The Nominations Phase - Sat, Jun 2, 21:00 to Tue, Jun 5, 21:00

ALL ISSUES NOW BEING DISCUSSED IN TOP POST

Nominations e-mailed to: jameshighamatmaildotcom

UPDATE 06:29, London time: first nominations are already in from people going away for the weekend, based on the 20 categories in the last post. Therefore, those categories now stand and the question, until 21:00 this evening, is if we add to them or not.

This Saturday evening we come to the critical phase, ladies and gentlemen, the phase which will separate the Blogpower Awards from all the others. Not yet - this evening!

We came into being as Blogpower precisely because we were sick to death of major bloggers swamping awards ceremonies, where the nominations for those awards were slanted and anything but transparent.

Not this time! Every day until Tuesday evening, at 21:00, London time, a revised 'state-of-play' will be posted on how people are thinking about the nominations in each category.

Comments will not be be left open on the post where these nominations are listed because all nominations must be by e-mail.

Eligibility and how the final cut is made

1] The nominated person must be a writer with a recognized blog or column.

2] You may nominate yourself once for a particular category but spurious self-nomination e.g. James for American Blogger, will be thrown out and a list kept of those thus thrown out and on what grounds:

a. This list will be posted on Blogpower during the Voting Phase, under the header Nominations Rejected and Why, with comments on.

b. It is quite possible to have someone added to the Freepoll whilst voting is actually underway, if an overwhelming number of people, [at least 10], comment thus and reject my reasons for calling the nomination in question 'spurious' and for not including it. This will be transparent in that it will be only discussed through the comments section, certainly not by e-mail.

c. Please bear in mind that I cannot enter this discussion between 21:00 and 05:00, London time, on any day, nor between 09:00 and 17:00, as that is my day job working day.

3] On Sunday, June 3rd, a separate post will appear at Blogpower for each category and the number of nominations each person has received so far in those categories.

a. This same post will be modified during the day and over the next two days so that at any time you can see a running tally - it changes before your eyes.

b. I hereby ask that other bloggers with access rights to the Blogpower blog not post during the Nominations Phase - otherwise it will split these category posts and distract from the issue and I further beseech them not to touch the tallies within the category posts.

c. If you are not happy about who's there or feel someone should be but is not, e-mail James to that effect and if two or more people e-mail that concern, it shall be looked into and put to the members in a separate post on Questions Arising during the Nominations Phase. That post will have comments open.

d. The final cut will be the 10 nominees who garnered the most nominations in that particular category:

[i] Categories are treated completely separately, whether or not the same name appears multiple times. There is no 'weighting' or 'even-ing up' across categories. It is simply those with the most nominations within each separate category.

[ii] If there is a problem at the cut, perhaps of three people on the same number or a huge number of single nominations, this situation in this category will be communicated to you in the comments section of the post Questions Arising during the Nominations Phase.

[iii] If it comes down to including a single nomination and one is a self-nomination and the other from a second party, the second party will prevail.

4] Those I nominate myself:

a. This rule applies only to me, the organizer.

b. I myself will nominate no more than three separate people in any category [once only, of course] and though I won't clutter up the posts with whom I personally nominated, I shall gladly answer your e-mails, should you wish to know this.

c. I shall hold back on nominating until the latter stages of the nominations phase and will use my nomination, quite politically, for any worthy blogger [in my opinion] left off the list who should be there. These are my own personal tactics.

d. This does not mean I can directly put someone I like onto the final list. I have no right to do this. I simply mean I'll add my one vote before the final cut. Such a person would still need to garner a large number of nominations to make the final cut.

e. In a category where I am personally nominated [should there be any], I shall still nominate myself once, in the way politicians cast one vote only for themselves.

f. I take full responsibility for anything non-financial occurring during the time of and arising from these Awards, from the initial invitation to nominate categories, up to the final taking down of the Freepolls - but no further.

g. I take no financial responsibility in any shape or form whatsoever and assert that the question of money does not arise during these awards in any shape or form.

How to nominate someone

1] Copy and paste the number of the category and its name directly from the appropriate post header into your e-mail message.

2] There are no restrictions on how many categories you nominate for, how many people you nominate and how often. The only restriction is that once you have nominated someone for a particular category, you may not nominate that person again within that category.

3] Nominate the person by name [if possible] then by blog name or column.

4] Please don't include extraneous words in the e-mail as I have to wade through this to get to your nomination. It's not necessary that you justify your nomination - just nominate!

5] Send this e-mail to: jameshighamatmaildotcom .

6] If you have no e-mail or wish to not reveal it, then create an e-mail just for this time at some freehost like MSN or Maildotcom or Googlemail.