I – A Veteran Blog-a-tonic!

“Dude, you gotta let me know that you have participated in 10 blog-a-tons! How am I supposed to know!” was the ever so busy Marshal’s reply when I pointed out to him, that my entry for BAT 17 would be my 11^th BAT entry. So here I am, officially inducted into the elite group of bloggers known as veteran blog-a-tonics. By the way, I must confess, the term ‘veteran’ makes me feel kinda old hehe. I entered the blog world in January 2008 with my first post. But it wasn’t until November 2009, that I became serious about blogging. Till then, my blog was just another blog existing on the web with stuff just a few friends knew about. A month later on December 5^th 2009, my journey with this awesome event started, with my first entry All in a Day’s work.

This was the first time I actually saw people commenting on my blog and for the first time, I didn’t have to go pester someone to come and do so hehe. With the appreciations and the constructive criticism, my ambitions had grown. I now wanted to win the contest and be called a blog-a-tonic of the month and three months later, I was there. My entry for Time Travel won by a whisker and made me the blog-a-tonic of the month for March. With a win now in my kitty, the next month I was only looking to participate but as luck would have it, my entry for Fool won again. I was on a high, in fact I was ecstatic.  Two in a row now, the expectations of a hat-trick had grown. Sadly though, I was unable to participate in the next one.

After that there have been six more blog-a-tons I have participated in. Some of the entries were appreciated while some were not. Today as look back and read through my entries over the past 1 year, I know how I have grown as a writer and this wouldn’t have happened without blog-a-ton and the amazing writers that have participated in it with me. Coming to my fellow participants – through Blog-a-ton, I have made some amazing friends, some of whom I have even met in the real world. The meeting I had with the Marshal –Vipul Grover, will always remain a memorable one. This one was followed by my meeting with other blog-a-tonics – Rachana, Leo (Vinay), Nethra, Harsha Cittar and Avada (Ashwini) in Bangalore. I would love to meet the rest of you guys in person too one day.  Thanks for making this such an enriching experience guys.

It’s ironic and heart breaking though, that blog-a-ton would now be taking a break, but I hope it’s back again soon.

Signing off Marshal style,

Blog-a-tonically yours,

Tavish

Welcome 3 more VETERANS and an IMPORTANT NEWS!!!

Hello friends, the List of Veteran Blog-a-Tonics has been growing since the first induction that took place on the first anniversary of this event some months back. Today, in this fourth induction ceremony, I'll be welcoming three new Blog-a-tonics to this coveted (or is it just me who thinks its coveted?) list.

Click on their respective names to read all their BAT entries

	Tavish Chadha Debut = BAT 5 11/17 BATs BATOM 8 BATOM 9
Guria Debut = BAT 2 10/17 BATs BATOM 3
	Leo Debut = BAT 8 10/17 BATs GOLD BATOM 13 GOLD BATOM 16 'tied' Maximum Topics of the Month

Guria aka Sreya wants to share her award with Neha Thakkar who has anonymously contributed to her posts in Blog-a-Ton. I leave that decision to her.

I’ll like to share my gratitude to all these Blog-a-Tonics by inducting them in The List of Veteran Blog-a-Tonics' which takes the total number to 10. You will receive your badges soon.

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And now the All Important News...

Friends, conducting this event month after month has been exhilarating but has also been tiring at times. I know this is a paradox but then this life itself is a big paradox.

Declaring the event open, conducting the topic discussion, holding the actual marathon and then proceeding to the voting and final declaration of BATOM was done by me playfully ALL IN A DAY’S WORK. But then, sometimes there develops a thin line between work and play and certainly I don’t feel that playful anymore.

Before I start philosophizing further and make a FOOL out of myself, I must RETURN to the news I wanted to share.

Without adding any further MYSTERY, I believe it’s time for me to take a break after conducting 17 successful BAT's which saw their own ups and downs.

Seeing the falling number of participations, I believe even you need a break; so that all of you can come back with a new vigour whenever I make a call for a new Marathon in future.

Believe me, this is not an ESCAPE and I really doubt if I’ll be able to remain HIDDEN for long. For that matter, the Marshal will always be present on Facebook to keep interacting with you.

I know some of you must be wondering WHAT IF we could TIME TRAVEL and jump to Blog-a-Ton 18 as soon as possible but believe me, the time for CELEBRATIONS will be back soon.

