Improvements in IndiVine

i submitted some posts, but they are still in the bottom half.. and thats the reason I do not feel like submitting any more posts. doing a randomiser would be a good idea.. not to promote mine, but also to give visibility chances to new posts...

This conversation has been moved here - the announcement of the new IndiVine!

i am also for the motion that the topics must be divided into categpries and also there must be strong section for personal blogging or articles 

This is one great discussion. Wonderful ideas from the indiblogger community.  Vipul, Rennie and others, thank you guys for adding the zing. The revamped indivine should be exciting.

Some suggestions to add to the list which is already quite exhaustive;  I have to keep referring back to see what I am suggesting is not already there --

Recipes

Sexual harassment

An exchange or  barter corner - for books, coins, collectibles, electronic items...etc

Ok, need to bounce an idea here - about integration with IndiRank - how about we increase the value of a vote based on IndiRank? So if a post gets one vote, and that blog's IR is 45, then the vote is increased by 1.4. (Displayed values will be rounded off)

thts a nice idea bt why not keep it xact instead of rounding off.. for IndiRank 44, it will be 1.44 and for 46, 1.46; othrwise just because of a diffrnce of 2 in IndiRank, vote diffrnce will bcum 1.5-1.4=0.1, five times more thn original(0.02)

Thanks everyone - will put everything together in order soon. IndiVine 2.0 is looking good so far!

Don't we also need a category for Fictions and Stories. And I think Science category can be called 'Science and Research' cos then it can have all the following under it.

MedicinePhysicsChemistryAnimal sciencePlant scienceEarth Science

Can't think of more categories right now.

so does that means we are creating indidigg ?

Renie, We can have a new topic, Science and Technology.

Now those sub-categories which u suggstd under Technology mostly pertain to computers and I.T. These can be put under seperate category, say Computers and IT.

Now Science and Technology will be able to cater to other general topics.

As for Global Warming, the reason i asked it to be created as seperate sub category from environment was because it itself is a hot-topic. So bloggers will be writing a lot about it. thts why it desrvs to be seperated frm othr envirnmntal issues.

Under Offbeat and Personal, as i already suggested Memoirs. other one can be Travelogue and India Guide. Here ppl cn giv links to their posts about their own cities or about their trips to othr cities as name suggests.

How about calling the category 'Business'.

Topics could include Real Estate, Personal Finance, (Investments/Stock Market )

and also Start-ups and Business News.

Hmmm.... also, what about science?

'Science' as a category can include:

Agriculture, Oceanography, Biology, etc.

yeah we cn have science nd technology. i'v replied seperately below!

Once crucial question - do we open voting (or promoting as we're calling it) to everyone? Or only to approved IndiBloggers?

By keeping the voting to approved Indibloggers, it would give them some incentive to participate.

opning 2 evry1 will cause a lot of pblms about which we discussd earlier. It shud be open only 2 mmbrs only!

Feedback required on categories for IndiVine please! As you can see, my mind's gone a blank with business & finance.

Technology

• Blogging
• Design
• Programming
• Gadgets
• Hardware
• Software
• Gaming
• Startups
• Social Media
• Tech News

Business & Finance

• Business
• Finance

Politics & Governance

• Political News
• Politicians & Parties
• Political Opinion
• Corruption
• Citizen Responsibility
• Terrorism
• Infrastructure & Development

Social Causes

• Youth & Education
• Animal Rights
• Environment
• Public Health
• Racism
• Reservation & Quotas
• Poverty
• Queer Pride
• Other Social Causes

Lifestyle

• Education
• Food & Drink
• Family & Parenting
• Travel & Tourism
• Health
• Religion
• Arts & Culture

Entertainment

• Celebrities
• Movies
• Music
• Television
• Comics & Animation
• Entertainment News

Sports & Games

• Cricket
• Hockey
• Tennis
• Athletics
• Soccer
• Motorsports
• Golf
• Chess
• Other Sports

Offbeat & Personal

• Short Stories
• Poetry
• Humour
• Odd Stuff
• Love & Relationships

Renie, I guess everythings coverd here... 

Nice job renie.

Change the title Business and Financed 2 sum general one.. cnt think of one. Under it u may add new topics like Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Entrepreneurship.

Also fiscal and monetary policy can be added under it or under Politics and Governance.

