R A T I N G  L E V E L S  I N F O R M A T I O N

WebsAwards believe in equal opportunity and have no minimum award program age limit for owners that may apply to us for an assessment. We believe that the challenge to achieve ones goals encourages those among the awards community, both new and old, to gain new knowledge and apply these new skills to their award programs ultimately climbing up the 'ladder' of personal satisfaction and success.

To achieve specific Rating levels an award program should meet the following level requirements:

Level 1 - All of the General requirements and all of the Level requirements for the relevant Level.

Level 2 - All of the General requirements and all of the Level requirements for the relevant Level.

Level 3 - All of the General requirements and all of the Level requirements for the relevant Level.

Level 4 - All of the General requirements and all of the Level requirements for the relevant Level.

Level 5 - All of the General requirements and all of the Level requirements for the relevant Level.

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General requirements for all Levels

An Award Program -

• 1. Should not display any forms of abuse and / or humiliation of people or animals.
  2. Should not display and / or provide access to illegal and / or potentially illegal activities - warez, porn graphics and / or content, incitement to illegal activity, violence and / or discrimination, abuse, pyramid and / or down line schemes, scams etc.
  3. Should not display the infringement of not acknowledging the copyright and / or the trademarks of others.
  4. Should not display hate messages and or defamatory remarks toward other web sites, individuals, organizations, services or groups of any kind.
  5. Should not identify within any applicants status page the applicants name, site title or URL whether a winner or non winner.
  6. Should not be less than one ( 1 ) year old with award winners selected and at least six ( 6 ) nominees and / or finalists listed for the current year if issuing only one ( 1 ) or more annual awards. ( This clause is not applicable to achieve a WebsAwards Level 1.0 rating. )
  7. Should be original in both design and content or in essence what would be considered to be “one of a kind.” ( Please read carefully the Derivative Works item linked at each Rating Level within our Copyright requirements. )
  8. Should be displaying no less than six ( 6 ) correctly listed award winners that equal or exceed the award programs stated criteria. ( This clause is not applicable to achieve a WebsAwards Level 1.0 rating. )
  9. Should be displaying award winners that have been acquired by applications and evaluations and not by solicitation and / or gifting. ( Gifting does not include items such as friendship and / or appreciation awards / gifts. )

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Does your award program display Internet Content Rating Association ( ICRA ) PICS labeling and / or ICRA image certification? If so, it should meet the following:

• 10. If any Award Program pages display an ICRA image but the pages are not correctly ICRA labeled according to ICRA requirements WebsAwards will view the display of the ICRA image as an illegal activity unless the Award Program owner has written permission from ICRA to display the ICRA image without the pages being correctly ICRA PICS labeled as such displays are misleading to viewers in that web site pages carrying an ICRA image are more likely to be perceived as trustworthy than pages that are not ICRA PICS labeled. Web site pages may be checked for correct labels by inserting the relevant URL's using this link to the ICRA Label Test. Please view the Internet Content Rating Association ( ICRA ) Legal page.
• Although the ICRA information above is ICRA specific it is expected at WebsAwards that all Safety ratings displayed are valid irrespective of which organization they are issued by therefore the above applies to all and / or any Safety ratings. We do not penalize any site ICRA Labels that are not listed within the ICRA Checked database as this is a paid service that all may not wish to participate in.

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Does your award program display custom made W3C images? If so, it should meet the following:

• 11. WebsAwards evaluators will not penalize or disqualify applicants for display of custom designed W3C Validation Link images to match their web site design, as the custom made images ( badges ) containing the terms XHTML, CSS and AAA validation are acceptable as W3C Validation linking images according to the regulations the W3C Consortium - .Section: Frequently Asked Questions about Logos - Paragraph: Q2.
• Examples: You may not display any validation image that is derived from or closely resembles the W3C logo image displayed below in image 1 however you may display images with a logo that that in no way resembles image 1. Note that the ' W3C ' in image 2 does not in any way resemble the original W3C logo in image 1. The background color you choose is also your option and you do not necessarily need to display the W3C logo text at all ( see image 3. ). This covers all custom designed images whether blog sized or otherwise.but you may display a custom designed image where the overall color does not represent the W3C image and where the logo W3C is not displayed. This covers all custom designed images whether blog sized or otherwise.

  image 1    image 2    image 3

• However, the above clause does not apply to applicants who display W3C Validator images of any type within their web site and clearly have no intent to be valid. Such displays will be viewed as illegal use of the W3C image as the W3C consortium are very firm in their requirements for display.

