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 had thought I'd never login to my account with Indiblogger again, but after reading the ongoing discussion here, had to summarize what I feel about the whole issue. The issue is not just about poor/partisan judgment of the contest entries any more. The issue here is that bloggers are being cheated in every contest here. Each and every contest here is, in essence, asking you (the blog owners) to promote a certain product on your websites with a lure of giving you a small prize. The sponsors of these contests (companies like Samsung) are paying the owner of Indiblogger.in only......they are not paying you! Indiblogger and their adverstisers (yes, that's what Samsung is for them) are USING YOU in two ways:
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 while you make all the effort in writing about their products, all the money that comes in from the advertisers is pocketed by the owner of Indiblogger.in! Is this a fair & ethical business practice? Shouldn't the owners of Indiblogger be sharing the AD REVENUE they recieve from the Advertisers like Samsung with you (the blog writer & owner)???
Ask yourself this question the next time you want to participate in contests like the Samsung Mobilers contest on this site, merely with a hope of winning some miniscule prize!
Instead of HOPING to win some prize, you should CHARGE Indiblogger.com and its advertisers UPFRONT for hosting publicity about their products on your blog site. This is a wake up call for all of you.
Cheers!
So- basically, you will take money in exchange of writing an advertisement in the form of article. Ha! Pay-for-play blogging at its best. No1 seem to be thinking about the readers at all. Looks like most of the bloggers operate/think how hellbound bloggers do things. I don't even think tech bloggers here tag articles under sponsored blogs. International sources do it.
We have a lot of tech bloggers in India, but pretty much most of them belong to the same ranks. I've seen Arvind's article. Truth be told he written it as a story. No ass kissing, no smoochy woochy business. The picture is self explanatory. In the end, he mentioned the specs. Nobody can "plagiarise" specs/ press release because they come from the same source- the manufacturer. Its obviously its going to be the same unless you open it up and put up manufacturers name, model and rev number of Flash NAND storage and memory, processing unit, etc. Let's be honest, I don't think any Indian tech blogger does it- even I wouldn't open it without the proper tools and screw drivers (getting a good screw driver set is not possible. A decent and good enough with 32 drill bit heads and good grip cost 2k approx in India.)
Ask fellow Indibloggers to delete their Samsung Post !
and BoyCott Indiblogger.in !
Absolutely, Nikhil. I deleted every post that I wrote for Samsung & Indiblogger from my site. I have also deleted the Indiblogger badge from my site. Why should we give them this free publicity? Only a fool or some very desperate person will particpate in the future 'contests' of Indiblogger even after reading this Exposé about them! To hell with them both! 
http://superstargems.blogspot.com
Cheers!
@Sorcerer : Going by all the posts you have posted in this thread, you seem to blow hot and cold in the same breath and are a master of double-speak! Maybe you are scared to take a firm stand against the CHEAP EXPLOITATION & CHEATING by Indiblogger.in and their sponsons like Samsung because you are afraid that your membership with indiblogger.in will be deleted. Well, I don't have any such fear! Let them delete my id here if they are scared of me. I will speak the truth, no matter what.
"So- basically, you will take money in exchange of writing an advertisement in the form of article".....Your assumption is erroneous. Although, there is nothing wrong with the idea, provided you mark that article as "advertisement"! What's wrong if a blog owner takes money for advertising a commercial product on his/her site? Isn't it better than being fooled into promoting a commercial product for free? Isn't Indiblogger.in taking money from its sponsors like Samsung!
I totally dislike of your taking the moral highground here. You are talking about morals? You, who does not even have the courage to write under his/her own name on this site? You are writing here under a pseudonym, my friend! 
It is very easy to spew venom against anyone on the internet without disclosing your own identity.
You are time and again diverting the attention of the readers from the main issues that I have highlighted here. I will repeat my two points :
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!
@Navin, when entering a contest, i think everything is clear before hand. the web space, writing skills, advertisements etc. each and everything is crystal clear, as to what you are giving them.
now, what you will get is obscure and unpredictable and may be erroneous , this fact too is known.
When one entered with full confidence of winner but doesn't win, can take it as a lesson and look back as to what he gained and lost. and if the loss is severe and more than the benefits, stay away. from such things, called contests.
My personal view is that even though I donot win, I get some exta rviewership to my site. and that is my personal outlook towards it.
one is free to choose his path.
Oooh keep your diapers on!!! What I said was completely different from your sudden burst of guilty feelings- even on the thread I created before. Unfortunately you're letting your raging hormones to misintrepet what I've said on that thread.
