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Before you ask for your blog to be reviewed.... (Please read)

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Ram Prasad
from Chicago |

Hi:

There are 6000+ blogs in Indiblogger. If a good number of blog owners ask for a review, we'll soon have many more requests than can be handled. (Already there are quite a few requests that are 2-3 days old, and not one review yet.)

So please consider doing this.

FIRST, *you* should review 2 (or 3) blogs for people who've asked to be reviewed. (This is very standard practice in most peer-reviewed forums, and it will really leverage the collaborative power of all bloggers.) If you join a writers group, they will expect you to first critique a couple of others before you yourself ask for one.

NEXT, post the link to your URL and many will surely join in.

A quick critique of someone else's blog requires only two things:

1. go to their blog and see what catches your eye, and what are some aspects that you'd do differently.

2. Mention the postives and the improvement opportunities to the blogger who is seeking your suggestions.

If you do this with the idea of helping the other blogger, your comments will be much appreciated. And lots of people will reciprocate and help you with your blog.

Ram

Replies 1 to 14 of 14

Renie Ravin
from Chennai |

Ram, this is a good suggestion, what do you say to building this into the system? We can also track the reviews, assigning the reviewers a rank....

Ram Prasad
from Chicago |

Hey Renie:

I like the idea of tracking the reviews and also assigning reviewers a rank. I usually shy away from making any mandatory, so you should think about whether you want to *enforce* this.

I think if we ask nicely, most bloggers will do the right thing. Also, there might be some very newbie bloggers who just aren't confident about reviewing others.

Go ahead and start tracking reviews. That will be a good start.

Ram

Pavan
from Bangalore |

Oh! I have to review other blogs too? I don't know if I would do a very good job. But I will definitely try.

Rohit Kumar
from Hyderabad |

I don't understand how this will work. Am I supposed to write up a review of a blog and post it up. Or is the review to be left as a comment on the blog or the forum?

Ram Prasad
from Chicago |

@Rohit:

You simply go to the part of the forum where others ask for their blogs to be reviewed.

Then you visit the blog and take a look around. Make note of what you like and don't care for.

Come back to the forum request and add your comments as a reply to it.

Ram

Renie Ravin
from Chennai |

Guys, we're working on the "Review My Category" feature now. In the meantime, let's start blogging and spread the word about this forum!

Renie Ravin
from Chennai |

As promised, the "Review My Category" option has been given much needed functionality. Now, every request for a review is linked to the blog listed on IndiBlogger, so the same blog cannot be submitted again. Also, you'll find a link from your IndiBlogger profile to the reviews of your blogs. All review pages have a link to the blog at the top, so it's easy to find.

More addons to this feature coming soon, once we get a few other tasks done.

Feedback, please!

Amiya Sarkar
from Calcutta |

This, perhaps, is the stupidest question you have faced. What is a review about and what purpose does it serve? Once I know it, I may come forward. Forgive my naivette.

Ram Prasad
from Chicago |

@Amiya:

Your question is a valid one. I have 'reviewed' quite a few blogs here.

What is a review about: It is our opinion and thoughts about another blog, following a quick look-see.

What purpose does it serve?

For most of us, it is difficult to evaluate and objectively judge our own creations. We are 'blinded' to a lot of things, which a fresh set of eyes can catch at a moment. That feedback helps to make the blog better and more user-friendly.

It is a quick way for each of us to help our fellow bloggers.

Ram

Venu Vedam
from Hyderabad |

Strictly my personal opinion. First establish a good presence on the forum before asking people to review the blog. :)

Amiya Sarkar
from Calcutta |

Venu, I guess, I ought to learn more about "good presence on the forum ". Secondly, I'm NOT interested on "asking people to review the blog. :)" rather, its the other way around. I'll review others', should they want & should my time permit!

sm
from india |

hi

yes right its good suggestion one should review blogs of others members .

Dr Pushkar
from Mumbai |

This review process needs to be streamlined. Here are some of my suggestions :-

1. There should be a precondition for a blog to be reviewed to have atleast 25 or say 50 posts. ( I myself did the foolishness of asking for a review with very few posts before i saw this topic. Never knew there were about 6000 blogs.)

2. These forum requests for reviews with everyone doing it in his style creates bias. (somebody writing a cool statement gets more reviews than others). Instead review requests should be made through comments-like form with

a)Username b)email id  c)no. of blogs  d)title of blog   e)terms & conditions checkbox.

3. Review request page format :-

Name  (No of blogs)          Blog title            Date of submission         No. of reviews

4. Links :-

name :- to users indiblogger page, blog title - blog url, no of reviews- reviews page, date (actually in all forum topics) may be linked to all the activity during that day.

5. Review format should be :-

Comments about  -  a)Basic Design with layout  b)Content   c)Style of writing   d) Misc in a paragraphed manner (optional) . Minimum words limit may or may not be enforced.

6. These are just my suggestions not rules, please dont consider me an autocrat Wink(Hitler).