Its the time to reveal the Hidden topic

Date for Blog-a-Ton 11: Jun 5, 2010

Before I declare the topic for this Blog-a-Ton, lets welcome the new Blog-a-Tonics:

• Sanjay (Please provide a valid bloglink to be blogrolled)
• Adarsh
• J. Sharma (Please provide a valid bloglink to be blogrolled)
• Geetanjali Juneja (Please provide a valid bloglink to be blogrolled)
• Chandan (Please provide a valid bloglink to be blogrolled)

In this edition, we received some great suggestions and I must congratulate everyone for taking this event to a higher level. Of all the topics, the Blog-a-Tonics have overwhelmingly voted for Hidden.

Leo deserves a special mention for suggesting  yet another winning topic after the last month's Escape.

While dealing with the topic 'Hidden', you have the freedom to treat it the way you want. Its upto you; which genre of writing you choose, i.e. simple essay-type, article, dialogue, short story (even 55 Fiction for that matter), poem or whatever you feel like.

Moreover, its upto you; which mood or tone you choose to set it in, i.e. serious, witty, humour, optimistic or whatever that comes to you naturally.

Again, you have the freedom to choose the language of communication. However, we'll suggest you to write in English to put across your views to the maximum members which will also help you when its the time to vote for the BATOM.

I hope this clarification helps the new Blog-a-Tonics.

So, you all have ample time to write it but you'll have to wait till Jun 5 to post it finally along with everyone else.

Please write your posts on time as the late entries will not be allowed to participate in the voting round (though the links will be added to the participants list).

Other rules regarding posting will be conveyed to you later.

So kindly wait for that notification on next Friday rather than putting up queries right now. If the queries are regarding general pattern of the event, please go through the posts about previous events.

Wishing you all, a free flow of thoughts

Blog-a-Tonically yours

Vipul Grover

Its The Time For Blog-a-Ton 11

Date for Blog-a-Ton 11: Jun 5, 2010
Topic declaration : May 29, 2010

Hello friends, I am back with yet another edition of Blog-a-Ton. I remember how I started the first post for Blog-a-Ton 10 by sulking about the drop in participation in its previous edition. But times have changed and this time we are entering a new edition with the target to achieve even higher numbers; 60 it was in Blog-a-Ton 10.

But first of all, lets welcome the bloggers who have joined us in our endeavour to reacher newer heights-

• Anurag Yelkur
• Weird Real Dreamer (Please provide your bloglink to be blogrolled)
• Goonj (Please provide your bloglink to be blogrolled)
• Sudeshna
• Swatz (Please provide your bloglink to be blogrolled)
• Huflungpu (Please provide your bloglink to be blogrolled)
• Ana

You all will be blogrolled soon.

So with this, I invite your suggestions for the topic for Blog-a-Ton 11. Please keep the following things in mind while suggesting.

• Each member can suggest only one topic.
• The topic should be general in scope, so that more and more Blog-a-Tonics can participate.
• Before suggesting, go through the previous ones for sure.
• If you like any of those, VOTE for them rather than giving a new suggestion.
• If you like a suggested topic but don't like the wordings, still VOTE for it and alongside suggest a new title for it.
• In case you have already suggested a topic but find some subsequent suggestion better than yours, you are allowed to vote for it. But this can be done only once.

• Rather than criticising the suggestions made by others, kindly give better suggestions.
• Give your suggestions and votes in the comments section of this post.
• Do not embolden your comment using HTML bold tag.
• Please keep these points in mind to make my job easier.

In case a comment is not posted according to these rules, it will be deleted.

Encourage your fellow bloggers to participate in this edition. You can share this post on your various social networking profiles through the ShareThis widget.

Click here to have your say in Blog-a-Ton's First Anniversary Celebrations.

Hoping to receive some interesting suggestions

 Blog-a-Tonically Yours

Vipul Grover

ONE YEAR CELEBRATIONS - IDEAS NEEDED!!!

Hello fellow Blog-a-Tonics. We have successfully organised 10 editions of Blog-a-Ton. The latest one which concluded last Friday was the biggest by all means. As The Fool puts it,

"This was a landmark Blog-a-ton for many reasons. Of course 10th is in itself a landmark... Other landmarks - greatest number of posts. Half century this time. Greatest number of votes. Greatest number of people in the points list. The list can go on.."

The credit for the same goes to all of you who participated, urged others to participate, took out time to go through the entries and voted for their favourite ones.

Let us welcome the new Blog-a-tonics before proceeding to the main issue;

• Raksha D'Souza (Please provide your bloglink to be blogrolled)
• Priyanka
• Bulls Eye (Please provide your bloglink to be blogrolled)

You all will be blogrolled soon!

As you might be knowing, Blog-a-Ton was born as a discussion initiated by me in the Indiblogger forum. This blog was created on Jul 5, 2009 and hence is nearing its first anniversary. It is still a couple of months away and in between we have Blog-a-Ton 11 too. However, to take the advantage of 5 Saturdays this month, I thought of inititating this discussion before we start discussing the topic for Blog-a-Ton 11. That discussion will open on or before May 22.

