this one will work for sure ... if this was a house of congress and this emotion was being made i will SECOND IT
or perhaps those ten, can rate each site on 1 to 10, and the winner is on the rating result! double buffer for favouritism!
good point... gosh! smub, you call yourself a designer....zomg! theres more to photoshop when it comes to web design. ok im done with the crap, you're a good guy and you have a nice directory. As for the contest, like i said, force people to give a reason for their votes. and only 1 vote per person.
Maybe the method for tallying votes could be revamped - votes could be counted towards the position voted for only, ie. a third place vote should not be counted towards the total tally but towards that position only. Just a thought as someone with 20 first place votes could lose out to someone with fewer first place votes if they had enough second/third place votes to give them an aggregate total.
i call myself a designer ... yeah i am horrible ... but as you said i have a nice directory. i dont think an angel from the sky drop by and made this and went back. Obviously i made it and coded it. if i dont know anything about designing other than photoshop .. than it have to be a miracle that idk.in is w3 valid ... so are some of my phpld templates like www.ciclar.com << www.paiddirectory.net << www.coopertaion.idk.in << www.css.idk.in i never said i am a coder or programmer. I know html thts for sure. might not be a freakin genius with smarty but i am better than many here.
I do agree 100% because I have seen excellent directories lose to mediocre directories based on the fact that the owners had friends within this community. It doesn't do the directory business any good to have mediocre web directories win prizes and not have the really good ones appear in the limelight.
Silky Smooth, I really like your ideas too, and I will begin the process of selecting some judges shortly.
I thought of a good idea but after reading the whole thread i have changed my opinion and here is what I want to propose: 1. First I would like to say that there is no point to the contest whatsoever, offer a prize in CASH, not links or e-books of some value. To say the least, offer something more than just a title of a "PHPLD Directory of the Month". 2. SilkySmooth has a great base but some things i would change. the 10 judges should not be people of our community. Throughout the previous contests I've seen a lot of times where winners are chosen based on who they know and how much they've done for others. 3. There should be a point system made which gives equal vote power to every judge. I personally liked how people voted before and 1st place had 3 points, 2nd had 2 and 3rd had 1 point. 4. There should be different categories for every aspect of a well designed directory, each having its own point system and weight of an overall decision. I mean things like speed of the website, features (custom or not), support, value of directory's offer, originality, content, w3c standards... etc 5. Marketing efforts of contestants should be strictly out of the voting decision.
I like this also. I would like to add one more. I think the judges should be voted by the active members, then David decides the judges based on the vote results at the end. It's one more step complicated, but this can be even better. Just my opinion.
Remember most do it in private and no one is bold, but i did once in open and they said i was bad, but whats happening via pms or behind the closed doors no one cares. So why penalize someone who does it open and not do anything to those who do behind closed doors? Is it fair ? No directory contest is ever going to be legitimate, never has never would be. Having users with X posts is just crap and imagine how many would not participate. It should not be even done at phplinkdirectory either. Cause not everyone is member there. Directory owners or involved with directories should not be even allowed to vote, webmasters should have the right to vote. As for sure most directory owners can be persuaded easily. Basically i have seen only those sites win that have been promoted and sites like mine www.h-log.com which never get promoted much but still gets 7K uniques per month do not stand chance against those big fishes. So to really make a contest make a contest so that new upcoming directories benefit and not some big shot. So make entry to have unique hits from 1.5K to 10K only, and no more than 10 k uniques be allowed to enter. ASk those entering to post screenshots of the stats. Cause i see no reason why jeffs aviva, forplex, malcoms directory or any other big shots directory be even in there ? Do they really need that money? NO. Its the upcoming directories that need, and those owners who spend time working on their directories, not just some random user picking up some free template and saying hey here is my entry. For real test if you want : this will sort out many unwanted and non-deserving entries. MAKE it so that only directory owners who actually built directory from scratch, with their own category structure and not some stolen dump, one who actually built their directory with their own hands, starting from coding template, adding categories, approving links be allowed to as contestants. Money can buy coders and designers, but does that mean that the owner put any efforts other than spending few bucks into their directory. Directory contest or infact any contest should be about " EFFORTS" and not about money or marketing done. And only "Best Efforts " should be awarded. People get awarded rewards for efforts be it the noble prize or be it an Olympics gold medal. As per judges you can make fellow dp members as judges. And have criteria that if not more than 200 votes are cast no winner will be declared.etc etc. Enough with my ranting. And @phoenix if u become judge i am doomed for sure
how abt NOT getting directory owners as judges?? It's inherent biasness and conflict of interests how abt getting highly regarded people in the SEO field that DON'T OWN directories as judges instead? Firstly, they will know abt directories and so can assess them, secondly, they don't have any affiliations or biasness. 1 STONE, 2 BIRDS.....
Actually it should NOT be SEO people either, but end users giving their true opinions about the usefulness and the appeal of the directories. We all know SEOs have tunnel vision.
I think I will be able to come up with some judges who I believe will give fair votes. I will be staying away from people that are extremely opinionated. There are several programmers and designers I know that don't own directories and I will be working with them, and I may work with some directory owners too.