Requisite Award Criteria:
- Useful genealogical content - The site should help
researchers! Content is the most critical criterion.
- Attractive presentation - Pretty, clever, colorful or
surprising pages. Although content is most important, winning
Web sites must be presented in such an appealing way that Web
surfers will be attracted to the excellent content.
- Attention to detail - After all, we're genealogists! While
anyone can make a typo, there certainly must be content accuracy.
- Useful links to relevant resources - Helping us find other
good resources. Winning pages are likely to be bookmarked by
Web-utilizing genealogists as good starting points in research
projects.
- Receptivity to feedback (which I believe is relevant to
genealogical accuracy!)
- Interesting graphics and/or photos (But... if they take too
long to load, they'd better be worth the time!)
- Value (something to make the web surfer
bookmark the page -- something the surfer is glad to find.)
- An organization of the web site which facilitates the
researcher finding what he/she is looking for. This can be
accomplished in many ways, but the web surfer shouldn't get lost
on the site.
- If your Web site automatically redirects me to pages that I didn't
want to visit, I won't put my visitors through that frustration.
If your site does such automatic redirection to places other than
your genealogy site, close your eyes and visualize your award being
redirected to a trash recepticle.
- If your Web site has pop-up boxes, I do understand that some of
you are burdened with those because they come with free Web sites.
I'll hang in there to see your site, if it doesn't take too long.
I just eliminated a couple of winner links to Web pages with wonderful
content because it took over 5 minutes for the pages to load with all
of the flashing banners that the free sites put on the page for
advertising. I hated to do that, but I don't want to cause my
visitors' computers to lock up while they're trying to get to those
pages.
- Similarly, if your Web site has music, large photos, lots of
graphics, etc., I'll hang in there to see your site, if it doesn't
take too long. (But, there are ways to make your site faster for
surfers as well as detailed for relatives. For example, large
photos can be downloaded from links, rather than posted directly on
a main Web page.)
- Tasteful and nonoffensive web site content. Prejudicial, hateful,
violent and/or adult-only content will make a page ineligible,
because genealogical information should be available to anyone
with an interest. Inclusion of adult-only material would narrow
the appropriate audience and thereby make a site less useful.
Bigotry and hatred contradicts the open perspective required for accurate
research. The site should be freely accessible to anyone.
- This award is for genealogy sites.
People who have sites that
are something else -- business sites, sex sites, religious sites,
cooking sites, etc. -- may qualify for other people's awards, but
this award is only for genealogy.
- There are 3 categories of winners:
- Excellent Genealogy for All
- Excellent Genealogy Place Sites
- Excellent Surnames Sites
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Granduncle Mark's Genealogy Parlor
