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Originally Posted by Gaile Gray
I will not speak in specifics. That is between the webmaster of any site and the global community team that undertook the reviews. FYI, the review process took several weeks, hundreds of hours, and involved 9 people who attended a two-day global mini-summit meeting with site reviews at the top of the agenda. It could have been a simpler process, we could have taken less time or trouble, but we were dedicated to being fair, reasonable, and as accurate as possible in the assessments, which is turn assures that the rankings themselves are meaningful and valid.
Out of those meetings came considerable feedback about each fansite. Some of that feedback was shared directly with the webmater of each fansite at Official, Elite, or Specialty ranking. Therefore, no change should be a surprise to those more directly involved with the operation of the site. Naturally all sites can be reviewed again in the very near future for a possible change. But the assessments were so thorough, an appeal at this point isn't likely to succeed in an immediate ranking change.
Please understand that a fansite's ranking is not determined by the passion of its participants or the liveliness of its forums. A site is judged by a very complete set of guidelines and requirements, and most of those pertain to the actual site content. We don't assess a site based on the perceived wisdom of the site's forum members, or the collective win/loss record of the participants, or the number of PvP or PvE threads, or the GW rank of the forum leaders. We do incorporate a review of the forums and the forum moderation in the reviews -- no site would make Official or Elite without good moderation -- but the primary determiner of ranking is what the site offers to the visitor on the main pages.
A quick review of the sites that hold Elite status will show you growing content, up-to-date references, and a zeal for providing the community with useful resources. We don't say they must include "Resource A" or "Article Type B." Elite sites run the gamut, and each has an individual character and, for most, a certain viewpoint or focus, as well. An Elite Fansite continues to grow, continues to improve, keeps up on news, keeps current on game issues, and maintains whatever it does offer in the best possible condition. An Elite site updates inaccurate or outmoded content and expands on sections in place that haven't seen any new content in a long period of time.
So with no offense intended for any site that is changed in ranking, rankings do need to be adjusted because the reputation of the entire program rests on validity and truth. We owe it to the community of players to assure that sites hold a designation that clearly confers the quality of what the site has to offer. The community expects, and we will assure, that a site not hold a designation that is belied by what they offer that very community. Conversely, sites can change in an upward direction with effort from the site's members, and any site is eligible for re-review in the future.
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, GWGuru is my favourite.
