This is just my own little self-adulation which I'm going to allow myself and I enjoy with relish. Please be lenient towards this showing-off, I really spent so much time (too much for the common sense), my sparse little gray cells and sometimes all of my nerves for my little baby - this page.

But don't worry, I'll try to pull myself together to sport only those awards which have an importance (although I can't resist if an award is really beautiful or comes from a dog, cat or horse site).
Those are very welcome and I want to thank you for it and let you know that I really feel honoured! The following awards are shown with pride:

WINNER OF THE PCTIP CONTEST

DATE:   2001-02-07

DESCRIPTION: "PCTip is a Swiss computermagazine of "Tages-Anzeiger", one of the two big Zurich newspapers. In this contest, the best private Homesites were awarded, the first prize is a Dell-Notebook."

LAUDATIO: The article can be seen here.

KOMMENTAR: I'm beside myself with joy, I can't really beleive it! Never I did win anything before - und now it is a real Notebook! This is in two ways a stroke of luck: first Drachenstein is done on a notebook already, but it's pretty old and very weak, now I don't have to worry about anymore! And then, when the magazine will be published, Drachenstein is one year old - can there be a more worthy anniversary and present for a Homepage?
I really can't express my happyness with words, therefore let me only say: many, many thanks for the biggest possible honour for a small private homepage to PCTip!

VODOO-IT:  WEBSEITE OF THE WEEK

DATE:   2001-03-01

DESCRIPTION: "Voodoo-it" is an internet portal and a search engine for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Actually I just registered my liltle page to the search engine, therefore I was very surprised and happy that Drachenstein was chosen for the Web Site of the Week! Thanks a lot to Thomas Blaser and the Voodoo-it team for it!

LAUDATIO: "hallo wolfgang, eure website wurde in die voodoo-it db aufgenommen und weil sie wirklich toll gemacht ist gleich auch noch fuer eine woche als website der woche eingetragen...."

ARIANAMANIA AWARD

DATE:   2001-02-08

RATING: 4.0*

DESCRIPTION: "ArianaMania" is the Site of Nicole, made with love and style. It catched my eye already in the beginnings of Drachenstein, it's what I call a perfect page. Therefore it was important for me to get an approval from Nicole, just to see if I'm at least on the right way..."

LAUDATIO: "Hallo Wolfgang, Herzlichen Glückwunsch! Mit Deiner schönen Dalmatiner-Seite hast Du den ArianaMania Award in silber, ID 11, gewonnen. Ich habe Deine Seite ja öfter besucht und finde, dass Dir ein schönes Design in blau, das sehr gut zu den Punkte-Hunden passt, gelungen ist. Deine Homepage wird bei mir als Gewinner verlinkt..."

COMMENT: How already mentioned this award means a lot to me. Nicole, you do not sound just as if you nearly fall over backwards *ggg* - but a Silver-Award from you is something to be said for it! With my chest puffed out: many Thanks to you, Nicole of ArianaMania - this beautiful award fits SUPER to the Drachenstein design!

TIGER AWARD - ZURICH ANIMAL PROTECTION

DATE:   2001-01-28

DESCRIPTION: " For my dalmatian FAQ (unfortunately it's only available on the German version of DRACHENSTEIN) which shall prevent people from buying a dalmatian without thinking and knowing about this breed, I received today this great award!

LAUDATIO: "Die Jury des Zürcher Tierschutz hat im Internet bemerkt, dass Sie eine hervorragend gestaltete Website mit wertvollstem Inhalt für Tierfreunde betreiben. Aus diesem Grunde wurde Ihre Homepage mit dem "Tiger Award", einer exklusiven Auszeichnung für exzellente Website-Gestaltung im Tierbereich, geehrt.
Auf der Grundlage der Jury-Entscheidung sind Sie berechtigt, den "Tiger Award" auf Ihrer Homepage im gewünschten Gestaltungs-Stil aufzuschalten.
Wir gratulieren herzlich zum "Tiger Award" und grüssen Sie freundlich aus der Schweiz.
ZÜRCHER TIERSCHUTZ - Hanspaul Schellenberg, Vorsitzender der "Tiger Award" Jury

COMMENT: Es freut mich wirklich, dass ich mit meinem FAQ auch einen ganz kleinen Teil zum Wohle der Tiere beitragen kann. Noch mehr freut mich, dass sogar der Zürcher Tierschutz dies honoriert. Es ist eine grosse Ehre für mich, diesen Award entgegennehmen zu dürfen, wofür ich mich ganz herzlich bei Hanspaul Schellenberg bedanke!

