This is intended to clarify the criteria and the attitude it represents for those who might not understand what CoolSTOP's all about.

There are so many so-called award sites giving out easy to win awards that the motivation to collect awards often overrides a webmaster's motivation to understand what it takes to win a meaningful award (and there's relatively few of those around).  My logs tell me that many people visit CoolSTOP simply to submit their site and spend no time checking out previous winners' sites.  People who build great websites spend a lot of time looking at other great websites and very little time trying to see how many awards they can accumulate.  The meaningful awards always find them.

The CoolSTOP criteria considers a number of factors, including the following elements:

  • graphic design - balanced layout and presentation, effective use of color and images, and creative originality which visually engage the viewer
  • unique content - whether intended to be useful and/or entertaining in some way - original and substantial content is the backbone of any great website
  • navigability - must be able to easily get around the site without the browser's back button
  • compatibility - if the viewer has to have your brand of browser and use the same resolution as you do to enjoy your site, it will definitely not be enjoyable to many
  • error-free coding - javascript errors, bad links, and causing browser crashes are big negatives
There's more to it than the few elements I've mentioned, but in a nutshell, the Best of the Cool award is very much geared towards great graphic design and personal creativity.  Although the Internet is largely commercial, commercial site submissions are not accepted - they are simply deleted.  Our mission has more to do with art and design, originality, and personal expression. The Best of the Cool is not about advertising or promotion - it's about meaningful recognition of great creative websites.

This discussion would be incomplete if I didn't rant about a few things I think are not so cool:

  • blinking text - absolutely annoying
  • popup banner ads - you may have to invest $10 or $20 per month for webspace or find a free web page provider which doesn't use such gimmicks if you want to be credible - this blatant method of advertising is invasive and distracting, especially when the popup contains no site-relevant content or re-opens with every new page loaded
  • under construction sites - although all websites are works in progress, including links to unfinished pages is a waste of your visitors' time
  • boilerplate ("clone") pages - so the MLM opps company gave you a free web page - get a life!
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