Wampum

[Eric, channeling for Dwight and MB, updates and writes] I will open the floor for nominations for the 2009 Koufax Awards towards the end of January. Because lefty blogtopia (hi skippy) has grown so much in the last couple of years, and it has been several years since we held the Koufax Awards, I thought it might be useful to post answers to some Frequently Asked Questions before the nominations open.

1) What are the Koufax Awards?

The Koufax Awards are held annually to honor the best of left-leaning bloggers. A "Sandy" will be awarded based on reader votes in each of a number of categories. It is like the Oscars for lefty bloggers, except that we do not allow overly long, overly sentimental speeches by the winners. For those, you have to visit the sites of the winners. This is the fifth year of the awards. That makes us venerable when measured in blog years. You can locate previous winners by clicking on the links located on the left hand (of course) side bar.

2) Why are they called the "Koufax Awards?"

Way back in 2002, when Dwight was first considering starting the awards, he was struggling to think up a name. Since Sandy Koufax was the best left-handed pitcher of his lifetime, and one of his childhood heroes (and mine, after all, he played for the Dodgers) and since the awards are for lefties, the name just seemed like a natural.

3) What do the winners win?

A $250,000.00 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Founda... No, that is not right. The winners receive only the recognition and gratitude of their peers and readers. We also provide a spiffy icon (designed by Kevin Hayden who, by the way, ran, and we hope runs in the future, the excellent Perranoski Prizes over at American Street. Ron Perranoski was Sandy Koufax's relief pitcher in the 1960's and, as you might expect from that fact, the Prizes are complementary to the Koufax Awards. We encourage you to participate in them, as well) to post on the winner's site. Some people have told us that the exposure their blog received during the Koufax Awards substantially increased their traffic but your experience may vary. No promises.

4) What is the purpose of the Awards?

There are three purposes of the Koufax Awards. First, as Dwight wrote in 2004:

At its core, the Koufax Awards are meant to be an opportunity to say nice things about your favorite bloggers and to provide a bit of recognition for the folks who provide us with information, insight, and entertainment usually for little or no renumeration. The awards are supposed to be fun for us and fun for you.

The most important purpose of the awards is to help build a sense of community between and among lefty bloggers and readers of lefty blogs. The awards provide an opportunity to say something nice about bloggers you like and to have something nice said about you. Please try not to take the idea of winning and losing too seriously. The primary rules of the contest are be nice and have fun.

While we will note the procedures of the awards in some detail below, the rules of "be nice and have fun" have seen us through three years of the awards. Things that are nice and are fun are encouraged while actions that violate those rules not allowed. Thus, it is completely appropriate to leave a comment extolling the virtue of your favorite blog. A comment trashing a blog you dislike is not nice and it is not fun for us or for the recipient of the abuse. Take that as fair warning. Comments that cut against the purposes of the awards will be dealt with ruthlessly. If you have to say something that is not nice, use private email, not a public comment.

5) What are the categories this year?

The categories evolve with our experience running the awards. We have not finalized the list for this year and this is your opportunity to help us decide.

For a good idea of the categories, click on the 2004 finalists on the left sidebar. This year's list will be similar:

Best Blog – Non-Sponsored Division, Best Blog – Pro Division, Best Writing, Best Post, Best Series, Best Group Blog, Most Humorous Blog, Most Humorous Post, Best Expert Blog, Best Single Issue Blog, Best New Blog, Most Deserving of Wider Recognition, Best Commenter, Best Community Blog & Best Locality Blog.

6) What are the procedures for the awards?

The Koufax Awards have three stages. Sometime towards the end of January, we will post a list of the categories and open the floor for nominations. Nominations are made by leaving a comment or by sending us an email. No specific form is necessary, but we do ask that you include the name of the blog (or post), the category for which it is nominated and a url to the blog (or post). You are welcome, even encouraged, to self-nominate, particularly for the categories for individual posts or series. After all, you know your work better than anyone else. You may nominate as many blogs as you wish in as many categories as you wish and you may make your nominations at one time or on multiple visits. If someone sends us a complete list of thousands of lefty blogs, I may decide to ignore it but that hasn't happened yet. Every blog mentioned in any nominating comment or email will receive a link when we post the full list of nominees.

After that full list of nominees is posted, we will ask for votes from that list to determine a group of 8-10 finalists in each category. The list of finalists will be determined by a count of the votes. We look for natural break points in the voting pattern to determine the number of finalists to include.

When voting (as opposed to nominating) starts, we ask that each person cast exactly one vote in each category. In a prior year there was some effort to game the system by multiple voting by persons or robots. That does not work. Eric is in charge of voting security and he is very smart, very diligent, is armed with good technology, and has forgotten more about how the internet works that you or I will ever know. If Eric thinks something looks fishy, we will all look at it. Efforts to game the system not only will be ineffective but if they piss us off sufficiently, they risk public humiliation for the perpetrator. Don't do it.

After we generate our list of 8-10 finalists in each category, we will ask for votes for a winner. The winners are determined by a manual count of the votes. Once again, one vote per person per category please. Because we tabulate the votes manually, and as a result of the exponential growth of the Koufax Awards, it is a huge amount of work to organize and tabulate the votes. If we allow multiple voting, we would have to go to a machine count. After Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004 we do not think that is such a good idea.

After we tabulate the votes, we will announce the winners. It will take a few months to complete the process.

Please, please, please take the awards in the spirit in which they are offered. The Koufax Awards are supposed to be fun for you and for us. It takes an enormous amount of work (and money) for us to host the awards. If they are not fun, we have little reason to do so. Winning and losing is secondary to heaping praise upon your favorites and building the community. BE NICE.

7) Are the Koufax Awards the most prestigious of blogging awards?

Who cares? We do this for fun and to give back to the lefty blogging community. It is not a competition between the Koufax Awards and other awards. Spread the kudos, be nice, and everyone will be happier. We wish other awards nothing but the best. That said, let me take this opportunity to again plug recall the Perranoski Prizes hosted by Kevin Hayden at the American Street. They are were complimentary to the Koufax Awards (in that the categories do not overlap and the existence of the Prizes allows allowed us to keep the number of categories to a manageable number). In addition, Kevin does did a great job hosting the Prizes and offers offered them in the same spirit caused me Dwight to start the Koufax Awards. Please support the Perranoski Prizes.

8) What can you do to help?

Three things. First, please particpate. Second, when nominating a blog, a post or a series, please provide a url so that we can readily find it. We have a huge number of url's to hunt down and it really helps if you provide them. That is particularly true in the categories of "Best Post", "Most Humorous Post" and "Best Series." Third, when we put one up, around Valentine's Day, if you can afford it, please hit our tip jar. It costs us a lot, mostly in eyestrain, to host these awards and every little bit helps validate and compensate the hard working worker bees. Thank you in advance.

We hope to see you in three weeks, after Eric gets back from Washington and Geneva, when we open up the nominating process. Until then, please leave suggestions for categories in comments, and round up the usual suspects ... er ... um ... spread the word.

Originally posted by Dwight Meredith on December 10, 2005, updated by Eric Brunner-Williams on December 31st, 2009.