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Is your award program rated or a provisional member with WebsAwards? If so, your display of our badges should meet the following:

• 12. From the date of May 1st, 2008, WebsAwards rating, provisional membership and / or linking badges must be displayed in either the “ Memberships ”, “ Associations ” or starting ( “ Index ” ) page of your award program. They must  NEVER be displayed in the Awards won section. We do not require that our rating badge be placed ' ahead of ', ' in front of ' or in a more prominent position than other rating badges but we do require that our rating badge be displayed with equal representation to other rating badges ( examples: AS!, W.T.A, U.W.S.A.G etc. ) WebsAwards Staff are now enforcing this policy. Please also refer to Incorrect display of the WebsAwards Rating Level and / or Provisional Membership Badges at WebsAwards Removal Regulations.

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We are interested in learning how you evaluate a web site

• 13. From the date of June 1st, 2008, WebsAwards is interested in learning how you evaluate a web site and why some web sites receive your lower level awards, some your higher level awards and others receive no awards. Provide us with samples of the feedback you give to web sites you awarded and those that were not awarded. Do you have any applicants that would be willing to let us ask them how they experienced your evaluation? If so, please get your past applicants written permission prior to making an application providing us with their contact details. Please advise past applicants that all personal details provided will remain private with only the URL of their web site and any comments made being forwarded to the relevant WebsAwards Judges.
• Notes to the above: Until May 31st, 2008 we have only “ rated ” the quality of an award program by applying our criteria to the ' outside ' of the web site. The content was checked and, if found to meet our criteria, a rating level was then applied. But this never automatically meant the award program content was being ' used ' in the correct way therefore we are now also looking ' inside ' award programs and believe that there will be much more ' added value ' to both our applicants and the service we provide in a rating process that justifies the rating levels.

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To achieve Rating Level 1 an award program should meet the following:

• 1. Purpose: Not required at this Level.
• 2. Criteria: Very basic criteria displayed.
• 3. Award Image: Original in design, unlike any other; individual; not copied or adapted / derived from another. )
• 4. Contact Email: Contact Forms often fail - an email link is important and a link must be available somewhere within Award Program even though at this Level it may be hard to find.
• 5. Application: May be by direct E-mail or perhaps use of a Guest Book.
• 6. Guest Book: The Award program owner may ask that the Guest Book be signed in order to meet the Award Program criteria.
• 7. Owner / Evaluators Qualifications: Qualifications to evaluate are not required at this Level.
• 8. Added Features: Not required at this Level.
• 9. Award Winners Display: Not required at this Level.
• 10. Award Winners Quality: Not required at this Level. We are cognizant that award program owners have no control over the ongoing quality of winning web sites - allowances will be made for this factor.
• 11. Policies: Not required at this Level.
• 12. Web site Design: Overall design requires improvement.
• 13. Navigation: Not user friendly - flawed.
• 14. Typography: Obvious errors; Multiple font or color changes; inappropriate font sizes; busy background.
• 15. Browser Compatibility: Award Program designed for one browser; does not work in others.
• 16. Copyrights: There are no obvious violations. Please read here for information on Derivative Works.
• 17. Compliance with own Criteria: Not required at this Level.
• 18. Links: Internal: All should be functional - they are under the AP owners control and should be error free, however for this Level we will accept no more than six ( 6 ) malfunctioning internal links. External: WebsAwards understands it is very hard to constantly be checking external links every day. We do, however, expect the majority of links to work. It is not realistic to think that people who are otherwise committed will have a perfect 'no error' external link check. If an award program clearly displays five ( 5 ) or more external link errors, the award program will not be denied the right to advance through the rating levels because of the 'link' section of our criteria but award program owners will be granted a seven ( 7 ) day amnesty ( this being exclusive of new award programs with no current WebsAwards rating ) in order to make link corrections prior to any potential upgrading of the rating level being applied.
• 19. Right click disabled: Permitted at this Level.
• 20. Contacting Applicants: Owners should preferably contact both winners and non-winners. If no contact unless requested by the applicant is made with non winners then the award program must display a status page for applicants.
  

