I don't think that this is a sufficient number for us to have a whole separate category. Same with topic-based blogs, I don't think that we have enough of these yet to have a separate category.
About the voting feature, some voters aren’t registred to Blogger.com so do we have to secure the vote by only registed members or not.
If we secure it, it will control the spamming and dulication of voting problems.
The majority have already stated that they want to have the submission in November and follow it with the voting in December. I think that should give us enough time to distribute the small even graphic once its done and it should give us time to think how we can effectively find a fair method to vote. I don't think the voting should be limited to Blogger users, but at the same time it will be probably be limited by IP numbers or maybe email accounts. That's how people do it all around the world.
seems like everything is summed up. i dont think though there should be runner ups. we are a limited number of bloggers compared to others. its only the first time, let who ever wins have that glory of winning. so maybe next year bloggers will work harder. maybe in 2006 we can have more categories and runner ups. timing agreed on is perfect.
What do you guys think of the language of the blog, should this be only limited to blogs written in Engilsh?
Petite For Life
Thanks for visiting my blog...
I was wonderng somebody is looked in my blog from Oman apart from Develish and Naj
I thank you for leading me here..Since Im mixed Omani where does leave me in the vote..
Am I allowed to vote for others
imnasra,
I think that as long as you have the Omani blood you qualify. :P lol, we cannot check your passport, I always thought you were Omani anyway.
veeeery interesting, if it wasn't petites visit to my blog i wouldn't knowwwww!!!!!!!!
Blue, both arabic and english blog should qualify ..
oh great
Im happy for to know ..I know I woud not win
But just to kep the spirirt going on
thanks for the codes
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