Hello All. Its been more than 3 months since the start of ThoughtsDecoded. The spirit has been enthusiastic, which has been bad news for the WA BLOG Judges who decide winners. Bad News because the Blogs are getting better by the month and the competition is getting neck in neck and its getting harder for us to decide.
Here’s a look at our pointing system(PLOT):
1. Popularity (10 Marks)
How popular the Blog is in WA? (includes comments)
2. Level of Interest (10 Marks)
Whether the Author submitted the blog voluntarily, i.e. without being asked for?
Whether the Author actively participates in responding to the comments
3. Originality (Content)(10 Marks)
Whether the Blog is purely his/her work and not adapted? If adapted to which extent?
4. Thought Provoking (Content)(10 Marks)
Is the Blog the same old Gheesa-Peeta blog or does it sound new and interesting and lets you think?
Some myths:
1. The number of comments can win you the Blog Prize.
In this case your marks MIGHT soar in the Popularity category. But remember, the next person would be following you with only a difference of ONE point.
Eg: If “Person A” receives maximum comments in that month say, 100 comments. Person A will get 6-7 points in Popularity. If a Person B ranks second for receiving 50 Comments, Person B will get 5-6 Points and not 1-2 Points.
In the month of September, “It aint all about money, honey!” received lesser comments at the time of evaluation than “Staying late in the Office”. “Staying late in the Office” actually came 3rd that month. The 2nd best blog was “UBUNTU – Philosophy behind the Software” with 3 comments as of now.
2. It doesnt matter what kind of comments you put. Just force your friends to put it.
Nope! We CAN figure out which ones are forced, which ones are irrelevant and which ones arent genuine.
3. Only the content needs to be good.
Miss Worlds arent chosen merely by admiring their beauty, their BRAINS do matter. Similarly, it does matter that you provide a good content, but that doesnt mean you stay calm after submitting your entry. Remember? It doesnt matter producing a good film to win the Oscars. You have got to publicize your film to let the people know about it.
Therefore, “the level of interest” is also an important point. If you dont respond to the comments that have appeared on your blog, that means, your level of interest is just submitting the blog into our hands and forget about it.
Thoughts Decoded was created to let everyone get involved. If the “Content” is to be the ONLY category to score marks, then we would have only people who are confident in English taking part, everyone else would be demotivated.
The pointing system was made in such a way that no one gets advantage, such as above, to win over others. That would be biased judgement. Everybody should feel that they can win.
It should be also noted that to win the prize, the author has to fire on all cylinders(content, comment, respond, be original and different).
We feel there have been no biased results so far. If you feel otherwise, let us know. Comment!
Any clarifications on why a person didnt win the Blog Prize, when actually he/she should have will be cleared in this section.
ThoughtsDecoded was started to let all WAites participate. Prizes are only for recognition. Your motive should be to participate first.
The numbers so far:
4 months – 29 Blogs
WA BLOG TEAM
#1 by pankaj sharma - December 13th, 2007 at 16:39
@Pravina , Michael
I am not getting you wrong, you seriously doubted that we comment on blogs not written by our team mets. means you believe voting is biased.
The one having larger team size will get more comments.
Michael : I was not Criticizing the point system, it was just a suggestion not to include points for comments if its not fair enough.
I believe that you have the ability to distinguish between forced, nonsensical and irrelevant comments but it can not change the number of comments.
If someone is getting more comments because of larger team size
definitely he will get both relevant and irrelevant comments.
#2 by michael.fernando - December 13th, 2007 at 18:15
Pankaj, I have to reiterate, no one can win because of the number of comments.
Thanks for your comment. Criticisms aren’t wrong. This blog post was created with this sole purpose; so that you can all criticize the point system. That is the only way we can get to know the negatives in it. If you have a valid point, we will surely implement it into the point system.
Once again, your criticisms are welcome. You all are part of refining the system.
#3 by Bipin - December 16th, 2007 at 20:40
Hi WA Blog Team,
You are doing an awesome job. The blog is popular and inviting some good posts. The PLOT system is well thought out. There is nothing like forced comment and it has also got nothing to do with the team size. No one does and can force anyone to post comments. However, you may consider ignoring irrelevant comments from the total count of comments.
I don’t think PLOT needs revision yet. Great job and keep it up.