Samsung Mobilers Winners : A Disappointment!
Totally disappointed to see the Results of the Samsung Mobilers contest. It is obvious that you have chosen only those posts as winning entries who have posted a lot of PICTURES of the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Content other than visuals, amount of traffic coming to the blogger's site have not been given any weightage. In nutshell, bad judgment.
Deleting all my posts about Samsung and Indiblogger from my blog. Will not participate in any contest on this site in future. Good bye, Indibloggers. I've seen enough.
PS : Congratulations to the winners!
I have been following this forum post by Navin since I saw the list of winners. Initially, I did hesitate to write my comment because I am one of the winners and my comment may not suit to everyone. But, it seems - any word from winners is about to get discarded :)
Yet, I would take this as an opportunity - the same way - as I took one by entering in the Samsung contest.
Some pointers
1] Every blogger is a marketer because you've placed your blog on a public domain. Either for marketing yourself, your thoughts or your business irresptive of whether you make money, don't make money or don't desire to make money at all. Making your blog reach to many people, is a part of the same marketing. (Don't link this 'marketing' term as an entirely commercial marketing & sales.) This is something I learned from ProBlogger.
IndiBloggers is providing this platform to market your blog, get traffic and connect to like-minded bloggers for FREE.
2] There was a bit of confusion about the contest initially because the contest was separated in to two parts and that's why I created a forum post to get more clarity of the topic here.
Remember, Its not easy to hold a contest online while separated in two parts and have it linked in real-time with an offline event without co-operation from the team and participants.
3] The steaming of the live event was very bad when it began but went very smoothly once the anchor reached the podium. (May be she had a magic wand)
4] Changing/modifying the contest rule to embed a recorded version, was I think the best possible alternative solution provided by the contest holders. It made the contest even challenging by allowing many people to enter. It made more sense by providing Live streaming & recorded video both in primary stage. IB should have helped Samsung to plan the rules technically before hand.
5] Navin was the only person who openely protested this change in rules on my forum post but, if he had already posted the live-streaming then he shouldn't have worried about this change. He should accept giving more opportunities to others to enter.
6] I totally understand Navin's reaction seeing the winners list without his name in it. He has a full right to ask the contest holders about why his entry did not win, what were the reasons and etc. IndiBlogger should become a mediator in this case and stay as a bridge between Navin (an IB member) and Samsung. This way judges names can remain un-exposed yet Navin can get the answer he is looking for.
7] The way Navin and few other non-winners have reacted publicly is entirely not acceptable. They should have tried to get to the most possible conclusion & understanding level before commiting anything online. It is not a fair game that you guys are playing if you think the contest was not fair. By using violent word-play, you have reduced the chances of disccusions which otherwise would have taken place.
8] I partially support 'The Sorcerer' views on tech blogging and how IndiBlogger should not put up such contests in future. But I have my views about it which I would like to share ONLY with him or the IndiBlogger team. At least not in this forum topic :)
9] I agree on view that one should not enter into contests unless s/he knows what s/he is going to write about.
10] I liked what Animesh wrote about the freedon we have got here on IB. Moderators here have been modest enough to allow this post going. No other community forums do this. In fact, IndiBlogger should take action of closing this or any such topics on regular basis. Plenty of IB members understand the importance of this platform and if some of them Remember - Hate speech is not allowed in any forum.
11] IndiBlogger is a platform to showcase your blogs and to provide occassional opportunities to get additional benefits from their related blogs. Now, if you're unable to board the train because your legs can't step-up , you can't blame the patform.
12] Winners - please do not use the word Losers. Not good.
13] Winners and non-winners of the Samsung contest entered into the contest by themselves. The entries to the contest were written & submitted by the participant. No body from Samsung or IB forced you to submit it. So, everyone should accept the decision that was made.
14] One should rather get in contact with the IB authorities to get clearer idea on what went wrong with their entries instead of comparing others entries on a public platform. Not good at all.
