I'm writing this open post in response to a few questions regarding podcast awards and why we don't seem to push/care about them.

I received an e-mail today about the 2013 Stitcher Awards. The main problem I have with ALL of these contests is summed up in the e-mail:

"All shows and podcasts that are available on Stitcher are eligible for consideration and shows may be nominated in multiple categories. You, your listeners, friends and family can vote once each day over the nomination period, today through Sunday, December 22nd. "

They are basically spam contests. Who can spam the voting the most, rather than which one actually deserves it. There's something to be said about the number of listeners being equal to the quality of show, etc... BUT I would only seem to support something like that if only one person=1 vote.

Why is this a problem? Don't get me wrong, I like the people over at Stitcher. I've met them before and they are very nice and supportive people. However, this contest, and other ones like "The Podcast Awards" only survive by spamming votes from users. The more times people go to the site and vote, it boosts their numbers and makes their social footprint more valid in the eyes of social media bots. In other words, they are exploiting podcast listeners to further their own profile in the guise that it's a competition or "awards". Not Stitcher, but other sites and contests generate ad revenue from the amount of people visit the page, again, making money off podcasts that create the content.

Keep in mind these are only "nominations", so there may be some validity to the judging that happens afterwards, but the whole process of spamming and taxing listener's profiles is one that I see over and over and don't care to support.

-Kc