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Why don't sponsors follow their own guidelines while judging contests?

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In Blogging Ethics

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Khushboo Motihar
from Mumbai |

Hi all,

The results of the Dove Indimeet contest were announced last night. While I have nothing against the winners, I would like to know why didn't the judging team follow the guidelines set out by them. 

The email that was sent said, "Write a blog post with your experience on the #DovePlay event and your experience with the Dove products. Please include this link on your blog as well, as this will help guide your readers to know more about Dove Intense Repair with Keratin Actives." A majority of the winning posts simply pasted the link at the end without even talking about their experience of using the product. 

I want to know what is the point of having any guidelines or theme at all if they are not even going to be taken under consideration while judging the contest?

Please not that this not a personal attack on any of the winners. I have no grudges against them. I just want an answer either from Indiblogger or from the sponsors. 

Replies 1 to 6 of 6

Bhavana Lalwani
from Jodhpur |

iska koi ilaaj nahi .. no one gave participant a formal invitation to take part in the contest/meet etc so now whatever is the result accept it .. Undecided

Khushboo Motihar
from Mumbai |

Yes, but that does not mean we allow them to do whatever they want. Why do they set rules then? If we don't speak out against it, it will continue. While the results of the above mentioned contest will not revoked, at least sponsors will be a little responsible in the future. 

Kitchen mummy
from Kundli |

I'm not quite sure of the rules for this meet as I was not a part, but as this is a very valid point you have raised I want to add a few other issues which should be raised to the sponsors on behalf of all bloggers:

  1. Time commitment in judging
  2. Time commitment in sending prizes (e.g. Bacardi where they responded after 4 months that prizes itself don't meet legal requirements - these checks should have happened before)
  3. Quality commitment in judging, meeting all stated criteria etc
  4. Checking the prize distribution before contest announcement (e.g. Dove vouchers where many bloggers couldn't access salons)
Khushboo Motihar
from Mumbai |

I completely agree with you. Nowadays, I feel that with the introduction of new contests nearly every week, the standards of Indiblogger are dropping.

Desire v/s Destiny
from Gurgaon |

I dont agree to standard being dropping , may be its the case of you getting to see low standard posts only.

Generally I feel IBloggers are of very high quality

Gaurab
from New Delhi |

I agree with the points as they will in a way help improve the quality of the contests and hence the IB family. I have felt that in some contests "few" winners are really "odd". 

I would like to add a point to above points -

5. Stating a broad judging criteria. (i.e, what are things that will be taken into account and there respective weightages like creativity will have highest weightage and vocab will have the lowest and everything in between)

Khushboo Motihar
from Mumbai |

I meant standards of the judging process and not of bloggers.

Desire v/s Destiny
from Gurgaon |

Can we Point fingers at Judgement : yes we can !

CyberKID
from India |

Even then, the DECISION OF THE JUDGES WILL BE FINAL AND BINDING. Tongue out

knitha.urs
from Bangalore |

If we dont rise the voice when its needed...then bloggers will be taken for granted...

Bhavana Lalwani
from Jodhpur |

Then very first thing a contest need is Clearly Defined  Judges Panel .. who will be the JUDGES.. their names and profiles .. and tell me why they should not take the bloggers for granted .. every day a new blogger is emerging and so the contests are being poured .. when htings went wrong with cadbury and sunsilk why we didn't take any action.. those who got prizes were quiet and only those who dint even get that promised gift hamper (sunsilk case) were shouting and asking .. and who knows what will happen in borosil case .. they have promised for 1k voucher for every entry .. !!!!!!!!!  I dubt tht all entries wont get it.. the company is not mad .. they will sure make some entries invalid .. tab unka kya hoga jinhone 10-12 posts likhi hain ... what happened in safari storme contest .. what was the theme and how they changed it later on and the winners posts (not read all still a few) had hardly anyhting to do with the original theme .. ppl like me who wrote purly according to the theme (sci fi genre) got tht consolation prize of 1k voucher .. was that FAIR ??? and even then in the list of consolation prizes, there were average  or say stupid kind of posts .. so where is the quality and parameters of judges.. they chose what they felt is good .