15] I received 6 votes to my entry which I posted on IB. Then I realized that the entry is not listed under the 'Its time to tab' contest. I immediately contacted IB team about it. Renie was kind enough to reply me as quick as he could and resolved my issue. He also told me that I could loose the votes I have got because I posted it elsewhere. This shows the commitment of the IB team.
So, do anything else but don't blame the IB team. They deserve more applaud than they get for what they're doing.
16] If I was getting lacs of vistors to my blog & if I was not a tech blogger - I would have bought any of the availble tabs in the market from the money I would have received through advertisements on the blog. If you don't know how to monetize from high traffic blogging & desire to get money from blogging then learn that first.
17] Congratulations to winners. :)
18] If you're a winner and think someone else shoud be the winner than you - notify this to IB team. :)
Finally I would like to conclude this reply with the qoute I read yesterday
"All good is hard. All evil is easy. Dying, losing, cheating, and mediocrity is easy. Stay away from easy." -- Scott Alexander
:)
PS: Do not use, print this reply anywhere outside IndiBlogger.in without my permission. :)
Perfect post Tushar ! It would be awesome to meet you in person :)<Peace>Ps : Respect for 'The Sorcerer' as he was the only person who was against this contest from the begining and so he didn't even participate, rather complaining after participating and not making it to list of winner :)
Hey even I did not participate for the same reason (as I don't know much about poduct review and I cannot just praise something for the sake of a competition). Where are respects for me LOL
I'm sure lots of members did not participate for the same reason. But yes, cudoes to TS as he raised his voice right from the beginning.
All Hail Animesh :)
So does that mean I will get a phree tablet?
I just had a chat with Tushar and he is ready to gift his new tablet to you :P
nah nah nah. I'll take a cake instead.
Damn :( Indiblogger you should have a delete post option :PPS : Sorry for posting twice, accidental double click :)
I was reading all the posts in the forum and keeping track of controversies ! Here is my take on it !
“Be Calm”, it’s just a contest, not saying bcos I won it ( Surprisingly 
), but bcos you just can’t come up after the results saying I didn’t win, my post was better than others and the list goes on. It’s a judges perspective, and unfortunately you are not the judge ! “One man’s food is another man’s poison”. I hate Gazals, but others love it ! Simple !
Talking about promotion, using Indibloggers, and PR activities, YES THAT IS TRUE and what’s wrong ? It’s called social marketing, were you not aware that your blog will aid Samsung to market their product ? Samsung is not a non profit company and holding such contests for promotion of product is not wrong “in my opinion”.
People should be aware of what they are getting into, and should not complain about the results 
I have lost each and every other contest on Indiblogger and won SUN, Oracle contest having 100000+ participants and cash prizes of 1 Lac, but that doesn’t give me the right to publish publicly that other posts are “Lame” if I loose a contest.
In the end, Indiblogger is an awesome community. Trust me !
Cheers to All ! \m/
PS : People posting on Indi Forums can try shifting their efforts to writing a new post, that would help
Keep Blogging :: Keep Rocking !
I was reading all the posts in the forum and keeping track of controversies ! Here is my take on it !
“Be Calm”, it’s just a contest, not saying bcos I won it ( Surprisingly ), but bcos you just can’t come up after the results saying I didn’t win, my post was better than others and the list goes on. It’s a judges perspective, and unfortunately you are not the judge ! “One man’s food is another man’s poison”. I hate Gazals, but others love it ! Simple !
Talking about promotion, using Indibloggers, and PR activities, YES THAT IS TRUE and what’s wrong ? It’s called social marketing, were you not aware that your blog will aid Samsung to market their product ? Samsung is not a non profit company and holding such contests for promotion of product is not wrong “in my opinion”.
People should be aware of what they are getting into, and should not complain about the results I have lost each and every other contest on Indiblogger and won SUN, Oracle contest having 100000+ participants and cash prizes of 1 Lac, but that doesn’t give me the right to publish publicly that other posts are “Lame” if I loose a contest.
