2005 December | Indibloggies - The Indian Weblog Awards

Archive for December, 2005

Things you always wanted to ask us

People keep on asking questions, soemtimes they don’t ask us. For all such people, here are some FAQs answered. Our previous FAQ is here.

Q. What is the procedure of this year’s IndiBloggies? I haven’t understood. Nominations, jury, then nominations again, then voting, what’s going on?

A. The Indibloggies methodology has been changing every year. It’s still a 2-stage process, similar to the 2004 edition. In the 2004 event, Jurors were the ones who nominated all those blogs. For the 2005 edition, we still have Jurors, infact a whopping 28 of them but the nominations were an open process. Anybody could nominate blogs they felt deserved to win. The jurors then “rated” all these blogs on a scale of -1 to 5. The final scores were calculated based on all these ratings. The top N (N is not a steadfast number and would be decided based on the category) blogs in each category will make the final shortlist, and the readers — i.e., you — get to vote on that. No jury there.

Q. Wait. Wait. How did you calculate the scores? Didn’t you say there were 28 Jurors?

A. Yes, that’s why instead of taking an arithmatic average we went for a weighted score. Take an example: Say Blog A was rated by 6 Jurors in all. 2 of them thought the blog was suited for the “Best Indiblog Category” and 4 Jurors thought it was suitable for the “Best Topical Blog”. The former two Jurors rated the blog at 2 and 2 respectively. The latter 4 rated it -1, 3,3 and 2 respectively. So the final score of the blog would be split across two award-categories as follows:
Best Indiblog: 2X2 = 4
Best Topical: 1X(-1) + 2X3 + 1X2 = 7

Q. Why have a jury at all, why not voting straight away?

A. We didn’t want this to be just a simple popularity contest. We felt there should be an element of subjectivity involved. Also, if we had straight voting, the already-popular blogs would have taken all the prizes. This way, the jury gets a chance to dig out some hidden jewels from the blogs people nominate. And discovering new talent as well as honouring existing excellence are the main purposes of these awards.

Q. Why such a large jury?

A. A good jury should be a diverse one, and that is the reason it is large. We wanted jurors from all over the country, with different kinds of interests, so that they would not be constrained by biases of any kind.

Q. I’ve noticed that some blogs by jurors have been short listed. How come?

A. Jurors were not allowed to rate their own blogs during the process of selecting the final shortlist. So jurors whose blogs were nominated were actually at a disadvantage, as they had to rate their competitors, but could not rate their own. Having assembled such a fine jury, including several prizewinners and upcoming stars, it would have been unfair to leave their blogs out of contention.

Q. I am not able to see all the nominated blogs; the list at your blog only shows last 20 nominations.

A. The RSS Feed provided by del.icio.us shows only a limited number of latest nominations. However, you may see the categorywise nominations by appending the category “tag” to del.icio.us tag-search. Following are links to category-wise nominations.

Your questions is not here. Drop your questions in the comments area and we will include the answer if it deserves one.

December 28th, 2005 | 1 comment | Permalink

5 Steps to nominate your blog

This document is outdated. Please click here to see the latest guide.

So you think the whole nomination process for Indibloggies 2005 is too geeky for the technically challenged. We sure can prove you wrong! Just follow the easy 5-Step no non-sense guide below and if you still find it tough, feel free to “email us your nomination” and we will do it for you, no questions asked.


Step 1: Login to your del.icio.us account and click on the "post" link as indicated above by the red-arrow.		Step 2: Type-in the URL or web-address of the blog or site you wish to nominate as shown above. Click "save". Leave this web-page open.


Step 3: Open a new browser window or tab and go to the Tag-generator website. Select the appropriate award-category.		Step 4: Copy (Ctrl+c on Windows) the "tags" generate by the tool for you. Don’t make any changes in this tag text.


Step 5: Go back to the del.icio.us page we left open in Step (2). Fill in the Site Title (compulsory) and the reason you are nominating it (optional). Paste the "tags" we generated (Ctrl+v on Windows) in Step(4) on the "tags" field as indicated by the arrow above. Press "save" and you are done.

December 22nd, 2005 | 7 comments | Permalink

Some updates!

>> Facing problems? Email us your nomination:If you do not know how to bookmark your site at del.icio.us, you may send us a request to do it for you. Please use this feature only if you are unable to comprehend the delicious nomination methodology.
>> RULE AMENDED: Many bloggers have protested the one blog for “one award category rule” in this event. In view of the same, we have made changes to the “rating tool” we are using and have amended the rule. This means that now a blog can be nominated for multiple award-categories.
>> Correct nominations: We are noticing that many nomination bookmarks do no bear the “Site Title”. We request everyone to ensure that the Blog/Site “Title” and “URL” or “Site address” are correct before they add the bookmark to delicious. If the Site is in an Indic language, the Site title should be entered in Roman to enable us to comprehend the text. We may summarily reject nominations that contain incorrect or incomprehensible Site Title/URL.