You just don't understand how things work and galloping all over this thread for the lulz. Tech bloggers earn from ad revenues and youtube partnership program, sponsored articles (provided it doesn't damage their credibility and doesn't end up in a scene where you recommend something- in other words its done very VERY carefully) and also case studies and surveys- Like GigaOm Pro. The part where it becomes difficult is when they follow their own code of honour to prevent them and taking their readers for a ride. I assume that's why you maintain a tech blog- for your readers?? Because I've seen people running their own tech blog and call themselves editor-in-chief, founder,CEO, Chairman of the vuvuzela federation :P. Ofcourse not everyone can do this, but everyone starts from limited set of resources- and takes 2-3 years. You thought about yourself and decided to take a shot. Now that the smoochy woochy article didn't work, you're getting pissed off. This is also another reason where I insisted to consider a rule to put up that this contest is for those who attended the conference. There's no real way to see who has displayed the webcase but I am sure they have a record of bloggers who came to the event. That would have been fair. They did not, probably because Samsung wanted more exposure. If they wanted to, they could have given 1-5 tablet. I am sure the number of participants would have been similar, except 3-5 of them maybe not bothering to particular or least being serious about it.
I didn't object against the contest. I objected the fact that Indiblogger has put up an access to get review samples to the winners, who most likely would write in excitement to impress the company to get more samples in the future. I've seen and read bloggers who haven't evaluated other hardware and yet recommend this wholeheartedly, even dissing the direct rival model. I am sure some of these entries must have ranted against the ipad 2. What was that word again- The ipad killer. Its amazing how people make such conclusions.That's not fanboyism mind you, you're taking sides. Bloggers and journalists are supposed to be neutral entities from the start. That's the only way 1 can grow. I also expressed my concerns that such contest will become a trend and that will eventually give ideas to PRs where they will exploit the bloggers. I've got calls to attend press conferences which is not relevant to my niche, and PRs tempted by saying "We have free and delicious food, free giveaway and chance to meet a bollywood aunty in skanky clothes"- and I am sure I am not the only one. OMG, onlygizmos, labnol and all that guys can probably agree on this.
Navin, just because someone is not using his real name as username does not mean u can say anything you want. I dont think u have read ALL the posts of Sorcerer as you said above.
other than that, the issues you are highigting does not make sense at all. no one forced you to adverties it on your so called lakh visitors blog (Still waiting for you reply on first page). here are my view of the points you mentioned .
1. no one forces you to write something on your blog ? is it ? you wrote everything just in the hope of winning something . didn't you ? Now everyone knows the old story "Angoor Khatte hain".
2. same for point 2, if you dont want your PRECIOUS webspace to be used by them, do not participate. simple and one liner right ? :S
Pls ignore the couple of typos in the above post : "sponsons", and the extra "of" after dislike.
Let me add the third point also, which relates particularly to the Samsung Mobilers contest :
3. Why did they change the rules of the contest mid-way? Who were they trying to accomodate? How many of the winners of the contest are the ones who did not even host the LIVE launch event of Samsung on their site? One such person is exposed by Anand : http://zomgitscj.com/2011/08/11/hands-on-with-the-samsung-galaxy-tab-10-1/ I am curious to know how many more were there like that.
Till date, there has been no answer to this pointed & repeatedly asked question from Indiblogger.in owners. But I'll tell you why they changed their rules mid-way. 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 there own people from among these 80 entries! There 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!
Copy Pasting a post from a FORMER MODERATOR of Indiblogger.in on the thread : http://www.techjunoon.com/indiblogger-samsung-conspiracy-against-the-indian-tech-blog-community/ The malpractices and lack of ethics at Indiblogger.in stands fully exposed.
Rohan September 23, 2011 at 4:18 pm
@ To The Author Of This Post
I am surprised that you are taking indiblogger so seriously, I know how they work, I was myself a moderator there and I quit because of these cheap tactics of theirs. If you are used to being in a government where you can see and tolerate corruption and wont mind it, then you will make a good indiblogger, but if you are someone who really has a rational mind and strong values, you will get suffocated in the mindless indiblogger crowd.
Get over with the bad feeling, you are not going to get a reasonable reply I am confident about it:) All you will get is stupid indifans dropping comments on comments hanging on to every misinterpreted words calling you names, its a waste of your time buddy! You will get a lot of “please read carefully what I said” and “I never said that” and after all fails they will say that everyone makes mistakes and you need to forgive them….
You have a good blog there, concentrate on excellence and not the opposite, which is called indiblogger!
If you agreed with the views on Jose Tinto's article, vote for this entry.
http://www.indiblogger.in/indipost.php?post=80606
It's already in the first page of IndiVine. Let us bring it to the home page of indi.
@sorcerer : You seem to be hung up on "TECH" Bloggers alone! Why, coz you are a professional tech blogger yourself? I and others on Indibloggers are NOT talking only about "TECH" bloggers. We are talking about the ethics & cheating going on in EVERY CONTEST ON INDIBLOGGER.IN. Time and again, you have cried yourself hoarse doing your own self-promotion (sic).....saying stuff like the owner of indiblogger ( what's his/her name?....Renee?) called you up to speak to you personally! Who cares here who called you and who didn't! And then you go on to write, " I've got calls to attend press conferences which is not relevant to my niche..." And no mention of what exactly is your real identity, Mr. Sorcerer?