In the end, Indiblogger is an awesome community. Trust me !
Cheers to All ! \m/
PS : People posting on Indi Forums can try shifting their efforts to writing a new post, that would help
Keep Blogging :: Keep Rocking !
@Puneet Jain...."People can see who is using what kinda language from your last comment"
LOL! People, this is the level of English proficiency that this "writer", Puneet Jain has. He has no knowledge of what MODUS OPER ANDI means! I am amazed how could his entry be among the winner's list. LOL
Cheers!
You think entire world is fool but you. Can you explain why did you use this "modus ope*****" why were * used.
Nupur, You said it!
Is there any option to mute comments from a certain person 
Hehe, indiblogger won't do that. These guys have ethics and they let everyone speak their mind, even though some of them are abusing so openly.
I read Renie's post and that guy has earned a whole lot of respect from me. The manner, in which he addressed all the queries of those who were speaking agaist indiblogger, is a sign of true gentleman.
[I know now somebody will start blaming me, that I won the prize so I am favoring Renie. Who care, I know why I am doing it? Think or say whatever you want to, that won't bother me, because I myself know what is the truth.]
The word which got beeped out with ***** was not a cuss word, it was MODUS O P E R AN DI
Well, I replied that, I said don't you understand "Sarcasm" If you still don't can't help you buddy.
@Puneet Jain: Your quality of posts and the ungentlemanly language which you use make me feel that you are not worthy of getting a response from me, but just coz I'm a man of my word I'm replying to you one last time and answering all the silly questions you asked.
Answers:
"Do you think you deserve to win? [Don't take it otherwise. I am not criticizing your entry for the contest] "......Short answer, YES. Although I am unhappy with myself for having got fooled into participating in this "contest" in the first place. I thought that it was a genuine contest, but it turned out to be a sham. It's not a happy feeling getting conned.
"What do you want from indiblogger team? Should they announce you as one of the winners? Or you are looking for something else"........I want Indiblogger & Samsung to publicly apologize for having changed the rules mid-way, which helped their favored people to win which they wouldn't have been eligible for otherwise. A reluctant apology has come from Indiblogger (Renie) through his blog but an apology is yet to come from Samsung. There were only 80 entries who had complied with the original rules. These are the aggrieved people. Ethically speaking, the winners should have been chosen from among these 80 people only, and the rest should not have been considered as they failed to comply with the original rules. But now, since they have already announced the names of the 20 people, and if they don't want to cancel the existing winners' list, they should devise a way to compensate those who complied with all the original rules. It is upto their conscience now what they want to do.
"Are you lying about the traffic stats of your blog?" ......NO. The total number of unique visits does go into several lakhs since I created that site. As someone else here calculated, even if we take a rough figure of 200 unique visitors per day on my site, it is the quality of the visitors to my site which matters! My site is followed by the INVESTOR COMMUNITY from across the globe which includes several HNIs (High Networth Individuals), Mutual Fund Managers, Asset Managers, Economists, Traders & other Celebs. These are the people who have the capacity to buy high end products like the Samsung Galaxy Tab. I myself own a Galaxy S II (was in fact, among the first few buyers in India). So it is not the number of people who visit my site, it is the quality of people. http://superstargems.blogspot.com This is the sort of audience that advertisers like Samsung want to reach out to, not the bored housewives or unemployed students which probably come to your site who do not even have the capacity to buy a Tab!
"In one of the comments above you referred that indiblogger used your "Precious" Webspace and writing skills for free. Did anybody from indiblogger team forced you to write a blogpost? Did anybody from indiblogger team forced you to give indiblogger free publicity?"...... I didn't say they forced me, but yes, they FOOLED me into it.
