Disqualifications
By starting with our Disqualifications we are not trying to be negative or discouraging, but rather to let prospective applicants know right away what aspects will automatically disqualify a site.
A link is provided for detailed explanation for many of the Disqualifications. The purpose of these explanations are for those applicants new to Award Programs and may not understand the reasoning behind a certain Disqualification. Just click on "More" to view explanation and click on "Less" to close.
As outlined on our Process page, one of our first visits to your site will be to check for Disqualifying items. If there are no disqualifications on your site, the evaluation will continue and the criteria and deductions would then apply for the rest of the review process.
As long as there are no Disqualifications on your site, the evaluation will continue. If a Disqualification is found during our initial visit, we will notify you that your site has been disqualified. In that way, you will know early on in the evaluation process whether or not the evaluation is going to continue. Additionally, we will provide you with an explanation as to why the evaluation of your site will cease due to that Disqualification. At that time, and only if you choose, (absolutely no pressure from us), you can fix the Disqualification item(s) and reapply for an Award once the appropriate waiting period has elapsed for re-application.
Applications that are submitted by anyone other than the site owner or webmaster/mistress (whoever is in control of the content and maintenance of the site).
In case a site is granted an award, we would need the site owner or the person that controls the content of the site to give us permission to post the site information including URL on our winners list. It is just easier for all concerned that applicants are the owners of the web site.
Forced downloads of programs.
Forcing someone to download a program in order to view your site is rude. Arguably, having documents on your site that are in .pdf format and requires Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it can be considered "forcing a person to download a program". Therefore, you should always have an alternative "text" file for such documents.
Applicant is younger than 18 years of age.
As we live in the United States, our site complies with C.O.P.P.A. which (in part) requires that information cannot be collected or maintained on persons under the age of 14. However, since our base site, Pelaqita Persians, sometimes sells kittens, and the age that a person can legally enter into a contract is 18, we feel that all applicants for our award should be the legal age of majority in the United States.
We recognize that many sites are maintained on servers outside the United States and therefore, are not subject to COPPA.
Additionally, we recognize that many sites are made and maintained by incredibly gifted people who are under the age of 18. That being said, it is still our policy not to evaluate sites submitted by applicants that are not 18 years of age or older.
Sites that contain or promote violence or abuse towards people or animals.
We have worked very hard to receive a safe site designations from Safe Surf Rated, ICRA checked, and Family Safe Site. Therefore, we will not evaluate any site that is not suitable for viewing by all age groups. We also will not evaluate any site that links to sites that are not family safe.
Sites that contain or promote hate, racism, discrimination, violence towards any group or religion.
Sites that contain or promote or link to any illegal activity (i.e., robbery, drugs, warez, etc.).
Sites that contain pornography, and adult sites. We will not consider any site that contains any nudity whether artistic or not.
I do not consider myself to be a prude. However, I want my web site to be accessible to all ages. It is important to me that any parent feel comfortable that their child may come across my site and may surf this site without parental supervision and know that the content is child safe.
Sites that link to sites that contain or promote adult sites, pornography, abuse, violence or hate towards any person, group or animal.
No more than 3 adverts, advertising banners, links, rings, etc. on each page (not counting membership badges/banners, family safe or similar badges, links pages, resource pages, google or similar advertising, and such adverts that are generated by a site's free server and the site owner has no control of same). This decision is left solely to the discretion of the evaluator.
No page to display the awards that the site has won... (even if the site has not yet won any awards).
Be proud of your awards and honor those Award Programs that took their time to evaluate your site. Your site should have a page (or pages) dedicated to displaying your awards. Those award pages should have a link from your main navigation menu on every single page of your site. It is also nice to see the awards separated by ratings and in some kind of order (i.e., alphabetical).
Broken or missing internal links.
Internal links are those links which link one page of your site to another page on your site. Therefore, there is no reason an internal link should not work properly. Please check your site for working links prior to submitting it to us for evaluation.
Three (3) or more broken or missing external links (sometimes called 404 errors).
External links are those links which link a phrase, word, graphic, banner, or page of your site to another site. A good web master should always check that their external links are in proper working order and up-to-date so that their visitors are not sent to a site that is no longer there.
More than 3 missing images.
Sites not having at least 5 pages of written content (i.e., text).
The purpose of our award program is to award those sites that have quality written content and provides educational value, something that entertains us, etc. Therefore, we feel we must put more emphasis on written content rather than on design elements or pages that simply tell us something about you, pictures of your pets or kids, guest books, pages that are mainly links, etc.
Bandwidth stealing. Any site that displays an image hosted on another party's site without their permission.
Bandwidth stealing is when a site displays an image which is hosted on another party's site/server without their permission. Remember, stealing is wrong. :)
Additionally, if the site closes or removes an image you are then left with a red "x" on your page where the image used to be. Create your own graphics or get permission from the other site owner to use a graphic, and copy that image to your own computer. You can usually do this by "right clicking" on the image and then choosing the "save picture as" option. Remember: get permission to use other people's work.
