So what should you do? Should I send a note to webmaster to fill him in on what I found that was not correct? Wouldn't he or she want to know? These questions go through my mind every time I look at a site which applies for one of my awards. Should I tell them what's wrong?

NEVER. Let me be fully and completely clear about this - NEVER UNDER ANY CONDITIONS, WHETHER REQUESTED OR NOT, SEND BACK CRITICAL COMMENTS TO ANYONE WHO HAS APPLIED FOR YOUR AWARDS PROGRAM. NEVER. After all, if you apply your criteria to letter it should be obvious why site didn't win award - it didn't meet criteria.

There are lots of reasons not to tell webmasters why they didn't get your award.

There is nothing more devastating to a webmaster than getting back critical comments, especially when those comments are not anticipated. It's one thing to be in a classroom environment and receive feedback, it's entirely a different matter to have a professional webmaster tell you your site is horrible or even that "navigation needs work".

Let's say you do send a quick note which explains, "your navigation was difficult to comprehend." Well, now webmaster has to send you an email back asking "what do you mean?" After this, you might spend next week trying to explain what on earth you meant. Wouldn't it be better to be working on your web site, doing your job or taking your kids to circus? The odds of you winning this discussion are very low.

More often, you'll send note and get back an incredibly hostile response. You have not made a friend.

And even more often, webmaster will not send a note back to you at all. You will never hear from this person again. But unkind words will stick in his mind. He or she will be hurt or unhappy.

That's probably one of most important facts to remember about being an awardmaster - you have power to help or to harm. Use that power wisely and you will give people pleasure, reinforce their self-worth and perhaps make them better webmasters. Use it unwisely, and you could even cause them to stop creating web sites altogether.

Don't believe me? Take a look at this note from someone who won one of our awards:

"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Lowe, I want to thank you from bottom of my heart for "heart and Soul" award! I cried when I saw it, as I had given up on it! My health is taking a downward plunge, therefore it means a whole lot more! You just can't imagine how informative and useful your newsletter is to me. Hang superstitions; Friday 13th is lucky for me! :o) Mrs Lowe, I hope this letter finds you in good health! God Bless"

Wow! Now that's having an impact on someone's life!

This is why it is very important to be completely ethical when you run an awards program (we are talking about real website awards programs here, not those that simply give awards to whoever applies). What makes an ethical awardsmaster?

First and foremost is a desire to be constructive at all times. Never give any kind of criticism. Some awardsmasters give advice when specifically asked - personally, my recommendation is to stay away from this practice. Why? Unless you are very, very good at giving advice without making it seem like criticism you are bound to cause someone to become discouraged and upset. Really, your goal is to award good works (and you define what is a good work), not to give out advice.