"You said indiblogger should share ad revenue with bloggers. Well I agree with you on this but a bit differently. They should share only if they are hiring you to do the work for them. Were you hired by them to write the post about Samsung?"...... That is exactly what I'm trying to highlight here. Instead of openly and directly hiring writers, Indiblogger is luring them with these bogus contests. They are doing this so as to avoid sharing the ad-revenue with the writers. If they openly and directly hire people to write, then they would have to pay them for it! That's why they've devised this ingenious way of SHAM CONTESTS to con people. 
"In one of you comments you referred "lack of ethics". Do you think lack of ethics was just on part of indiblogger? You did not wrong, huh? Blogging Ethics require that Bloggers should not cheat there readers, so were did you cheat your so called "lakhs of visitors" by going gaga over the Tab. "...... I have already said that I and other blog owners who participated in this contest were fooled into participating thinking it was some kind of genuine contest. It was very clear to the readers of the blog that the post was a contest entry. Links were given for them to Indiblogger.in so they could have gone there to participate in the contest themselves. And now that the whole modus ope***** of Indiblogger.in is crystal clear to everyone, I was the first one to urge everybody to NOT TO GET CONNED INTO TAKING PART IN SUCH SHAM CONTESTS IN THE FUTURE. Never again! ..... And now you be a man and forfeit your prize since you have publicly admitted that my entry was better than yours.
Cheers!
"ungentlemanly language" People can see who is using what kinda language from your last comment. I did not use any wrong words for you.
I think that I have missed a lot of things in the last three days. :-) It was really a very long discussion. Just raed teh first part of it and teh post on indiBlogger blog. I too have participated in the contest and was expecting to be one of the winners but I was disappointed on seeing the winners list. I have participated in six contests till now and have been one of the winners in 'Take flight with colours' contest and the reason for that I think is writing about something that I can really write about. While for the other contests, I had a very difficulting time jotting down even 500 words.
As someone has pointed out, everyone participating in a contest cannot be a winner and someone has to be selected as the winner and this selection process is not something like the evaluation of answer sheets. Though creativity, relavance, origninality and depth are stated to be the factors atken into consideration while picking out the winners, it is mostly the natural instincts of the judges that decide the winners. There need not be any reason for the judges to select a particular entry as the winning entry.
And it is also not proper for one to point out one particular entry and say that it does not deserve a prize. It is unethical not just from the viewpoint of blogging but also from casual ethical behaviour.
It would also be wrong to say that IndiBlogger is using the members as a tool for earning money or gaining publicity. If someoen has such feelings, why should he be a part of teh contest? When you have entered into a contest with an intention to win, you should also be prepared to promote something. No one in this world gives something for free. And here, you have the chance to win something for free by devoting just two or three hours of your time.
If you are a great writer and have traffic that runs into lakhs, why don't you eastablish good relations with those companies who might select you to review their products?
Let the winners of this contest applaud each other here, we'll watch in amusement. Perhaps they have got an ultimatum from Indiblogger.in (Renie) that if they don't get vocal to support them on this thread, they will not get their prize! So nobody can stop them from trying to defend their "prize". Also, pls note that not ALL of the winners are undeserving! Nobody has said that. But at least half of them are undeserving & beneficiaries of undue nepotism. Some of the winners may have been chosen just because of their "loyalty" towards Indiblogger.in, as in they may have been writing here for a long time. So perhaps, the owners of Indiblogger deemed it fit to reward them with a "prize" for this!
This contest is over and done with. Now let's move on. No matter how Samsung & Indiblogger decide to compensate those who were adversely affected by the arbitrary changing of rules mid-way through the contest, one thing has become very clear (at least, for me). That the bloggers coming to Indiblogger.in should not be fooled ever again into partcipating in these cleverly designed marketing stunts called "contests". Here are the key take aways from this whole Samsung Mobilers Contest fiasco : Indiblogger.in & their Adverstisers like Samsung are only using you....
1. They are using your writing skills to publicize their products FOR FREE! Good writers are not easily available and command a high price......here, they get them FOR FREE.
