Webby Awards Downsized To Virtual Event

minesweeper writes "In another sign of the times, this article in the SF Chronicle says that the seventh annual Webby Awards, typically a flamboyant affair held in San Francisco, has been reduced to a virtual event this year. Many of the nominees couldn't make it to the event scheduled for June 5 due to the downturn in the economy and fears of traveling."

Just as...

[Glock27]

many web related positions have become "virtual jobs".

Personally, I'm ready for another "bubble".

Re:Just as...

[JThaddeus]

Yep, it tells us a lot about the market. See Gene Weingarten's [washingtonpost.com] method of market analysis. Good as any, I guess...

Re:what's next?

[minus_273]

look at the current poll (MPAA /RIAA verdict) and tell me if you see his name there

hrm...

[xao gypsie]

sad, but not as sad as the 'Clippy' awards were last month....

xao

Traveling to San Fran.

[$$$$$exyGal]

A significant number of nominees said that for a variety of reasons they were reluctant to travel to San Francisco.

They are probably afraid to travel to San Francisco, or anywhere else for that matter. If they leave the office for more than a day or so, many of them are probably afraid they'll be replaced.

Re:Traveling to San Fran.

[SN74S181]

Worse yet, nobody will notice they were gone, but someone important will notice that nobody noticed they were gone.

Re:Traveling to San Fran.

[obotics]

Or they could get SARS while they are out and about...

Re:Traveling to San Fran.

[inertia187]

...many of them are probably afraid they'll be replaced.

Yes, replaced with a very small shell script.

Re:Traveling to San Fran.

[UnknownQ]

Ahah! They can't fire the guy who writes the shell scripts! That's why I'm going to be a sysadmin.

Re:Traveling to San Fran.

[Temporal]

for STORY; do
POST=no

#(CT) removed to increase efficiency
#rtfa $STORY
#ispell $STORY
if grep "Linux\|DMCA\|Microsoft\|Star Wars" $STORY; then
POST=yes
fi

if grep $STORY $PREVIOUS_STORIES; then
POST=noo
fi

if [ $POST != no ]; then
post $STORY
fi
done

Re:Traveling to San Fran.

[IIRCAFAIKIANAL]

POST=noo

Now that was funny! :)

Re:Traveling to San Fran.

[wljones]

I am retired, and do not fear job loss, or loss of pension. SARS incidence is so low as to be random noise. War was not a reason to fear flying even during the campaign. The US Government operated and airline approved Passenger Harassment System at airports means the airlines and airports can crumble into dust before your eyes. If it cannot be reached by surface transport, it will not be considered for a visit.

Re:Traveling to San Fran.

[Anonymous Coward]

Speaking as a gay person who lives in San Francisco, fuck me!

This should have been done a long time ago

[HughJampton]

Does it not make sense to have web awards presented on the web?

Re:This should have been done a long time ago

[Savatte]

The oscars are broadcast on television.

Re:This should have been done a long time ago

[yintercept]

It seems to me that there needs to be a few events that involve physical people meeting other physical people. Having just another a cyber event de-emphasizes any human aspect of the net.

Nah

[kaden]

It's just Karma for their years of refusal to follow their own polls and give Fark [fark.com] an award or even a nomination, even though it always had way more votes than any of the other silly 'community' sites they list which you've never heard of.

Re:Nah

[jark]

agreed. the webby awards have always been, and will continue to be, a joke. their self-proclaimed academy seems to be more out of touch than anything. many sites have gone unnoticed for whatever reason so it is good to see that the webby awards are starting to go unnoticed as well.

Re:Nah

[Neophytus]

The golden web awards [goldenwebawards.com] are even more of a joke - they will give their award to any website of any quality. A quick google gives one small thread about them [greater-pe...ough.co.uk]. Isnt it ironic that a scam website [wa.edu.au] has one too

But what am I gonna wear?

[13palindrome37]

At least I don't have to get my astronaut suit dry cleaned. That's starting to get expensive.

People are *STILL* afraid to travel?

[realdpk]

Holy cow. These people need therapy!

Re:People are *STILL* afraid to travel?

[Hooya]

well, ya. considering the times.. it's not the terrorist factor anymore. it's the "i'm gonna be fired.. and replaced.. if i don't show up at work" fear factor.

Re:People are *STILL* afraid to travel?

[sirinek]

No doubt. Why not just seal yourself up in your house with ducttape and plastic sheeting.

Christ, some people need help.

Re:People are *STILL* afraid to travel?

[IvyMike]

I don't think it's 9/11. I think people are afraid because of the SARS, and the possibility of being stuck in a confined space with an infected person.

(Not that I am afraid; I'm just saying that's what I think the problem is.)