Under Politics and Governance, add Judicial Activism.

Under Social Causes, separately add Global Warming.

And within Personal, don't miss adding 'Memoirs',i.e. autobiographical stff!

Under Entertainment, u may try to devise a way of seperating topics under Hollywood, Other Foreign Language films, Mumbai Film Industry and Regional Cinema. Even under Mumbai film industry there can be mainstream cinema and alternative cinema.

My last suggestion regarding movies can be ignored as its like splitting the hair

Thanks Hemal! How's it going?

Vipul, wouldn't global warming come under environment?

Business & Finance - there are lots of blogs about stocks, personal finance, business takeovers, etc, so I think it should be a main category...  the only issue was the lack of sub categories... thanks for the ideas!

Global warming would definitely come under Environment.

As for Global Warming, the reason i asked it to be created as seperate sub category from environment was because it itself is a hot-topic. So bloggers will be writing a lot about it. thts why it desrvs to be seperated frm othr envirnmntal issues.

I just took a printout of this topic and read through it... Gosh... Vipul, want to join the team?

Everyone here - thank you for doing so much thinking for us. Our job is half done! We just finished some subtle design changes to the site, and we're working on IndiVine now.

Well um already part of the team bt joining it officially doesn't seem like a bad idea

So do let me know if tht was a serious offer

All d best 4 d changes nd v r looking fwd to d new nd improved IndiBlogger 2.0!

All the ideas given above are great...plus I also feel the categories need to be more....so that more relvant topics are incorporated..for example, a category on parenting would be so much relevant in today's world where we have more and more of nuclear families and both the parents working.

nice suggestion neerja:)

let us have indibloggers suggesting more sch topics 2 help renie nd company.

Guys, superb suggestions as usual. Am sure IndiVine needs these at the very least, and I promise you that IndiVine is looming very large in our task list right now.

My only concern is - how do we keep this feature from becoming another Digg or IndianPad? Is there anything we can think of which would differentiate it? The problem with Digg is that you have teams working together to digg each other's posts, etc. Sometime, we may have posts coming to the top which don't deserve to be.

Off the top of my head - should we integrate all the above ideas with IndiRank? We can have a ratio to rate posts - user rating + IndiRank. (Maybe 75:20)

Or will integration with IndiRank discourage new bloggers who have a low IndiRank?

Another problem with Digg - blog posts submitted into the wrong category!

As far as last cncrn is there, i blive u guys r already moderating the stff (it tuk my post on global warming a week to get accepted), so how cum they'll reach the wrong category?

Secondly integration with IndiRank is really not a good idea as u urslf have revealed its shortcoming!

Lastly, as far as ur first and the most importnt cncrn is cncrnd(regarding teams wrking 2gthr), I prsnaly dont hav any readymade answer rite now. as it is um not tht accustomed 2 d wrking of digg nd indipad(rather hav not usd thm yet). will luk into thm and think of sum 'jugad' (hey i hop u guys undrstand this wrd;)

http://vipulgrover.blogspot.com/

Yep, we can moderate the entries now cause we only have a hundfull of topics. Once we open it out to all the categories, we'll have hundreds everyday, which will be impossible to handle....

Hmmm.. thts true..

I'll see it frm two aspects, first wrong submission and second reporting the wrong submission.

First i'll take the second one:

• u cn intoduce a 'report wrong categorisation' button along with thumbs up and thumbs down.

• once u receive any sch report from a member with regards to any post in Indivine, just put the topic in right place.

• i agree this is not a full proof method as sum miscreants cn make ur life hell by reporting wrongly.

• bt thn whoevr reports such a thing, his/her identity shud be recordd too.

• on first wrongdoing, he shud b mailed to clarify(coz sch a thing mite hav happend inadvertently)

• nxt time persn may b banned or his voting/reporting powers can be taken away temporarily or permanently, based on rules u frame.

Now cuming to the first aspect, i.e PREVENTING WRONG SUBMISSION:

• under each topic seperately mention kind of stff thts xpectd 2 b submitted.
• carry out periodical partial checking to see if there r wrong submissions (if a difficlt task leave it)
• If sum1's posts are reported twice(ignore once) ask him to clarify.
• If there is any particular member whos posts are being reported frequently. Take necessary action against him/her. These actions cn b similar to those i elaborated earlier.

