Why Indivine makes me quit Indiblogger

I am with you on this. Hope someone from Indiblogger is listening to this suggestion and makes it better for everyone.

I think a majority of people like Indivine the way it is (I know I do)

Hmm... implementing a "thumbs down" feature might make sense... What do the others think? Suggestions?

I think it is a good suggestion. 

I "upvote" the "Downvote" option

@Magali

I clearly pointed out the basic flaws that Indivine has............ u have merely stated that u like the way Indivine is and not given any reasons why the changes I am suggesting should not be implemented.

If u have reasons, then let me know.

Thumbs up and Thumbs down is just too binary, a five point scale is better. Moreover, it can discourage people if they get too many thumbs down.

A rating is much much better.

I have one more suggestion. People generally don't come back to promote a post, so can it be done, to promote a post from the blog itself.

Somewhat like opening the post in a frame. Like we have in NetworkBlogs.

I guess a rating system (1-5) would make better sense than a Thumbs Up/Down system..also, could there be some time limit set on how long a post is displayed there?

A timeframe does make sense. Many other forums have a 8-36 hour time window after a story is posted. 8-10 hours makes sense for posts where its typically a news post but for creative ones a 36-48hour time window makes more sense.

Indiblogger has a mix of both and if I am right we have 80%+ creative ones so a time window of say 24-36 hours for a post would make sense and chance for every post to get visibility.

I dont think there is any way u can prevent cartelization on indivine, its obvious its happening. What I don't get it is when I am promoting a post it gets counted as 2 votes sometimes and 1 vote sometimes, i don't really get the funda behind it. The rating system seems to be a good idea. I think u should go ahead with it. The rest i think its good they way it is right now.

@ Tavish - If you promote a post from a blogger who is ranked lower than you (Indirank), it gets counted as 2 votes for that person. If the person is ranked better (and equal I guess), he/she gets 1 vote for that vote casted by you.

I, too, support the rating system... Even I think the class of Indivine is not being maintained. Random blogs with virtually no 'top-quality' content are getting good number of votes. :)

From the FAQ's:

I voted once, but the count increased by 2 points. Is that a bug? No, that's a feature of IndiVine. The IndiVine voting system is integrated with IndiRank, where a vote for a higher ranking blog gets more weightage. Let's take for example the blog gujiligalaba.blogspot.com having an IndiRank of 55. Every vote for posts from this blog will have a value of (1 + .55 = 1.55). Votes are rounded off for display. All fresh entries on IndiVine start at 0 votes, regardless of the IndiRank.

Implementing a thumbs down is a good suggestion - nice to have! I welcome the thought!

I am glad to have some support. Its upto Renie & Co to spare sometime and fix this.

well said.

The categories itself aren't great. It would be nice if it could  be reorganised.

A simple step of showing latest posts instead of popular posts, could do promote new content.

On the thumbs down or star , well anything is ok for me, as long as it exists and its annon.  Many might not want to hurt someone's feelings, if they happen to be on their network, and so wouldn't want to give a negative rating

Yes Gayathrie, this is precisely I had suggested Rating system instead of Thumbs down, becoz v may not want to give Thumbs Down. Rating is always relative and positive.

Thanks for the explanation guys... btw i am not for the thumbs down feature... people may just click the thumbs down thing to get their blog higher... i guess the rating system is the best way to go fwd

hey i never thought of that... I guess there are evil people here too! lol

@Sandy

I agree with Tavish 

Thanks for the explanation guys... btw i am not for the thumbs down feature... people may just click the thumbs down thing to get their blog higher... i guess the rating system is the best way to go fwd

Just as he said, many people will vote down posts just out of jealousy. Or to make their posts go forward. In a scenario which you have envisioned, people can vote down 'rival' blogger & ask all their friends to do the same. That is obviously a little far-fletched but still possible. Even Facebook has only a 'like' feature & not an 'unlike' feature. Why spread negativity?