Re:People are *STILL* afraid to travel?

[Garg]

the WHO has only quarantined Canada and China, there's no advisory about the USA.

And that's just Roger Daltrey and John Entwistle, Pete Townshens is still undecided.

Garg

Hehe

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait after the day when cyberterrorists do a major cyber attack, you'll read:

"Webby Awards, typically a virtual event, has been reduced to a flamboyant affair held in San Francisco. Many of the nominees couldn't make it to the virtual event scheduled for June 5 due to fears of using the Internet."

Re:Hehe

[-Rainer38-]

But they'll still have their chance to scream their opnions on the war....

Re:Hehe

[gl4ss]

nah, it goes like this: because of outbreak of newest ms.server DOSsing worm, the whole internet was reduced to 20byte/s stream of information, making everyone unable to attend to the virtual webby event. dial-up lines were hastly put into place for desperate nominees to connect with.

hmmm

[Anonymous Coward]

"A significant number of nominees said that for a variety of reasons they were reluctant to travel to San Francisco,"

Would this have anything to do with a previous bad experience in the Blue Oyster bar ???

Thats f**ked

[kingkade]

...fears of traveling.

What are we, a country of pansies all of a sudden? I see people traveling everyday without even thinking of "ooohh, the terrorists are out to get us, aahhhh....". Statements like this make it seem we're all holed up in our basements with a shotgun and stock of canned ham waiting for the end. These geeks just don't wanna leave their computers for some fruity webby awards. Sounds cool to me though.

Whew, sorry. Rant-a-licious! Moderate this OT, pronto!

Actually

[Unknown Poltroon]

Its a .45 and a stock of chili. I hate ham.

Re:Thats f**ked

[stefanlasiewski]

Hey hey now, "You're either with the Webbies, or your with the Terrorists"...

or wait, maybe it's "You're either with the Webbies, or you're with SARS"...

Or... let's try this: "You're either with the Webbies or your employeer still has a budget left"...

Oh, I get it, it's: "You're NOT with the Webbies, but at least you're not with the urine stained streets and overpriced hotels in San Francisco..."

(speaking as a San Franciscan. Actually, with all of the recent rain, it's not too bad right now.)

Re:Thats f**ked

[istartedi]

What's really funny is that I bet those people are driving other places. Driving kills as many people every other year as the Vietnam war. IIRC, that's down from a Vietnam *every* year, mostly due to greater awareness of drunk driving and some demographic shifts. Fewer under-25 drivers are on the road, and all drivers are less drunk. Just half a Vietnam. Not so bad. :)

Look on the bright side...

[TopShelf]

At least it didn't get outsourced to India!

Re:Look on the bright side...

[Tablizer]

Indeed. If they really wanted the shrinking event to reflect the current state of IT, then they should have held it in India.

Re:Look on the bright side...

[stefanlasiewski]

Hey, if it's virtual, maybe it IS in India.

I've see two related trends in the dotcom world recently:

1) Fire your entire development staff, outsource to some consulting company overseas.

2) Whoops, that overseas consulting company is doing a really poor job. Bad code, site crashing. It wasn't as easy as the PHB thought. Hire some temporary staff to administrate and coordinate the actions of the overseas company from the local office.

The Webbys are stupid!

[andrewski]

The Webbys are about the dumbest thing I have ever heard of anyway. I unfortunately caught about 15 minutes of 'em last year and my brain still hurts.

Re:The Webbys are stupid!

[Wonderkid]

Indeed they are. Any 'competition' that requests money from the contestents is corrupt by its nature and likely to draw only those who can afford to enter. Like many such awards, it is all about who you know and that magic inner circle. The term pretentious comes to mind too.

Atmosphere

[rf0]

Half the fun of award ceromonies is that atmosphere. Its not fun just having to watch a webpage or streaming video. Where will be the outrages acceptance speeches and they obvious learning over the female's?

rus

Let's have it at my house

[graveyhead]

"Hey Apu, give me a keg of beer and a sixpack to hold me over until I crack the keg." :)

This is making me slightly sad and reminiscent of all the lovely dot-com partying of 1999/2000. I remember the first JavaOne here in SF. They threw an awesome party on the waterfront with large inflatable rides and lots of booze!

Oh well, it sure was fun while it lasted!

Re:Let's have it at my house

[SN74S181]

All that pissing away of money wasn't just a feature of the dot.com boom and it's subsequent bust. It was also a significant factor in the bust.

I'm sorry. The salesmen had taken over, and their budgeting skills are meagre, at best.

Re:Let's have it at my house

[ArmyOfFun]

Your post reminded me of this onion article [theonion.com].

