CPSnet Web Awards Program, awards for sites skies above.

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2005-07-08, Awarded "Best Award Graphic" by AFA
We are proud to announce that the HITSASeal was selected as the "Best Award Graphic" by AFA, for the month of July of 2005. To all EUTODA' staff our sincere thanks for this honour! More info about this award is available at our "Honors Granted" section.
2005-06-22, Listed #2 among 31,000 web sites at Silktide SiteScore
With a rating of 9.5 (in 10 possible), the CPSnet Web Awards attained the second position at SiteScore's TOP 750, the best 750 from about 31,000 web sites tested until this date. Silktide SiteScore is a free tool which rates how well designed, popular and accessible a website is. The entire testing process is handled by advanced computer software. SiteScore also gathers user feedback on all the websites rated, to help judge how appealing a design is. SiteScore rates all websites on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the highest). Scores are broken down into 5 categories: Marketing, Design, Accessibility, Experience and User Feedback.
2005-06-07, listed at "Design Snack"
Design Snack is a database of websites rated based on the quality of their design and presentation. Its unique rating scale uses "cookies" and a site can get anywhere from 0-3 cookies, 3 being the highest. The CPSnet Web Awards were rated with "One Cookie" and listed under the "Award Sites" section of the portal.
2005-05-15, rated 6 by EUTODA
We are proud to announce that our program is now one of the few Web awards programs to achieve the prestigious level 6 at EUTODA, the Academy of Fine Awards. To all EUTODA' staff our sincere thanks for this honour!
2005-02-02, recognized as a 5+ Elite Award by Award Sites!
As it states at Award Sites!, "In recognition of owner, Carlos Simões, for his efforts going well beyond his award program in 'bettering the net through excellence!'". Needless to say that we at the CPSnet Web Awards are honoured by this outstanding distinction. Thank You AS! and thank you all the awardmasters and applicants that helped building this program!
2005-01-16, selected the Site Of The Year 2004!
It is that time of the year again, when we at the CPSnet Web Awards select the best site of the previous year. And this time, our panel of invited judges and our permanent review team have selected Tim's Spider Corner as the Best Site Of The Year 2004! Congratulations Tim Beylemans, for your outstanding website! Tim's Spider Corner is an educational site for all spider fans that addresses the conservation of nature. You will find bird eating spider information, as well as an assortment of pictures, handling tips, resource links, a spider knowledge quiz, and the complete anatomy of a bird eating spider.
2005-01-09, awarded the "Humanity Award 2005" by the The Rose Awards:
"We are very proud for being granted this distinction that it is given out to... Webmasters/webmistresses who give back of themselves to the worldwide Net community, offering their talents, their skills, their web sites, as resource points for other people who are interested in bettering themselves and their own sites ... These special people are a great asset to the World Community because they offer their advice and expertise to all who seek it, and everyday, they are making the Internet a better place to be!...". More info about this award is available at our "Honors Granted" section.
2004-10-20, listed at W3 Compliant Sites
Carlos Simoes is now a "W3 Compliant Sites Member". W3 Compliant Sites is a collection of web sites that were created by designers that conform with the W3C standards. This forum provides the opportunity for them to display their work and ideas in a community that shares common interests.
2004-10-13, listed at net-guide.co.uk
The CPSnet Web Awards are now listed at net-guide.co.uk with an accessibility rating of "excellent". This directory aims to promote accessible sites and gives an accessibility rating for the websites returned for any query entered. Similarly, the directory entries also carry an accessibility rating.
2004-06-07, rated 5 by WebsAwards
A special panel of external judges, convened to assess the programs owned by WebsAwards' Staff members, has rated the CPSnet Web Awards as a WebsAwards level 5 program.
2004-05-04, rated 3 by Awardia
The Awardia Index has rated the CPSnet Web Awards as a level 3 (in 4 possible, where the fourth level is designated "Corona").
2004-04-01, rated 4 by EAI:
The Euro Award Index reinstated this award program at "Level 4" (in 5 possible).
2004-03-23, joined WSG:
We have joined the Web Standards Group (WSG). The Web Standards Group is for web developers/designers who are interested in web standards, CSS and (X)HTML and related topics.
2004-03-15, web site redesigned:
The CPSnet Web Awards have now a brand new website, fully compliant XHTML 1.0 Strict, "made with CSS" and WCAG-WAI Level AAA. Thank you to Webmates, of which we are proud members, for all the help and for the inspiration!
2004-01-15, announced the Best Site of Year 2003:
Announced back in 15/January 2004: "Explore Mars Now". In this outstanding website, visitors can walk through a Mars habitat simulation learning about science and technology as they explore. There are over 100 photo-realistic 3-D images of a near term Mars Habitat concept that are "brought to life" in Macromedia Flash.
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General Criteria

