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Indiblogger of the month - Voting Procedure Recommendation

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blog gore
from Mumbai |

I have been going through the stories that are put up for the 'Indiblogger for the month'. There is a lot of awesome writing there. And this got me thinking

I fear that the current voting procedure rarely ensures that the best blog for the competition topic wins.  The current procedure, more often than not, will ensure that the most popular blogger wins. My rationale for this is:

1. Everyone plugs their blog among their 'blogger friends'. I did this too. My blogger friends would, by first impulse vote for me because the know me and not because they think I am the best blogger in the competition.

2. Once they vote for me - there is no incentive for them to read any other post. I am convinced that very few people read more than one (or maybe less than a handful) blogs before they vote. BECAUSE THEY CANT VOTE MORE THAN ONCE. What is the point reading more posts once you have voted

3. This would mean than the blogger who has the highest number of friends wins and not the blogger with the best blogpost for the topic of the competition.

My Recommendation

Allow everyone to vote multiple time for multiple blogs. BUT no one can vote for a blog more than once. And ofcourse noone can vote for themselves.

This would ensure than people have some incentive to read a number of blogs and keep voting as they go on... people can come back to indiblogger through all the days of the competition to vote for blogs and spread their reading across a number of days....

I would love to know that you think... and would love to have indiblogger implement this... technology, time and cost permitting of course :-)

Finally I hope this is not seen as a criticism of indiblogger... They have done a brilliant job by giving us a forum... that by itself is a huge benefit for us blogger... I only try to recommend  an improvement (and this one can be complete rubbish really) as a forum member...

Edited
Reason: Update

Replies 1 to 20 of 44

Sangfroid
from Mumbai |

I agree to this. Not the best solution of course but better than the current :-)

blog gore
from Mumbai |

True Sangfroid... I guess I we can think about this collectively... we can come up with a suggestion that is fairly implementable

blog gore
from Mumbai |

True Sangfroid... I guess I we can think about this collectively... we can come up with a suggestion that is fairly implementable

Mr. Pramathesh Borkotoky
from India |

I agree with blog gore. I can see a wide variety of perspectives and thought that if all the 5 posts are good enough, I will vote, but I am still finding it difficult to vote. 

Alternative Recommendation:

Allow voting during nominations also. During Nomination period, multiple votes should be allowed. 

Dr. Mahesh Sinha
from Raipur |

yes and how many will be able to read all so many blogs

ther's to be some more internal scrutiny 

blog gore
from Mumbai |

Hi Mahesh.... thank you for replying.... I understand that not everyone will read all the blogs... but it is an option that those who want to will use if there is any point in reading more than a blog.... and also... its not just about how many blogs we view... If people can vote for more than one blog... that would ensure that the better blogs WILL get more votes...... for example if I vote for a friend... just because he is a friend or maybe because if I have time only to see five blogs.... then If i could vote again... I might come back tomorrow to read more... like something that I missed yesterday and vote for that one too... the chances of a better blog getting more votes therefore are higher...

Sonya Gee
from New Delhi |

@Maneesh : there arent many entries ,just 60 but i agree ,people with maximum blogger friends may win but people like me who enjoy writing fiction may find some genuinely interested readers like i have discovered and met with in just 1 day of being nominatedLaughing.It may be a competition but it should go beyond just being the winner. what say?

http://thepoeticwanderer.wordpress.com/

blog gore
from Mumbai |

I am gonna come and see your blog sonya.... If you enjoy writing fiction.... then I think I am gonna like your blog... Cheers

Dr. Mahesh Sinha
from Raipur |

@ Sonye whos Maneesh btw . its ok there may be other avenues but 60*5 equals 300

blog gore
from Mumbai |

As I said earlier mate... it doesnt work only when everyone reads everything... it works BETTER (not perfectly) if people have incentive to read MORE and more does not have to be read as everything :-)

at this point in time... we are recomending how to better the system which is a continual process... we do not seek to perfect it in one go :-)

It would be great to know if you have an idea on how to better the process

Cheers

Dr. Mahesh Sinha
from Raipur |

well there's some competition and the rules of the game should be fare right from the selection of topic and no of selected entries  otherwise it will be like a political game. if u are asking for a vote it should be reasonable to atleast read all those entries otherwise thers no justification. there can be a rider on voters that they have atleast visited that link  

The Ketchup Girl
from Sydney |

I couldn't agree more, Blog gore. A, there is so much to read, b there definitely is more than just one deserving story!

blog gore
from Mumbai |

I agree and how

Aditya Tibrewala
from Mumbai |

multiple voting would be helpful sine i believe that out of all the indiblogger users, only the few active ones take pains to come and read the nominations and cast genuine votes. everyone else simply only vote their friends.

we can introduce a system wherein people can rank their blogs for first, second and third position. each of the three ranks carry different weightage and the person with the maximum cumulative weightage is announced winner.

blog gore
from Mumbai |

Aditya... can you expand on this... it sounds lke a good idea

DaisyBlue
from Chennai |

Definiitely true... And already the winning blogs are seen first so people have a tendency to vote it often...

