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Conducting category selections effectively

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Saurabh Hirani
from Bangalore |

I think we all appreciate Indiblogger giving a chance to the users to decide categories. But there is a big disadvantage to that - everybody speaks, nobody listens.

Rather than having a show of hands for deciding category of the month, which often, rather always results in a flurry of emails and makes it harder for the moderator to decide, it would be better if we had a facility to do the following:

1. A poll consisting of a list of topics: One question - Choose category for month X. Each indiblogger user gets to cast just one vote. Each monthly poll disables categories previously used. After say 2 years, we can have a proper list of topics rather than abstract subjects. Those topics can be used as static categories then i.e. Jan - humor, Feb - technology, etc.

2. Each user's tags could be analyzed and Indiblogger could get to know the categories automatically, rather than users providing choices every time. And the categories of the polls could be taken from those tags. 

After the poll is conducted, the moderator will open up the results and if there are any queries regardng it, they can always be discussed on the forum. But we do a first cut filtering, making the Renie and gang's life easier.

Just my $ 0.02 which I think may give a better structure to the entire process and making it easier for Indiblogger to conduct contests. This is a great platform for us and  I think making the polling process structured would be beneficial to everyone.

Feedback awaited.

Edited
Reason: Spelling mistake

Replies 1 to 6 of 6

Renie Ravin
from Chennai |

Hey Saurabh, not sure why this topic didn't get a response... will make it sticky now so that we can get other's ideas!

Saurabh Hirani
from Bangalore |

Thanks. Looking forward to seeing other people's views on it.

Aditya Tibrewala
from Mumbai |

I dont think this idea might be feasible. The poll created can neither be open ended or close ended. What i mean is, that in an open ended poll, viewers can speak out their opinion. However, it might so happen that the same topic be spoken out in different ways. Ex: Tech blogs can be represented as tech, technology, computers and gadgets etc. Hence the mod will have to run through all the polls and categorise them manually. If we give limited options to people to chose from, then there would be another debate to decide which topics should go on poll.

Saurabh Hirani
from Bangalore |

A one line description of a category by the mod can sufficiently explain to the end user what the category means.  Technology - anything to do with exisiting or previous technologies and gadgets - that includes everything.

I think that most of the topics can be covered by looking at the previous category selection posts. Of course, the odd "Satan worshipping rituals" or "Carbon dating techniques to categorize fossils" categories will be left out. So have a discussion to select those. I say a one time discussion and closure is much better than going over the same procedure every month.

Vipul Grover
from Chandigarh |

The procedure being followed right now is satisfactory.

However, it can be transformed in the following way.

Every member can give one suggestion.

However, before suggesting, he should look previous ones and give a thumbs up to it if he/she likes it. After this he/she can not suggest.

Moreover if a person has already suggested bt find sum subsequent suggestion better thn his/her, then can give thumbs up to it. In this case his/her vote or thumbs up to his own suggestion will be deducted.

All this can be made feasible through a new software feature!

(This is the technique which I'll be introducing in Blog-a-Ton this month though I'll be counting evrything manually)

Saurabh Hirani
from Bangalore |

Which is eventually another direction towards giving the entire process a structure.

The main aim of my approach were to provide indiblogger with numbers so that they as well the users can benefit from it. That plus having a schedule for contests is a huge selling point for indiblogger. I'd love to see a countdown clock on the homepage saying 3 days to go, 2 to go for a contest of my liking.

Its upto to the dev team to decide which way is more feasible and be cut from beta-to-live stage in a shorter duration. The thing is that most of the times, the enhancement cycle of a feature once developed is very slow because of other committments to work. I would know that (I am one of the predators in the programming jungle :) )

I suggested my approach of capturing nos. because then they can be used in any way possible - for polling, for showing new users which are the popular blogs, for checking out trends and stuff. But as long as we have a structure which reduces co ordination on the part of the mod, its fine enough.

Talk about hammering home a point :)

Aditya Tibrewala
from Mumbai |

the idea is good but lets see how we can add it to indiblogger

Saurabh Hirani
from Bangalore |

So has this thread conveyed what it wanted to? I think there is enough material in the original post and the follow ups for the dev team to chew on. Thanks guys, for going through it and chipping in.

Renie Ravin
from Chennai |

Guys, we'll have to put this functionality on hold for now - more pressing enhancements are required on IndiBlogger. However it will remain on our list and we'll get around to it soon enough!