Maggi Norris, Webmistress
Nem5 Awards Program

There are many valid reasons for removing sites from winners' lists. Some are beyond the control of the award giver and others relate to violations of the award program's criteria. Reasons that are beyond the award giver's control include:

Most award programs have a list of disqualifiers in their criteria. They are commonly known as "don'ts." Some of the reasons I have seen for disqualification due to violation of the criteria include:

The truth is that there are many reasons for removing sites from the winners' list, and they often vary depending on the award program's criteria. But as long as the reasons are clearly stated in the criteria, then they are valid.

Janice Magro, Webmistress
NC's Outer Banks Awards (site closed)

If a site, which previously met the criteria of an Awards Program, and was awarded and listed on the winners' page, violates the criteria under which it was awarded, this would be a valid reason for removing the site from the winners' list.

For example, if a program requires that Family Safe meta tags be placed in the HTML code of the awarded site, and a winning site later removes the tags because it no longer meets the criteria for a Family Safe site, then this particular site should be removed from the winners' list.

This principle can also be applied to other criteria of the Awards Program. Sites are awarded because they meet particular criteria, and they must continue to meet this criteria to remain listed as a winner. Any site that no longer meets the criteria due to changes it makes after being awarded should be removed from the winners' list.

Vitor Oliveira, Webmaster
BigEye Award Program

The first valid reason is to remove sites which later add content (graphics or text) that is not family friendly. Most award givers, including myself, try to keep their sites free from undesirable external links.

A few more valid reasons that come to mind for removing sites from the winners' list are:

Other reasons may vary from program to program, depending on the program's rules, criteria and code of ethics. As a rule of thumb, any change that contradicts or violates your rules, criteria or code of ethics is a valid reason for removing a site from the winners' list.

A word about broken links. URLs are constantly changing, and every month a number of sites will move or even close down. The best way to deal with this, I think, is to remove the link but not the winner. We should maintain a complete and accurate list from the beginning of our programs because all winners deserve our respect.

Jerry Tucker, Webmaster
JerryD's Online Award Program

Award winners sometimes change their sites in ways that violate our criteria. This is one reason for removing them from our winners' list. Another reason, and possibly worse, is that some winners change our award graphics in order to save load time, even though many of the graphics are less than 5 KBs.

Other valid reasons include copyright infringement, bandwidth stealing, adding undesirable content such as nudity, and linking directly to porn sites. We will remove sites from our winners' list for these reasons.

Last, but not least, we remove sites that change their URLs and don't notify us. Nobody likes dead links, so it's better to remove them. You don't have to remove the name of the winning site, just the link. This way, you will still have an accurate list of all your winners.

These are just a few of the many reasons for removing sites from the winners' list. If a site earns your award and later makes changes that violate your criteria or your ethics, then you have every right to remove it.

Dave Selig, Webmaster
Ultraweb Awards

As your award program matures, and you refine your criteria and gain experience as a reviewer, you may be tempted to remove some of the earlier sites that won your award from your winners' list. Instead, you should consider an archival system or yearly winners' display so that you can continue to show all of the winners on your site.

The World Wide Web is evolving in terms of technology and style, but an "old-school" site can still be effective. Borrowing an example from the film industry, some of the best films were produced as black and white dialogue films. The fact that action, color, and special effects are very popular today does not lessen the value of the older films.

There are, of course, exceptions to the general rule that you should not remove winners. I believe that you should remove sites from your winners' list if:

Finally, honors and privileges of many types are often stripped from people who are convicted by a court of law of heinous crimes (rape, murder, etc.). I do not believe it would be inappropriate to remove a winner from your list in such a situation.

Nikola Kitanovic, Webmaster
Absolut Awards

I think the answers to this excellent question will give award seekers and award givers an opportunity to learn something. It's not a pleasant subject, but reading the answers will help us to understand why sites are removed from winners' lists and, perhaps, help us to avoid the removals.

I am going to tell you why I have removed winning sites from my list. If this information helps you in any way, I will be extremely pleased. In no particular order, I have removed sites from my winners' list for the following reasons:

I added a new rule to my award program at the beginning of this year. Under this new rule, all award winners are obligated to vote for the best site among my winners at the end of the year. Any sites that fail to meet this obligation will be removed from my winners' list. This rule is clearly stated in my criteria, and it's repeated when I send the award to my winners. If people don't like it, then they should not apply for my award, or they shouldn't accept it if they win.

I hope this answer will help you in some way. I expect many of the answers submitted by my esteemed colleagues will help me to better understand the reasons for removing sites from my winners' list and to be more fair in my treatment of winning sites.

Míc Miller, Webmaster
Beehive Awards

Winners of Beehive Awards are awarded based on a verified attainment of Web excellence according to the program's criteria, rules and regulations in place at the time of application. Web sites with Beehive Awards are considered stewards of these symbols of excellence and are expected to maintain or improve upon the level of Web excellence that earned them their awards.

Failure to meet this obligation can result in a revocation of their award and removal from the winners' list as well as the removal of their special recognition listing(s) in The Beeline. To date, only a handful of Web sites have been removed. The reasons for removal were flagrant copyright infringement, closure of the site, and violation of the rules for listing in The Beeline, a general-audience-rated site.