Contest thread or category?

I think the gist of the discussion is that there should be a separate category for contests on forums.  Though it's cool for me even now 

for me too..once you are used to the forum...everything seems fine. otherwise there is always ranjithpedia to dig up lost threads

True that . Hope nobody starts a thread to find an old thread  

Nandini, I did read. Blame morning rush and my own vision of how I'd like for a forum to be organized for missing out on replying to each of you individually :) AS FP said, unless links are active, what's the point with the mages in the drives?

What you say above works great yes, if all I want to do is hop in and check the latest contest and quickly write a post for it. What if that isn't my goal and all I want to do is figure out how IB does its contests and what are the kinds they do, will they work for me, more from ahistorian and quicker bigger picture perspective?

Am I explaining it right? Coz it's not a current "must-do" thing am looking for, but to ahve them all grouped under one place so I can just go spend time on how each have been done, conducted, the various posts under each and who won and why etc. It's a study ;-)  

i did mention drives >> you can check past contests there http://www.indiblogger.in/drives/

drives are not mere images....you'll find 'read more' link in middle to go to contest page

spend time on how each have been done, conducted, the various posts under each and who won and why etc.

The list of contests is available here. 

And if you want the contest thread related to it, search for the earliest version of the page here. If the forum link isn't available, you can search on Google using the contest title.

r...i gave that link too above...regarding lists of contests...doubt if she checked

R just rehashes all the answers that were given earlier and makes a big reply out of it

ND I didn't see 

NSV No NSV. I added the web archive link also 

saket...i said drives is for 'past' contests..dove play will be probably be displayed too soon, the results were recently out 10 days back

For the last time ND, contests mentioned in the Drives do not have forum threads necessarily. What's the big deal if somebody wants to check all threads? Why is the task so difficult? Sticky threads ki baat nahi kar rahe idhar

she wants to see all these >> so I can just go spend time on how each have been done, conducted, the various posts under each and who won and why etc.

and all these are available on drives too....and recently they started adding discussion button on the contest page itself too

can you see the posts or winners in forum thread eh? or the contest page thats available on the drives?

Thanks to all who replied addressing the original questions :) Hey Arti, Fairy Princess and Gaurab *waves* Well, of course I can search! I can also use google search. I understand that route.  So, going through all your answers it looks like the site is not set up to group or organize all contests under one umbrella or category? Is that safe an assumtion? 

Am surprised. IB certainly has a large following AND many contests going AND many avid contest players, and from a back end POV, this shouldn't be hard to intialize and set up? This is interesting. 

The work around does the job, but it isn't the accurate way and not for all. It's just convenient to click a tab called "contest" and see a string of forum topics (all that requires is organizing and listing all the "discuss this contest" forum threads, under it) 

That would be an awesome value-add no? 

Okay then! thanks to all who chipped in. Later folks *waves* 

if you read my answer perhaps you'd have found nowhere i mentioned to search like the others...but alas *sigh*

1. check home page slider for on going contests.

2. check forum 'sticky' threads ( i.e top threads ) features the related contests

3. check 'drives' tab for past contests

@Rads, totally agree with you!

@ND, until all the contests in the Drives tab have forum threads attached, it has pretty limited usability!

small p....current contests n their threads are more important and everything is out there..forum sticky threads are right on top

ND, it's not only about current threads. Get that straight yaar....it's about all contest threads.

i'm just helping out wats easily available

@TF Here's my answer 

Use this Google Search. 

That's cool  One can also use this way -

go to the forums page -> There is a search bar on the right hand side "search the forum"

bad answer 

Gaurab ... but Google search is more intelligent than IB Forum search. IB Searche for 'contest' or 'contests' hardly returned any contest threads while Google gave around 30-40 contest threads. 

Vijay accha answer hai 

nahi very bad answer hai

ND It is a very good answer 

bad answer

You give a better answer. Then, I'll accept that it is a bad answer 

2 people said its a bad answer, only 1 is saying good...so majority wins...its a bad answer 

No. This is IB. Majority loses. 

IB is in india...hence majority wins

very bad answer

It's a good answer..

Aditya 

NSV 

what? 3-2 against u Ranjith

bad bad answer

I raise both my hands in support of Ranjith.

TF, raising both the hands is not allowed Your vote becomes invalid

With TF's two hands, it is 3-4  I win 

Pankti It's allowed. You can raise your three hands also for me. 

vp...also said twice bad answer again....so its two extra votes from vp...now its 6:4...so majority is ours

How can u win so soon? the counting goes on till the thread is locked or buried or when i'm dead

ND But he didn't raise his hands. 

NSV It's impossible to tell whether a thread is buried or not. It might surface again at any moment 

Thats why I added the last phrase also

Its a good idea to have a separate page dedicated to contests old and new nice to visit old contest entries for nostaligia sake

drives ??

