There has been an interesting discussion recently about a “Best Website" Hugo Award on the blogs associated with several webpages: Mark Kelly of LOCUS ONLINE, Cheryl Morgan of EMERALD CITY, and Ariel of THE ALIEN ONLINE. Not surprisingly, all three bloggers support the permanent creation of such a award (it is not surprising since they manage three of the very best sfnal websites online). But the fact that they are all affiliated with websites is basically irrelevant to their opinions, because all three of them have offered cogent arguments for the permanent creation of such an award, arguments which obviously spring from their overall views of fandom rather than from any selfish motives.

I do not manage a website, primarily because I don’t wish to engage in such a time-consuming operation which would take time away both from VISIONS OF PARADISE and from my other writing as well. But I do enjoy reading sfnal websites as much as I enjoy reading fanzines. In both cases there are superior versions worthy of Hugo consideration, and inferior versions which are barely worth reading at all. The skills necessary in maintaining an sfnal website overlap the skills needed for a print zine, but the skills are far from being totally similar. For example:

> a good webzine needs regular updating to be valuable, at least monthly if it does not want to lose its regular browsers, while a print fanzine can offer semi-annual issues and still be successful

> a good webzine supports links to other webzines

> the entire physical makeup of a webzine is entirely different than that of a fanzine; simplistically, the former requires much more intricate layout than the arrangement of graphics and written material of a printed zine

So combining webzines under the “Best Fanzine” category, which is where Cheryl’s EMERALD CITY has been nominated in recent years, is about as useless as expecting graphic novels to compete in the “Best Nonfiction” category (which is where they are often recommended for the annual LOCUS poll). There are sufficient numbers of good webzines that a “Best Website” category is both valid and worthwhile. In fact, such an award would encourage fans to seek out the nominated websites, which would be a good thing since a lot of unknowledgeable fans would actually enjoy the websites once they were aware of their existence.

So for these reasons, I support a "Best Website" Hugo Award initiative. Ariel encourages supporters to “contact the World Science Fiction Society and express your support for the idea”. I might just do that myself!