Worst and Best List 2008 - Phase 1: The Nomz

by Susan Howson

It’s an age-old, one-year tradition for us to read Richmond Magazine’s popular Best and Worst list and craft a cunning response. Well, maybe I’ve been pouring myself too many tall greyhounds and allowing myself to be distracted by HBO’s John Adams (now out on DVD!), but does the Best/Worst list seem harder to make fun of this time than ever (that one time) before? I mean the categories this year were sort of foolproof and specific, and everything made a lot of sense, and I only flagged a couple of things in my (ahem) print issue that I (not really) had to buy.

However, we shall press on, RVANews readers! I, for one, will not be discouraged by the unmockable Richmond Magazine. This year, we’ve morphed the 2007 Best/Worst Recount into our very own WORST AND BEST LIST 2008. This means that we’re going to overlap a little bit with Richmond Mag* in order to find out how our readers may or may not differ from theirs, but for the most part we have painstakingly outlined our own categories over the course of ten full minutes. Categories we want to know your opinion on! Categories that matter!

Here are your instructions:

You are entering Phase 1, the Nomination process. During Phase 1 you will access this link in order to nominate your fave restaurants/hot Richmonders. You can nominate as many as you like, and everything nominated will show up in the final poll (within reason). You then hit Submit or OK or whatever Survey Monkey says, IM the link to a bunch of your friends, and wait patiently for Phase 2: The Poll. At that time, you take a much easier multiple choice survey, which will result in a comprehensive wrap up, which will result in a less comprehensive series of comments from people totally pissed about either the Patrick Henry school or our readers’ pick for worst restaurant.**

A few guidelines, just so you know:

1. We would really, really like to keep this to locally-owned businesses. That means Ukrop’s counts but Barnes & Noble does not. Belmont Butchery counts but T.G.I. Friday’s does not. I think we’re all on the same page here. We will, however, be offering an option at the end of each category in the survey that allows you to indicate that you’d rather suffer the injustices of chain businesses than patronize the slim pickings in that particular category.
2. You may notice that we left out anything and everything involving blogs. In case you’re just joining us, RVANews also hosts a very detailed blog awards survey at another time of the year, and no one wants to reinvent the wheel.
3. That’s right, we include the “Worst” version of the category. While this is shaky ground, for sure (no one wants to drive traffic away from local businesses, really), we feel like it is still a legit ambition. Constructive criticism is helpful, right? RIGHT? Right.
4. You are highly encouraged to make comments in any available box in the survey. You like writing them, we like reading them, and you have a very good chance of being quoted later on.
5. It is completely OK to nominate yourself as Hottest Richmonder. And if you just put “Hot Waitress at Ipanema”, we’ll know who you mean. We’re RVANews, man! We are like THIS with hot waitresses!

Here’s that link again: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=sJvpeNtLdmOZcQSfh9QtzA_3d_3d
Go forth and nominate! You’ve got until Sunday, August 17th to go crazy! Now go, nominate like the wind, send to all your pals, and post questions/suggestions below.

*Not to be confused with RVA Mag, which is not to be confused with RVANews, which is not to be confused with RVABlogs, which is not to be confused with BlogHer. Which is not to be confused with Bryn Mawr. Which is not relevant to any of you except me and my college pals (who would seriously LOL, for real).
**Local internet humor!!