CyberSocket web awards nominations

[Squirt]

Ok Squirt breathe... in one two out one two in one two.... exhale slowly... shake it out ok ok... now visualize patti




















ok good good... now breathe.. relax.. visualize Lee


































No no no! Now focus.. breathe... in one two out one two... exhale slowly... shake it out.. now try it again... visualize Lee















































.

[Paco]

LOL ... BAH HAH HAH - nice find, Tom!
Lee, I am not laughing at you, I am busting-up over the image of the sour grapes!

[Lee]

Paco,

You are spot on with your reply.

Another thing to consider is this, i havent used Epoch as a processor yet but, i have used CCBill, what right do i have to say that CCBill is a better processor and deserves to win an award more than Epoch does?

Likewise, i have never been inside the members area of CorbinFisher, does that give me a right to say that that site doesnt deserve an award whilst another in the same category that i may have been inside does?

Lets just give every webmaster who uses 'content' a nomination, that way, everyone can be special and, at the same time, nobody can be.

Without meaning to offend anyone who did get nominated, most award shows, not just the Cybersocket ones, do nothing more than celebrate mediocrity, anyone can submit their own site for nomination or, one of their friends, ultimately, the people who win will be the ones who got the most votes.. Based on what criteria? How many friends they have? How much content they use? Ease of site use? Site design?

What makes a site special to you, might not make a site special to me and, very rarely have i seen people or companies get awarded who truly deserved it... That being said, sure, it is nice to win something but ultimately why even bother when you dont know what you did right in order to get nominated or win in the first place? How does that help you or your site?

Regards,

Lee

[CorbinFisher_BD]

I like the idea of an awards show where a select panal of judges - people experienced and respected in the industry - are the ones that come up with both nominees and winners.

The judges' own sites would be excluded from candidacy. Nominations would be solicited from the public, and the judges would review the nominations to trim them down to the best, say, 10 among the publicly submitted nominees.

At that point, they select the winners from those nominees. Hell, you could even have a different group of judges. One to narrow the nominees down, another group to actual vote on final winners.

Of course, were that to be the case, then some people would complain about the judges all having an agenda, i.e. "Everyone knows that judge never liked me. There was no way I was going to win." But at least there would be some transparency on who was making the decisions and what individuals the votes came down to.

So really, there's no way to ever make everyone happy.

Cybersocket, I get the feeling, has chosen to take a very hands off approach to the whole process. They've done this because, in the past, people were certain the results were fixed. So now, they leave it completely up to the numbers that come in on nominations and votes. That leads to an entire lack of quality control. Hell, last year CorbinFisher won Best Megasite and... we're not even a megasite! . An outcome of Cybersocket being completely objective throughout the whole process is sites that really shouldn't be nominated get nominated. If they were to cull the heard of nominees, then they'd end up getting thrashed for doing that. It's a lose/lose situation.

[MWCren]

A cybersocket award and $5 will get you a frappucino. However, it is sorta fun to show up on the list. I was happy that menwithcams.com (amateur webcam site) and diesellive.com (black themed site) were both nominated this year.

The benefit so far has been some traffic from the nomination page and some new affiliate signups. I'm guessing about half of the traffic is coming from website owners checking out the sites on the list. Any time there is a popularity contest, someone will get their panties in a bunch. Its really not worth losing sleep over.

I can't say that I would ever post anything on my site about being nominated or even winning. Do surfers even know what a cybersocket web award is? probably not. Would I ask a new visitor to my site to vote for my site by visiting a page with a gazillion other pay sites that they can click on and decide they like better? Definitely not.

I think the industry related categories are more likely to be of value to a site than the surfer categories. Luke can get some new clients, Jacob can use it as another reason to add Live Twinks to a site. But from a surfer's perspective and the the impact on the bottom line? Nada.

[CuriousOne]

Greetings Everyone!

First off I would like to congratulate all of the nominees who are up for a Cybersocket Web Award. :thumbsup:

After reading all of the various opinions on this board, I just need to say two things:

All of the nominees are submitted by surfers, during the nomination process, choose to nominate their favorite website. In order to have a true Surfers Choice Award, we feel it would be hypocritical if we were to go in and veto what the surfers choose. Since the inception of the awards this has been the rumor, and perhaps now we may be able to put it to rest.

Additionally, the comment made by Lee regarding changing the winner of a category just minutes before the presentation of the award is completely false. After all of the votes are tallied, the awards manufacturer engraves and ships them back to us at least two weeks before the ceremony. We do not have the ability to change the winner of the award on the night of the show since we would be handing out an award with “previous winners” name on it.

Unfortunately, in the four years I have worked with Cybersocket and the awards, these issues and rumors fly around every year. I assume that this is just the nature of the beast, and will continue to happen, its inevitable.

Perhaps I am opening myself up to criticism since I generally avoid posting on the boards, but I really did feel that these two issues needed to be addressed. In the event you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me at michelle@cybersocket.com and I will be happy to assist you.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I look forward to seeing or meeting you all in Phoenix. Take care and have a wonderful day!

Sincerely,
Michelle Aragon
General Manager – Cybersocket

[Paco]

Greetings Everyone!

First off I would like to congratulate all of the nominees who are up for a Cybersocket Web Award. :thumbsup: ...
Thank you for taking the time to read this and I look forward to seeing or meeting you all in Phoenix. Take care and have a wonderful day!