Most of what you have typed has no relevance to the topic under discussion, you keep on harping about how "tech" bloggers should conduct themselves without disclosing your own identity.
I repeat, so what's your real name? Have some guts!
I am not a blogger- happy. I use blog frame to post reviews on Hardware BBQ. I rant about companies, forums, individuals, dealers, people, on the cake blog. That is a blog but it only meant for those who are into tech forums. You search for me you can find my name easily. A lot of Indibloggers were able to get my real name. I use my nickname because I was a pc gamer for a long time and I used to be in forums. My name is not a secret its Roshan Ashraf Shaikh. I prefer to use Sorcerer because people are familiar with my nickname- and not my name. Its not anonymous. You assume for the lulz. Dude, the cake IS a lie, but your cream ain't that white too ;-)
" my mind refuses to accept promotion of product of a manufacturer in name of contest"
You are right, Guha Rajan. That's exactly the point I made. But most of us realized that we were being fooled only after being fooled once. The whole point of this thread is to tell new bloggers on Indiblogger.in to learn from our mistake and not to participate in future sham contests promoted by indiblogger.in. At least, I won't.
Cheers!
Dude, in any competitive game there is a judge and the judge's decision is final. Period. Sure, the judge's decision making faculty maybe be great, maybe flawed, even maybe absolutely crappy.. but hell, he is afterall the judge and his decision is final. Respect that.
I will say that yup, I'm an IB fan. And its mainly cos I've tried a few other Indian blogging sites and I find IB to be far more superior in their responsiveness, interface, buzz and activity.
I personally feel that the theme out here is blogging. Competition comes later. Sure, you lost out in one competition. But dude, blog away....there's always the next contest.
Once upon a time, the judging parameter was votes and that resulted in fake vote banks, friends' votes, plaigarism and the like.. today, I'd say that quality of content is given more importance to votes. And that's a great improvement. Sure wrt judgement, to each his own...one man's cow is another man's dung but at least there a number of winning entries in this contest that do score high on content, creativity and coolness.
Like u, I was kinda pissed with the judging in the earlier Dove contest but I later did realise that I got the maximum traffic to my blog in that time period and in addition, that contest helped me come up with some posts that I really am proud of today.
Blog away dude... the prizes will come the laterzzzz....
Raj, I agree with most of what you said. My quarrel is not with Indiblogger.in in its entirity. I acknowledge that it is quite a good site for bloggers from all over India to interact with each other. It provides a good platform for that. I also appreciate the fact that they have not deleted this thread (till now) even though it exposes some of their malpractices and is detrimental for their reputation (and rightly so). My quarell is with the CONTESTS aspect of their site, which is so obviously a SHAM and sheer EXPLOITATION of the bloggers who visit Indiblogger! I am miffed that they have no answers to the three points raised by me here.
Some Indi-Fans like you have made an attempt to answer the first two points here, but without any real conviction in their words. No answer has come from either Indiblogger or Samsung to the most crucial 3rd point that I raised, which cements their guilt further. I think I've said enough here and taken a stand based on principle. I stay firm on my stand.
Cheers!
well said Raj,
@Roshan aka Sorcerer : Yeah, I was able to find your name (and date of birth etc. too! 
) within a minute of the thought coming to my mind. I appreciate your clarification. There is no reason for you and me to cross swords coz we are on the same side. I am not a professional tech blogger like you, so I couldn't relate to all your "tech reviewers" conduct manual talk. That should be a topic of another thread. In this thread, I'm only highlighting the malpractice of so called "contests" on Indiblogger.in, not specifically related to tech products alone.
Cheers!
I am not a professional blogger. I started off by archiving my forum reviews under the blog then something happened in the middle and here I am. I used to hate a large number of tech bloggers because they have a bad habit of spamming around and advertising themselves and when their article is question their arrogance is not appreciated by the members. People put up reviews and don't do benchmarks. For the love of sanity, no1 can judge the performance of a hardware without being benchmarked. Some of those "tech" bloggers do this. Misleading readers- naughty naughty boys ;-).It is a similar topic. WELL- not really I did say that on that thread that this will happen. I think a lot of stuff. In 1 corner I believe that you developed a guilty feeling and venting it out. In another corner its a stunt, to promote that other tech blogs. Oh please! I've been on the forums since the kawabonka days. I know how "those" types of bloggers do things.
People I can't resist myself anymore, have been following this thread from yesterday and tried to avoid myself from commenting here but not anymore.
Before saying anything further let me inform you I am one of the winners of the contest.
Navin I have a suggestion and a few questions for you.
