Sixth Annual Weblog Awards: The 2006 Bloggies

Millions of blogs.

Thousands of nominees.

151 finalists.

Thirty winners.

It's now the sixth year of the world's most established weblog awards, the Bloggies™. Personal Web publishing never stops growing, and that means this year the public will have more contenders than ever to select from when choosing the year's best weblogs. 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005 have their champions; now it's time for you to do your part for 2006. Read on.

Read the Rules A "weblog" is defined as a page with dated entries.

The contest is open to any weblogs that existed for a period of time during the year 2005, so weblogs that were discontinued during 2005 are also eligible.

Only one nomination form and one finalist voting form may be submitted per person.

E-mail addresses are required to vote. You must use your own address.

If you attempt to submit a second ballot, your first one will be erased.

In the nomination phase: URLs are required (where applicable). The maximum number of weblogs you may nominate for a category is three (3) for most categories and four (4) for Weblog of the Year. At least three (3) different weblogs total must be nominated. You may nominate your own weblog, but the total nominations for your own weblog must be less than one third of your total (legitimate) nominations. There is no limit to the number of categories a weblog may be nominated for. Nominees have to fit the category they are placed in.

The system alerts me of suspicious ballots, and I also may exclude ballots when I suspect the voter isn't following the rules. This means no bots. These rules may change at any time, but they probably won't.

Learn About the Procedure From January 1, 2006 until 10:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (GMT-5) on Tuesday, January 10, anyone was able to nominate their favorite weblogs. That Friday, January 13, three panels of 50 voters received an e-mail. It listed the weblogs that receieved the most nominations in ten categories. They had until 10:00 PM EST on Wednesday, January 18 to privately submit their five favorites (six for Weblog of the Year) for each category. The five (or six for Weblog of the Year) receiving the most votes became finalists. I (Nikolai Nolan) only voted for the panel in the case of a tie for fifth place. This panel was on an opt-in policy. On Sunday, January 22, the finalists were announced and voting is open again to choose the winners. Voting will close at 10:00 PM EST on Tuesday, January 31. The winners will be posted sometime between Sunday, March 13 and Tuesday, March 15.

Come to the Ceremony The Weblog Awards™ ceremony will be held at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival for the third time in Austin, Texas, USA on Monday, March 13 at 12:30 PM at the Trade Show Day Stage. Webloggers including previous Bloggie™ winners and prize contributors will present certificates and prizes to those present. Those who aren't attending may join the excitement on IRC, in #BlogIRC on irc.turlyming.com. Winners will be announced live and a play-by-play of the ceremony will be given. After the ceremony, the results will be posted on this page.

Admire the Prizes Because of the large amount of categories, I won't personally give a award to every winner, but the Weblog of the Year owner(s) will receive 2,006 US cents (US$20.06). Also, contributors can donate their own prizes to the category of their choice, and if the contributor has a site, it will be linked from this page. If the contributor is going to SXSW, he/she can also have the privilege of announcing/presenting the category sponsored at the ceremony. To donate one, the contributor can bring it to SXSW, mail it to the winner, or send an online gift certificate or cash to the winner. Prizes that are more creative than my $20 are encouraged. Send me an e-mail to get your prize added. Sorry, "to be announced" prizes to reserve categories can't be accepted. I'll send out a list of winner's e-mails to the contributors after they're announced, but all other prize arrangements will be handled by their respective donators. Since I intend for the Weblog Awards� to remain an independently-produced ceremony without corporate sponsorship, contributor links are restricted to individuals, non-profit organizations, or companies that contribute to the blog universe in some way. South by Southwest Interactive offers Bloggie™ finalists a special discount to attend the ceremony in March. The cost of Interactive registration for Bloggie™ finalists is $175. All Bloggie winners receive a gift certificate for ten bumper stickers from Bumperactive.com. All Bloggie winners receive a DVD of The God Who Wasn't There from Brian Flemming.

Be Current with the Categories Most categories will remain as they've always been. But because of revision or removal, it's time to bid farewell to: Best Meme

Best Article or Essay About Weblogs

Best Non-Weblog Content of a Weblog Site In exchange, these spiffy new categories take their place: Best Podcast of a Weblog

Best Craft Weblog

Best Teen Weblog

Special thanks go to Jim McCann for programming and the die logo, and StayHosted for keeping the site running smoothly. Here are this years winners!

Best Web Application for Weblogs Something that helps you publish, make comments, anything that has to do with developing a weblog. Prizes US$50 Amazon.com gift certificate from Blogwild US$20.06 from Okdork.com A tote bag by and from April Marie Mai US$20.06 from ImageHosting.us winner

Blogger

nominees

Flickr

Del.icio.us

Site Meter

WordPress

Best Latin American Weblog Prize Blogs. La conversación en Internet que está revolucionando medios, empresas y ciudadanos by Octavio Rojas, Julio Alonso, José Luis Antúnez, José Luis Orihuela y Juan Varela from eCuaderno winner



Cooking Diva nominees

Bestiaria

Motel de Moka

Ponchorama!!!

Guyana