The rules and procedures for the 2011 SA Blog Awards are under revue and will be announced formally upon completion. Should you wish to get a basic understanding of the rules which were applied within 2010 feel free to have a look below.

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The 2010 SA Blog Awards Rules

At the SA Blog Awards we are aware of the fact that the blogging industry is new and and as such is constantly evolving. The 2010 rules have were essentially the same as in previous years, but with a few additions, such as the 24hr vote system. We also provided judges with blog links and criteria to assist them during the judging process.

Additionally we appointed an executive judging panel to select the overall winner, which was chosen from the winner of each category.

Our challenge now is to format a rules and criteria process for future awards. These are currently under review and will be formatted only after this is complete.
Here are some of the matters under consideration.

• All blogs to pre-register
• Is the more frequent vote system appropriate ( in 2010 we implemented a 24hr system and even though very successfull on some levels, there were concerns)
• Blog eligibility
• Category selection. Should bloggers be asked to identify only one category they feel they fit into.
• The judging process.

There are several other rules considerations and these will be looked at in due course.
We hope that all participants will support this review process and trust that we will eventually find a format that suits the greater majority of bloggers, readers, judges and organisers.

We trust that be going through this process we will continue to build the reputationa nd credibility of the SA Blog Awards.

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The following are the rules from 2010.

Basic guidelines and definitions

• A "blog" is defined as a web page with dated entries commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order.
• Only blogs written within the Republic of South Africa and / or blogs written by South African citizens living abroad are eligible to be considered for the awards.
• The contest is open to any blogs that existed for a period of time during the year 2009/2010, so weblogs that were discontinued during 2009 are also eligible.
• Only one registration for nomination form may be submitted per person.
• Registration must contain valid and verifiable details.
• E-mail addresses are required to register, nominate and vote.
• You must use your own address and confirm the validation e-mail.
• If you attempt to submit a second ballot, your first one will be replaced.
• Judges and Organizer's blogs are not eligible for the awards
• Any invalid details could nullify a registration.

How it's going to work?

• The awards are split into three separate stages
• Nomination registration phase
• Public voting phase
• Judging phase
• The overall winner will be decided from each of the categories.
• This final decision will lie in the hands of the Judges.

Nominations registration phase

• Registration or nominations from the general public will be open from 1st August 2010 to 27th August 2010. This is known as the ‘ Nomination phase”.
• Bloggers will be able to copy custom html code badges for nominations that will pre-select the blogs relevant 3 nominated categories on the SA Blog Awards site when clicked on by users.
• URLs are required.
• Nominees have to fit the category they are placed in.
• Nominees are only eligible for two categories. ( Excluding SA Blog of the year )
• After the nomination phase the nominees which have been nominated into more than one category will be asked to choose the two categories they would like to compete in.
• After 27th August 2010 public nomination votes will be counted and the top 10 blogs in each category with the most nominations will go through to the final voting stage. ( These are the nominees )
• Nominations from the public may not be edited, this means that if a voter nominates a second time, it will replace their original nomination.

Voting phase ( vote for the best of the top ten nominees )

• Final voting for the top ten nominees will be open to the public from the 1st September 2010 till midnight 17th September 2010.
• Each voter will be able to vote once every 24hrs, per unique email adddress if they so choose
• Voters will be asked to review the ten blogs per category in the finals and vote for their favourite blog in each.

How does the judging work and winners decided?

• Each judge is sent a scoring sheet to judge the blogging finalists within each category.
• Judges are each assigned categories to judge.
• Their vote during the voting phase will count 30% of the finalist weighting (the public's will count 70%) so the number of public nominations still matter, however judges could sway a close public vote.
• To assist the judges we have advised asked to consider factors such as
  • Design
  • Content Quality
  • Reader Engagement
  • Relevance to the category
  • Overall Expereience

Final winner determination

• Once we have determined the category winners, our Executive Judging panel will be asked to vote for their overall winner from the winners of each category.

Disclaimer

• By entering the SA Blog Awards it is understood that The SA Blog Awards cannot be held liable for any actions or outcomes of the awards. The SA Blog Awards is merely a method of ranking and assisting bloggers and is recognised as an informal social process. The SA Blog Awards is in no way connected nor has any influence on the writings or posts in any format of the bloggers who have registered. And as such the SA Blog Awards cannot be held liable for the actions of the nominated or registered bloggers. It is also recognised that due to the nature of the blogging and the fact the process is a social process which plays itself out in a public space the SA Blogger awards has no involvement in the public voting process. Furthermore it is understood that the process of the blog awards is still evolving and that the rules and format of the awards in its current form can change in order to facilitate the processes.