Why is IndiBlogger hindering serious blogging?
The whole concept of IndiVine contests is that you'll be given a topic on which you'll have to write a post on your blog. This concept already assumes that people on Indi are not blogging seriously-i.e. with a theme. If you look at any really successful blog in the world (including Indian blogs) almost all of them are focused on a particular topic. If a blogger has a focus in his blog, how is it possible for him to write on any random topic that IndiBlogger gives under IndiVine contests?
Any thoughts?
Reason: Topic correction
Well, I think that being able to write on varied topics is helpful to people. It helps to develop your writing skills more tha anything else. the competition is irrelevant. It is the effort to write a good post that help you to become a better blogger and a better writer(which any decent blogger needs to be).
Also, if you have a focus on something in your blog, maybe you can suggest to the team here that they add one of your selected topics into their competition pipeline. It would certainly help you since you have so much knowledge, right? And it would help others to learn about the same topic as well.
I see very few "pro" bloggers here. Most are amateurs who don;t even have proper command over the language in which they write. This site is probably a place where they can learn from others. Or, at least, that is my opinion after my vast experience with this site in the last 2-3 ays tht I have been a member. ;o)
Your suggestion about requesting a topic is surely meaningful. I guess that's what people do here.
Being an amateur blogger and being a topic-focused blogger are unrelated. You can be a topic-focused amateur blogger. Surely there was a day when even Digital Inspiration had 5 posts. But Digital Inspiration was ALWAYS a technology blog and never anything but a technology blog. When one of the main hindrances in the way of maturity of the Indian blogging industry is the fact that 4 out of 5 blogs are "anything and everything" blogs (Acc. to the India Blog School ), IndiBlogger as one of the most prominent (if not the most prominent) Indian blogging communities may be can foster serious blogging.
Having said that, I certainly agree that with some imagination you can mold some of the given topics to fit your niche. The real benefit materializes when someone is able to do that. Then all of the factors that you've mentioned like learning to write, learning to write on different topics etc. come into play.
Thank you for the insightful post. :)
@ Rumbaho I accept what you have said in the last paragraph. many bloggers here have come to learn and improve and are doing it. the fact is that a pro blogger is rarely seen on forums and communities.
Indiblogger is very useful for your first baby steps, as long as you discover its existence within the first few weeks of your own in the blogosphere. Luckily for me, I did. 
There are tons of useful threads in the archives here - just do a search for whatever you need help with (tech/design/widgets/advice/practices).
After all, the quality of the content entirely depends on the activity and magnanimity of whichever of the members are around. Take what works for you.
Coming to Indivine, you are free to make a suggestion for inclusion of the category you need in any of the older threads on this exact same topic. Please do a search everytime you need something from Indiblogger - you will find a treasure trove.
That's for sure PC. IndiBlogger certainly is a treasure trove. (It's not for no reason that it's so successful :D) .. I was just wondering about this particular aspect. :) I was talking about what it's encouraging, not what it can offer, which, I'm sure all of us would agree, is already amazing. :)
Why should they focus on the small number of people who are serious bloggers with a focus when they have the bazillion people who will write on anything and everything. It doesn't make business sense. They can still entertain your suggestions and fit them into their plans if you approach them, though.There is an audience for everything. It is just a matter of managing your blog and your posts well enough and doing the right stuff. If you have a niche, and are a beginner or an amateur, it would help to write on other topics because you are forced to work on something that is not your area of comfort. If you can merge it with things that interest you, good for you!
If you are already a good writer, then just keep writing on your subject while ignoring the Indivine topics. You shall hopefully receive your due rewards when people join your email subscription list, or RSS feed, or link to your posts/site. Once in a while, just for the fun of it, write on an Indivine topic and blow everyone away. ;o)I hate writing on topics that don't interest me. So I will write what I want and hope that people come back to my blog.
err, Arti, I think Sulagna is referring to the competitive stuff.
Or did I misunderstand your post, Sulagna?
Yes Rocky, u'r rite.
Sulagna, as IndiBlogger goes, the idea is to help bloggers learn the tricks of the trade and improve their skills. Which is why, one would notice most of the tools are self service and relies more on the members who help out each other. The IndiVine section aims to promote bloggers who write content in specific areas like you mentioned. For example, you may have a blog that talks only about fashion or maybe books or perhaps technology. The contests are always themed around a specific area; and are never forced on anyone. So maybe a technology blogger should not take part in a beauty contest! Then again, a fashion blogger may want to talk part in this contest.
About writing on specific themes, its always the decision of the blogger and something IndiBlogger can never enforce and wouldn't want to either. For those who wish to get into niche or themed blogging, IndiBlogger however is a place where one can find like minded bloggers and network with them; use IndiVine to gain readers interested in those areas of writing, participate in forums etc.
Surely it's always the discretion of the blogger. Definitely we choose which topics we blog about. But given the fact that IndiBlogger is a community of mainly amateur bloggers, the temptation to participate in contests and improve the popularity of your blog is considerable among memebers, I guess. So such contests kind of encourage non-themed blogging.
However you're right when you say that a blogger has already decided whether they're a niche blogger or a non-niche blogger. And if someone has decided to be a niche blogger they shouldn't be affected by the temptation to take part in such contests.