Thts all i cn think of bcoz ultimately only the members r allowed to participate nd if there is any miscreant among the submitters or reporters, he/she cn b identified easily by keeping an automatic record.

Now cuming to another concern, i.e, preventing non-deservable posts cuming to top.

Here again we have two aspects:

1. Preventing teams working together

2. Integrating IndiRank with user voting

I'll again take the second, first

• I did not support intgration of IndiRank earlier bt on a second thought sum weightage might be given. Ur suggstion of 1/4 weightage to IndiRank luks fine.
• However, to take the sting out of it, there is another suggestion.
• u mite give sum special rating powers to members with high IndiRank(above particular IndiRank). Lets call thm HR(high rankers) and others NHR(non HR) for time being.
• But the important thing is u do not reveal this limit and keep it a secret.
• When ever a HR rates a NHR positively, his rating is multiplied by two and when HR rates a fellow HR negatively, it is again multiplied by 2. In other two cases it is taken as single vote.
• In this way, HR's will help in pulling down the non-deserving fellow HR's and pushing the deserving NHR's up
• Hence this will satisfy those who r against use of IndiRank.

Now cuming to the first one, i.e Miscreant Teams:

• Its not necessary tht these teams r alwez miscreant. Those who r here for long hav made frnds nd it is natural tht their frnds will tend to read their articles more nd hence they'll end up with more votes.
• Moreover, if u know sum1, u mite evn give him/her a thumbs up/thumbs down without evn reading, knowing tht how he/she writes(mayb on the basis of just one post u read sum time back)

Um sorry bt i dont think its easy to prevnt this. These r sum shortcumings. lets c wat others think about it.

• Now cuming to actual miscreants
• If their posts r actually deserving there is no pblm.
• But if they r not lets hav another reporting system.
• So in addition to a thumbs down, a person cn report tht this post is not desrving to be at the given position. If such reports are receivd for a particular post from say 5 members, thn moderators cn luk into it.
• This way if any particular trend is seen ovr the time cnrning the posts and votes by sum particular members, thn u may evn end up catching any such team and taking necessary action.
• For this particular reporting purpose u may give special powers to the old and trusted IndiBloggers. Say their single report may suffice 5 reports of other members.

Thats all from my side for time being

Sometimes I really get worried about 'ranking', 'voting' and all such things though I agree to its utility and relevance. Your suggestion is valid in the context of 'fast reading, useful reading and meaningful reading'.  But the best way I see is to keep on exploring the unknown, meet something valid accidently and then spread it across. The percetptions of different people are different. I hope I don't have to trust majority on every thought, I think we all need space to differ.

No offence meant... I appreciate your ideas and your intention to help readers...

Hey aativas i genuinely undrstand ur cncrn. nd thanx 4 appreciating my initiative despite a difference in opinion.

Its true tht while giving a thumbs up or thumbs down, once subjective perception might creep in bt more the members participate, more will be the net objectivity.

Moreover, if there is sum1 who do not want to follow others' judgement, he/she is free to browse through the complete list of posts:)

Great idea vipul.... It would be easy to find which post is better...  try to implement this as soon as possible.

I agree to cloud too.. sections should be divided.. And those sections should cover  wide range of topics. So that each and every blogger can take part. Sections like humors,sports,Poems can be encouraged... I really find many great poems written by fellow bloggers. They should also be encouraged... If possible you can also rate the leader of each section whose post has got more number of thumbs up.

well ofcourse once it is implemntd, a mechanism shud b devisd so tht those who will consistntly have their posts with maximum thumbs up shud b awardd in sum way(a specialy designd indiblogger badge cn do)..

nd yeah um sure renie n his team r closely folowing this discusion, proof being his instnt rply wn i postd this in d form nd this thread appears in 'important suff' section.

Lets c wat d othr indibloggers hav 2 say about it. Till now the discussion is building real nicely though a bit slowly!

Vipul, I'm really glad you brought this up at this time - we have had IndiVine on our must-revamp list for some time now. I love the direction of your thoughts, and I'd love to see the suggestions from other bloggers as well.

Thank you for putting so much thought into this - one of the reasons I simply love this forum. This is the community at it's best.

hey thnx rennie.. u guys hav put up sch a gr8 community. Um jus doing my little bit.