Multiple votes may not be the best option.. but the current one could be revisited ..

blog gore
from Mumbai |

Daisy... let me know if you have any suggestions

Renie Ravin
from Chennai |

Blog gore, I'm tending to agree with you - this makes sense! We'll make the change, test it and roll it out by the next contest, or perhaps even before this one ends! Smile

blog gore
from Mumbai |

Renie... when was the last time some one told you that you are a sweetheart :-)

Thanks for considering this...

Bharathi
from Tiruppur |

I agree with the problem identified by blog gore. But I feel the suggestion given would lead us to another Indivine. I dont know if my suggestion is practical for you guys.

1. Indiblogger should not give direct link to the post, instead they shoud publish the content direct in Indiblogger site.

1. Instead of name of the participant, we can give random numbers to each of them and we should set it up in such a way that numbers change with each refresh.

I think by this way we can help selecting genuine content to some extent.

Aditya Tibrewala
from Mumbai |

as per blog gores request im expanding on my idea.

each person has three votes namely 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

1st holds say 3 points, 2nd 2points and 3rd 1 point.

each person can vote for three blogs awarding 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.

in the end, for each nominee the number of 1st position votes are mutiplied with 3, 2nd position with 2 and third position with 1 to arrive at the final count.

the nominee with the hightes final count is awarded the winner.

thats my suggestion

Aditya Tibrewala
from Mumbai |

the reason behind having such a voting system is because if all my votes carry equal weightage, i would be forced to vote for another blog even though i feel it is not as deserving as another blog.

My only worry with the above mentioned system would be that if friends are coming in and voting for their pals, they might simply award them the 1st position and walk away without nominating a 2nd and 3rd position. this would also prevail for the multiple voting system where there is no weightage for each vote. this would bring us back to square one. i dont know if it would be a good idea to invalidate somoens vote if they dont select someone for all three categories.

Renie Ravin
from Chennai |

Having votes of different weightages might be an unnecessary complication... We should try and keep things simple! And like you said, many won't use up all their votes and would just use the first...

blog gore
from Mumbai |

I agree.... the less complex a system... the more they are likely to contribute.. and also... if a voter votes for his least favorite post first... he gives it a ranking of 1 and a weigtage of 3 unknowingly...  even if we allow him to decide which of the three he wishes to vote with a weightage of 3 again no incentive to read more than 3 blogs... 

Aditya Tibrewala
from Mumbai |

well obviously before castiing the vote he will have the optin of ranking it 1,2 or 3.

it is a complex system and we need a proper mechanism if it has to be implemented. i guess we can stick to the equal weightage and offer multiple votes. but we need to decide how much should be the upper limit for the number of votes allowed to each user and what should be done if someone simply casts one vote and dosent exercise the right to use the other, wt should be done in that case.

DaisyBlue
from Chennai |

May be if the blogs are not displayed based on the rank.. the probability of people voting to the same blog could be reduced.. ??

Vipul Grover
from Chandigarh |

hey daisy blue, blogs r not displayed based on ranks, u r only able 2 c tht list aftr u hav voted.. before u vote u only get c all nominees randomly placed :)

Renie Ravin
from Chennai |

That's true, the initial list (before voting) is completely random, and doesn't even show the IndiRank...

Aditya Tibrewala
from Mumbai |

so are arriving at a conclusion that multiple votes should be tried to see what effect it has?

Aditya Tibrewala
from Mumbai |

@daisy blue

didnt understand what your trying to say

Rads
from Virginia |

Absolutely! 

It's been a sneaky suspicion all along and it's gratifying to hear others who think so too. :)

blog gore
from Mumbai |

It will change soon Rads... smile...

Neeraj Shinde
from Pune |

Bloggers, voting is your birthright! Stop worrying and vote!...

Jago Re... Jago Re... Jago Re...

blog gore
from Mumbai |

Jaag gaye bhai :-)

Dr. Mahesh Sinha
from Raipur |

reducing the number of contestants based on their indiblogger ranking . So before contest they work to improve their ranks, another contest :)

blog gore
from Mumbai |

Naaahin Mahesh..... :-)

But jokes apart... what might be more interesting is an indiblogger team selection... with no prizes...  like a critics award :-) This can be where indiblogger staff vote...

Neeraj Shinde
from Pune |

I have seen some real good blogs that unfortunately have lower indiRanks! So that cannot be a good criteria you see Mahesh!

Sonya Gee
from New Delhi |

@blog gore :agree with you.looked up your blog too,pretty neat stuff,I must say :)

@Dr. sinha :My apologies for wrong name,my computer tricked me :).thank you for your visit.

Dr. Mahesh Sinha
from Raipur |

@Sonya never mind :)

how about canvassing by candidate :)

Dr. Mahesh Sinha
from Raipur |

btw how will few non english blogs will stand in this competition !

Neeraj Shinde
from Pune |

Non English blogs is a nice idea! I guess, we could have dedicated contests for regional language blogs.

Aditya Tibrewala
from Mumbai |

the only problem with non-english blogs is that there would be very few people to vote since everybody dosent know the language, hence the blog written in the most common language i.e hindi, would come out as winners.

Neeraj Shinde
from Pune |

that's true... in which case even a worthy blog will not be getting much deserved votes due to the language constraint!

Aditya Tibrewala
from Mumbai |

in the current blogger of the month, a hindi blog is in the top 5 !