Changes for BWA 2008

Hello everyone! We're finally back in the swing of things in terms of getting this year's Awards going. We do have a couple of small changes for this year that everyone should be aware of before nominations begin:

1. We have a new category: Best Style and Fashion Blog. This replaces the Best Niche Blog category. Last year, we had a lot of issues concerning what was considered a "niche" blog, and we also had a lot of people who felt we should have a style/fashion/beauty category, so we decided to include that. Next year, we may include the niche category again, but I've also gotten a lot of feedback concerning the number of categories we have available, and many feel that 30 is enough. We don't want to go any less that that (we would probably leave more people out that way), but any more and we'll start to see fragmentation throughout our categories in terms of nomination distribution.


2. The Black Blogger Achievement Award will be changing names. The award itself will be the same, but the name will be changed for two reasons: 1) a lot of people seemed to be confused by the name of the award, even when outlining what it means and the criteria necessary to be considered, and 2) we are going to name it after a very prolific Black blogger. Which brings us to the third change:


3. The Black Blogger Achievement Award will now be known as the Aaron Hawkins Award. Aaron Hawkins, for those of you who may not be aware, was the dynamic and outspoken voice behind the blog Uppity Negro. Sadly, Aaron is no longer with us, but you may find out more information about him and his wonderful blog by visiting his about page. Special thanks to the Valerie Hawkins (Aaron's sister) and the Hawkins family for allowing us to honor Aaron's memory.


4. The Aaron Hawkins Award will no longer be a publicly nominated award. From here on in, this award will be appointed by the judging panel and staff of the Black Weblog Awards.


5. The Best New Blog award criteria has changed; now, it will be judged  for blogs starting on September 1, 2007 (right after last year's BWAs ended).

These changes have already been made on the Black Weblog Awards website. Questions?

Comments

[Fave]

I was going to suggest Aaron when I first started reading about the Achievement Award, but I see you beat me to it ;) He was a great person and blogger who inspired me to start and keep blogging. . . which subsequently led to my creating a podcast.

Looking forward to what this year brings...