Suggestion : Get a life!
Questions :
Do you think you deserve to win? [Don't take it otherwise. I am not criticizing your entry for the contest]
What do you want from indiblogger team? Should they announce you as one of the winners? Or you are looking for something else.
Are you lying about the traffic stats of your blog? What you have claimed is quite cool, you are getting tonnes of traffic but that does not match with the visitor's counter code on your blog]
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?
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?
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. Ask yourself before answering.
PS : I am not speaking for Indiblogger or Samsung. I posted this comment on one of the blogs. Sharing it here also
"If you think that I am speaking for them then buddy you are mistaken. I call a spade a spade.
I am not speaking for Samsung India or Indiblogger. Those people have enough guys to do that. I am speaking against the people who are doubting the integrity of the winners. Have you seen my post http://mobigyaan.com/why-i-think-its-time-to-tab-samsung-galaxy-750 I said what I wanted to. I wrote nothing to cheat my readers like many of the participants did. And at the bottom of my post I clearly mentioned that I have submitted this entry for the indiblogger contest and also mentioned that my expressed views are genuine.
Mind you, like many others I did not wrote at the bottom of the post that please vote for me. I know many bloggers who were literally begging for votes. And I am happy for the fact that I did not ask even a single person to vote for me.
What you guys are doing is that telling that the post of winners are not worth winning. Were you judge of the contest? so which posts are worth winning, the ones which you think or the others who are ranting against the winners and the companies.
Say whatever you want about Indiblogger or Samsung India. I don’t care. But don’t disregard the efforts of the winners.
Win like a Man, Lose like a Man"
Puneet, before I reply to your rant. Here is the link to your winning entry : http://mobigyaan.com/why-i-think-its-time-to-tab-samsung-galaxy-750
I urge everybody who has participated in this contest or in this thread to visit the above link and see this entry. What was so great about this entry that it was chosen as one of the winners? Even the title of my post, "The Samsung Galaxy Tab topples the Apple-cart!" was more innovative than your entry which is nothing but a collection of 4-5 pictures! But I don't wanna get into comparisons here. Whether my entry was better than yours or not........after going through the above link it wouldn't take long for people to figure out that your entry does NOT deserve to be in the Top 20.
Anyways, my quarrel is not with you. I have raised three specific points here and I would not be satisfied till I get reasonable answers to those SPECIFIC POINTS by either Indiblogger.in or Samsung or both. So you can go take a hike!
Cheers!
Your entry was better, now happy. Now can you please answer a few questions which I asked. Or are you afraid of doing that.
I am one of the winners so the comments here can bring negative image however..
I am happy because I Won - Simple 
.
Sujith, congrats for winning.
I knew it that's why I kept on avoiding but then.......
Just hating the way some of the people are taking up this entire issue.
Would like to share one more thing here. Here is a tweet for the same incident
"Tech bloggers mantra of the day: Instead of owning up to lack of ethics & standards, slam the company that exploited your greed." (via twitter.com/javed_del)
Puneet .. People over reacted to the contest , indimail requests, facebook mails etc etc so expectations were high. Other than writing an article and answering the genuine comments I haven't done anything. The article is bringing enough organic traffic too.
i agree sm point with puneet, that days i also got lots of comment on my post askin for like there like a spam lol
I like the way that there was no heart count need on winning bcoz i only manage to get was under 30 lol but genuine blogger is who shares true exp or knowledge as i have not post my views on tab whereas my post was related to launching only
@Puneet : "Your entry was better, now happy".
If you truly believe this, then pls forfeit your prize immediately and inform this to Indiblogger & Samsung. Let the judges find the next best post in line and give your prize to him/her. Then we can go further. Let the owners of Indiblogger & Samsung come forward to answer my questions first for which we all have been waiting for since the last two days, when they do that, I will answer yours too.
Cheers!
They will answer for sure. And even if they will answer, I know you won't answer because by answering that people will see what you are.
Also, please let me know if you were the judge of the contest. Did you have or had any authority of judging the entries. 
If no is the answer then, even if you feel your entry was the best, no one can help you mate.
BTW, you said I won't say anything about your entry and in the same comment you posted the shit that "my entry is better than you". Atleast do what you say.
@Puneet to me : "Your entry was better, now happy".
You just admitted in front of everyone here that my entry is better than yours. So now the next logical thing to be deduced from your own admission is that your entry should not have been in the Winners' List (since your entry is in the winner's list and mine is not, and you yourself said that my entry is better than yours) So please be a man and be true to your words. FORFEIT YOUR PRIZE IMMEDIATELY! "They will answer for sure"...We're waiting!
Don't you understand "Sarcasm" 
No this is not the answer which I wanted. Think of the answers of the questions which I asked you and you will know yourself what you are and what you are trying to achieve.
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.
You missed injection too
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.
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