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I don’t usually talk negative about other people or brands, but this time is one exception.
The much-anticipated results from the “It’s Time To Tab” contest from IndiBlogger, sponsored by Samsung India, are out. I didn’t win, but that’s not my real reason for writing this post about the contest. The real issue here is professionalism (or lack of it). They disregarded professionalism throughout the contest, which became unbearable. It was simply insulting to those who abided by their terms and conditions from the beginning.
Here are a few tweets from some of the tech bloggers throughout the day ( There are 100s but here is few of them):
It may seem a waste of time after writing a quality article and promoting the contest myself on social media sites to publish again an article about this contest. However, I am not the kind to simply move on after being cheated, without a word. I hope this helps somebody else in the future who might fall for this kind of stupid contest from Indiblogger or any other PR firms and I would be more than happy if my efforts were valuable to someone.
Change of Rules Half Way Through the Contest
IndiBlogger announced the ‘It’s Time to Tab’ contest and the first step in the contest was watching the streaming of the live event of ‘Samsung Galaxy Tab launch’. Later, the rule were changed mid way to accommodate those people who didn’t sit the LIVE launch event. Probably because there weren’t enough entries at the beginning and they had to adapt to the reality of the situation. People questioned this on their forum but of course there was no replies. Even if they felt the situation warranted it, they should have at least explained it on the forum.
Secondly, the last date of the submission was 10th September and they extended to 12th September later on. Could it have been that they still had not yet met the number of entries Samsung demanded for payment?
Oh Man! And Here (Where) are The Results!
IndiBlogger (Or Samsung) stated earlier on contest page that the winner would be judged based on creativity, relevance, depth, impact and the level of interaction. What we saw, however, was that posts with zero interaction won the contest. So when IndiBlogger stipulated “interaction” we assumed they were referring to maximum interaction, but in fact, it’s inaction that they wanted!
I can refer at least 10 such crappy entries which is not stand a chance with some of the quality articles with 100s of Facebook shares, tweets and comments. I decided not to mention those rubbish winning entries because I don’t want to turn this into a personal war.
It Was A Trap and Many Tech Bloggers Fall For It
Here is a Facebook update from one of the top tech blogger from India: It says the whole story.
Yes, Samsung wanted a hype in the blogosphere for its launch and they achieved it.
Final Words:
I would be feeling lost if I would have been defeated by 20 better articles than mine. It would be a challenge to me. But, in fact, I lost to some of the crappy bloggers, who are either closely related to the IndiBlogger team or someone at Samsung. For me, it was a good experience to learn about the idiotic corporate policies and the foolish management of IndiBlogger. It simply drives me off from such crap in the future. So bloggers next time, think twice before you do free publicity for such cowards.
Tip: MOVE ON! As an alternative you can start drinking Limca to win a Galaxy Tab every hour. But it’s possible that you will be surprised at the end of the day that the person who won was actually drinking “Mirinda”!!!
Edit: I can’t let this alone: Have a look on this winning post Ravana lost as he never had a Samsung Tab; the product specifications in the end has copied word to word from this article - A Glimpse Into The Future With The Samsung Galaxy Tab. You can copyscape it for sure but here is a screenshot for convenience.
So IndiBlogger, you were kidding me when you said you checked Plagiarism on all the winning articles; right?
Update: Truth Revealed! Here is What Actually Happens in IndiBlogger Contests
I was sitting in my couch and sipping Mirinda (You know why) in the evening when I got this email from one of the Former IndiBlogger Moderator which revealed the whole drama behind IndiBlogger contests. Once I read the mail, I literally shocked by knowing the dirty truth behind all the IndiBlogger contests till the date. The good thing is that, I actually got the answers why the quality posts are deeply buried and the crappy posts appeared in the winning list. I would like to share the email with all of you to let to know the truth.
Subject: Hi From a Former IndiBlogger Moderator
Saw your post, is been doing the rounds of the entire blogosphere. Let me
tell you one thing, this is the third time I have seen cheating in the
indiblogger community as far as posts is concerned and guess how many
contests I witnessed? 3 ! LOL :DDon’t get me wring here, r**** r**** is full of crap, I had been a moderator
and I have seen how they promote each other, give prizes to each other. They
even deleted our threads from the forum for no reason while their friends
were openly selling banner ads on the forum. Take it from me, argument will
not get you anything, people will only ridicule you for taking Indiblogger
seriously, I quit long time back, coz I felt there is no growth in the
forum, they are like people living in their own shanties, they don’t know
social media and 80% still use blogspot and the major discussions on the
forums still remain potholes and politics and crap like that.[Some content removed as per request]
Best!
Name
Thanks to him for putting some light in to the real story. He also shared some of the Email communications between he and R**** which discusses how partial the other moderators are and lots of other inside stories. But I don’t think there is any explanation required after reading this mail.
It’s good that before the end of the day we got the answers to our questions that also directly from a former IndiBlogger staff. Tomorrow will be a new day. Signing off!
Note: That Mirinda thingy is not actually true, I don’t take soft drinks. If you want to know why you should avoid such carbonated soft drinks here is a disqualified article on IndiBlogger’s Youngistaan Ka WOW contest.