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To achieve Rating Level 2 an award program should meet the following:

• 1. Purpose: Explained.
• 2. Criteria: Moderate criteria displayed.
• 3. Award Image: Should be original and well defined. Definition: Unlike any other; individual; not copied or adapted / derived from another.
• 4. Contact Email: Contact Forms often fail - an email link is important. Link available within Award Program.
• 5. Application: Email or Guest Book.
• 6. Guest Book: Asks that the Guest Book be signed allowed. Signing is not mandatory to meet the Criteria.
• 7. Owner / Evaluators Qualifications: Description of Manager: Displaying minimum details but lacking extended information.
• 8. Added Features: Not required.
• 9. Award Winners Display: Links listing only.
• 10. Award Winners Quality: Most winners meet or exceed the posted criteria. We are cognizant that award program owners have no control over the ongoing quality of winning web sites - allowances will be made for this factor.
• 11. Policies: Privacy Policy and / or Code of Ethics including taking into consideration the internet safety and privacy needs of children displayed.
• 12. Web site Design: Moderate overall but displays some flaws.
• 13. Navigation: Not user friendly - flawed. Some use of browser back button allowed.
• 14. Typography: Some errors; Readable size; Good contrast color used.
• 15. Browser Compatibility: Designed to be viewable in all major browsers.
• 16. Copyrights: No obvious violations. Please read here for information on Derivative Works.
• 17. Compliance with own Criteria: Meets all but three items from its own Criteria.
• 18. Links: Internal - All should be functional - they are under the AP owners control and should be error free, however for this rating level we will accept no more than five ( 5 ) malfunctioning internal links. External - WebsAwards understands it is very hard to constantly be checking external links every day. We do, however, expect the majority of links to work. It is not realistic to think that people who are otherwise committed will have a perfect 'no error' external link check. If an award program clearly displays five ( 5 ) or more external link errors, the award program will not be denied the right to advance through the rating levels because of the 'link' section of our criteria but award program owners will be granted a seven ( 7 ) day amnesty ( this being exclusive of new award programs with no current WebsAwards rating ) in order to make link corrections prior to any potential upgrading of the rating level being applied.
• 19. Right Click Disabled: Not permitted.
• 20. Contacting Applicants: Owners should preferably contact both winners and non-winners. If no contact unless requested by the applicant is made with non winners then the award program must display a status page for applicants.

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To achieve Rating Level 3 an award program should meet the following:

