Support AW Awards

The Support AW Awards were an annual awards ceremony put on by the Support AW organization.

Organization Overview

Formation

The Support AW Awards were established by maki of Support AW. A concept for a new awards ceremony was being considered shortly after the Cy Awards fell apart for a period of time, but the first annual Support AW Awards ceremony wasn't held until several months later on April 29th, 2006. The awards were held one year and several days after the launch of Support AW.

While the Cy Awards were soon re-established, the Support AW Awards operate under different plans and policies which differentiate them from the Cys.

Concept

The Support AW Awards were designed with fairness in mind. The winner selection process eliminates the "popularity contest" fault by instituting an awards council. The goal of the ceremony is to create an engaging environment with the use of graphical and other effects, present the awards in a timely fashion, and do so in modern venues.

Inclusion Policy

The Support AW Awards also strive to include all possible nominees. This includes worlds of higher ratings containing mature content. Support AW issues a disclaimer on the awards web site stating that this content may be included in its ceremonies, but Support AW will never directly display inappropriate content and it may be possible to "learn" of such content via the information promoted at a Support AW Awards ceremony. It should also be noted that few worlds of such ratings participated in the first ceremony, and it is unlikely that many will. Some worlds however, may use a higher rating but only in an effort to maintain an adult friendly environment. To exclude such worlds could exclude some of the best places in AW.

Categories

Support AW Award categories are devised in a way to include all areas of creation and excellence in AW while being broad enough to lessen the number of categories presented.

As of the 3rd Annual Support AW Awards, the categories are:

• Active Community (World or Town)
• Best World for Design
• Better Building
• Technical Advancement (Replaced Superior Programming)
• Top Creative Design (Objects, Textures, or Avatars)
• Non-Profit Contributor (Individual, Group, or World)
• Community Leader
• Greatest Online Resource
• Realism (Replaced Best Use of Innovative Technology)
• Community Stimulus (Replaced Outstanding (Support AW) Staff Award)

Voting

The council consists of an average of 10 AW citizens chosen by lead councilmembers. The council is evaluated to ensure no single nominee can win simply by majority vote by persons involved with that nominee. This means there are not enough councilmembers involved in any one nominee (world, organization, etc.) to sway votes in that nominee's favor.

The general public is not involved in the winner selection process, however, anyone may submit suggestions for nominees by visiting the Support AW Awards web site. It is assumed that the council is aware of most prominent organizations and communities, but lesser known or new nominees are advised to submit themselves for recognition.

When nominations are closed, they are compiled and sent to councilmembers for voting. The councilmembers return their choices and the winners are determined. The winners are not revealed to any other persons, including councilmembers, and the winners are known only by maki and a ceremony co-host if applicable, as the winners are listed in the final presentation script.

History

2006: The 1st Annual Support AW Awards

The first awards ceremony was a great success. The host world, Maya, topped off at the user limit of 40. Some complaints were heard from users having trouble entering the world. Support AW is taking this into consideration and will have better accomodations for the second annual awards ceremony.

The ceremony was held on the tail end of the AWNews 6th Anniversary celebration, which began at 9PM VRT. It lasted roughly one hour. Maki and co-host Kenneth presented the awards. Hyper Anthony was originally scheduled to be the co-host for the event, but was unable to attend.

2006: Other Happenings

About a month after the first ceremony, Support AW introduced an independent web site for the Support AW Awards located at sawards.com. The web site contains every bit of information about past ceremonies and contains resources for submitting nominees and contacting the organization.