BLANKIS TEXT & DESIGN AWARD - SILVER

DATE:   2000-11-22

RATING: 4.5*

DESCRIPTION: "Very good one from Germany offers three levels (gold, silver, bronze) to non-commercial sites. Reviews text, content, spelling, design and "heart-blood". (Laudatio is in form of a rhyme.)"

LAUDATIO: This is the original rhyme in german (sorry folks). The detailed version of the laudatio and the judgement of the different criterias can be found on the Winners Page of Blanki's Home (it's in German and English and worth a visit).

COMMENT: This is a very special one to me. Not only because Werner (Blanki) really cares and 'cause he's a real poet. It's also one of the most beautiful awards.
No, there's also a story behind. First my site seemed to crash Blanki's PC (I'm really sorry about that). But because he anyways wanted to give a bronze award he informed me about this (thats's very nice!). After long discussions and tests - he spent a lot of time with me: THANKS! - at the end he also knew all the slightly hidden things on this page which then qualified my little spotted site for the silver award *cheer*. My attempt to express my gratitude of course also in a rhyme:

COOL DOG SITE OF THE DAY

  &  

DATE:   2000-10-12

RATING: -*

DESCRIPTION: "dogmark.net" is a great site to find some unusual dog sites on and a good starting point for dog lovers to surf the net. There is a new site listed for each day of the month as well as a selected monthly BEST DOG site.

LAUDATIO: "Hello, I am Takashi Ito, a Webmaster of dogmark.net "Cool DOG Site of the Day" introducing Cool Dog Site of the World everyday. Congratulations! "dogmark.net"selected your wonderful site "DRACHENSTEIN" for "Cool DOG Site of the Day" on October 12,2000.
Your Site is surely the nominee for monthly BEST DOG Site. Many thanks again for your Cool DOG Site. I really enjoyed it!"

COMMENT: Thanks a lot to Takashi from dogmark.net to pick my site! And what a surprise for me that Drachenstein then was also elected for the Monthly Best Site for October 2000!

DATE:   2000-10-03

DATE:   2000-10-04

DATE:   2000-10-06

DESCRIPTION: My funny cats were chosen as pets of the day at "The Pet Channel". All these winning picture are also part of the picture gallery of this site.
Just click on one of the thumbnails above to see a bigger picture of it this "Pet of the Day" page.

COMMENT: We are very honoured and proud! Mischu and Strolchi are asking now for mice for each photo I want to take of them... Of course I can't accept such demands since they have to "collect" their mice on their own...

ZIARA - AWARD: THE PERFECT GEM

DATE:   2000-10-22

RATING: 4*

DESCRIPTION: "The ZIARA Awards are handed out to websites who help to bring the Information available on the WWW to a higher standard of quality. The Information (content) on internet is presented (design) digitally (technology). Those 3 aspects are each represented by their corresponding ZIARA Award. The Perfect Gem is handed out to sites that are OUTSTANDING in each of those 3 aspects."

LAUDATIO: "Congratulations!!! We are proud to hand you the ZIARA Award : The Perfect Gem. Your contribution to the developpement of QUALITY and BEAUTY on the internet is tremendous. Thanks to sites like yours, the internet can continue to hold its true meaning: Outstanding content and Information - Beautifull and pleasing!
After visiting some thousands of websites, you achieved to impress me!!! The standards for obtaining a ZIARA awards is HIGH, but your website exceeds all definitions of a good website!"
Comment on the winners page: "WOW! I was very impressed when discovering this website. The design is a REAL GEM. The content is great fun and the introduction a smart parody of another kind of websites. A MUST SEE!"

COMMENT: I'm that flattered to win in all of the three categories! What a day guys... And last but not least your very beautiful award fits perfect to the color of this page!
Thanks a lot to Christian Van Simaeys of ZIARA for your time, the best "laudatio" I ever got and of course this award which makes me happy and spurs me into action to improve my small page!

HARBESON MEDAL OF EXCELLENCE

DATE:   2000-10-18

RATING: 4*

DESCRIPTION: "The Medals of Excellence are given in recognition for the positive contributions website designers make to the World Wide Web. It is our intention that in some little way we help make the Web a better place for everyone. We all spend hours and hours fine tuning our efforts and our program is just one way to say thanks to webmasters and webmistresses for doing a great job on their sites."

LAUDATIO: "Please accept the Harbeson and Associates Silver Medal of Excellence for your design work on Drachenstein. It meets our criteria for a place that makes the world wide web a better place to visit."

COMMENT: I just LOVE it to get among all the spam mails filling my mailbox one that makes me happy like this! I'm very honoured and proud to get this nice award. Thank you Will from Harbeson and Associates for it and all the time spent checking and surfing the sites!