Reapplication before the 90 day waiting period has elapsed.
If a site is disqualified for not adhering to our criteria, there is a 90 day waiting period before a site can reapply. The 90 days start from when the notification E-mail is sent to an applicant letting them know their application was received by this AP. Therefore, keep track of which APs you apply to and the dates.
If a site wins one of our awards, and the site owner would like an upgrade (i.e., from a bronze award to silver), they can reapply after the 90 day waiting period has elapsed. However, it is not worth reapplying if the site owner has not made any changes to the site. Substantial changes or updates should be made to the site before applying for an upgrade.
No English or English language version of site.
We only read and speak English. Therefore, can only evaluate sites that are either in English or provide an English language version.
Site crashes or freezes the evaluator(s) computer.
A good web master/mistress does not have any coding on their site that would crash or freeze someone else's computer. If an applicant's site crashes or freezes our computer, we will attempt to access the site one more time. If we experience the same outcome the site will be disqualified.
Any copyright infringement.
If a site uses someone else's work on their site, they MUST get approval from the author first. This includes quoted text from books on a site, graphics, images, photos, code, etc. While imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery this is not the case with copyright infringement. Most authors/site owners have worked hard to create their sites and their work and it is usually protected by copyright.
This Award Program reserves the right to request proof from an applicant of any work product, text, image, graphic, etc. used on an applicant's site. If this AP finds that an applicant has used someone else's work without their approval, the site will be disqualified. The applicant can either get approval for their use of the work or remove the work from their site. Once that is done, the applicant can reapply after the 90 day waiting period has elapsed.
Sites that are password protected or require membership (except in an Administration area for server access).
Password protected sites and those sites requiring some sort of membership before being able to access the site will be disqualified. We cannot evaluate a site if we cannot access it.
Exception for an Administration password is provided for server related purposes only. Nowadays many sites are written using new technology and require a password access to an admin. area, this will not automatically disqualify a site.
Four or more animations or applets per page.
Animation or applets are great to see on a site. It takes a lot of time to learn how to make them and we commend the time it takes. However, this feature can be overused and sometimes give a beautiful site a cluttered or amateurish look. Also, people that have sight problems can find the use of animation or moving text difficult on their eyes. Therefore, we have imposed a limit. If you have created many animations or applets spread them out around your site or exchange them with others every few days to show off new ones.
If there are 4 or more animations or applets on a single page, the site will be disqualified. This includes your work and any animated link banners that appear on your site due to a link exchange. Exception: links page(s).
Application contains the incorrect E-mail address or URL of applicant.
If the applicant puts the wrong or incorrect E-mail address or URL on the application form, obviously we will not be able to contact the applicant or view the site in order to evaluate it. Please check your application for correct information. If the site is disqualified, the site may reapply after the 90 day waiting period.
Sites that are only forums, chat rooms, or blogs.
We like to see sites that offer content (text - i.e., written word) and are educational in nature. Therefore, sites that are primarily blogs, forums or chat rooms will not meet the criteria for our award. Additionally, more often than not, these types of sites contain subject matter that we would not consider family safe, nor could these types of sites usually be considered to be educational in nature.
If the site disables evaluator(s) right mouse click.
In order to evaluate a site's ALT tags, META tags, and title tags, we must be able to view the source code. Trying to stop someone from copying your content or images by disabling a viewer's right mouse click doesn't work -- for savvy web masters there is a way around this feature. If an applicant's site disables the right click feature, the site will be disqualified.
All information on the application must be correct and complete.
Horizontal scroll bar at 1024 x 768 (or higher) resolution.
When a site is viewed in 1024 x 768 resolution (or higher) there should be no horizontal scroll bar (the scroll bar on the bottom of the page). With these larger screen resolutions, there is no viable reason to see a horizontal scroll bar. This is faulty coding.
If your site displays validation with W3C, WDG, for HTML, CSS, etc.; your site will then be checked for compliance.
We do not require a site to comply with W3C, or have valid CSS or html. However, if your site displays that it is valid html, valid CSS, or complies with W3C, we will check the site for compliance. If it fails, your site will be disqualified.
We love to see sites that are compliant and your site could receive bonus points for such compliance!
Refusal of one of our Awards at any time in the past will result in your site being banned from ever applying for one of our awards again.
Refusing an award from any Award Program shows a lack of respect not only for the Award Program, but to the evaluators who took the time to review your site.
An applicant with a history of inappropriate conduct towards this Award Program, its owner, or evaluators will be banned from ever applying for one of our awards again.
If our Award is altered or optimized or otherwise changed in any way without our written permission.
If your site wins one of our awards, the award should not be altered in any way. This includes optimizing it. The award has already been optimized for faster loading.