Thanks for the post VR :)
i don't think that what you have mentioned is the actual concept of IndiVine. You just classify your blog posts into the categories present on IndiVine. One will be able to find good articles related to his interests easily, given teh diverse things about which one blogs. The one you have mentioned i.e. blogging about a topic happens in the case of trending topics, some of which are contests.
Addittion: There were some IndiVine trending topics that were theme centred. You can find some of them here: http://www.indiblogger.in/topics.php?pageNum_alltops=1&totalRows_alltops=36
Yes Ranjith, I should've specified more clearly. I meant the contensts.
Its important to have a theme or a niche for your blog. But if you have a personal blog, you can give your opinion on pretty much everything, isnt it. I have a tech blog , so I like to keep it that way and not mix up things. 
That's exactly what I meant. The question is whether one is blogging seriously or not. I'm not saying personal blogging is bad. Maybe serious blogging starts from personal blogging. But IF you're serious about ur blog it's imp that u maintain focus. Like u. :)
Thnks for commenting.
@sulagna , what I feel is that if you are a celeb blogger you can give your opinions on varied topics such as social issues or cricket or your favourite films etc but an average blogger might lose readership if he/she does the same because fewer people would be interested in that.
also, you can still edit the topic description just to specify that you were referring to the contests here and not indivine in general. :)
My observation over the years has been that, the stage of maturity as a nation of bloggers is concerned, we have a long way to go. What we are seeing now, is something the west saw in the 2004-2005. Then again, the adoption of newer technologies and social media integration is picking up faster now than before in India. It wouldn't be too long before bloggers eventually realize that blogging is not just about talking and venting but also one of the most important facets of personal b*****ng.
Don't know why that got censored! LOL! It's bran-ding
HAHA, Hindi gaalis are censored here, I guess. The system probably thought you were talking about a girl who earns her money lying on her back. LOL
Let the members here learn something: When you wish to type b*****ng or b r a n d i n g type it as bran.ding
@ Rumbaho You seem to be quite humorous. saw you even in that thread related to IndiVine. keep up the good work and let your imagination run wild.
At this point of time, I remember something I have all by myself inserted some **** and someone said that I was using bad words and so the system had censored it. 
Something more that I wish to tell, the censored words list needs to be updated. I saw many words that are not fit for family viewing but still have not been added into that list .And some get away from it by inserting spaces in between individual letters just as I have done above.
@Vineet being a mumbai kar, i think you should know why that got censored. Its a Clbuttic mistake for sure.
b R A N D I n g :) you see..
Good Brandy....i mean brand*ing...blogging is all about building individual brand equity....it gives kick like a brandy shot. Lolz
B*****ng mein kya problem tha? :D
Hey Sulagna, nice topic here and I must choose to disagree with thee ...:)
I think you're making a case of focus in ur blog, which I feel is the discretion of the blogger. IB unites these bloggers across specilaities.
In my opinion, any blog has two important aspects bout it - content and readability. While content is the sole discretion of the blogger (niche or not so), readabilty makes sure that her blog is comprehendable to the unknown many who may stumble upon her blog. And readability has just two sides to it - somethin written is either high on readability or simply not. :)
Obviously, writing skills make or break readabilty and thus helps u connect with ur reader and it is here that I feel the IB contests play an important role .
I have an obvious example in the recent chlorine contest - the objective of the contest was to blog and make aware of the dangers of chlorine and Trichloroisocyanuric Acid (TCCA) :). The challenge is to make people aware of TCCA when people'd usually lose interest in TCCA before u finish sayin it :) I contested in it and it took me about 9 drafts and almost a week to come out with something that I think is somewhere close to readability :). But I liked the fact that it was a challenge to write on sumthin I hd no clue on n an even bigger challenge to create interest on sumthin tht I initially thot ws unsexy :) And thts the beauty of the contests - expanding ur skills and cumin out wid sumthin u nvr thot u ever wud. :)
Me thinks IB aims 2 take Indian Bloggin to the next level. And me thinx focus on writing skills and hence readability is the right way to go. I personally believe that its when u're out of ur comfort zone tht u really start to learn. IB contests do tht with their varied topics .
Again, since this being is a network of bloggers with blogs focussed on various themes - it's readabilty and writing skills that is the common factor aongst all of us - almost everyone, blogger or not, will definitely apreciate a good read. So I think IB contests do a good job of collectively improving our writing skills and thus our blogging, irrespective of where we individually wanna focus.
What say? :)
I agree with the fact that every blog should have a basic theme..But if someone chooses to expand his writing skills to various topics..I really don't think that is bad if the content is really good! Indiblogger is really giving a chance to everybody to expand there skills! I've seen the technology blog person trying his hand out here at the contest! Why limit ourselves to a particular thing when we have so much to experience and write?
I read the thread fully... and I agree with the serious blogger concept.. But I had this doubt lingering all the while. If I have a blog that has its theme as humour, am I a serious blogger?
ROFL +100 Harish
Yes, you can be a serious blogger provided you write serious humours or if you write humours seriously or if you seriously write humours.
Oops did you get what I meant?
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