However, right now it is the time to say a momentary GOODBYE to all of you and I hope you all will miss Blog-a-Ton as much as it will miss you.

Leaving with a promise to be back

Blog-a-Tonically Yours

Vipul Grover

Finally the Mystery Unfolds... BATOM 17 are...

Once again, I am back with the results of yet another Blog-a-Ton. Before the real scoop, lets welcome our new friends;

• Sakshi Kukreja
• Vidya Sury
• Sneha
• Alejandro Mahogany
• Ritika Patel
• Komal R.
• Akanksha
• Manasa Maduva
• Shreeraman S.
• KR
• Shruthi Srinidhi

 Please provide your blog links to stay in touch.

Participation was once again disheartening but I must thank all those who did participate and made this event yet again a pleasure to conduct.

So now coming straightaway to the results of final BAT of 2010, here is the list of participants and the cheers they garnered;

BATOM 17

As evident, here are the three Blog-a-Tonics of the Month. Just Click on their names to read their respective entries.

GOLD BATOM	SILVER BATOM	SILVER BATOM
Rumya Bhatt	Cherry Blossom	Raksha Raman

Its the GIRL POWER all the way. Congratulations to all of you. Please send me an e-mail so that I can revert back with your Badge Awards.

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!

I Hope You All Had A Great BAT 17 XPerience!!!

A goodbye with a promise to be back soon

Blog-a-Tonically Yours

Vipul Grover

The Amateur Veteran

Have you come to vote for the BATOM 17? Click HERE to go to the Voting post, else continue on to read the Blog-A-Ton Xperience of a soon-to-be-inducted Blog-a-Tonic veteran.

Yikes. I’m a veteran Blog-a-Tonic now? :-o

Good heavens!! Now that makes me seem like an experienced blogger. I’m in the wrong class. Who made me graduate before I joined the college? No no. I’m still the amateur poet, maybe just an old hand in Blog-a-Ton.

Why am I here again? Oh yeah… yeah… I’m supposed to be writing on my Blog-a-Ton experience. Well, I started ten months back. Missed the first seven editions, frankly I had no idea what it was even though I’d read about it on a few blogs. It took Rashi’s winning entry for me to realize the platform of Blog-A-Ton was one through which I can get new friends and readers. My journey started there, with the topic suggestion post, where I commented supporting Time Travel.

One of my best friends says I’m a stats guru, because I keep track of some stats of my blog. So like that, the first friend I got from BAT was Vibhuti. I think she was the first to follow my blog, coming from BAT too. She’s a very close friend now, having got to know her after that through BAT, FB, and BPL etc etc. First cheer from Debosmita… we ended up getting just the one cheer each, coz I had cheered for her post on Time Travel too. First approved topic suggestion was Escape. It got majority backing on the second try, and I got a hat-trick of suggestions approved by the BAT crowd after that, Hidden and Wish following that. Two more of my suggested topics have got a majority backing after that, so 5/10 is a decent strike rate I guess.

With every BAT post, I’ve got better I think, and it has been delightful to write too. It is an inspiring place that can give an escape even when the mind seems captured by a writer’s block. It has got me friends like Vibhuti, Rumya, Tikuli, Pawan, Nethra, Avada, Debosmita, Vipul and many more. A lot of readers I’ve got too, and in the journey, I’ve got 2 BATOM badges so far as well. Twice I’ve ended runner-up as well. To see so many bloggers writing variety of posts on a similar topic is a nice thing to see. I hope it gets to its initial goal of 100 writers for an edition soon. A suggestion for Marshal and Blog-a-Tons for the future: the similar theme blog-a-ton is good, but let us be creative on the titles as well… like we did for that image based BAT. It’d be nice.

I think I’m dragging on, so this is Leo signing off. It’s been a pleasure to be part of BAT till now, and looking forward to further BATS as well.

The Amateur Poet, over and out.

I blog at: I Rhyme Without Reason

Help me in unfolding THE MYTERY by VOTING for your favourite post!!!

Voting gets over at 22:00 hrs (IST) on Dec 12, 2010. Remember, that means time stamp of your comment can be at most 21:59 and not 22:00.

Here is your chance to vote for the last BATOM of the year 2010. Lets start off, like always by welcoming the new Blog-a-Tonics;

• Ujjwal Raj
• Abhishek Modgil
• Ananth
• Prasanna Babli (Please provide your bloglink to stay in touch)

Hoping to see all of you actively participating in the coming year. 