SILVER SURFER AWARD

DATE:   2000-09-17

RATING: 4.5*

DESCRIPTION: "Our purpose for the SilverSurfer is to offer, as the award imply's an avenue for people like you to surf the net and see quality home and business pages. What we are looking for: Innovation, creativity, pride, a signature saying this is my creation and I want the world to see it, expression as a definition of what your page is, whether it be a business page or a personal page. Mesmerize us, shock, us, sooth us, surprise us, take us on a trip, make us want to stay, induce us to read your words or buy your product. If your page is about shooting marbles, make us want to play. We thrive on this and we want it, in fact we demand it."

LAUDATIO: "Greetings Wolfgang, We are proud to have the SilverSurfer on such a page as yours...It not only reflects your taste...But also ours..We thank you...
Your plaque will be placed under *GOLD* You will find this at: http://home.earthlink.net/~fragile/shadowrun/winners.html .Again..We are honored to have this award on your page.. Congrats on a *GOLD*...You are one of the best.... ShadowRun

COMMENT: What a surprise on this sunday morning - the first "real" gold award. That's a big honour for a small site - thanks a lot to Frank from the great ShadowRun Site!

SILVER SPHERES WEBSITE AWARD

DATE:   2000-09-10

RATING: 4.5*

DESCRIPTION: "..one of the main aims of The Silver Spheres Award Program is to recognize excellence in internet design and originality. A site that qualifies for a top award at Silver Spheres should be one that shows excellence and inspires awe in the average user.
By earning this title, the winning site has demonstrated accomplishment of the highest order..."

LAUDATIO: "...well done Wolfgang, your site (Drachenstein) has been judged by all three judges on the Silver Spheres judging panel and it gives us great pleasure to announce that you have won the MERIT AWARD! Your site will be placed in the winners page of Silver Spheres http://www.silverspheres.com/winners.asp ..."

COMMENT: Many thanks to Silver Spheres - I'm very honoured to be a recipient and are proud to present this award here!

THE WOW WOW WOW AWARD

DATE:   2000-09-10

RATING: 4.5*

DESCRIPTION: Rewards the hard work accomplished in web site design. It is given to sites that show a particular talent in the way to combine graphics and content, and so to create a unique place, and a positive contribution to the world wide web.

LAUDATIO: "Hello Wolfgang, Congratulations! Your web site "Drachenstein" has won the WowWowWow Bronze Award! We found it particularly interesting for its Contents and its general Appearance. We enjoyed visiting your site, and we thank you for this very good contribution to the Web."

COMMENT: This is a great honour, I'm very happy that WWW likes my small page - thanks a lot to Michel Nag at GRAPHIWEB!

SCORPIOSITE COOL SITE AWARD

DATE:   2000-09-13

RATING: 2.0*

DESCRIPTION: No real known criteria (what a site will be judged on) although you have to put something of yourself on the site and ".....Of course, the really good sites by the really clever people who put little effort into it still get one :)..."

LAUDATIO: "A Great site and a worthy winner."

COMMENT: Thank you Jay from Scorpiosite for your time to check my site and your very nice award!

TAMARAS GIFT

DATE:   2001-01-24

DEDICATION: "Keine Ahnung, ob es dir gefällt bzw. ob du es gebrauchen kannst, aber ich wollte dir einfach gern eine Freude machen, weil du ja manchmal recht lieb sein kannst :-))) Welche Mühe dich das kostet, rechne ich dir natürlich hoch an!!! (Frechheit *g*! Anm. von Wolfgang)
Ja, und wenn dir das Bild nicht gefällt, dann macht das nichts. Das würde lediglich mein ohnehin dürftiges Selbstbewußtsein schmälern, mich in tiefste Tiefen der Depressionen stürzen, mein Weltbild arg ins Schwanken bringen, mein Psychiater müßte meinetwegen Überstunden machen, ich würde den unweigerlich darauf folgenden grauen Alltag nur noch mit Alkohol ertragen können, und beim Anblick von weißen Flächen mit dunklen Punkten würde ich aufgrund eines Weiße-Fläche-dunkle-Punkte-Traumas Panikattacken bekommen, deren Ausmaße denen eines Dunkle-Fläche-weiße-Punkte-Traumas gleichkommen würden!!! Also falls dir das Bild nicht gefallen sollte, dann ändere doch bitte mir zuliebe deinen Geschmack - so ist dann uns beiden geholfen."

COMMENT: Schade, so kommt die Welt um eine lallende Tamara (man bedenke den Unterhaltungswert!) und die Psychiater um ihre Brötchen... Tamara, ich freue mich riesig über das schöne Teil - vielen lieben Dank!