T.U.F.S. Awards Application

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PURPOSE The purpose of The Useful Free Site Award is :

To encourage and promote sites that show creativity, imagination, superior design, quality, beauty, useful and creative content.

To recognize and reward webmasters for their skill, hard work,dedication, long hours and talent.

To honor the webmasters who strive to better the world wide web and make it a great place for all to use and enjoy.

To give webmasters a sense of accomplishment and heap praise on them for work well done.

To inform others of the excellent nature of the website that has won this award.

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CRITERIA To win The Useful Free Site Award , the site must fulfill the following criteria :

All Text is easily readable on all pages.

Good original, informative and interesting content.

Correct spelling, grammar and sentence construction.

All graphics to be working, be properly displayed and not be not missing.

All internal links to be working. No more than 5 external links not working.

The navigation system must be user friendly and functional.

The visitor must be able to interact with the Webmaster, in the form of a guest book, contact, or e-mail.

There should be a separate section on your web site for the awards you have won.

If you have music, there must be a means of turning it off.

If you use flash intros, there must be a skip function.

The design should be consistent in background, graphics, menus, navigation symbols and layout.

Backgrounds images should not make reading difficult, and not change without justification.

There should be a highly visible link back to the home page on all pages.

The website should have a Privacy Policy.

The website should have a Copyright Policy.
Criteria updated on 01-04-2006

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DISQUALIFIERS Any website will be automatically disqualified if the site has any of the following :

A language medium other than English.

Any content which promotes, displays or encourages any illegal activity.

Any content which implies hate, racist, violence, profane language, satanism, occultism, discrimination or extremism.

Mouse trails or comet cursors which are very disturbing to the surfer.

A 404 error, blank page, under construction message, or coming-soon sign.

An invalid URL, email address or any part of the web site which cannot be accessed.

Crashes or freezes the browser or computer.

A password or a download to enter or view the content.

Forces visitors to download programs or plug-ins to view website.

An applicant that is under the age of 18, in accordance with C.O.P.P.A.

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SCORING Scoring Consideration

30 Points Content : The topic, quality and nature of the content should be interesting, friendly and highly informative.

15 Points Design : Links and images to be working. Text and theme to be consistent on all pages.

15 Points Appearance : Compatibility and usage of colors, text, graphics and background. Grammar and spelling to be correct.

10 Points Navigation : External links should open in a new window and internal links in the same window. No need for back button.

10 Points Originality : Is the site memorable, innovative and has a sense of individuality ?

05 Points Credit : Credit should be given to creators of items that are not yours including graphics, scripts, text, forms, etc...

05 Points Privacy : The information acquired from visitors must be subject to a privacy policy on your site.

05 Points Copyright : All copyright items should be mentioned including the copyright policy of the website.

05 Points Personal : My own personal impression and feeling of the site, including the first impression.

Scoring System
90 to 100 points : GOLD
80 to 89 points : SILVER
70 to 79 points : BRONZE
60 to 69 points : MERIT
00 to 59 points : NONE

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ETHICS I, Ebrahim Sadak, Owner of the Awards Program held at the WebSite, The Useful Free Site, do hereby declare :

That I will visit all Websites that apply for the award listed on my website.

That in judging the applicants for my award that I will do so with honesty, integrity, fairness and impartiality.

That I will judge all websites by the criteria listed by my awards program.

That I will show no prejudice to anyone, for any reason, when considering them for my award.

That my award program is not a give away award, reciprocal award. My site has criteria that must be met, and I judge by this criteria.

Applicants from all sites are welcome, except as stated on my site.

That I will not consider any site that contains illegal content, pornography or explicit sexual content or any site connected to such content.

I will not discriminate against any person that applies for my award.

I agree to maintain a professional, friendly and positive manner in any correspondence with any applicant.

I will respect the privacy of all applicants. All information received from applications will be deemed private, except that which is stated on award program.

I agree to uphold the pledge of The Ethics Pledge Program , at all times maintaining high standards of honesty, integrity, fairness and impartiality.
Submitted on 05-05-2006, Date Ethics Statement Placed on Site.

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