Starting today, Discover Pods Awards nominations are open through October 30th at 5pm ET. Podcasters, feel free to nominate your own podcast and campaign on your behalf with your audience.

However, like previous years, ballot stuffing is discouraged and will result in your podcast being disqualified. Though total number of nominations are one variable to help determine the finalists, it’s not the only metric that matters.

After nominations close, a group of podcast fans and critics sift through the nominations to narrow down and ultimately select the finalists.

After much discussion and consideration, we’ve decided to remove specific categories around gender and race.

Instead, vowing to incorporate more diversity into the finalist selections.