NO COUNTRY FOR NEW MEN ??
Good Morning Dear Readers,
I'm here to raise a very deep-rooted, inconspicuous but greatly affecting issue in judging criteria for competitions. I better call it out here itself in case you are wondering what this essay is about ? ...
I've been with indiblogger for quite a while now. And even though I'm not super-active in the community, I keep track of its day-to-day activities. Regardless, I've always been tracking the competitions very closely - the discussions when the contests begin, the excitement and enthu it develops to compel people to write a piece, the innocent but subtle hints people lay out once they've written and submitted them. The yearning for victory, the almost hateful wait. The rainfall of congratulations that come after the results, and the very occasional discussions posing questions on the validity of judging the posts. It's quite easy to look at this myriad dynamics of the day-to-day and be taken away by its beautiful diversity and call it "this is how life is - you win some, you lose some". But instead of taking things for granted, I want to lay out what I've noticed for quite a while now, a definitive pattern of choosing the winner's list. It is almost invisible to the naked eye, but if you have been watching closely, and almost critically, then there be no doubts remaining.
For starters, the competitions (for-profit ones) exist because companies need promotion of their products. So yes, right from the very moment they say GO, they are checking their meters on how much reach and engagement has their campaign garnered. That is the final (and the only) metric for their bottomline, regardless of what happens in the campaign. So when they, every time, come up with a brand new competition, coaxing you with attractive prizes and lazily throwing around words like CREATIVITY, ORIGINALITY & RELEVANCY, they only want you to sprint like a race-horse, rake your brains hard to come up with a piece of writing which is, lets accept it, beautifully unique and humane. They want you to explode with writing prowess and show it around to everyone. They make you believe you are doing all this for your own cause .... so far so good.
But then again, how do you measure creativity? You can recognize it, but can you relatively scale it and compare it between posts ? If there was a barometer, it would be the intuition, experience and rich-imagination-endowed mind of a creative judge who should be into such things - writing, reading, blogging - a literary artist. But is that who the judges are for the competitions everytime? No. They are simply marketing personnel, most of the times, and the only metric they recognize and can measure is the marketing metrics - reach, engagement, views, impressions, likes, comments etc. This will 9 out of 10 times, end up in picking a winner who is more VISIBLE, who has lot of people talking about his/her blog. Do you see it now? it almost seems right, but it ain't. The problem with this setup, undeniably, is that those who are new to blogging or who are not active bloggers, with little engagement, but immense talent and creative acumen, will not be even noticed. Of course, you could easily solve this by specifying in the rules and regulations, the truth! - that apart from those three words, ENGAGEMENT also matters. So why arent they?? because that would be wrong.
ENGAGEMENT SHOULD NEVER MATTER DURING JUDGING. This is a community of creatives. people want to read creative posts, NOT read posts that are popular, or from popular bloggers with a lot of engagement. Those who read popular posts, or posts from popular bloggers, do so because that blogger has put several creative posts before, and people HOPE that the latest post is creative too! You see, everythign comes down to creativity at the very end. I hope the subtle difference is evident to you. Popular blogs got popular because of its rich, creative history of publishing, but popularity is no surety for creative posts EVERY TIME. So when judges simply pick popular blogs, because that is easy to sort out, and that has a higher probability of having the BEST CREATIVE CONTENT, it is just a probability, and not a surety. Many amazing posts from obscure blogs, or new bloggers go unrated, un-nominated, un-appreciated, posts that could pose easy victory over those from the visible ones. This is human nature at its very core, people. The one we need to change, the one which is constantly at change, but at a snail-pace.
It's easy for them, the companies. They make a hasty exit once their purpose is served. and for every indignant criticism, they anyway have a sweeping, and highly unimaginative cover - "Contest rules/guidelines are liable to change at the discretion of the company" & " Decision of the judges/company will be final" . Since the term creativity is highly abstract, they are lazy to come up with a better alternative to judge. And sometimes, at the end of the day, they'd say "why are you so angry ? all you have to do is write one post and you expect such a big prize, for free. dont you think you are freeloading ? ". No sir, we're not moochers. We are doing you a service of promoting your cause, for which you'd be reaping huge profits. you best not make it sound like you are doing a favour to us, while it is the other way round.
The best way to get rid of a problem is to solve it, not get used to it and call it gist of life. There would be several who would question my intention for raising this issue. "he must be someone who is frustrated for not winning", "he must be new here", "he must be impatient and easily affected by defeat". Well, none of the above. I've won a Samsung Galaxy S4 (worth 30k at that time), Microsoft explorer touch mouse, Hampers from many FMCGs, and countless vouchers, and thats just from IB. And i'm a veteran here as well. In fact, I'd be the last person to be telling you all this if it was motivated by something, because i'm at a good place here, have decent winnings, and enjoy the community to the core. But I'm still going to say it, because I'm the perfect candidate to do so. Because it is the truth and there is a problem that need be fixed. Because change is always constant, but it is constant because someone is always unconventional enough to raise the issues. There have been many changes that have come in IB judging criteria, but we need to understand the root-cause of the problem - difference between a creative post and a popular posts/blog/blogger. otherwise there would be no country for new men.
views welcomed. 
