I understand that their intentions may be well, and that there’s a lot of stuff they will probably miss, either because of the time constraints, or due to the fact that they just couldn’t find the articles (via viral, search engine, etc.)

One of the reasons I mentioned that is because there’s only 3 people reviewing each category. But the main thing that caught my eye was that “several” of the articles are written by the same people.

Along with the fact that I don’t believe awards are important (like the Oscars). It’s through the eye of the reader to judge whether the post was “good” or not, IMO.

I understand how you feel about awards. I’m not one to ever watch an awards show and can’t really tell you who wins what. I still think they’re a nice way for a person or group to honor others.

As for the judges in the SEMMYS, none are allowed to judge a category where they have a post nominated. They’re also only narrowing down the full list of nominations to a more manageable one for public voting. I think it’s also hard to find completely unbiased people in any industry. Matt knows a lot of people, but he doesn’t know everyone.

Maybe it would have been better to have not nominated posts by any of the judges, but at the same time many of the judges have written some of the best posts. Based on the posts I’ve read I’d say that in some categories the best post was written by one of the judges from another category.

I think we should also take into account this is the first time for this set of awards. Give Matt a chance to see how the first SEMMYS play out so he can make changes for next year. I can’t say I know Matt very well, but I know him well enough to know he’s an honest person and is doing this to give attention to some people who might not always get it.

Can it be manipulated? Sure. Everything can be manipulated. Is it all that important if an award gets manipulated? Not really. In the end it’s just the opinion of one or more people and I think most people will realize that.

But with all of the above I do know how you feel about awards in general. The voting is subjective and they shouldn’t be taken as the final word on what is or isn’t best. They can point people to some things that might have been missed. Does winning an award mean the post is really the best one? Of course not. But I do think all the winners will be good posts and be worth reading.

I’d agree that no award system is perfect. Anything that’s based on human judging has a lot of failing built into it. However, I don’t think the point of any is to be the voice on what’s good. It’s just a way for someone to call attention to some things they think are worth calling attention to.

Matt’s a good guy and readily admits he can only read so many blogs. He’d be the first to tell you he missed a lot of good articles along the way. I think he’s done what he can to make this as fair as possible, but in the end it’s just a nice way to say thanks to a few people.

@Kristine – Thanks. It is pretty cool to be nominated for something.

Congratulations Anyway Steven

I was thinking of giving Isaac Mizrahi a call and having him whip me up something special for the event. I’m practicing my red-carpet walk too.