• 1. Purpose: Minimum explanation displayed.
• 2. Criteria: Explained. Clarification: Reasonable.
• 3. Award Image: Must be original, well defined and display quality. Definition: Unlike any other; individual; not copied or adapted / derived from another; showing a degree of excellence.
• 4. Contact Email: Contact Forms often fail - an email link is important. Link available on or from most Award Program pages.
• 5. Application: Form with Alternate email.
• 6. Guest Book: Asks that the Guest Book be signed allowed. Signing is not mandatory to meet the Criteria.
• 7. Owner / Evaluators Qualifications: Description of Manager: displaying informative details of award program Owner / Manager.
• 8. Added Features: Not required.
• 9. Award Winners Display: Organized list of text links displayed. Organized meaning separate listings of each award level offered. We will allow for a winners listing that displays a mix of award winners - i.e.: Gold, Silver, Bronze etc. as long as each award type is made clear to the viewer.
• 10. Award Winners Quality: Most winners meet or exceed the posted criteria. We are cognizant that award program owners have no control over the ongoing quality of winning web sites - allowances will be made for this factor.
• 11. Policies: Privacy and Copyright Policies and / or Code of Ethics including taking into consideration the internet safety and privacy needs of children displayed.
• 12. Web site Design: Good overall but displays some minor flaws.
• 13. Navigation: User friendly; functional; no use of browser back button allowed.
• 14. Typography: Minimal errors; Font is of readable size; Good contrast between page and text colors displayed.
• 15. Browser Compatibility: Designed to be viewable in all major browsers.
• 16. Copyrights: No violations; owner holds copyrights to or can provide authorization for use of all award program elements. Please read here for information on Derivative Works.
• 17. Compliance with own Criteria: Meets all but two items from its own Criteria.
• 18. Links: Internal - All should be functional - they are under the AP owners control and should be error free, however for this rating level we will accept no more than four ( 4 ) malfunctioning internal links. External - WebsAwards understands it is very hard to constantly be checking external links every day. We do, however, expect the majority of links to work. It is not realistic to think that people who are otherwise committed will have a perfect 'no error' external link check. If an award program clearly displays five ( 5 ) or more external link errors, the award program will not be denied the right to advance through the rating levels because of the 'link' section of our criteria but award program owners will be granted a seven ( 7 ) day amnesty ( this being exclusive of new award programs with no current WebsAwards rating ) in order to make link corrections prior to any potential upgrading of the rating level being applied.
• 19. Right click disabled: Not permitted.
• 20. Contacting Applicants: Owners should preferably contact both winners and non-winners. If no contact unless requested by the applicant is made with non winners then the award program must display a status page for applicants.

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To achieve Rating Level 4 an award program should meet the following:

• 1. Purpose: Reasonable explanation displayed.
• 2. Criteria: Clearly explained with hints included.
• 3. Award Image: Must be original, well defined, display quality and be optimized. Definition: Unlike any other; individual; not copied or adapted / derived from another; showing a degree of excellence; loading as effectively as possible.
• 4. Contact Email: Contact Forms often fail - an email link is important. Link available through entire program including any framed navigation.
• 5. Application: Form displayed with clear requirements; Provision of an alternate email.
• 6. Guest Book: No request that the Guest Book be signed to meet the criteria is allowed. Guest Book link displayed is acceptable.
• 7. Owner / Evaluators Qualifications: Descriptions of Manager and all evaluators qualifications displayed.
• 8. Added Features: Some additional features displayed such as Self-Tests.
• 9. Award Winners Display: Organized lists of winners of top level awards will have descriptions. Organized meaning separate listings of each award level offered. We will allow for a winners listing that displays a mix of award winners - i.e.: Gold, Silver, Bronze etc. as long as each each award type is made clear to the viewer and individual winners are also provided with new window displays including descriptions.
• 10. Award Winners Quality: Majority of winners meet or exceed the posted criteria. We are cognizant that award program owners have no control over the ongoing quality of winning web sites - allowances will be made for this factor.
• 11. Policies: Privacy Policy including taking into consideration the internet safety and privacy needs of children. Copyright Policy and Code of Ethics displayed.
• 12. Web site Design: Good overall but displays some minor flaws.
• 13. Navigation: Entire award program content available within a range of three ( 3 ) clicks including any sectioned areas; no use of browser back button allowed. Clarification: The Award program is available within a range of three ( 3 ) clicks if the award program is part of a main subject web site.
• 14. Typography: Minimal errors; Readable size; Good contrast between page and text colors displayed.
• 15. Browser Compatibility: Designed to be viewable in all major browsers.
• 16. Copyrights: No violations; owner holds copyrights to or can provide authorization for use of all award program elements. Please read here for information on Derivative Works.
• 17. Compliance with own Criteria: Meets all but one item from its own Criteria.
• 18. Links: Internal: All should be functional - they are under the AP owners control and should be error free. External - WebsAwards understands it is very hard to constantly be checking external links every day. We do, however, expect the majority of links to work. It is not realistic to think that people who are otherwise committed will have a perfect 'no error' external link check. If an award program clearly displays five ( 5 ) or more external link errors, the award program will not be denied the right to advance through the rating levels because of the 'link' section of our criteria but award program ownerswill be granted a seven ( 7 ) day amnesty ( this being exclusive of new award programs with no current WebsAwards rating ) in order to make link corrections prior to any potential upgrading of the rating level being applied.
• 19. Right click disabled: Not permitted.
• 20. Contacting Applicants: Owners should preferably contact both winners and non-winners. If no contact unless requested by the applicant is made with non winners then the award program must display a status page for applicants.