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, 41 blog-a-tonics participated; 39 of them within the stipulated time.

Please follow the following rules while voting.

1.ONLY THOSE BLOG-A-TONICS ARE ELIGIBLE FOR VOTING (i.e., Contesting for votes and voting for others) WHO HAVE PARTICIPATED IN THIS EVENT WITHIN THE STIPULATED TIME.

2. You can cast upto 3 votes or cheers as we call them, and of course you can not vote for yourself.
In short, you are allowed to vote for one, two or three entries. All your votes will carry the same weightage.

3.  Your Voting Comment should start as follows:

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I participated - http://vipulgrover.blogspot.com/2010/08/abc.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>

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There is some specific logic behind the above code. So please fill the parameters highlighted in red as mentioned in the code only.

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

3. While voting for a Blog-a-Tonic, use his/her name as provided by him/her in his/her participation entry and not his/her profile name.

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

5. 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.

Now coming to the other rules:

• Voting ends at  2200 hrs (IST) on  Dec 12, 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. 

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, feel free to drop in a mail (marshal[at]blogaton.in). I'll try to get back to you asap. I am off to a trip, so won't be available till Wednesday.

P.S. Over the next week, you might find the blog temporarily blocked. It might be done for counting of votes. So just be patient and revisit in few minutes.

A Reminder - Have your number of participations reached 10???

Then you are eligible to be included into the List of Veteran Blog-a-Tonics.  Just drop me a mail with the links to all your posts (or simply label all your BAT entries and send me that single link).



Remember, the time stamp of your comment can be at most 21:59 and not 23:00 on Nov 15.

Hoping to see as many voters as participants

Blog-a-Tonically Yours

Vipul Grover

Rules and Reminder for Blog-a-Ton 17

Publish the post on Dec 4, 2010 anytime between 0000 hrs and 2359 hrs (IST)!

Date for Blog-a-Ton : Dec 4, 2010

Before I give you the details about posting, lets welcome Abhishek. I hope to see you participating this time. Please provide your bloglink to stay in touch.

As you already know, the topic for Blog-a-Ton 17 has been finalised as:

THE MYSTERY

Please follow these rules while publishing your post and thereafter:

• The title of your post should be the topic itself; i.e. The Mystery.
  Please do not use any alternative title or your post link will be removed.

• The post should start with this code. Just copy the following HTML code and paste to your post in Edit HTML mode:
  
  <div style="text-align: justify;">
  <blockquote>
  This post has been published by me as a part of the <b>Blog-a-Ton 17</b>; the seventeenth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following <a href="http://blogaton.in/"><b>Blog-a-Ton</b></a>.
  </blockquote>
  </div>

• The post should end with the following code.  Just copy the following HTML code and paste to your post in Edit HTML mode:
  
  <div style="text-align: justify;">
  <blockquote>
  The <b>fellow Blog-a-Tonics</b> who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective <b>posts</b> can be checked <a href="http://blogaton.in/2010/12/rules-and-reminder-for-blog-ton-17.html#comments"><b>here</b></a>. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following <b><a href="http://blogaton.in/">Blog-a-Ton</a></b>.</blockquote>
  </div>
  

• Publish the post on Dec 4, 2010 anytime between 0000 hrs and 2359 hrs (Indian Standard Time)

• After publishing it, do not forget to leave the link in the comments section of this post.

• Use the following code to provide direct link to your post.

<a href="ADDRESS OF YOUR POST">YOUR NAME - The Mystery</a> 

It will look like this: Vipul Grover - The Mystery and will link to your post.

Please follow this rule to ensure easy navigability to your post.

•  Use your complete name to prevent any confusion and mix up with other bloggers.
  
• Remember, you can not post more than ONE entry.  

• In case you post your link after the stipulated time, then your submission will not be considered for voting. 
• From now on, I won't be entertaining any personal requests for the same whatever be the reason.

• Return on Dec 5 to vote for your favourite post. A separate notification for the same will be posted upon the conclusion of the event. So do not vote till then. Till then just enjoy reading the various entries, keeping in mind your favourite ones. 

DO NOT USE THE COMMENTS SECTION OF THIS POST FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE. If there are any queries, ask them in the comments section of previous post.

Looking forward to some great posts

Blog-a-Tonically Yours

Vipul Grover