Khushboo Motihar
from Mumbai |

@Bhavana it would be really nice to have judges with a face and a name. Here we don't know who is picking the winners. For all we know, in certain cases, it could be a bored employee who randomly picks people in out. It seemed so in the Five star contest.

Sherna Jayaraman
from Hyderabad |

Holla Khushboo, I agree to the fact that often sub standard posts win (no idea why). I can give you a noname example, a stupid blogger won the 1st prize and the only thing in her blog post which was not crap was the sponsor's link, which evidently was the first line of the post. She went ahead to win multiple contests on various platforms and I have never understood why! All her winning posts are true shit and an insult to worthy writers.

Recently I saw a MOTOE review posted under the ASUS Transformer contest. How on earth was it moderated in? What moderation process does IB follow?  I suggest IndiBlogger should hold the reins and see to it that contest entires are: Well moderated and only those with the theme are passed on to the contest sponsors rather than every humpty dumpty posts. Atleast that gives a true participant his/her right place!

Ranjith
from hyderabad |

How on earth was it moderated in? What moderation process does IB follow?

Posts are not moderated before displaying.

Before sending the posts to the sponsors, invalid entries are removed ( or all the posts are sent to the sponsors - if any invalid entry is present in the winners list, IB asks the sponsors to replace the winner with another one )

Khushboo Motihar
from Mumbai |

@Sherna I have seen some great posts lose out, too in certain contests but haven't really voiced my opinion then. But when I saw posts that haven't even followed the basic guidelines win, I got extremely angry. I really hope someone from IB replies to this thread. I don't know whether it will practical for IB to judge the contests themselves but like I said judges with a name and a face will be nice. 

Sherna Jayaraman
from Hyderabad |

@Rajni: all posts undergo a moderation right? They aren't directly visible, so I guess its high time IB applies proper moderation even before display, flag irrelevant posts right at the start. The rest as you said is well thoguht off, but then that doesnt seem to be the case with the dove contest.

Ranjith
from hyderabad |

Sherna No. Meet posts are moderated but contest posts are not. Invalid entries are removed sometimes, but not always.

Ranjith
from hyderabad |

My personal opinion - There is nothing wrong with the sponsors selecting an entry which didn't focus much on their products even though the topic asked to do so.

This happens in almost every contest. The winning entries always deviate slightly from the topic. The main point of the contest was to make bloggers blog about the meet which would automatically generate the required publicity for Dove whether or not they focus on the products. 

Foot in mouth

Desire v/s Destiny
from Gurgaon |

Exactly , We all know whats going on , I thought this thread would die soon , But yeah we all know , but we still crib , even I do !!

Avadhoot
from Jabalpur |

How come all so-called sponsor-judges behave alike in most cases ??? WinkSurprised

Nandini Deka
from Bombay |

r...thats what i said..meet contest was to write mainly about the meet experience....however since they did add that line mentioning products ( though i dont think writing on product was mandatory ) --- maybe it'd have seemed fair for likes of khushboo if perhaps half winners were chosen who stuck to that line and other half who deviated...but maybe since majority ( almost all except 1 i think *not sure* ) didnt mention ~ that resulted in this thread

for me only think that irks me is when i see some really silly post winning..rest all such little deviation from topics are mostly fine --- 

it reminds me a BA contest Kanna/starsports...they mentioned in contest page to write one of the features of that website, i didnt --- and they specifically called me up to include that mention too :o ( that was a mandatory rule perhaps )...all contest organizers donot observe same strictness, some are okay if basics are covered like this one --- cover the meet+put link

Khushboo Motihar
from Mumbai |

@DVD If cribbing will get us somewhere it will be good right?

@Avadhoot +100

Gaurab
from New Delhi |

I won't say it's cribbing. I would these are suggestions to help the community (IB) which we all love so much to improve and become better.