Feel Cheated? Take Your Part and Share This Article With Your Friends!
About Jose Tinto
So the Blogging niche is also affected by Scams. Very hearty thanks to Indiblogger for that. But brands and site’s should know that bloggers can re-blog things. So beware Indiblogger and Samsung as you may be listed in a ‘Top 10′ list of Online Indian Scams post.
Yes agreed with you… now its time for samsung to act on this issue fast as they have less time ….
Now who will go to Tihar Jail this SCAM
BLOGGING SCAM : INDIBLOGGER is a BIG SCAM
Lets Wait for the Final Verdict
Firstly, get your facts right. It was not anybody from indiblogger who selected the winners. Samsung India did that. Do I need to say anything more. Yeah but not now. Will do that later.
It’s quiet natural that people who benefitted from it will defend the entity’s honor, that’s fine. But where you have read that I said it’s IndiBlogger’s fault only? According to me Samsung and IndiBlogger has equal responsibility in this Scam.
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 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
You are still not getting it right. I’m are not saying none of the posts were worth winning. But almost half of the winners are not fit to be there when compared to some real quality posts. Chetan Bhawani’s article is a real example.
And where is the transparency on the topic? If they don’t have anything to hide then why they are not responding to it?
Mind you, I am not raising the finger against YOU or on the winners. We have problem with Indi and Samsung. So stop batting for them, just enjoy your win and let them respond.
You need to read my comment again. I mentioned it clearly that I am not speaking for Indiblogger or Samsung India. Did you read it this time? I hope you did. So don’t claim what is not true.
Secondly, you are misleading people with your 2nd and 4th image. Which is the reaction of wrong link which was put by indiblogger which they replaced later with the correct link.
Yes, you told that you are not taking sides but who will believe this? From all your replies and from your tweets it’s very much clear that you are simply favoring them because you have got the perks from the scammers. Very much the same way some people still believes that SPEAK ASIA is genuine.
Frankly, in an arguement taking side is fine. But saying I’m neutral and vigorously supporting one party is lame. During these all days I haven’t seen a single tweet from you which asked IndiBlogger to respond on the issue while you were continuesly advising me what should I do.
Standing up for what you believe and shows the courage to speak the truth is called guts and praising your master not.
And regading the images, I have removed the 2nd image. Not because it was misleading but it was mentioning a website name. 4th image is not misleading in anyways because if somebody believes that the winners were selected by random.org is his own opinion. My readers have got that common sense to understand what a personal opinion means.
My dear Puneet,
Calm down. You just sound like my friend who gets kicked every day for talking rubbish. Fact is, he talks less bull$hit than you.
You have no clue what you are talking here. “Call a spade a spade,” “Lose like a Man,” and “botton of the post that please vote me blah blah… I’m a cool guy” just doesn’t make sense.
“You need to read my comment again. I mentioned it clearly that I am not speaking for Indiblogger or Samsung India. Did you read it this time? I hope you did. So don’t claim what is not true.”
Hey a$$hole, look, stop depending. Don’t shout at this author because you don’t know how to write. As a matter of fact, whatever you write is horrendous. Go f.uck yourself!
@Guys,
Is this the same bi.tch who is howling even after winning the prize by fraudulent means? Because he was featured in the “Bi.tch Magazine Weekly” and all the dogs in our society were very impressed by his achievements. I wish even I understood what he says but I don’t understand ‘bark’ language, my bad…
I just want to ask what exactly is the meaning for world like Content, Quality, Depth and Interaction.
This is just a Sick promotional stunt to promote their product and they are successful in using Indian Bloggers as their source. Lets see how this goes.
And yea, I’d like to say even a guy not drinking anything might win a Galaxy tab as well :P
Looks like everyone is really frustrated from the results of this contest.. well all the promotions that were being done during this contest did not affect in anyway as i see the list there is no one from the highest shared blog post in that list..
They used the bloggers to write positive reviews about the product… disgusting marketing gimmick.
To protest against the indiblogger conspiracy we can at least remove or delete the posts which are unconditionally favouring the product and may misguide buyers.
That’s why i never participate in such kind of Contests! Why waste time when we can earn the money to buy a Tablet by promoting our own blogs?
I did tell some of my friends not to waste time behind that. I smelled that its an already fixed match.
Indibloggers will not regain their trust back.
I think all bloggers should stay away from reviews/promotions unless those are from their own experience and as long as the blogger aims brushing up his/her own creativity and writing skills. I appreciate your courage to speak this out!
Fully agreed with you Jose Tinto. Just after announced winners name I read the facebook comment post by R… But now I am never participate in such type of contest.
Don’t know that they really sent Samsung Tab to winners.
Now the truth itself is out from the horse mouth one of the winner says that they linked his wrong blogpost (http://twitter.com/#!/puneetsays/status/117110294924378112) . So this means Indiblogger already wanted to give this guy a tab if they have really judged it they would have at least know the correct url or could have linked the correct url!
Why did this confusion came okay fine if you say that this blogger submitted 2 entries then how come a lame article got linked maybe the entire Indiblogger team was aware that his blog should be given the prize so the person who was linking the blogpost accidentally linked the wrong post.
