The Bondage Awards
General FAQ
What are the Bondage Awards?
The Bondage Awards is an annual award honoring the best of the Bondage industry. Established in 2008, the Bondage Awards honors multiple segments including models, riggers, websites, artists, photographers and companies.
What are the categories?
Categories for the 2010 voting year include: (Best) Model, Rigger, Free Website, Pay Website, Writer, Comic Artist, Product, Retailer, Photographer and Company.
How does the voting work?
Voting occurs in three stages:
- Stage One: This is a nomination stage only. Voters can submit the names of people and companies they would like to see win an award.
- Stage Two: This is a public and first voting stage. Nominations from the previous stage will be put into a list. Voters then select and vote for their favorite person or company.
- Stage Three: This is the judging and final stage. A collection of previous award winners and industry professionals will cast their vote.
Once all votes have been tallied, the winners will be presented with an award.
When does the voting start?
The nomination stage starts April 4th, 2010 and will continue until midnight on April 17th, 2010. A one week break will take place while nominations will be processed and prepared for the next stage.
The second stage will begin on April 25th, 2010 and continue until midnight on May 8th, 2010. The final stage of voting will begin immediately and continue until May 22nd, 2010 when the winners will be announced.
How are judges selected?
Most judges are talented people that volenteered to help. The only requirement is the person must qualify for an award. We are accepting judges up until a week before the final stage (May 1st, 2010). If you are interested in helping please give us a shout!
Are there any rules for voting or is it a free-for-all?
Every year we evaluate what went right and what went wrong with the previous year. As issues come up, we do our best to adapt while keeping restrictions to a minimum. There are some rules however that can be found here.
How are votes tallied?
Starting in 2010, we now adhere to a "1 IP = 1 Vote" method of counting votes. Votes can cast a vote each day during the second stage, just not for a person or company they voted for previously.
What prevents someone from stuffing the ballot?
Unfortunately there is not a full proof method of preventing ballot stuffing, however we employ multiple methods to prevent and detect such actions. One method is to track the IP addresses and only allow one unique address to vote per day. While it is possible for people to have access to multiple IPs, it has usually a small handful of votes and not nearly enough to overpower the thousands of legitimate votes each day. We also keep an eye out for patterns and suspicious activity and if any if found, we will take appropriate action.
When does a new day start?
The Bondage Awards operate in the Eastern Standard Time (EST) zone in the United States. This time zone is -5 GMT and encompasses New York City , Boston, Atlanta and Washington DC.
Where can I find past award winners?
All past and current award winners can be found in the Hall of Fame.
Contestant FAQ
How do I get people to vote for me, where do I start?
Since all votes come from the public, start with enticing the public to vote for you. Placing banner ads and mentioning the awards on your website or blog is a good start. You can find Bondage Awards banners on our banners page.
What prizes, if any, are awarded to the winners?
First, second and third place winners will be given gold, silver and bronze award images (respectively) for promotional purposes. They also have the option of having their website banner placed on this site for one year. All finalists in the top 10 will be given an award for promotional purposes.
Why am I (or my company) not listed in the Stage Two voting?
To be listed in the second voting stage you need at least two unique nominations. Spelling errors are frequent in the nomination stage. If you feel you should be listed please contact us and we will look into it.
Are any websites or companies excluded from voting?
Any sites that feature any form of child pornography, illegally distributing copyrighted material or are not operating during the voting process* will be excluded from the voting process. We will not notify any website in the event they are excluded for the reasons above but will explain our decision if contacted. (We will make several attempts to visit the website during the voting process.)
You're missing category XYZ, can you add it?
If you have a suggestion for a new category, we would love to hear it. We encourage everyone post their ideas in our forum. If there is enough support it is likely to be added next year.
How can I get my site listed in the links section?
We are happy to post a text link on our links page, however there are a few requirements.
- We require a reciprocal link/banner to this site year round (not just during voting periods).
- The linked site or person must be eligible for at least one of the awards.
- Sites must be dedicated to the person or company being linked. (Clips4Sale, MySpace, Facebook and similar sites are not considered dedicated. Some exceptions apply, such as Model Mayhem, contact us for details.)
First, Second and Third place winners in any category are eligible to have their banner placed on the page without a reciprocal link. If you meet all of these criteria, please contact us.
My link disappeared, why was it removed?
We periodically check to see if our links are being reciprocated. If our link is not found on an introduction, main or links page on your site we assume our link was taken down. If we missed the link, simply contact us and we will restore your link right away. Sites that choose only to link to us during the voting season are not eligible for the links page.
Can I see how many votes I received?
Once voting has ended and the results have been posted you may request your vote totals.