10 years later: PhinPhanatic is 10 years old!
By Brian Miller
Typically I wouldn’t include something like this but it’s a testament to every person who has been a staff member here. Every person who has come here to read an article and more importantly to the FanSided Network.
There is nothing personal here for me except gratitude. In 2011 I represented FanSided at the annual Web Weekend hosted by the Dolphins. It would be my 5th year at the annual event and the first year I would be accompanied by my son along with my brother and his son.
The Dolphins weekend event consists of a Friday night get together or meet and greet followed by an event on Saturday morning. Either a stadium tour or a Special Teams charity event. On Saturday night it’s a dinner, training facility tour, and an awards event where special guests such as head coach, general manager, GM, and former players come to talk and answer questions.
This year would be especially gratifying. For the first time in our five years of existence PhinPhanatic.com won three “Webbie” awards. The first, Most Informative Site. It was an amazing and incredible feeling to stand up in front of my friends and peers. Then came the 2nd, Best Features and Fan Columns. Again I was shocked.
These awards are not simply handed out by the Dolphins. They are voted on by the other websites that are invited to attend and thus it’s an honor to be recognized by your peers for doing something of this nature.
Not expecting any the first two were surreal but when they awarded us the Best Overall Site, it was jaw dropping. The Tom Eddie Award is given out each year to the best overall website as voted on by again, the other sites. It is named in honor of Tom Eddie a former Dolphins webmaster and one of the original fan site founders.
It was and still is an honor to have won this award. I found myself in the company, uncomfortably and somewhat sheepishly undeserving, along side Curt Fennel of the Phins.com and Doug Ford from Phinatics.com. A couple of the first webmasters to host Dolphins websites.
Since 2011, PhinPhanatic has won the Tom Eddie award in 2012, ’13, ’14, and ’16. It pushes us to do better each year and reminds us that we have to work harder to give our readers the best we can offer even when our best sucks.
Sometimes, things are not always great.