"An Immune India" Contest

Guys, I've a doubt. 

I recently changed the theme of my wordpress blog. You know they say we shouldn't change the blog contents after submitting our entries for the competition. I'm wondering if changing the theme is going to affect my chances?  I guess none of the links have been modified 

Content should be the same and not the layout and appearance.

So, no need to worry. 

Kamlesh Parikarath no need to worry if you didn't change content or the link....I have an another question..what if the username was changed at Indiblogger..I changed it from techboy to my real name Mohit....It seems that result will be announced soon....

Even that won't be a problem. 

when can we expect the results?

i thought it was this weekend... btw i think Disha's entry will score one of the top prizes. It is simply awesome. 

Which disha ? 

yep your entry disha... loved the videos and the creative post as compared to most which are word n pic posts.... including mine..

I loved Disha' entry for Sunsilk...its cool :) Disha, teach me tooo please :)

I concur with Heena. Great post! I am jealous Disha. All the best!

I concur with you Heena. Great post Disha! All the best. I am jealous now

Anxious and waiting for the results. Like waiting for my 10th results.

when are the results coming??? 

I hate to do this guys, but I have a disappointing update - we found a good post which didn't even feature in the shortlist, while a few other "namesake" posts found their way in. This has put the whole judging process into question, until we hear back from Dabur; hopefully they can clarify this. Really sorry, but we want to do this right - please give us more time. I'll update this thread again tomorrow when I have more information.

Thanks for the update Renie.. 

Great to hear some solid info about the results, Renie. I have my fingers crossed on this one to be on that hallowed shortlist! 

Now is a good time to wish all of you Indibloggers the very best for the contest! Had a blast writing for and waiting for the contest!

Thanks Reni :-) much deserving candidate should win the title. Kudos to you for post analysing the results. 

I'll update this thread again tomorrow when I have more information.

Renie, Today is yesterday's tomorrow!

Know that Team Dabur & IB has been evaluating our entries multiple number of times since December. Small wonder, the number of views have shot up especially in the past fortnight. Trust that the best & most-deserving entries will win

Now is this good news? How will I ever know whether my post was in the shortlist which is considered namesake or among the good post that was not featured 

@Farida If you don't win the lal tail contest I swear I'll chew up my sandals and if you don't win one of the other major lal tail prizes, I will eat up my patiala salwar as well. Your post was that good. Farheena was looking very pretty in the pics.

Rakhee, winning your heart and the compassion you show for my daughter is more than anything I win in a contest. I am not just saying it, they are the words that come from my heart. 

Your heartfelt compliment just made my day! Well, the credit for that goes to you and Farheena. There will be many bloggers who will agree

btw, Renie said there is no issue with the main prize winners, only consolation. Good news I guess.

Renie Even if it is late most bloggers won't get disappointed but it is necessary that they should be going through each and every post...Not only considering the Indivine votes...Renie hoping to hear from you again very soon.....

Hey Renie thanks for the update 

After reading Renie's update in this thread as well as in the other Dabur contest where he has spoken of personally removine 9 plagiarists, I am left contemplating mechanics of the winner selection at the various Indi contests. Well, I have been around since 2012 so this is not new for me and I have seen many many contests and discussions now to raise such a basic question but I am just left thinking that if Renie and his team find a 'genuinely very good' blogpost that they highlight to the correspoding brand, how much is the role they play in decidind the winners? There are two views here: if the brand did not find that entry good enough, it's fair that they left it out of the winner list hence Indiblogger should not be making them reconsider their decision just because it thinks this entry is good and must be included among the winners. Second view could be that Indi continues to be the moral police here and ensures that no worthy entry gets left out even if it means that their personal preferences in terms of what makes a genuiney good entry come into play in all contests because of this.

