Special Memorial Site Criteria

* Memorial sites may use free webservers with a few pop up ads.
* They may also use background music without ability of the viewer to turn it off because the site is a personal site in which the webmaster feels the music is part of their entire work of memorializing thier loved one.
* They may also protect their photos and writings with a right click disabled function.
* This is also the only type of site that mouse cursor trailers will be allowed.
* Like all other sites, Memorial sites must know the secret message and include it in their application.

General Site Criteria

Your Site Should Consist Of:

* reliable and credible information
* interesting content
* attractive and uniquely designed
* correct grammar
* originality and creativity
* Copyright notice page
* visually appealing and color-coordinated, no color clashing please
* an overall theme, all pages should appear the same and do not appear that we have left your site
* your own domain, no free domains please
* easy navigation and functionality
* C.O.P.P.A. Complince notice page, if the site requires users to submit personal information
* fonts that are a readable size, think of viewers with vision problems
* ability to stop background music by the viewer
* English content, none of the judges are bi-lingual
* no more than 3 dead links to outside resources
* functional internal links, there should be no broken links
* obey all copyright laws
* maintained by the person submitting for an award, if you are not the designer, you must give the designer credit on your site (sites designed by professional design companies will not be accepted)
* viewable in both Netscape and Internet Explorer
* an Awards page to display awards won
* load in a reasonable time on a 56K modem
* a 'skip intro' link for Flash sites
* a site update mark, at least, on the main page - site must be currently maintained
* a privacy policy page if the site is business or commercial related

Your Site Should "NOT" Consist Of:

* horizontal scrollbar (1024 X 768 resolution)
* slow load time
* music we can not turn off
* more than 1 applet per page, slows down load time
* spelling or grammatical errors
* mouse cursor trails
* small fonts
* broken images
* different background on each page
* disabled right mouse button, exception to this rule is for pages of a personal nature such as photos of loved one's on memorial sites
* all text written in italics or centered
* every page opening in a new window, they should open in the same window

Automatic disqualification

* non-compliant with C.O.P.P.A.
* copyright Infringement
* crashing or freezing our systems
* designed by professional design companies
* stolen graphics
* sites with a password to enter
* bandwidth theft
* insensitivty to the disabled
* gross material (as is deemed by our judges)
* pornography
* child or animal abuse
* sexism
* racism
* violence
* foul language
* pop-up windows that are not self induced
* material that is outdated or not truthful
* pages requiring more than 2 scrolls (1024 X 768) without an "up" link or some form of navigation at the bottom
* websites which do not display an Awards Won page to their visitors
* the secret message has not been included in your application
* "under construction" or "coming soon" pages or signs
* outside links only, link lists or directories
* sites forcing us to "accept" conditions or disclaimers to enter any page on the site
* unsuitable for children to read