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We ask our applicants to please select the award program to which the site is being submitted. This should be stated in the appropriate field in the Application form. It should be noticed also that we will not transfer applications between award programs nor will we award other than the applicant's choice, even if during the review process we conclude that the site complies with the minimum requirement for the other award program. The 90 days period applies also to applications from the same site and/or webmaster to any of the CPSnet Web Awards.

Our award programs intend to reward web sites that excel in two main and fundamental aspects of a web presence: Content and Design. The "High In The Sky Award" rewards excellence in content and the "Aracnofilia Web Design Award" seeks to reward outstanding and flawless web design.

We do not, however, exclude design considerations when reviewing a "High In The Sky" application, nor do we omit content quality when evaluating an "Aracnofilia Web Design" candidate. In each case, a minimum quality level either for Content or Design must be present.

  1. The High In The Sky Award:
    1. The site must be considered as a true knowledge source and a reference in its field, preferably dedicated to one single theme, its content being, most of it (more than 75%), original, informational, educational, scientific, presenting (or not) an entertainment component;
    2. The site must have at least twenty (20) pages, not including any existent "awards page", guestbooks, forums etc.; Excellent design, clever original graphics and artwork; Presented well and easy to access and navigate;
    3. We welcome sites with informational, educational, scientific and/or cultural content of great quality, presented in an original way, asking for the visitors' participation and providing these visitors access to an extensive and resourceful virtual library.
  2. The Aracnofilia Web Design Award:
    1. This award will be given to web sites that present an excellent overall balance of design, layout, well-optimized graphics, download time, friendly and functional navigation, browsers and platforms compatibility and overall professional appearance, originality and maintenance;
    2. The site must have at least fifteen (15) pages, not including any existent "awards page", guestbooks, forums etc;
    3. The site must be considered an example of excellent and innovative web design.

We require the site's language to be one of the following: English, Portuguese, French, Spanish. The number of languages accepted may increase in the future. For now, any site in any other language, but having a full translation to any of the above languages, will be considered eligible. It will not be considered as a "bilingual site" one having simple links to any on-line translation service, like the one provided by Altavista, for instance.

Scoring Scales and Limits

Web sites are classified according to two scales ranging from 1 to 5:

  • One scale rates the site's content. Scores calculated by each of our content evaluators will be averaged;
  • Other scale rates the web site design. Scores calculated by each of our design evaluators will be averaged.

For a website to be awarded one of our awards it must attain a certain classification in the evaluation process. Also it must equal or exceed the minimum value fixed for "Design", in the case of the "High In The Sky Award" or "Content" in the case of the "Aracnofilia Web Design Award".

  1. High In The Sky Award
    1. Content as per Content Criteria and Scoring: minimum average 4.3;
      • Restraints: No more than one item scored below 4 (item 14, "Additional points", excluded) and no single item scored below 3.
    2. Design: minimum average 4.6 as per Design Criteria and Scoring or 4.4 if evaluated by the Flash Criteria and Scoring;
      • Restraints: no more than four items scored below 4 and no single item scored below 3.
  2. Aracnofilia Web Design Award
    1. Design: minimum average 4.6 as per Design Criteria and Scoring or 4.4 if evaluated by the Flash Criteria and Scoring;
      • Restraints: No more than one item scored below 4 and no single item scored below 3.
    2. Content as per Content Criteria and Scoring: minimum average 3.6;
      • Restraints: No more than four single items scored below 4 and no single item scored below 3.

Tools used for evaluation

The tools used for several of our assessments include (but are not limited to):