| Hi fellow RainForest dwellers!! Please read through
this message carefully, and thoroughly to fully understand the GeoCities Outta Site Awards
Program which will be implemented very soon. Community Leader participation will be vital
to the success of these awards, a key component under the GeoCities-wide
awards/recognition program for homesteaders (the GeoCities Awards Program [GAP]). Bookmark
this page for future reference. For a neighborhood the size of our RainForest, we shall be voting on 5 sites a week, nominated by yours truly, (benjinn). Sites in the old Featured Page Program will be reviewed and automatically made eligible for this award, first and foremost. Once the list of sites, which totals up to about 120 dries up, community
leaders will use a special form, to be set up by the GeoCities people. Why 'special'? The
form will verify sites and reject sites which have been nominated before. The person
submitting the site will also be tracked. So in simple words, 1 site = 1 nomination. When
there are no more nominations coming from CLs, a form will be set up for homesteaders to
submit sites worthy for the award. The form will work the same way as the one above.
Each week, we vote on 5 sites, meaning that we will have a maximum of 5 winners for "Gaea's Emeralds" weekly. At the end of the month, weekly winners will be combined and one monthly winner will be chosen to receive the GeoCities Outta Site Award. From monthly winners, we will then pick one annual winner from our neighborhood. This site will next be in contention for the ultimate award, the best site in GeoCities. Sites which are passed will be handed over to Karen, our Community Manager, to be showcased appropriately. I am setting the minimum number of CLs voting at 5. If there are fewer
than 5 CLs voting, a site will not be judged, whether it failed or passed. I shall NOT be
voting unless necessary, for example, voting turnout is bad I have only votes from 4 CLs. All sites will be reviewed based on 7 criteria. The 7 components will be rated on a scale from 1 to 10 (10 being the highest). A site meeting 5 criteria does not guarantee passing, because it might fail badly for the other 2. We want all-around sites. Only sites which are balanced and good in all facets, receiving a total score of more the 50 (out of 70) will get the award. Now this is where community leader participation is very important. CLs, new or old, with a lot or little experience, will be eligible to vote. Although not part of the 7 criteria, the first and most important thing to look at is that the entire site is strictly within the GeoCities Content Guidelines. Look out for sponsorship banners, banner exchanges other than LinkExchange and pages used as signposts to the main site located off the GeoCities server. I will sift through the 5 weekly nominations before putting them out for voting, but do check again, just in case I missed anything. Contact me as soon as you find any infringements. The site will be disqualified automatically, without a need for voting. Now to the judging criteria, what to look out for and how to give
ratings : Criterion #1 A large portion of the site must be in our neighborhood's theme of
environment and conservation. There should be at least 6 pages filled with solid content.
The more the better and of course the higher rating. Example: My site, I feel, may
only earn 9 points, as compared to Bob's site, packed with content, which definitely
deserves a 10. Criterion #2 A site using the latest in web technology, e.g. Java, JavaScript, DHTML, multimedia components, etc., appropriately and NOT unnecessarily, should get a score of 9 or higher. MIDIs will count as multimedia. The use of 'Advanced HTML' like tables and forms should also be given good ratings, at least 7. MIDIs will count as multimedia. Example : This site http://www.oocities.org/~kidkaboom shall be given
10 and our community site will get 8. Criterion #3 I do not expect all of you to check every single link to see if it works, but just make sure links to the the important sections of the site are working. ALL images should load properly, but one or two small images which do not load will not matter. Little general grammar errors may be excused for sites built by people not from English speaking nations, or else this may be a disadvantage to them. Sites are to be graded like this: There is not a need for examples here and most sites should do
well. Criterion #4 This is basically the same as #1, but here we look out for originality of content, on whether the webmaster put a substantial effort in his/her work. A site should be failed if a large portion of the site looks direct from the encyclopedia, with just some easy cut and paste work from the webmaster. A dose of humor and concise page of fascinating facts will be deemed unique and should be given better ratings. Example : The RainForest Journal at Criterion #5 This is actually up to you to interpret, and everyone will have a different opinion on a site's design and layout. The main thing to look for here is loading time. We do not want a site overloaded with graphics and animations until loading time takes over 2 minutes. Also, everything has to be organized systematically and materials should not be cluttered or piled up in one corner of a page. Pages should not be too long and boring. Example : Our community site will definitely get a 10 here, with such a
pleasant layout. This site (not featured) Criterion #6 Make sure that the background does not obscure the text, making it hard to read. We want easy yet effective navigation, a site should have a link back home or to the main subject of the topic being presented, on every page. Example : The main GeoCities site will get a 10, with a link back home
on all of its pages and with prominent links to important sections of the site. The site
http://www.oocities.org/~xpert will also earn a 10 because the interface is (as it should
be) 'intuitive and simple'. Criterion #7 We look for *INTERACTIVITY* here. Very few sites have contests, for obvious reasons, and one which does should automatically get a 10 here. Games? Java games which do not contribute to the content of the site shall not count for any points. Only those which stimulate interest (like a contest does) to the themes or nature and environment will count. Remember this is NOT a requirement to pass, but the one below is. Now, before leaving any site, think "did I learn something new from going there... anything at all...?" Well, if you did, and you feel that it was valuable, give it a good rating, not worrying about the games or contests above. Bonus marks of 2 to 4 points can be given respectively to sites which have guestbooks or those which invite visitors to contribute articles or links directly. Example : http://www.discovery.com and http://www.m-w.com will both earn
10 points for educational value and for making visits fun with visitors participating. How will sites be rewarded for doing well? Weekly winners will receive their specific Hood Ornaments (hood specific Monthly winners will get the honor of receiving the GeoCities Out of Site Award (GOOSA), GOOSA T-shirt and GOOSA Hood Ornament to place on their site and link to the GeoCities Awards Info Page. They will also be awarded 3 more megs of space. The annual winner will receive.....a trip to GeoCities!!!!! |
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