2. They are also USING YOUR PRECIOUS WEB-SPACE FOR FREE for prolonged periods. The duration of most contests on Indiblogger.in run into MONTHS! SO NEVER AGAIN!
Dude you got the reply from indiblogger. It's your turn. Now be a man and reply to my questions. I know you won't answer them even now and come up with something more silly. :P
And claiming that "Perhaps winners got an ultimatum from Indiblogger.in (Renie) that if they don't get vocal to support them on this thread, they will not get their prize!" show how sick is your mentality
Considering the depth of discusion here, the interaction and its relevance, the recall value and the result this contest has generated, guess who's turning out to be the real winner out here....
Captain Obvious!!!!! 
Lolz.. funny discussion.
Before I continue, I want to thank Renie for helping me out in the last moment. By default the submission of posts was about to get closed by 9 PM, but after one single request Renie pushed back the submission time to 12 AM and I could manage to submit my article.
And yep, he does not even know me that well but came ahead to help me just after one phone call. He did even text me to confirm that the time limit has been changed to 12 PM. If someone is doing this for his community members, I must admit that he deserves respect.
And later that post got selected as one of the winners. Thanks Renie.
I have got some issues as well. But the issues are with the people who are complaining. Note that whatever I am going to write further has no connection with the fact that I am one of the winners. I would have written the same words even if I were not a winner.
1. Do your work for free? Don't you monetize your websites? If yes, why do you consider Indiblogger as an expectation? Just expect that they are getting paid well so that we can expect a better and rich community experience in future.
2. Samsung must have been planning their promotional stunts for Galaxy Tab 750 and hence the contest happened. Few are complaining that how can they write reviews on something that they have not seen or got their hands on. If this is the case, then...
- Why and How did you write the review and participated in the contest at first?
- Why "Samsung Galaxy tab 750 was your tab" until the winners were announced?
- Why are you raising your voice only after the announcement of the winners?
Actually they never tricked the bloggers by asking to write reviews on something that they have never seen or used before. Instead they organized a wonderful event where they allowed 300+ people to try their hands on the tablets, take pictures, videos and write a review. Did you take the benefit of this opportunity, I highly guess No. If No, then why complaining?
3. Many are having issues with the winners. Lemme focus some light on this as well...
- Who are you to judge the contest and criticize the winners? You are just the participants and your role ends there.
- You might have been a tech blogger with decent traffic and followers, but does that grant your stand as a winner? You must know that Samsung might be following some other aspects while choosing the winners.
- Many are not happy with the way few non-professional & personal bloggers were announced as the winners. This clearly indicates that Samsung just wanted to award the tabs to 20 people who have the ability to impress them with their articles, does not matter if he is a techie or non-techie. Thanks Samsung for allowing the whole blogging community, not only the tech section, to participate & win.
Just to confirm, the winners are not going to be the official Samsung Mobilers! They will simply get a chance to fly to Samsung gurgaon office and get the tab. Samsung is yet to reveal more on the Mobilers concept.
Please stop talking nonsense here and there as it shows how frustrated you are!
- I did not participate on the contest.
- I raised this point as soon as I saw this trend.
- I raised my voice on facebook and Indiblogger but many decided to turn a blind eye.
Guys, we've responded to this on our blog!
Finally, a reply comes from the owner of Indiblogger.in after two days of waiting. I bet not because he is a fair and ethical person, but because he was forced to reply. I say this because HE DID NOT REPLY to this question of mine when it was first asked by me on Tushar Tajane's (who incidently, is also one of the winners) thread here one month ago : http://www.indiblogger.in/forum/topic.php?pageNum_Posts=2&totalRows_Posts=62&id=9571
The reply is a carefully worded and considered one which is on expected lines. They kept postponing a reply as they were wishing that the outroar from the cheated contestants will die down in a couple of days, but it has only gotten bigger! If I may draw an analogy here of what is currently happening in our national politics too. The PM, Man-Maun Singh, kept on defending Raja till the evidence became too glaring for him to duck under a veil of silence any more. He now says Chidambaram enjoys his full confidence too. As things are unfolding, we won't be surprised if it was MMS himself who instructed Chiddu to approve the 2G deal. And no points for guessing who instructed MMS! No wrong doer in our country accepts that he/she has done wrong, till s/he is forced to do so and is left with no other alternative. Let's admit it, we are a corrupt country. A former staffer of Indiblogger.in, Rohan, has himself implicated them.