I think the person who started this thread was trying to find contest thread in the forums 

And there is the drive tab to find contests 

drives 

http://www.indiblogger.in/drives/  

still din understand drives 

Vijay On the top of IB, there is a tab named Drives which shows all the contests. 

on top 

uupar.. near the fan 

Doesn't Ranjith have anything to say on this?

he is sleeping so we are trying to do his job

ND No, I woke up at 7  a bit busy 

TF I'll not disappoint you. kuch blah blah likhunga 

There are threads for every contest. If you are looking for a specific contest thread then you can easily reach it.

1. Go to the contest page (from the home page)

2. On the Right hand side there are contest rules.

3. Below the rules there is a link discuss the contest.

Hope this helps.

PS - Use this method if you have problem browsing through the forum thread. (Though I enjoy it )

Gaurab, but what the contests that no longer feature on the home page and it's difficult to find them in the forum?

I think all the "running" or active contests show up in the home page and their threads show up in the "Important stuff" in the forum page but if you are trying to find the thread of some old contest there are two easy ways -

1. If you have already commented on that thread then you can track it. There is a "Track this topic" link on the right hand side of every thread, even on this one.

2. If you have never commented on that topic then go to the forums page -> There is a search bar on the right hand side "search the forum"

Hope this helps. 

I'm talking about old threads...problems with both the suggestions

1. I never use the option of 'Track this topic' because I don't want my email account to be bombarded with 600-700 emails which ususally happens with the contest threads. So this option is useless for me.
2. When the contest becomes old, you forget the exact name of the contest but you remember whether you participated and what it was about. In this case finding the thread becomes difficult. Case in point, couple of months back Dabur conducted 2 contests...if you search with the word Dabur you won't find a single thread. You have to search with the word "traditional" for one contest and for the other contest, I still haven't found the exact word that I can use to find it. Hence, if I want to check the thread, if it isn't on the main page of the forum, I go back to the article that i wrote and then click from there to reach the page I want to Too much trouble in my opinion for a simple thing.

Due to these reasons, I think having special category for contests would be great

small p...i dont think she wants to find threads of expired contests....ongoing contest threads are easily avialable on top of forum made 'sticky'

ND, but I wanted to find it and I couldn't

And so whatever I said, it was my experience and my frustration

I think having special category for contests would be great 

 

they already have 'drives' tab for that to check old contests

Great ND...didn't know about that...I guess from there we can copy the title of the contest and then search on the forum! Maybe the thread for the contest should be mentioned in the drives too? 

i think nowdays they started adding the thread in contest page itself where it says 'discuss this contest' though i think its added in only a few, not all....after results are declared whats the use of seeing its discussion anyways? lol

@fairy - I don't want to debate it, it was meant for help.  

You gave the example of Dabur that after writing a detailed post about it you have forgotten everything and have just remembered the word "Dabur"...so I searched it and it just showed 4 results. You can have the link here -

http://www.indiblogger.in/forum/search.php?q=dabur

I think you didn't search it before commenting. Hope this helps. 

PS - Nandini is right there is Drive tab for the contests already.

Ok...I don't know where my first reply went away. Again here it is!

@Gaurab, first of all, I don't know from where did you get an idea I was debating. I was simply discussing the issue under disuccssion. I'm under the impression that forum is the right place for that Correct me if I'm wrong.

Secondly, for searching threads, I used the box "filter rows" which appears on the top of the threads along with the title "latest activity." There the threads don't appear and I don't know any other way to search it. I don't know how to put screen shots over here or copy an image over here, otherwise I'd have put it to prove that I ain't in the habit of putting my foot in the mouth.

PS: I deeply resent that debate jab. Neither I have time to debate nor any inclination to do so. Never knew I couldn't discuss things on the forum anymore. 

Then you replied to my comment without reading it - (I quote)

go to the forums page -> There is a search bar on the right hand side "search the forum"

I can well differentiate between discussion and debate. Your comment was a point-wise rebuttal to my help. Discussions are never done to score brownie points. If you think your were discussing then that's fine with me. 

@Gaurab, I understood it as the filter row, which too is on the right hand side on the top of the threads, and that I've been using.

Secondly, I'm quite organized and logical. Hence, even when I'm discussing, I go point wise. I don't meander in my discussions or thoughts. And I don't know you and so I don't have anything to say about your capability to differentiate between a discussion and a debate. I'm not interested in scoring any points, brownie or otherwise. I'd rather buy the cake and eat it on my own.

Thirdly, now I'm not going to give any clarification or make any point regarding this discussion. This is turning ugly for me.

"Brownie points" here meant earning petty points by trying to impress others. I think there is no need to know me or my capabilities.  I don't know what are you writing.  You are free to do whatever you want. I wrote my points to help Rads. You asked me a question so I replied to help you.  Stay blessed.

Yes....apparently you missed the entire joke in the brownie thing. Nevermind.

I vote for this suggestion

Hey Rads, it's good to be speaking to you - how are you doing? :)

I totally '+1' your suggestion, I have myself vouched for the same thing earlier, we definitely need a separate category for contests to make tracking of things a bit more easier.

Am great Arti, trying to understand IB ;-)