A lot of ideas are coming to my mind to make the First Anniversary celebrations more special.

First of all, Blog-a-Ton 12 might be shifted to July 5 (instead of the first Saturday which falls on Jul 3).

Secondly, let's introduce a Blog-a-Ton Hall of Fame where some veteran Blog-a-Tonics will be inducted. For this I want an apt name (to go with our marathon theme) and a nice badge that the inductees can display on their blog. So kindly come up with ideas for the same. We already have one in-house designer Sid aka Ravan who designed our BATOM Badge. Lets see who are the others!

As for the Blog-a-Ton format, we'll try to go with the existing one. However, if you have anything special going in your mind, you can dish it out here. But try to keep it as close to our existing and time tested format.

Then, how about mini Blog-a-Ton meets in different cities like Chennai, Bangalore, Pune/Mumbai, Kolkatta, New Delhi, etc. This one is too ambitious but if anyone of you is interested, then you can initiate discussions with those from your city. In short, you can volunteer to be the Meet Marshal for your city. Number of attendees won't matter as long as those attending can find a way to have some fun. It can be conducted on Jul 4, 2010 (Sunday). lf it materialses, then Blog-a-Ton can be conducted on Jul 3 itself and Jul 5 will be used for posting reports about the meets and other things like Hall of Fame etc.

The Comments section of this post is the space to dish out your ideas and concretise them by having discussions with all of us.

Even I'll keep updating this post with newer ideas as they spring up in my mind.

And yeah, I again invite you to join our new Facebook page, The Marshal to have Some Fun Beyond Blog-a-Ton!

Hoping to see you all there

Blog-a-Tonically Yours

Vipul Grover

You Have Trapped the Escapist No. 1 aka BATOM 10...

Blog-a-Ton 10 finally comes to an end. It was a sad day for Cricket India but we have bigger announcements to make.

This edition saw 58 bloggers from around India (and World) coming together to escape from the complexities and the monotony of their lives; an escape we all are so fond of, the escape that gives us a chance to share our moods, emotions and fancies with others like us, the escape we all call -------- Blogging.

Lets see who amongst us was able to touch the maximum hearts and minds. Its time to declare the Blog-a-Tonic of the Month.

But before I do that, as it is customary, let's welcome the new members of this ever-growing family:

• Vikram Pyati
• Komathi Rajendran
• Nachiketa
• Aisoo
• Gaintbook
• Lost in Thoughts
• Saad Shaikh
• Deeps
• Just some Words
• Viyoma
• Jaunty Anima
• Vijay Bankar (Please provide a bloglink to be blogrolled)
• Anuradha Khanna Pentapalli
• Zaid (Please provide a bloglink to be blogrolled)
• Binzy
• Brijender
• Shantanu Banerjee (Please provide a bloglink to be blogrolled)
• Neha Thakkar Silam
• Beneath Bedlam (Please provide a bloglink to be blogrolled)
• Ajay Tawde (Please provide a bloglink to be blogrolled)

You all will be blogrolled soon!

So now, it is the RESULTS time.

As evident, each vote from a participant =2 cheers whereas from non-participants =1 cheer

BATOM 10

In short, Blog-a-Ton 10 is Vipul Grover, the baldy guy, you all know so well by now.

Thanks a lot to all those who read my post and commented on it. Special thanks to those who voted for it. Though I have been waiting to win this badge award since the inception of Blog-a-Ton and was also fighting it out in this edition but now find myself in somewhat dilemma. But I'll prefer to be shameless for this one time.

I must congratulate Leo and Gyanban for giving such a close fight that made the results compilation so nerve wrecking for me. And do not forget that Leo managed to grab a vote for his second entry too (ok, ok, so did I).

You all can also read the voting comments now. Just click here to find who all voted for you or liked your entry and what they had to say about it!

P.S. Some votes which were highly incompatible with the rules have been discarded while compiling the results though they are kept visible in the comments section. Moreover, remember only those bloggers have valid votes who had been welcomed and blogrolled on Friday's Reminder post or who joined later but participated in the event.

And friends before I leave, I invite all of you to join our Fan Fun Page on Facebook - The Marshal, an attempt to have some fun beyond Blog-a-Ton!

The Marshal | Promote your Page too

Will be back soon with Blog-a-Ton 11

Blog-a-Tonically Yours

Vipul Grover

Lets Catch the Escapist No. 1

Voting gets over at 23:00 hrs (IST) on May 7, 2010. Remember, that means time stamp of your comment can be at most 22:59 and not 23:00.