Right now, the method is simple. You like a post promote it. You don't like it, don't promote it. Why pull somebody down?

That is why I was saying that I like Indivine the way it is.

@Magali

Cartelization cannot be too large. At max it may be around 10-15 people who may vote for each other and vote down others posts. I dont see it growing beyond that.

At present 10-15 votes is enuff to make your post amongst the top post in Indivine. Now there 100-200 people (perhaps even more) visiting Indivine. At present they can't vote down a post if it is not good. All they can do is to vote up a post. It is difficult for all of them to agree to vote at one post only. Their vote gets divided.

By giving them right to vote down a post, essentially this anomoly can be removed. Even if one pulls down a particular post, there others who can always pull it up. Ofcourse, even this system is not 100% and people can get away with this too. The point is "There are some bull**** blogs which are rated much higherand thats what makes me sad"

I always thought that Indivine was a great place to promote your blog and discover new and interesting blogs. i follow moree than 30-40 blogs regularly. But this is not the case.

In any case, limiting the time for a post on Indivine is neccessary. I have so far resisted promoting my own blog. But here is a live example:

Just go to the Sports category in Indivine and you would find a post dated April 10th Is Cricket Killing Other Sports in India? Part I  and then there is my post Why is billion strong India a laggard in Sports  . A six month old post that is no where in quality as compared to mine is rated higher than a post that I wrote just 2-3 days ago. If any one of doubt my claim, you are free to read both the posts to decide for yourself.

By no means did I mean to criticize the writer of the earlier post. I just wish to draw attention to the fact that the system is deeply flawed. And moreover this particular post of mine was voted as among the best on Instablogs. In the past too, a couple of my posts have been among the best on other blogging forums but not here. It clearly shows that there is something wrong here.

Blogging is my passion and I usually spend around 2-3 weeks to collect data for any post.

I see what you mean. But I would still be apprehensive if this feature was implemented.

About your sports post, I am by no means a person to judge that, because I don't follow any sport! But that earlier post has been on Indivine a long time. So it's rated higher. Maybe if you wait a little you post will overtake that one.

Clearly, there are flaws. Sandy and everyone here, thanks for taking the time  to point out the problems. Most people just go away. The ones who care about blogging stay and make a fuss!

As the older IB members will know by now, we really don't do much - we just listen and do what the community thinks is best. Such is the evolution of IndiBlogger - the forum, IndiRank, IB of the Month and IndiVine.

The way I see it now, we need to implement a rating system and figure out a way to bring up the fresh topics in all categories, not only the IndiVine homepage as it is now. Please tell me if I'm wrong in grasping the overall picture!

We'll work on this soon - right now we're a few days away from completing the "My Network" overhaul and IndiMail!

@Renie

Since u acknowledged that there is a problem, i am sure u will fix it as well. Here a few suggestions as when u implement the rating system (i hope sooner rather than later)

• Rating system would be far more complicated than the present thumbs up feature. There are two important factors that need to be considered - the actual rating ( an average of all user ratings) and the number of votes. A blog with a rating 3.5 after 10 votes is certainly better than a blog with just 2 votes with a rating of 4. Indirank may also be given some weightage although I am not convinced that it should be used.
• Freshness needs to be given more weightage. At the sametime there can be other ways to more exposure to top rated posts. For instance, u could have a new feature Indi Archive having say top 50 posts from each month. The exact number can be worked out by you based on number of posts you get every month. This would give more exposure better quality bloggers.
• The Indiblogger homepage presently shows the users who are more active on Indiblogger forums. You could also show the users whose posts have been selected amongst the best in the previous month.
• Lastly, I don't think cartelization can be completely removed. I am sure u can easily locate who are people indulging in this if you dig deep in data as to who voted for whom. But that is ofcourse timeconsuming.
• One thing that you can do is show who all voted for a particular post. May be not showing the exact rating but just showing the usernames. Let the Indiblogger users find out if at all there is a cartel.

I would be waiting for such a feature. Others may add in.