Academy Awards Discussion: Regarding "bring back the Oscar Igloo"

Hi guys,

Long time since the last time I made contact with all of you.

Reading your comments about The Oscar Igloo brought back really good memories, it even made me - if for a second - want to resume my online work as an Oscar buzzer. Unfortunately, I can't do that anymore as I have acquired new responsabilities and that is, as some of you may not know, the main reason behind the switch from The Oscar Igloo to Awards Circuit.

See, when I created The Oscar Igloo, it all started as a response to all the message boards where I tried to fit in when I originally became interested in the Academy Awards (around the time of my arrival to California from Alaska to study film). I noticed many forum posters back then were really biased and uncapable to accept other people's point of views and opinions.

I quickly realized I couldn't get from those websites what I really wanted and so, I decided to create my own. By myself, with mininum knowledge of website editing and the perennial disadvantage of having learned english as a second language; I created a free Geocities website to cover the 2003-2004 Oscar race. But this was not just a website where I could post my personal rants about why the Academy sucks for not nominating my favorite actors, this would be a website that would invite people to become part of it, with no judgement or negativity; this would be an unbiased site devoted to the Academy Awards and also devoted to those who come close together out of the passion that these unique "sport" evokes.

Within the first months, the site's popularity grew vastly and a free website was no longer able to sustain it's own traffic and yours truly wasn't able to do it all alone either. So by the time the 2004-2005 race had started, the Igloo was already a team of writers with different views working together to achieve the same goal: inform and entertain our readers without imposing opinions or trying - too hard - to become the news.

I like to think the main reason behind The Oscar Igloo's popularity was the loyalty that formed between our writers and our readers, and viceversa. As a team, me as editor and our writers such as my friend Clay Davis kept a strong and respectful relationship that I believe reflected in our work and at the same time, this positive energy trascended into our audience (who I always considered and thanked for being part of our community).

We had millions of individual clicks per season, we had deals with top Hollywood studios like Warner Brothers, we had access to events and screenings but the main reason the site was active for all those past years - even when my available time to work on the site continued to crunch - was the great feedback from our readers, you guys.

With the site perfectly positioned within its niche (to the point where it was already under the sight of AMPAS), it was sad for me to conclude I was no longer able to work on it for another awards race. It was time to decide where to let it die or to let it live under the direction of a trusted friend.

It was me who came up with the Awards Circuit concept as a broader, bigger Igloo when AMPAS requested us to remove the word "Oscar" from our already popular brandname and it was me who coached Mr. Davis during what we knew, would be a very tough time period of adjustment for all parts involved.

See, an editor's job is not easy. It requires a lot of patience and thick skin but mostly, it requires the constant task of identifying a market and what this market wants and/or needs (this always being a risky, difficult choice to make).

The Oscar Igloo gave Oscar buzzers - I hope - a fun, interactive and friendly home where they were able to express themselves freely and discuss topics that - let's face it - generally only appeal to less than 1% of the population in the world.

So when I come here after a long hiatus and read all this unfair and harsh criticism over a growing project like Awards Circuit that is still a work-in-progress and that never had a chance to take time off to find its own identity (the difference between the Igloo-AC transition and the OscarWatch-AD transition remember, is that the terrific Sasha Stone remained a constant in the latter), it saddens me but also; it gives me the motivation to continue to work along my colleagues of the Awards Circuit to provide great service to our loyal readers and fix what may need to be fixed.

Awards Circuit needs work, yes and priorities need to be discussed, yes and while we have brought in a new audience that seeks different type of entertainment commentary, yes; we have abandoned a bit our original readers but here's the good news; there's always something that can be done to improve and there's always something we can do to bring together the past and the future into something great.

For me, Awards Circuit has naturally expanded into a bigger and better website and I support the choices made by our current editor. I also acknowledge that maybe AC is not as intimate as the Igloo used to be and because of this, it has lost a sense of familiarity with our old readers but I hope for the best we can find balance soon and I know we can all work together to create the same rapport we had established during the Oscar Igloo days.

I can only thank you for being with us through this tough phase and also; thank you for being a part of our community.

Sincerely,

Johnny Alba

Regarding "bring back the Oscar Igloo"

I have nothing but respect...