(As if any confirmation were needed.) The Webby nominees were announced today and it looks like those in the "Academy" have overlooked, once again, some of the most vibrant and interesting content online. I speak, of course, of the Personal category.
One thing that was nice about last year's awards is that at least the sites in the category were personal! (even Diaryland is run by one person.) This year only two qualify: douglaspearce.com and boar.com. (I'm not including fray in my list for two reasons: 1. I think it's more-aptly categorized as "community," for which it's also received a nomination, and 2. In my mind, I picture "personal" as a singular effort. I could well be wrong on this point).
Moving on in my complaint, Blogger?! Blogger?!! Ugh. I'm happy that Blogger's been nominated, but it's not a personal site. It enables personal expression, but it's not a personal site. I know why it's there though, because the Webby's still don't have a "Web Applications" category. I'm not sure how one expects to salute "stellar…Web sites as the ultimate bookmark of the Internet for this year" without acknowledging web apps.
Even a portion of some people's sites are more worthy of being nominated. Take for example the beautiful stories written by Jeffrey Zeldman in the My Glamorous Life section of his incredible site. The content contained therein could be its own site, for Crap's sake. Zeldman.com is what I think of when I think of personal sites that deserve recognition, or the hundreds of other sites out there done by people who push themselves everyday to release beautiful things into the world.
Oh well, I don't know why I expected quality sites would receive the recognition they deserve anyway. Congratulations to the nominees!