Re:Let's have it at my house [MOD PARENT UP]

[graveyhead]

If it's not too late.

Good call, that was funny :)

Heh

[mao che minh]

"... Webby Awards, typically a flamboyant affair held in San Francisco...."

You don't say....

*ducks*

Re:Heh

[graveyhead]

Actually...

SF is a great place for single, straight guys. There is an overabundance of beautiful women who have no dates because such a large percent of the population is gay.

Besides, if you REALLY want to see a flamboyant SF affair, come visit Castro street here on Halloween. It's like a college Halloween party, except bigger :)

Re:Heh

[sfjoe]

Besides, if you REALLY want to see a flamboyant SF affair, come visit Castro street here on Halloween. It's like a college Halloween party, except bigger :)

Crap, that's depressing. All of San Francisco's queer culture has been reduced to comparisons to a frat party.

That sucks

[oaf357]

Between terrorism, slow economies, and SARS I guess this was bound to happen. Really is disappointing though.

No loss... a waste of time and energy

[Dr Rick]

A bunch of self-appointed digerati giving themselves awards and patting themselves on the backs. Time to get back to real work. Good riddance!

Re:No loss... a waste of time and energy

[SYFer]

Maybe true, but aside from the awards, that pretty much describes /. One digerati's trash is another digerati's treasure. The stroking is universal.

Fears Of Flying?

[Anonymous Coward]

That is such a cheap cop out...

Just be honest, tell us your broke and your prized cash cow from the boom has really turned into a sickly not so goldeny calf.

As soon as the air lines were open for business I was already onboard a plane. Hell I was hoping for some crazy bastards to try and take our flight... it would have been great beating the life out of him.

Why nobody can get there..

[fatgraham]

"due to the downturn in the economy and fears of traveling."

OMG mom, you mean you cant drive me there?

That's nothing!

[FrostedWheat]

I was going to post something on-topic for once, but unfortunately due to the downturn in the economy and fears of traveling I did not bother reading the article.

Very sorry.

Oh, come on...

[troworld]

I don't think it's Webby's fault at all. They're a good organization. It's just the people who are afraid to travel.

It's sad nevertheless...

Re:Oh, come on...

[cenobita]

Yeah, nothing like an organization that gives awards to people like Peter Pan [pixyland.org]. Sounds like something I definitely want to support.

I say good riddance. The sooner crap like this is gone, the better off we'll all be. Award shows always have and will always be a complete waste of time; I hardly think the Webby Awards are a special case.

Many of the nominees couldn't make it...

[Captain Beefheart]

...Because they've probably all filed various chapters of bankruptcy over the last year.

Webby Downsized....

[ChrisHanel]

...and in another press release, Webby organizers announced the winners will only get to say 4 words now instead of 5. "I Won From Home!" "Too Bad I'm Unemployed." "San Fran sucks anyway."

Eh... if you still want this type of event,

[King_TJ]

All you have to do is run a porn site. The porn people still pat each other on the back and throw web-site award parties in California.

Nobody else can justify the expense these days.

The Real Reason for Going Virtual

[NeoMoose]

Michael Moore can't speak out on an event nobody attends.

Fear of flying? *cough* *cough*

[mattbee]

I got that very same excuse from the organisers of a certain UK-based Linux event after they'd sold us advertising based on the promise of their magazine being given away at the show. Then they moved the date of the show from mid-April to late June with no explanation offered to all the advertisers whom they'd phoned to fill space at discount rates at the last minute. No, it's not that we couldn't persuade enough exhibitors to cover our costs, it's those crazy Americans who won't get on planes, well, no,

lame excuses

[EvilStein]

heh. What, people lost their $95,000/yr "webmaster" gigs, eh?

Fear of travelling? Oh god. Using the War in Iraq and SARS as a means of covering up the fact that your event/business is a failure has become so trendy. Disgusting.

Perhaps they realized that the Webbys is about as distinguished as the "HTML Writer's Guild."

After past instances of ballot stuffing, I'm surprised anyone takes it seriously at all.

Re:You Forgot One

[Uber Banker]

This pic makes my cd drive eject... hmmm

http://www.redcoat.net/pics/cupholder.jpg

Re:You Forgot One

[Uber Banker]

Surprisingly, i never thought to look at the code... i guessed if it is *.jpq, IE will load it as a picture else return an error... guess i was wrong again... it really is a html page called *.jpg but IE interprets all and passes no judgement.

Cheers, thanks for the info.

OT...

[jawtheshark]

Tried the link with my Mac. IE shows the broken pic image, Moz just an error. I looked at the VB script that the AC posted. Uhm, I dunno...but that sounds like a rather annoying security hole for IE.
Not going to try with my Win machine, thank you very much...