Reason: clarifying the essence of the post in the beginning itself
Okay. So, does that mean 'new men' are not kicked out of this country? Man, I had such an outrageous feeling even before opening this thread. I should really stop watching all those opinion-based news shows that are experts of judging from a single angle. It encourages a bad habit. I am a bit old- maybe. But I am unused so I guess I am 'as good as new'.
Nevermind that, for now!!!!But this is something a lot of people know. That's why some people don't participate in contests, but still hang out in forums, come for meets, volunteer, be forum moderators, do something. I am, however, interested to know who said "why are you so angry ? all you have to do is write one post and you expect such a big prize, for free. don't you think you are freeloading ? ". Because this will be a problem for known and hardworking bloggers.
BTW, participating in a contest is not the same as providing a service. You're participating in the hopes to 'win' something. Not everyone gets the benefits out of it. That applies for any contests in general, not just blogging contests. Not that it would deflect the issue at hand, but its always good to know...
I do not contradict with what Kamlesh says and in fact agree with most of it, yet wish to say something about the 'E' word, which I felt is being considered as a taboo.
'Engagement' is not such a bad thing. Contests are an exericise by companies for incraesing engagement of customers with their brand. Aren't they? And a blog with high popularity will best serve the very purpose a sponsore sponsors the contest. So I will not call it 'unethical' if they tell that enagement too will be a criterian in judging. However, they should tell it openly in the beginning (I remember one sponsor had clearly mentioned it under contest rules. kudos!). There is nothing to be ashamed of sponsoring a contest with engagement as a criterian, nor participating in one such is. The key here is to be open about it from the beginning.
My personal blog hardly gets any hits despite having creative content, and I would be perfrctly OK if I loose a contest were enagement is a declared judging criterian.
@saket kalikar : I agree that engagement is a positive and healthy thing for the companies. But if that were the criteria, why not openly admit it ? Also, companies are already getting a lot of engagement because of the competition, does that necessarily mean that the winners should also be chosen as per the engagement criteria? the problem with that setup is that the newbies, and those whose blogs are not supposed to be professional but purely based on interest and creativity will always be smothered. And then they will just stop writing for the competitions. Creativity, originality and relevancy are very good key criteria for judgement, provided judges actually stick to it strictly. Engagment, reach and profitablity can be kept outside the judging criteria at least, as it already is part of the campaign itself.
@the sorcerer , if you are feeling outraged before opening the post itself, its called prejudice. and it is very difficult to have the right opinion when it is contaminated with prejudice. If the issue raised by kamlesh is something a lot of people "already know" then what is wrong in raising it again, if it still persists? So according to you, instead of solving the problem, people should just avoid participating? because they know it is anyway flawed? I'm quite shocked at the kind of views sometimes that floats around this place! and as for your said words :
"BTW, participating in a contest is not the same as providing a service. You're participating in the hopes to 'win' something. Not everyone gets the benefits out of it. That applies for any contests in general, not just blogging contests. Not that it would deflect the issue at hand, but its always good to know..."
Let me remind you that we ARE, in fact, providing a service to the sponsors of competitions, make no mistake! the idea is NOT that everyone is supposed to reap the benefits. the idea is that it should be judged fairly, otherwise sometimes sponsors could have an understanding with a shady blogger who could setup a deal with the sponsor to win a big prize and provide a small compensation to the sponsor back for nominating him. You see, someone still won, but was it the right way ?? I agree with kamlesh that we do have a problem, where the judging process is still not precise, it could be made more transparent, otherwise there will be no basis of judging properly!
It's not a service. If it is, every bloggers who are posting in that campaign will get something like a minimum fee + service tax. But it's not. It's a contest. 1-2 win main prizes, few others get 2nd prizes and then there are the vouchers. Other's don't. It's not as silly as "liking" and "sharing" something in the hopes to win "something", but it's still a contest.
Indiblogger is the one providing service to those companies by providing access to a very large group of bloggers, making it attractive and encouraging for both the companies and the bloggers. You get inspiration to write content, and a decent chance to win something if all is good enough. The problem is, some bloggers have started thinking they're providing a service. That's where the problem comes, when you consider a contest as a service. I've already seen few people going batshit crazy because of this and even had heated arguments with fellow bloggers. Whether judges deem that 'engagement' is a criteria or not is their choice, just like how you decide whether to participate or not. Most of the time, they will. At the end of the day, they will have to look if particular post is generating ROI, exposure, whether the blog looks good enough for their readers to take them seriously enough to be influenced or inspired to try their product or service. Of course quality matters, but so does ROI.
If you have great content and you are not able to reach to a reasonably sized audience, you're obviously doing something wrong. People do love to read creative posts, but its YOU who has to make it work by making it popular to the right crowd.
Good points Kamlesh. It takes some gut to talk about like this, when you are where you are.
I am trying to find a balance between - Quality vs Engagement ---> Leading to Victory !
I don't know about how the challenges are conducted, its been few days here. But yes, I believe this is always going to be there, well even most of them will agree to you, nothing will essentially change !
Ahh, what am I blabberring ! Wait let me talk simple.
Why no one responded to your thread ?
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