2012 Rules and Regulations

The 2012 SA Blog Awards will be held online. The top 3 blogs in each category will be published online along with winners in each category and the overall winner.

The phased roll out will be as follows.

1.    Registration phase

1. Only bloggers residing in South Africa may register their blogs
2. Each blogger may enter into two categories
3. After the registration closes, the entries will go into a public vote phase
4. Registered bloggers, will be confirmed via email or sms.
5. Eligible and confirmed registered blogs will be sent a SA Blog Awards vote badge. This badge can then be displayed (embedded ) on their blogs indicating the request to vote.
6. The registration phase will be an online procedure.
7. The registration phase will close on 14 December 2012. 23:59.
8. No further registrations will be accepted after this time.
9. Entrants will be mailed their vote badges to embed on their blogs shortly after the registration phase is closed. These badges should be embeded prior to the public vote phase on 19 Dec 2012

2.    Public vote phase.

1. The public vote phase is open to everyone
2. Each member of the public during the vote phase may vote only once for their favourite blog.
3. Public notification and vote process publicity will happen accordingly.
4. The public may vote in more than one category.
5. The top 3 blogs in each category will move into the judge’s phase.
6. The public vote phase will run from 19 Dec 2012 until 28 Dec 2012 at 23:59

3.    Judges Vote phase

1.  The SA Blog Awards judges will judge the top 3 blogs in each of the categories.
2.  Judges will rank the 3 blogs in 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.
3. The judging phase wil commence after the public vote phase has been completed.
4.  The blog with the most 1st place positions as decided by the judges will be the winner in that category.
5.  In the event of a 1st place tie in any category the winner will be decided by most votes during the public vote phase.

4.    Overall winner.

1. The judges will choose one overall winner from the winner of each category.
2. The blog with the most votes from the judges for the overall position will be the winner of the SA Blog Awards.
3. In the event that there is a tie for the overall winner, the overall winner will be decided by most 1st place votes from the judges category vote phase.
4. In the event that there is a further tie for the overall winner, the result will be determined by looking at which blog received the most votes during the public vote phase.

5.    Announcements.

1. Category and overall winners will be announced online on the SA Blog Awards website on 31 December 2012.

6.    Prizes.

1. Category winners and overall winners will receive a badge which they may embed on their blog showcasing their winner or runner up status.

7.   Summary.

1. Each category will end with the top 3 bloggers in SA
2. The overall winner will be determined from the winners of each category

Rules and regulations.

1. All registrations must provide full contact details. ( These details are strictly confidential ).
2. Should any details required not be provided in full, the SA Blog Awards may discard the entry.
3. Blog names may have any name, but the blog must be registered to a contactable human.
4. All blogs must have a verifiable URL.
5. All registrations in the top 3 in each category must be confirmed before going to the judging phase.
6. Any unconfirmed registration will be discarded.
7. All bloggers must be contactable in South Africa.
8. In the event that a blog falls out of the top 3, then the fourth place blog from the public vote phase will be moved up to the 3rd place.
9. No blogs will be accepted which contravene the constitution of South Africa. This includes blogs which contain sexually explicit material, condones violence or religious discrimination.
10. The above rules and regulations will be determined by the management of the SA Blog Awards. Any contravention of the above rules and regulations may result in the immediate removal of a registration or blog without consultation.
11. The judges and SA Blog Awards decision will be final.
12. No sponsors or organisers are eligible to enter any blogs.
13. Any votes or registrations made outside of the allocated time frames will be discarded.