I have had some requests over the months about an “Awards Show”.
The problem is that the concept has been done to death, and this is the reason I have not done so to date … but a few people have convinced me that it could still be potentially interesting.
Most sites and other outlets give out “awards” simply as gimmicky, gratuitous advertising for their sites or publications to make themselves seem far more important or relevant than they really are.
Afterwards, the winners place notifications of their victory on their respective sites so that when you click the “award”, it goes to the site that gave the award … upping the “Page Rank” of said site/publication into the stratosphere. It’s also free advertising and branding for the award-giver.
Some of the Las Vegas award-givers are not even based in Las Vegas.
Most people don’t think about things in these terms (which is why it works), but it is usually why “awards” exist. Even the Grammy’s and Oscar’s are advertising and marketing vehicles.
“Awards” are an extremely well known marketing ploy, and exist solely for that reason … to give some kind of “credibility” to the entity giving the award … deserved or not.
???Awards??? are also often given to entities friendly to the award-giver, for obvious reasons.
You really do have to be cynical and skeptical about everything in life, because absolutely everything has an ulterior motive. There really are few exceptions.
I try very hard to just be straight and honest (which is why I remain poor), and the skeeziness of “awards” is the whole reason I have rejected doing this from the outset.
Everyone gets incredibly excited every time the RJ releases their “Best Of” Poll, and they are interesting to a degree, but they seem a bit predictable after awhile. Or maybe they are just 100% right, I don’t know.
Yes, the Bellagio is the best hotel again. I think we all could have predicted that. It is such an overwhelmingly safe choice. Who is going to disagree with it? Even if you didn’t take a poll, you could safely report that result.
Sure, the RJ may hit the nail squarely on the head, but I also know many people who think the Bellagio is overrated.
I think a better idea would be to list the top 2 or 3 rather than stop at the #1 rankings, and give close seconds some well-deserved pub (if indeed they deserve it).
Many people who come to this site think a little “differently” (or maybe not).
Most of our people are pretty frequent Vegas visitors, with opinions of their own that aren’t fueled by groupthink (ie: Circus Circus is the worst at everything).
I was thinking of doing our own awards from our own readers, to see what places/things in town “our” people preferred. I can obviously write a routine that will screen out ballot stuffing, and other nonsense, and maybe make the thing really honest. I don’t know to what extent the other ones are rigged or easily manipulated (if at all), but I think it could be reasonably screened.
I don’t have a bias toward anything one way or the other. I could not care less who wins, loses, or comes somewhere in the middle.
This site isn’t affiliated with other sites. We have almost zero links coming either in or out.
We don’t have any sponsors or advertisers to be concerned with, and that is also fairly unusual with entities that conduct voting.
We get anywhere from 10K to 20K unique readers daily, and if I ran it for a couple of weeks, we could potentially get 50K people to vote (assuming they cared to participate).
I think that 50K is a statistically significant sample, and even though this site in and of itself is by no means important, it doesn’t mean that we could not run a completely valid reader poll, the results of which might be at least as valid as a mainstream venue’s poll.
A truly “independent” or “alternative” poll, if you will.
I think ???our people” are arguably as relevant as the mainstream readers, because a large percentage of our readers actually come here often, and will vote for things they actually personally experience on a regular basis.
It might even be a larger percentage than a mainstream site. It’s very hard to tell, but it is possible. I can’t help but think that a mainstream site’s poll isn’t stuffed by the shareholders/employees/interns of the companies that are in the running for said award. “News” is big business.
Being the site we are, I doubt that would really be an issue for us.
Do you think the Best Of/Worst Of thing has been done to death, or could it be of some mild interest since we would be getting the opinions of people who actually “get” this site to some degree?
I don’t think this will really benefit us in any way. Hopefully it will just recognize good (and bad) things. We don’t get paid for traffic, and any increase in traffic will probably cost us instead of benefit us. The people that come here, already come here. I don’t see something like this creating an artificial stampede.
Before doing it, I would kind of like some feedback.
I am going to make the polls anonymous and hidden before the results to ensure that there is no ???bandwagon effect???, in other words, the natural human tendency to vote with the crowd and/or for a winner to ensure that your vote counts despite your true opinions (see: Nearly every Presidential Election ever held).
We also want the readers to be an integral part, instead of us handing them choices they may or may not care about.
To vote on whether the Awards should take place at all, and to vote categories into the eventual ballot, please free to vote on the issue here:
VegasRex Awards Preliminary Poll
It does not require any type of registration, or personal information, and shouldn’t take more than 10 seconds.
As readers, this is your “Awards Show”.
Make your opinion known.
