Interview with Wally Gross - Part 2

[WG] Most unqualified submissions came from free hosting services. I had little choice but to simply ban these individuals. There is no pleasure in taking such a hard stance, but being tough is sometimes the one and only way. I was, and am, not alone in this stance. Just visit some of the major search engines and other sites of this ilk and you may just notice that similar rules are in place. These people brought this onto themselves by simply refusing to behave in a decent manner. Naturally, when one makes such a limiting rule it drags innocent people into the mix — those that display common decency and good graces. This is truly tragic but unavoidable. Thankfully many of these people soon develop a presence that removes the shackles of free.

Along with this, our submission standards continually evolved with the changes of the web itself. Soon these will once again be amended.

So change is an important factor. We cannot be timid about it; it is one of those little necessities of our times. As we so aptly say, "Nothing stays the same, but change."

Communication is a penultimate factor in both the personal and business facets of our lives. At the core of it all are people. Our people skills are still preeminent. There is a need within all of us for recognition, appreciation and acknowledgment. As ye sow, so shall ye reap is profoundly true. I have done my utmost to pay attention to people and make them feel welcome and appreciated. This above all else is the single most important factor in developing relationships of any kind. If I was asked to give up all of the skills I have learned over my life time and keep only one, I would choose my people skills. They have served me well and have come at the expense of experience, study and dedication.

[IB] Surfers Choice is your creation, but along the way you've had some help. Most major Internet award sites can't survive the workload these days without teams of volunteer reviewers and judges. Who are some of the individuals that have helped to make Surfers Choice the tremendous success that it is? They deserve a pat on the back.

Take your pat on the back Jeff (and bro) because I have great respect for your talents and your enormous contribution to this vast medium. You have been kind and generous to us and many others. This I appreciate immensely. [Editor's note] Wally, don't spend that whole check in one place.

The first person that came along and volunteered her services was Kimberly Warzelhan, a mid-west American gal who was living in Germany at the time. She applied for one of our awards and received another with a somewhat lower ranking. This greatly agonized her, and being a spunky gal, she let her feelings be known. Well, after some terse words and a tough stance on my part, I think she developed some respect and perhaps felt she had met up with a kindred spirit in me.

After some changes, the top award was bestowed upon her, and rightly so. She then became very much involved in reviewing sites and did a marvelous job of it. Kimberly did so much to help us. I think she is, and always will be, a part of Surfers Choice. In fact, I just talked with her last week as we reminisced about the good old days. She is well known as the FrogFrau. Please visit her most superb and useful site.

Jim Wilson of VirtualPromote also did a great deal to help Surfers Choice back in the early days, and still to these more recent times. Jim might be the only other person I know who is busier than I am. He has done volumes to make the Web a better place.

Jeff Whyle of HawkFan.com has been helping me now for about 8 months and is another dedicated and likeable person that I am elated to have in my association.

David Bancroft of the illustrious Award Sites has been a great help to us and indeed the whole Internet awards community. We are grateful for all he does.

Don Chisholm, who lives near me and has become a close friend, is another one of those dedicated people who spends his spare time helping others on the Web. His highly acclaimed site — Website Awards — is one of the quintessential stops along the i-Way for the awards community. His deep commitment to helping people is something I greatly respect.

Dennis VanderWorp of Computer Magic is another kind and gentle human being who I am most fortunate to have as a friend.

There have been so many fine individuals along the way I simply can't list them all here. Take a trip to Surfers Choice Internet Awards and you'll see them mentioned in various places. These are the people that got into the trenches with me and that is something special indeed. Bless them all.

[IB] You recently had to make an agonizing switch from a free award service to a fee-based review to help stem the tide of applications. How has that worked out?

[WG] Actually the switch wasn't all that recent; May 1999 to be exact. I did do test runs for about a year prior to that with a nominal fee of $15 and found that about 65% of submissions were those that deserved the award. There's no fee for sites that don't meet the requirements. Submissions were way down but the quality was way up. That I liked, and I think any Webmaster that has run an awards site would feel good about this result.

As far as agonizing goes, I'll say that it was not at all agonizing (more on that later) and has turned out to be a smart decision. Maybe one of the best I have ever made. First, it has nearly eliminated spammed submissions and unqualified applications, not to mention the fact that more time is available to provide a good service to our member sites.

The Internet Brothers have implemented hierarchical menus for navigation. Easier done than said.

The hierarchical menus were created using Peter Belesis' © Dynomat DHTML scripting tool from Webreference. Give them a visit, you'll like what you learn.

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"...change is an important factor. We cannot be timid about it; it is one of those little necessities of our times."

"If I was asked to give up all of the skills I have learned over my life time and keep only one, I would choose my people skills."