HOME Winners of the Mullein Award Awards I've Won Use the 'back' button on your browser to return, if necessary.		THE MULLEIN AWARD I cruise the net for accessible information, when I'm not out hiking and observing nature. I see sites that are pretty photographs of nature; sites that are heavy with interesting information; sites that are personal and fun and ones that make you think (See my own Links page). It's rare to find all these qualities in a single site, but for those that have them (and more), I've created the... <sound the trumpets!> Besides dedicated to presenting some learning aspect of nature as above, Mullein Award sites are also: Personal sites (Not commercial sites) of amateur or professional naturalists (my definition). Not browser-specific. Info on the web should try to be available and visible to the greatest amount of people, irrespective of the purchase they made a year ago. Besides, to me, "Best viewed with" signs are advertisement, not information. Reasonable in their download time. I know it's tough to balance graphics and text (i struggle with it daily), but a graphic should have its reason for being, not just because it's pretty. Easy to navigate. "Where was that bit about bird nests?" Family-friendly. Kids should be welcome. And just 'friendly' in general. I like to sense the person behind the keyboard. Content-rich. Of course, it's what *i* consider to be content. Updated on a reasonable basis. Depending on the kind of site, updating is important. Visually pleasing. Color balance, readability, and overall 'feel.' Qualities in a site that can hinder award winning: Advertising. Display of a few tasteful and unanimated banners is reasonable, but shouldn't get in the way of a site's purpose. Banners for Exxon and pyramid schemes are inappropriate for a nature site.. Music. I listen to my own music while i'm webbing, thanks. Options to turn on music are acceptable, certainly. Broken links. I understand that some sites come and go and change locations, but it's only reasonable that if you liked these sites enough to link to them, you'd check them on a regular basis for your own edification. Errors. Spell-checkers are grand, aren't they? Spelling it 'The Mullien Award' isn't a good sign. I know i make mistakes, but a lot of people should learn the difference between "your'"and "you're" (to give one example). Flash. It should be obvious that I'm not hung up on flashy graphics and java, but neither am i scornful. The use of multimedia to teach, or bulletin-boards to foster dialog, or snappy graphics to draw visitors in, are fine. Theft. Must be your original work. Useless Front-End. Now remind me why to get into a site i have to click on a fancy "Enter Here" with large graphic to download? Offensive or illegal content. Racist and misogynist comments will disqualify a site. Speak your mind on the web, but don't expect anything from me except a 'back button' push. Worse will go to people who hinder the future of free speech on the web by posting illegal material. Sites that are run by organizations and commercial sites, however informative and pretty, are not eligble for this award. It's certainly not mandatory that the site display the Mullein Award logo, but i bestow it as an honor, even if undisplayed. If the site decides to display it, a link to this page, or this site would be gratifying to me to know that it was in some small way appreciated. Either the one at the top of the page (which is a bit large, i know), or either of these smaller versions. Wow! Are there ANY sites that good?? I'm not sure my site would qualify if i stumbled on it. Yes, those are tough criteria, but what's the sense in presenting an award if it doesn't have high standards? I like the fact that we are in the era of personal publication, considering that printing presses and Xerox machines were illegal in the U.S.S.R. not too long ago. I want to help the web be a better place. If you'd like to see sites that have won this award, go to my Mullein Award winners page. Also, on my links page, winners are noted. Note: Signing my guestbook isn't necessary; in fact, it's impossible.   Hey! I do a webpage... How can I apply for this prestigious award? By having a nature site that's exemplary and thoughtful. Hopefully, I'll find it, despite the fact that search engines, by their own admission, index as little as 20% of the whole internet. If you know of a nature site that you love, or run one that you think is worthy, go to my Suggest an Award page.
Back to Top		If you have a website, you absolutely have to check out this amazing, wonderful, incredible resource. You can use it for free to register your site with all the important search engines and indexes, and THEN decide if and how much you want to pay to support the service. It's great -- so great that even a notorious cheapskate like me gave them some money!