Thank you kindly, Michelle, for taking the time to post a reply - I do appreciate it!

[LiveTwinksCam]

Thank you very much Michelle!! Boom Snap! hehe :argue: :catfight:

[Jasun]

I'd like to point out that at Fratmen we're dammned excited to be nominated, and the nominations were driven by our membership, not us.

The Fratmen also suggested that members nominate my personal site, and I'm happy as a pig in shit to be recognized for the work I've done there to encourage gay men to take up my sport of motorcycle riding.

anyway.. there we go.

And yes.. I really wanna win.. so VOTE FRATMEN AND VOTE JASUNMARK.COM

thanks.

:jasun:

[LiveTwinksCam]

I couldn't agree more! I am very happy to have LiveTwinksCam to be nominated as Best Voyeur Site.

I am very happy that CyberSocket puts in all of their hard work, efforts, resources and money into these awards for us! Thank you again CyberSocket!

Please Vote for LiveTwinksCam under Best Voyeur Site, if you think we are the best. I really want to win this year! We have done a lot of hard work this year, to bring the surfer and our webmasters the best voyeur experience possible! Also thanks to those that nominated us! Thank you!

[XXXWriterDude]

Awards season always brings with it a backlash. The ones who are nominated are happy, while the ones who are not bitch and moan about there being a conspiracy or how unimportant the awards are. Blah blah blah.

The integrity of awards shows has always been called into question -- again, usually by those who are not recognized by the awards, which says a lot about where they are REALLY coming from.

My friends used to be really down on the Oscar awards, saying they were nothing more than a popularity contest. Still, who else but members of Hollywood should be able to vote on movies, since as actors, filmmakers, cinematographers, etc., who else is more qualified to vote on filmmaking achievement? Sure, some ridiculous winners have emerged over the years (I'm still smarting over Crash), and the Oscars have traditionally singled out studio films over independent ones, but in recent years I've seen a shift in the Oscars that makes me hopeful that they really are trying to honor excellence.

You can bitch and moan all you want about the relevance of awards, but it is still quite a thrill to be recognized for your work.

That said, I pretty much agree with Patti. WIth all due respect to those who put so much time and effort into putting the awards together, some of the sites nominated this year frankly do not deserve to be nominated, which does call into question the merits of the nominations process and, of course, the relevance of what it means to nominated or win.

But in a way, that's really beside the point. I mean, in the end, how much relevance should really be given to awards? Take them with a grain of salt, but still take them. And be thankful for them. They are essentially meant to stroke the egos of those who are nominated and/or win, sure. But don't we ALL need a little bit of ego-stroking now and then? The Cybersocket Web Awards do serve a very important function in our community. They provide visibility and promotion for those who are nominated, and they make the webmasters behind those sites feel like their work is being noticed.

In the end, what's not to be thankful for?

Thanx to Cybersocket for putting the awards together, and congrats to all who are nominated!

[Chilihost]

I am also totally stoked over chilihost being nominated. I have personally worked my ass off over the last 5 years to make it the company it is today. And I did not nomite myself nor did I ask anyone to nominate chilihost. Its a true honour to be recognized with the other webhosts on that ballot.

cheers,
Luke

[XXXWriterDude]

You are a real piece of work woman

I can understand someone not liking an awards system

but I do not understand why in hell you accuse LiveTwinksCam, ArmpitLover, GayBucksChip, Jasun, Citiboyz, Ade, IntenseCash, Xstr8Guy, Sana Chan, SC Robert, and myself of sending out emails to people to vote for us, or telling friends to vote for us. Most of us didn't even know nominations were being held and I wasn't even emailed and told I was nominated.

NOTICE the only person you name as not being in your group of crooked nominees is ChilliHost... a moderator on GWW, like you, and a "paying" advertiser on GWW, that says a lot about your character.

You know if you had ANY common sense whatsoever you'd attack Cybersocket by saying it's odd so many GWW people were nominated and it's a clear manipulation trying to break the board up (going with the old GWW vs Cybersocket rivalry you guys have had going on)... but instead you tarnish all of us nominated and attack our integrity, except for your friend chillihost of course.

At this point you had better name names of who you think has emailed people for votes, otherwise you've just implicated all of us, except your close friend chillihost.

We all thank you for your lack of support Patti

Sheesh. Sometimes you really worry me, Squirt. You REALLY do.

[Xstr8guy]

And I did not nomite myself nor did I ask anyone to nominate chilihost. Its a true honour to be recognized with the other webhosts on that ballot.

Me too! UKnakedmen.com is in some amazing company on that ballot. And I still haven't found anyone who will admit to nominating it. So just to be nominated by an anonymous person is truly an honor.

[Paco]

I am also totally stoked over chilihost being nominated. I have personally worked my ass off over the last 5 years to make it the company it is today. And I did not nomite myself nor did I ask anyone to nominate chilihost. Its a true honour to be recognized with the other webhosts on that ballot.

cheers,
Luke

you do not need me to tell you this, BUT, awesome work, Luke!
I've heard plenty about you & Chilihost, and from what I gather you deserve the nom.
I am going to pop the cork of a nice #4 Riesling, and am going to force myself to ingest a glass or two ... just for you :innocent:
Cheers!