December 19th, 2005 | | Permalink

Indibloggies 2005 ~ Nominations Start

Ok People! The moment has arrived and we are pleased to announce the start of the nomination process for the Indibloggies 2005 Edition. To make the process more open and to allow a wider participation this time the nominations have to be done using the popular social bookmarking tool Delicious. Here are some things to note:

Nominations would remain open from Sunday, Dec 18 to Wednesday, Dec 28 (IST). We will ignore nominations made before and after this duration. Jurors would “rate” the nominated blogs and final list would be compiled for each category (tentatively in the first week of January 2006) that would participate in the Polls.
To nominate a blog/site you should bookmark the blog/site at Delicious (needs registration) using the “tags” mentioned below. These Tags would let you nominate a blog to a particular award-category. We recommend using the Indibloggies Nomination bookmarklet to ease the process. The bookmarklet will generate the Tags automatically for you. Even if you are not using the bookmarklet and bookmarking the site directly, it is recommended to use the Tag generator so that nomination doe not fail. There is no way for us to track a blog at Delicious that’s not nominated using the Tags prescribed below.
A blog or site can be nominated only for one award-category. If a blog/site is nominated and/or rated for multiple categories, the Indibloggies reserves the right to decide the best suitable category for the blog/site.
Update [21 Dec]: This rule now stands amended. A blog can be nominated form multiple award-categories.
You may nominate your own blog/site as well as other’s. In the latter case make sure the respective site owner has no objection to his/her blog/site being nominated to this award.
Multiple nominations from one person are acceptable. However, repeated/quick submissions of a site may be considered as spamming and may lead to disqualification. It is advised therefore to nominate only your own blog/site. If you like any other blog/site to be nominated, we recommend you to get in touch with it’s author/moderator and urge them to nominate their blog/site directly. Please note that we are only recommending nominating your own blog/site and taking prior permission from author of other nominated blogs, this is not a rule.
Sites with filthy and objectionable content would not be accepted under any circumstance.
Jurors can also nominate their own blog/site but they are not allowed to “rate” it.

How do I Nominate a blog/site?

Simple, just bookmark it at Delicious. If the site is in an Indian language other than English remember to specify the site title in “Roman”.

There are two ways to do it; the first (and the recommended) way is to use the Indibloggies 2005 Nomination bookmarklet. To get the bookmarklet, click here.

The second way is to bookmark the blog/site the usual way (If you have never used Delicious, here is some help). The important thing to remember is that you should atleast use the following Tags (note that the text in red is the actual “Tag”, rest of the text is to explain the tag):

for:Indibloggies (this Tag is compulsory and your nomination would not be treated as a Nomination unless this Tag is used). Details on the "for" tag are here.
Use any one of the following Tags to indicate the award-category you are nominating the blog for (text in bracket indicate the category). This Tag is also compulsory, no nomination would be accepted without a category.

ib05BestIndiblog (IndiBlog of the year)
ib05Humanities (Best Humanities IndiBlog)
ib05Sports (Best Sports IndiBlog)
ib05SciTech (Best Science/technology IndiBlog)
ib05Dir (Best IndiBlog directory/service)
ib05Tagline (Indiblog with the best tagline)
ib05Topical (Best Topical IndiBlog)
ib05Design (Best Designed IndiBlog)
ib05New (Best New Indiblog)
ib05Photo (Best Photo Blog)
ib05Lifetime (IndiBlog Lifetime achiever)
ib05Group (Best Group Blog)
ib05Indic (Best Indic blog. If you use this Tag you must also use the language Tag as discussed in Step(3) below)

If you selected the Best Indic Blog category in Step (2) then you must additionally specify the language of the Blog using one of the following Tags:
- ib05Hindi (Hindi)
- ib05Bengali (Bengali)
- ib05Gujarati (Gujarati)
- ib05Marathi (Marathi)
- ib05Tamil (Tamil)
- ib05Telugu (Telugu)
- ib05Malayalam (Malayalam)
- ib05Kannada (Kannada)
If this sounds too complex, for your rescue there is this Tag generator.

Examples:

A blog nominated for best Sports blog category will have the following tags:
for:indibloggies ib05Sports
A blog nominated for best Indic blog (Tamil) category will have the following tags:
for:indibloggies ib05Indic ib05Tamil

Update: For all the newbies and for those who did not get the Nomination process, Saket has prepared a nice step-by-step guide. If you still don’t get it, send us a request and we would do it for you.

Disclaimer:

By nominating your blog to the Indibloggies using the for:Indibloggies del.icio.us tag you agree to our terms and conditions.
The decision of the organiser would be binding and final under all circumstances.
No disputes would be entertained. If you disagree with any of our terms please do not nominate your blog.
Indibloggies does not accept any liability towards loss, damage or quality of gifts. Gifts shipped by Indibloggies are limited to Indian destinations. Gifts are not transferable and cannot be exchanged. We reserve the right to alter, suspend or delay gifts since we depend on our sponsors for the same.
The process of nomination depends on services of del.icio.us. We shall not be responsible for any losses arising out of any malfunctioning whatsoever, on their site.

December 18th, 2005 | 18 comments | Permalink

Indibloggies 2005 ~ Meet the Jury

For those of you who still do not believe that the ball has been set rolling for the Indibloggies 2005 edition here is more proof. Indibloggies 2005 proudly presents the Jury for the event, comprising of fellow Indibloggers, a who’s who of the Indiblogdom if you will, most of whom could be regarded as true connoisseurs of blogging. Many of the jurors are second timers at Indibloggies but most of them are new, as we have an unprecedented 28 members Jury this year, with Jurors who would also monitor the Indic blogs. All in all, a qualified panel geared to steer the event with grace, honesty and vigour.

I thank all the jurors for devoting their time and effort to this event and hope that we would be able to highlight the very best of the blogosphere and attract attention towards scores and scores of blogs that escape our sight. Here is an alphabetical listing of the Jury.

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