Now, I am in a fairly senior position in my own company and co-incidentally as one of my responsibilities, I lead the rewards program for my business unit too. I consciously refrain from suggesting winners to managers because I feel that my bias should not come into play at all in the wide gamut of rewards that we give out to all our employees. Each performance award has a very different criteria and hence each time managers end up selecting a different bunch of winners quarterly. If my say extends beyond the basic administration then there is a risk of my definition of "what makes an ideal award winner" come in each time. 

I'm not yet entirely decided which approach is right but thinking aloud here to hear other bloggers' opinion on this.. Not trying to start any argument too, already battle enough detractors at work to argue about rewards here too 

So, if Renie suggested "good post" end up winning....?

@Kapil: Then next time we will try and write what Renie likes and not what we think is part of the brand strategy 

That may not work always-

(1) In apollo contest those who praised the brand won. And there was no IB team's intervention.

(2) while in colagte contest, IB team made the colgate guys to do the re-evaluation as IB team was not satisfied with the result.

so morale of the story is- believe in your stars. 

I know both the cases Avadhoot 

But, what do you think about my earlier musings on Indi's views on 'good post' and 'ideal winner'? 

You concern is right, canary.

all depends on sponsors and their requirement. Some sponsors just want backlinks, some seek just an air of advertising while others seek specifically written blog advertising.

This is why evaluation approach appears differently in different contests.

Well, Canary - Indiblogger needs both bloggers and sponsors on board. If bloggers start dwindling, sponsors will also go away. Less than half the bloggers participating in contests are product promotion bloggers. So if all sponsors keep selecting randomly or only product promotion posts, contest participation will dwindle - subsequently sponsors will also start desserting the ship due to lesser reach. So Indi has to intervene to avoid this.

I agree with you Canary... I too manged the same wherein the prizes where much grand than these contests put together. It were in Lakhs. My evaluation and selection criteria were defined and we stick with it even though the winner may not be better than who did not win but then thats always a debatable topic.

The difference however was that we had a "method to madness" and it was auditable process that I would throw at my legal and finance arm and even external auditor. Sponsors who wants just backlinks does not make any sense to me unless you give them 1000s links that matures to sales. Yes what is good and what is better is a judgment that vary from person to person...I just hope that my posts dont fall into "biased" namesake posts of anyone as I wrote them with much heart, content and unique form [at least thats what I prefer to think and work accordingly] Lets hope for the best and buck up the encouragement for Team Indiblogger!

well said- The Fool.

Sponsors who wants just backlinks does not make any sense to me unless you give them 1000s links that matures to sales.

The amount of sales matters more than the number of links resulting in a sale. A single HNI arriving through a backlink may do more shopping than the same of a score of common people.

Avadhoot I understand that but when you say something as "motherhood" as that, it should be backed by some stats..in particular IB contest and winners stats...no?

Some Positive vibes... :) Happy about it... Thanks Renie for sharing the info

If the selection is going to be based on backlinks, then that is a sad decision. 

Selection is not based on just backlinks. 

what I meant to say was how different sponsors come with contests for bloggers having a particular goal in mind. For some sponsors a backlink may result in sales.

are we there yet ? ... 

A single HNI arriving through a backlink may do more shopping than the same of a score of common people.

Avadhoot, I agree with this. This is as per the 80-20 Pareto Principle in Management- 20% of shoppers are responsible for 80% of sales!

20 % of shoppers being responsible for 80% sales is more true in "wholesale" than the "retail" business. Pareto must be tumbling in his grave!

Pareto Principle is a basic Management Principle that holds true in life,"retail business" included!

That is why it is a 'Principle'. Pareto was very correct. He deserves kudos!

who is Pareto and what are you guys discussing...its all going above my tiny head i thought backlinks are to improve google search rankings ...

ND bouncers  check this out

Pareto

thanks babaji... 

If not an Immune India in a medical sense, let us be immune to each other's jibes. Let the ethos of the competition be the talk of the forum. Let's be game guys and wait for the final word on the results, which I hope is not too long!