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To achieve Rating Level 5 an award program should meet the following:

• 1. Purpose: Unique, clear and fully explained.
• 2. Criteria: Clear and fully explained with hints included.
• 3. Award Image: Must be original, well defined, display quality, be optimized and meet the award program purpose. ( Definition: Unlike any other; individual; not copied or adapted / derived from another; showing a degree of excellence; loading as effectively as possible, meeting the object to which the award program purpose strives - its aim, goal.
• 4. Contact Email: Contact Forms often fail - an email link is important. Link available through entire program including any framed navigation.
• 5. Application: Form displayed with clear requirements; Provision of an alternate email.
• 6. Guest Book: No request that the Guest Book be signed to meet the criteria is allowed. No Guest Book link is displayed within Award Program.
• 7. Owner / Evaluators Qualifications: Descriptions of Manager and all Evaluator qualifications displayed with links to Evaluator web sites.
• 8. Added Features: Several additional on site ( internal ) features that aid award seekers or givers e.g.: Articles; Tutorials; Self-Tests.
• 9. Award Winners Display: Organized lists of winners of top level awards will have descriptions. Organized meaning separate listings of each award level offered. We will allow for a winners listing that displays a mix of award winners - i.e.: Gold, Silver, Bronze etc. as long as each each award type is made clear to the viewer and individual winners are also provided with new window displays including descriptions.
• 10. Award Winners Quality: All winners will meet or exceed the posted criteria. We are cognizant that award program owners have no control over the ongoing quality of winning web sites - allowances will be made for this factor.
• 11. Policies: Privacy Policy including taking into consideration the internet safety and privacy needs of children, Copyright Policy and Code of Ethics displayed.
• 12. Web site Design: Displays quality with no visible flaws.
• 13. Navigation: Entire award program content available within a range of two ( 2 ) clicks including any sectioned areas; no use of browser back button allowed; no navigational options to be disabled. Clarification: The Award program is available within a range of two ( 2 ) clicks if the award program is part of a main subject web site.
• 14. Typography: No errors; Readable size; Good contrast between page and text colors displayed; Minimal color changes displayed with visible purpose; Consistency of font type used.
• 15. Browser Compatibility: Designed to be viewable in all major browsers.
• 16. Copyrights: No violations; owner holds copyrights to or can provide authorization for use of all award program elements. Please read here for information on Derivative Works.
• 17. Compliance with own Criteria: Meets all items from its own Criteria.
• 18. Links: Internal - All should be functional - they are under the AP owners control and should be error free. External - WebsAwards understands it is very hard to constantly be checking external links every day. We do, however, expect the majority of links to work. It is not realistic to think that people who are otherwise committed will have a perfect 'no error' external link check. Due to the fact that there is no upgrade process for rating level 5.0 holders, if the award program clearly displays five ( 5 ) or more external link errors, the award program will not be denied the right to advance through the rating levels because of the 'link' section of our criteria but award program owners will be granted a seven ( 7 ) day amnesty ( this being exclusive of new award programs with no current WebsAwards rating ) in order to make link corrections prior to any potential upgrading of the rating level being applied.
• 19. Right click disabled: Not permitted.
• 20. Contacting Applicants: Owners should preferably contact both winners and non-winners. If no contact unless requested by the applicant is made with non winners then the award program must display a status page for applicants.

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