YNOT – The GAYVN Awards, which annually recognize outstanding achievement across a number of categories in the gay DVD realms, added nine web-related categories to its slate of 2010 honorees. The nominees were announced Tuesday.“We had an impressive number of pre-nominations this year from across the spectrum,” said Janet Gibson, chief operating officer for parent company AVN Media Network. “The nominating committee was tireless in its efforts to whittle the list down to a manageable size, but none of the categories was easy to narrow. Difficult decisions had to be made.

“We congratulate all the companies and individuals who were pre-nominated. All were worthy entrants, and we’re proud to present the final nominees.”

Among the criteria making the awards process challenging this year was the continuing industry controversy surrounding condomless or “bareback” content.

“Traditionally the GAYVN Awards have not recognized bareback content,” Gibson said. “We chose to retain that criterion this year. That made selecting nominees for the web categories particularly difficult, as non-condom content abounds on the web.

“We dropped two categories from this year’s awards because of the difficulty in finding enough websites that did not offer bareback content in those categories. ‘Best Mega-Site’ and ‘Best Retail/VOD Site’ will not be recognized this year.”

Gibson added that the awards committee is considering guidelines under which bareback content will be considered for next year’s awards.

Hollywood actor and comedian Alec Mapa will host the 12th annual GAYVN Awards, which will take place Sept. 24 at the historic Castro Theatre in San Francisco. Presented by NakedSword, the 2010 GAYVN Awards will be part of the notorious Folsom Street Fair weekend in San Francisco. Other events scheduled for the weekend include a bar crawl through the SoMa district, the massive Magnitude party, NakedSword’s “Lockdown” after-party and the fair itself. For a complete schedule of events, visit GAYVNAwards.com.

Industry admission is $100 (email Beth Noonan for details). General admission is $145; VIP admission — which includes priority seating and entrance to the exclusive after-party — is $175. Both general and VIP tickets are available at GAYVNAwards.com.

All nominees will receive one complimentary ticket, regardless the number of times they were nominated.

For sponsorship and advertising information, contact AVN Chief Operating Officer Janet Gibson by email.

Without further ado, the web-related GAYVN Awards nominees for 2010 are:

Best Affiliate Program
Buddy Profits
C1R Affiliate Program
Kinky Dollars
Video Secrets

Best Blog/Gossip Site
Gay.Fleshbot.com
Queerclick.com
TheSword.com
TowleRoad.com

Best Genre Site
AdultSourceMedia.com (computer-generated animation)
AthleticModelGuild.com (classic content)
I’mAMarriedMan.com (straight guys)
JizzAddiction.com (cumshots)
UKNakedMen.com (uncut men)

Best Live Webcam/Webshow
Active Duty LIVE (ActiveDuty.com)
Cam4.com
CameraBoys.com
Hot House Dungeon LIVE! (Dungeon.HotHouse.com/live)
Live & Raw (LiveAndRaw.com)

Best Porn Star Site
BrentEverett.com
CollinONeal.com
StagHomme.com
TheNewBrentCorrigan.com

Best Web-Based Marketing/Promotion
Athletic Model Guild
Channel 1 Releasing
Jet Set Men
Lucas Entertainment

Web Performer of the Year
Brent Corrigan
Brent Everett
Damien Cross and Francesco D’Macho
Kayden Saylor
Tommy Defendi

Website of the Year
CockBoys.com
HardFriction.com
RandyBlue.com
StagHomme.com
Suite703.com
UKNakedMen.com

Best Web-to-DVD Release
Bound Gods (Kink.com)
Fuck Your Friends! (Jake Cruise Media)
Hard Friction (Hard Friction)
Stag Reel (Stag Homme)
Summer Recruits (Active Duty)
That 70’s Gay Porn Movie (Randy Blue)

To view the list of nominees in the DVD categories, visit GAYVN.com.