So this clearly shows that it was a fixed match shame on you Indiblogger Shame on you Samsung India !
Have you heard “To Err is Human”
Lame post? Guess you don’t know what a quality post is.
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)
It is a sad news to hear such stuff, is it only a game for Samsung? Did i waste my time writing this article – indiblogger.in/indipost.php?post=73909
@ 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!
There is no point in moving on. We need an explanation.
About that facebook comment, if its me (Roshan Ashraf Shaikh), no need to block the name and the photo.
I said a TOP TECH BLOGGER, it can’t be you. :D
ROFL ! I gotta say this comment was an icing on the cake ! how embarrassing can it be when someone addresses a reputable personality and some wannabe comes hopping in, “that’s me that’s me” and the person goes “duh, not you dude!”
Tends to happen to people with a champions trophy in self obsession!
Haha… Right on spot.. Poor guy… Trying hard to get some attention. My best wishes to him. :D
Today my dear friends, I want to tell you a short story….
(Please listen carefully and don’t sleep, in case you are already a part of the below mentioned community then you are sleeping since ages already, I wont hold grudges against you)
A bunch of small timers have nothing to eat, no place to sleep, so they decide to make a community, a community where they collected all Indian fools in one place and make money from selling them. This sounded better than MLM, this sounded better than the facebook marketing scam and it guaranteed daily meals for a long time. So they beg on the streets for a day, but they can’t raise enough money for a dot com domain and settle for a cheaper dot in domain. The rest is history(which I told you already)..
Fast forward to 2011. What are the guys doing now? they are running the same scam called the Indiblogger community, they beg advertisers every month for some cash to feed their families, and the fools who are filled with pseudo intellectual talk otherwise decide to suck on that hype. What happens next, the admin rakes in the cash, some friend or relative of the admin gets the prize and the company gets its traction…
Ohh and what happened to the dedicated people who are a part of the community you wonder? Who cares, didn’t I tell you right from the beginning that it was a bunch of fools? So the fools win too, since they are living up to the tag!
Every one is happy, its a win win, I am not sure why so many people are complaining…
Just so you know, .in domains is more expensive to renew/maintain than .com domains.
correction : *are :)
Jose,
I had posted 2 posts but they were not selected. I had spent one full day for this contest. I can see that they have selected a blog which has only pictures. No content. Checkout Lakshmi Rajan’s entry.
Many winning entries doesn’t include video to the webcast.
I have blogged by following all rules/regulations.
I also participated in Intel AppUp contest but doesn’t won. Posted 4 blog posts with video demonstrations.
Competitions like these and organizations like IndiBlogger are still are the forefront of corporations trying to understand how to monetize “social” “buzz”.
It will take a few years for this process to mature. Till then, it’s best we just hold out!
Dear Jose,
Your post is a poser! I really think most bloggers, who consider Indi to be a family, would have a strong sense of resentment against you. The facts you provided and the conclusion derived from it is absolutely an eye-opener. I participated in earlier contests, I never evaluated the quality of my posts though (I can’t be a self-critic!) and never really wanted to commercialize my thoughts. However, I dint participate in the latest contests due to time-management-crisis of posting! Seems I have missed a wonderful opportunity to display my angst! :P
I still do believe that Indiblogger can be a good platform for having good blogger friends and interacting with them. Better staying away from contests. I’m looking forward to make friends here (including you, if you’re interested :P)
Thanks for sharing and don’t bother… The world is all about — “Showing-up”!
Love,
Indie :)
The grammar…in that last post. Gosh even reading it hurts my brain! @_@
Hah, if the winners are in this category it’s better to be on the other side.
The way how Puneet is bashing the tech bloggers he should be very much ashamed of it . This clearly shows that Puneet and THE SORCERER are the paid agents of Indiblogger.in.
As someone suggest in the forum to show these guys the power Indian tech blogger community this can be done simply mark there site as spam in Google Search.
Rest Google Will take care of it.
Hope by this way we can teach them a lesson and show if they play with our sentiment we will show you the door.
Are you talking about the IndiCrappers, yes that’s all they are good at. This is just the tip of the ice-berg, there is a lot more about the community. Contest scam, money scam, tax-evasion, serious attention deficit problem, etc ..Wait, lets just mark the indiblogger.in website as spam on Google search. Should work for them, in case you need some support, I’m game for it!
hahaha, can’t believe my eyes looking at the screenshot :P, lol man, I was unaware of the contest as I’m new to IndiBlogger. Cheers Jose !
Okay….wow, I’m really disheartened now. Bloody hell, I’ve participated on Indi’s Surf Excel Contest for iPad 2 :/
Ah well, contests don’t matter, blogging matters more to me :)
Anyway, I wanted to give you a HUGE thankyou for sharing this info with all of us :)
Just the same, if you could spare a few minutes, could you read my entry into the contest? And maybe leave a comment or a vote? Every read, feedback and vote makes a whole lotta difference :)
BTW, are you a keralite? Just asked, cus I have a friend whose name is Alan Tinto, and he’s from Trivandrum (I am too :) )
http://www.indiblogger.in/indipost.php?post=90039