Cinnamon Gum Awards Founded: February 16, 2005 Founded by: Nile Flores Opening Date: December 2005 for nominations. First voting period began January 2, 2006. Reason Opened: Nile believed that the web competition world needed a fresher image. Most of the sites currently competing did not encourage a sanctuary for webmasters seeking to improve their skills whether in making graphics or coding. In creating a web competition with an award site (a site that contains categories like: best layout, best content, most original, most updated, best webmasters, best site overall), the opportunity for a webmaster to become more recognized and have the ability to reap the rewards not just by receiving graphic awards, but also tangible awards. Nile already holds a network of well known websites that gross a lot of visitors per day on average and in opening Cinnamon Gum Awards, it opens up more exposure for the webmaster as Nile is a well seasoned webmaster with experience on building quality websites. VE or NVE: Vote Exchange Slogan: "An Awards / web competition site" Original Ideas: Cinnamon Gum Awards offers competitors the ability to request reviews on suggesting way to improve their site. They offer tutorials and alternate awards that involve no need for voting (awarded by Nile if the site is deemed to have earned the award.). This comp is also the first to 'rate' a site and have it compete against sites of the same standard. History: Nile was a former champion fighter as well as held several TL and assistant TL positions in The Site Fights. She held herself and her websites to a high standard and eventually she met people that were like her, wanting to compete against sites that were the same standard. It was not until a few months after leaving the Site Fights in late 2004 that she formulated plans for Cinnamon Gum. She became interested in other types of web competition sites called Award sites, that attracted the type of crowd she was looking for in creating Cinnamon Gum Awards. Eventually Nile drew up the plans to combine the idea of web competition and award sites. Competitors would join or "nominate" themselves for various categories they believed their site fell under, and their site based on the skill level is exuded, they were placed in one of three levels: basic, intermediate, and advanced. Despite it still running down to the popular vote, the competition leaves room for the webmaster who is seeking to improve their site (graphic and coding skills) to re-apply later for a chance to be placed in a higher level. In each month, voting is done for one week at the beginning. All nominees have a chance to be voted in the Best Overall which earns them a seat in the Webmaster of the Year competition in their respective level. Cinnamon Gum Awards shut down in February of 2008 due to a lack of interest and the volunteers within the comp being unreliable. Nile plans on opening a bloggers award site instead in the near future. Still Running?: No, Cinnamon Gum Awards is no longeer in operation. Copyright Sara MacDonald, 2006-2008 Webset by Country Colors