Over the past year the South African population of opinionated weblogs has notably exploded. It was therefore high time to recognise and reward dedicated webmasters for having shared their thoughts, talents and entertaining a whole herd of bored South African office workers.

In this year’s awards, a "weblog" is a page with dated entries. The contest is open to any weblogs that are written by South Africans living in SA or abroad. The blogs must have existed for a period of time during the year 2004, so weblogs that were discontinued during 2004 are also eligible.

Blogs can compete for the top honours in the following catagories:


Best overall South African blog - The best of the best from SA

Best post on a South African blog - The one post which took game for 2004

Best overseas South African blog - Written by a South African in any foreign country

Best writing of a South African blog - Humour, attention to detail…captivating

Best SA political blog - The best SA blog featuring mainly a political theme.

Best SA photographic blog - The best SA blog featuring original photographic content.

Best new blog - Best blog which was started during the year of 2004

Best SA food blog - The best blog written mainly about food or drink

Best SA sports blog - Best blog covering some type of sporting subject.

Best SA Tech blog - Best South African technology focussed weblog

Best SA Environmental blog - Best tree hugging, love nature-type vibe blog

Best SA lifestyle blog - Best blog of lifestyle type content

Best design for a blog - Best overall design and layout of a weblog page.

Nomination rules:

Only one nomination form may be submitted per person. E-mail addresses are required for this reason, and you must use your own address. If you resubmit a ballot, your old one will be erased.

In the nomination phase: URLs are required. The maximum number of weblogs you may nominate for a category is three for most categories and four for Best overall South African blog. 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.

Only the top ten nominated blogs for each catagory will go through to the final voting stage.

Nominations are now officially open and will close Friday 11 February. Please send your nominations to:

sablogawards@gmail.com

These rules may change at any time, but they probably won’t.

What about prizes?

Apart from the honour of being the best, the winner of the Best overall South African blog will win a purse of 2005 South African cents (R20.05).

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 awards ceremony, 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 event, mail it to the winner, or send an online gift certificate or cash to the winner. Prizes that are more creative than the R20.05 are encouraged.

Send an e-mail to get your prize added. Sorry, "to be announced" prizes to reserve categories won’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.

Let the nominating begin…