Let us welcome the new Blog-a-Tonics before proceeding further

• Rumya
• The Painter
• Romeo
• Ayreej (Please provide a bloglink to be blogrolled)
• Hary
• Irendi3786
• Astrosunilnomy
• Archana Bhui
• Shail
• Anu
• Urvashi
• Tikuli
• Yamini Meduri
• Savira Gupta (Please provide a bloglink to be blogrolled)
• Nikki
• Sudhakar
• Cynthia
• Sushobhan Roy
• Ritwik Roy (Please provide a bloglink to be blogrolled)
• Arundhati (Please provide a bloglink to be blogrolled)
• Giri Vijayakumar

You all will be blogrolled soon!

Click here to check the fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton along with the direct links to their posts.

In this edition, 60 entries came in from 58 blog-a-tonics within the stipulated time. 

And it is a steep rise from the last time's 35. Way to go!!!


Its all thanks to the blog-a-tonics like Guria, Leo and many others (sorry for missing out your names) who pestered and pushed their fellow bloggers to participate this time. So three cheers for the whole community!

Please follow the following rules while voting. Those who did not participate last time, please read the rules carefully as there have been some important changes introduced in the last edition.

1. You can cast upto 3 votes and of course you can not vote for yourself.

This time you are allowed to vote for more than one entry but the maximum votes you can give are three. All your votes will carry the same weightage.

2. Your Voting Comment should start as follows:

---

In case you participated -

I participated - http://vipulgrover.blogspot.com/2010/05/escape.html

I vote for - 
1. XYZ; his/her post = http://ABC/xyz.html
2. DEF; his/her post = http://LMN/def.html
3. PQR; his/her post = http://RST/pqr.html

Code:

I participated - <a href="YOUR POST LINK">YOUR POST LINK</a>

I vote for -
1. NAME OF THE FIRST BLOGATONIC YOU VOTE FOR; his/her postlink = <a href="HIS/HER POST LINK">HIS/HER POST LINK</a>
2. NAME OF THE SECOND BLOGATONIC YOU VOTE FOR; his/her postlink = <a href="HIS/HER POST LINK">HIS/HER POST LINK</a>
3. NAME OF THE THIRD BLOGATONIC YOU VOTE FOR; his/her postlink = <a href="HIS/HER POST LINK">HIS/HER POST LINK</a>

---

In case you did not participate -

I did not participate but I am blogrolled by the name of Vipul Grover.

I vote for - 
1. XYZ; his/her post = http://ABC/xyz.html
2. DEF; his/her post = http://LMN/def.html
3. PQR; his/her post = http://RST/pqr.html

Code:

I did not participate but I am blogrolled by the name of YOUR NAME ON OUR BLOGROLL.
I vote for -

1.  NAME OF THE FIRST BLOGATONIC YOU VOTE FOR; his/her postlink = <a href="HIS/HER POST LINK">HIS/HER POST LINK</a>
2. NAME OF THE SECOND BLOGATONIC YOU VOTE FOR; his/her postlink = <a href="HIS/HER POST LINK">HIS/HER POST LINK</a>
3. NAME OF THE THIRD BLOGATONIC YOU VOTE FOR; his/her postlink = <a href="HIS/HER POST LINK">HIS/HER POST LINK</a>

---

Replace the parameters highlighted in red with their actual values.

Remove the extra code in case you are voting for less than three entries.

Remember, in case you participated, your vote will be counted as 1 and in case you didn't, then it will just carry the 1/2 value.

All your votes, one or two or three will carry this same weightage.

Hence, do not forget to give your post link or blogrolled name (whichever is applicable as clearly visible in the above code) as it will decide whether your vote is counted as 1 or 1/2 in value.

3. While voting for a Blog-a-Tonic, use his/her name as provided by him/her in his/her participation entry.
Multiple names of same person makes it troublesome for me while compiling the results.

 4. All your votes should be posted in a single comment. So, take your time - go through all posts - only then decide your one or two or three favourites.
In case you vote separately, only the first comment will be taken into consideration.

5.  Post your vote in the comments section of this post.

6.  The Blog-a-Tonics astrosunilnomy and Blinzy  have posted the correct link to their posts after the stipulated time. Earlier, they had posted wrong links. Consider them for voting too.

Now coming to the other rules:

• Voting ends at  2300 hrs (IST) on  May 7, 2010.
• I have started moderating the comments and won’t display the voting comments till the end of this process to keep the result secret till its conclusion.
• After the voting code mentioned above, you may also add the reason, why you voted for a particular post to help others know what you expect as a reader. Moreover, you may also mention the other posts that you liked though you can vote for just one of them. 
• In case of multiple entries by any blog-a-tonic, all his/her entries will be evaluated individually while deciding BATOM, i.e., the award will go to a post rather than the blogger.

The Votes will be discarded without any prior warning in case they are not sufficiently compatible with the rules.

So, if there is any query about voting or you do not find yourself blogrolled, feel free to drop in a mail. I'll try to get back to you asap.


Remember, the time stamp of your comment can be at most 22:59 and not 23:00 on May 7.

Hoping to see similar participation in voting too

Blog-a-Tonically Yours

Vipul Grover