No matter what they say to defend their decision of changing the rules suddenly in the middle of the contest. Here is the REAL REASON : They changed their rules half way through the contest BECAUSE there were only 80 entries which had complied with the original rules! And it would have been very difficult for them TO CHEAT and choose their own people from among these 80 entries! Their act of nepotism would have been too glaring if they had chosen their own favored people out of just 80 entries. It is much easier to cheat from a larger pool of entries (221 in the end). With 221 entries, they can easily justify their poor/partisan judgment by saying that not everybody can win from the 221 entries! This was their plan!
Quoting Renie:
Changing the contest rules
"We realize that those who abided by the original rules and went all out to promote the live webcast on their blogs, twitter and facebook feel slighted by this change. We do apologize – it was a decision that wasn’t made lightly, and on hindsight, may have been the wrong one. "...... Renie
Since you now accept that the decision to change the rules mid-way was a wrong one, what do you propose to compensate those contestants who were adversely affected by this arbitrary decision?
Cheers!
This makes me recall a bit of excerpts from 'Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy' by Douglas Adams:
On the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much - the wheel, New York, wars and so on - whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man - for precisely the same reasons.
Totally agree with Mr. Sairam.This is OBVIOUSLY a marketing strategy and the bloggers who entered should have known full well that they're taking part in a regional promotional event...why else would it be sponsored by Samsung? Come on, guys.And Mr. Bajaj, I really think you should check with Samsung how they judged the entries and how the chose the winners, before you comment on how they did what they did. I'm certain that professionals working with such a reputed, ethical company are not buffoons with kindergarten-level intellect that they get stimulated by big bright pictures of a colourful gadget and pick their favourites.
"And Mr. Bajaj, I really think you should check with Samsung how they judged the entries and how the chose the winners" ...... And how do I do that, Miss? Do I have to send them a special invitation to tell us how they chose the winners? Or is there any special hotline number which I have to call on? We haven't got any answers from them since this thread was started! Only feeble & illogical comments in their defence from fans like you who may have been obliged by Indiblogger in some way in the past.
"I'm certain that professionals working with such a reputed, ethical company are not buffoons with kindergarten-level intellect that they get stimulated by big bright pictures of a colourful gadget and pick their favourites." ...... And how are you so certain, Miss? Have you worked with them? Have you seen Puneet Jain's winning entry? Is there anything there other than bright pictures of a colorful gadget? Lol.
Please do a bit of homework before you comment, Miss Nupur . We have no option but to construe the prolonged silence of both Indiblogger.in and Samsung as admission of guilt.
Cheers!
Nupur, no need to waste your time. [I did it already ] This guy just have questions but no answers.
We have better things to do in life, don't we?
FYI, indiblogger has responded to the entire episode and they did it in a polite way, which I really appreciate.
You missed injection too
Navin let us say it is all about participating and not winning. Somehow i too feel that this contest should have been decided after the participants turn up for the meet and get to use the product and than review. Without touching, feeling, just by going through the website or getting to know the features from dealers and friends, if somebody can win contest than it is slightly disappointing. At the same time it becomes our duty as participants not to cast aspersions on the winners directly, it is unsportive to the core. I am sure Indiblogger has checks and balances for future contests. Soc is a good moderator over here, and i have personally seen others too from Indiblogger team Renie, Vineet, Anoop, Karthik are all level headed.
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