Blog-a-Ton 2.0

What is Blog-a-Ton?
As our Founder Marshal Vipul Grover says, “Blog-a-Ton is a misnomer for the word Blogathon.”

The Journey:
On 5th July 2009, Blog-a-Ton was born, a misnomer of the word Blogathon and on 1st August 2009, our first edition was hosted by our Founder Marshal Vipul Grover and after 17 editions, he willingly took a break. Our Ravan and a few others hosted a couple of editions, after that Leo and I (Sarav aka SiS) took the responsibility on our shoulders to march forward to achieve our dream.

Dream & Motto:
As the name suggests, our dream is to get 100 participants in one edition, and our motto is to help writers to write better.

General Pattern:

1. Initiating a new Blog-a-Ton edition by inviting suggestions for the topic: Third Friday of a month at 18:00 HRS IST
2. Declaring the Topic of the month: Last Friday of a month between 22:00 and 23:59 HRS IST
3. RULES AND REMINDER: a day before Blog-a-Ton
4. Blog-a-Ton: we reserve the First Sunday of a month for Blog-a-Ton
5. Opening the Voting: Next day of Blog-a-Ton
6. Declaration of the winners: Second Sunday of a month between 22:00 and 23:59 HRS IST

* We take a break during the month of February. We will have eleven editions per year.

Rule book:
General:
Anybody who is passionate about writing and owns a blog or a team blog can participate in Blog-a-Ton.

Topic Suggestion:

1. The post will be published on the Third Friday of a month at 18:00 HRS IST.
2. Choosing the type of topic (one of the below kind or something new) or theme is decided by the hosting Marshal.
3. Participants are allowed to suggest only one topic. Usually, it will be a one-word topic, an image, or a phrase of three to eight words.
4. Participants can either suggest or vote for a topic.
5. Participants are allowed to change the vote later and support another topic, you can do so during the voting period. But you are allowed only one change-of-vote. I’ll consider only the second vote in that instance.
6. The voting period will be a minimum of seven days. The maximum limit is decided by the hosting Marshal.
7. Due to the increase in number of spams, marshals will be moderating the comments and will disclose only at the end of the voting period. We call this as ‘Secret Ballot’.
8. The topic that gets the majority votes will be announced as the topic of the month. In case two or more topics are tied at the end of voting, Marshal Vote will decide.
9. Marshal decision is final and is not allowed to be questioned by any.

Topic Declaration:

1. The topic will be declared on the Last Friday of a month between 22:00 and 23:59 HRS IST.
2. Participants will get a minimum of ten days to write on the topic.
3. Participants can SUBMIT ONLY ONE POST irrespective of the number of blogs they own.
4. Participants can give the post any title that they wish to. (This rule can be changed by the hosting Marshal.)
5. Participants must justify the theme with their post or must follow the rules as conveyed in the post.
6. Participants can do it with any type of post (i.e. Poetry (*Haiku or set of Haiku is not accepted), Fiction or any form fiction other than 160 characters, dialogue, Essay… etc.). They can also choose to make it serious, humorous, tragic, romantic… whatever setting they’d love to give.
7. Participants can write in any language as well, but since most Blog-a-tonics would prefer English as their language of communication, we’d suggest that too, so the post reaches a wider audience, and help you when it comes to voting time.
8. Marshal decision is final and is not allowed to be questioned by any.

Blog-a-Ton Day:

1. We reserve the first Sunday of a month for Blog-a-Ton.
2. The RULES AND REMINDER post will be published at least 6 hours before the Blog-a-Ton day.
3. The post should start with the code given in the post. Just copy the HTML code and paste to your post in Edit HTML mode in case of Blogger blogs, and in TEXT mode in case of Wordpress blogs.
4. The post should end with the code given in the post. Just copy the HTML code and paste to your post in Edit HTML mode in case of Blogger blogs, and in TEXT mode in case of Wordpress blogs. Make sure you replace XX with your Blog-a-Ton participation count.
5. Participants must publish the post on Blog-a-Ton day anytime between 00:00 and 23:59 HRS (Indian Standard Time)
6. Participants must leave the link in the comments section of RULES AND REMINDER post using the following code: <a href="DIRECT LINK TO YOUR POST">YOUR NAME - YOUR TITLE</a>
7. Participants must use their complete name to prevent any confusion and mix up with other bloggers.
8. In case participants post link after the stipulated time, then the submission will not be considered for voting. (This rule can be changed by the hosting Marshal.)
9. The hosting Marshal is allowed to participate in Blog-a-Ton.
10. Marshal decision is final and is not allowed to be questioned by any.

Votes:

1. The post will be published on the next day of Blog-a-Ton at 20:00 HRS IST.
2. Only those Blog-a-Tonics who are eligible for voting (all accepted participants by the Marshal) can vote.
3. The number of votes or cheers as we call them may change with respect to the number of participants.

Participant Count

Eligible Vote Count

<= 25

Maximum of three votes will be allowed

26 – 30

Maximum of four votes will be allowed

31 – 50

Maximum of five votes will be allowed

51 - *

Maximum of seven votes will be allowed

4. Of course, participants cannot vote for their own post. In short, participants are allowed to vote for one, two, and three or as mentioned in the post.
5. All the votes will carry the same weightage.
6. The Voting Comment should be as follows:
   I, BLOGGERNAME, participated. My entry is here: BLOGATON POST LINK
   1. BLOGATONIC 1 NAME: BLOGATONIC 1 ENTRY LINK
   2. BLOGATONIC 2 NAME: BLOGATONIC 2 ENTRY LINK
   3. BLOGATONIC 3 NAME: BLOGATONIC 3 ENTRY LINK
7. 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.
8. Post vote in the comments section of the voting post within the voting period.
9. All the votes should be posted in a single comment. So, take your time - go through all posts - only then decide the winning entries. If a participant votes more than once, only the first comment will be taken into consideration.
10. Marshal will moderate the comments and will not display the voting comments until the end of this process to keep the result secret.
11. After the voting code mentioned above, one 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 for three of them or as mentioned in the post.
12. The Votes will be discarded without any warning in case they are not sufficiently compatible with the rules.
13. Marshal decision is final and is not allowed to be questioned by any.

Winners:

1. The winners will be declared on the Second Sunday of a month between 22:00 and 23:59 HRS IST.
2. The winners will be chosen based on the number of votes they received for their entry.
3. A minimum of three winners will be chosen (GOLD, SILVER AND BRONZE) and a maximum of four winners will be chosen in case of a tie.
4. In case of a tie, the following rules will be applied.
   
   1. Irrespective of the badge, if there is only one extra person vying for a marshal vote, then that extra person is also a winner, provided if he/she has voted in that edition.
   2. The possible combinations that can be chosen as winners are GSB, GSS, GGS, GGG, and in case of tie, the possible combinations that can be chosen as winners are GGSS, GSSS and GSBB
5. Winners can drop an email to any or all of the marshal email id's to claim their badges.
6. If you fail to get a response in a week then feel free to post on our Facebook Page for faster actions.
7. Winners will also be featured on Blog-a-Ton Cover Photo. The photographs will be taken from their respective Blogger or Google+ profiles.
8. If a participant wins three times GOLD BATOM in a row, then he/she is eligible to host Blog-a-Ton once.
9. Marshal decision is final and is not allowed to be questioned by any.

Specials:

1. If a participant has entered in ten or more editions, then he/she is eligible to be included in list of Veteran Blog-a-Tonics. Drop an email to any or all of the marshal email id’s to get listed.
2. Veterans are eligible to share their Blog-a-Ton experience on our blog.
3. If a participant has entered in twenty-five or more editions, then he/she is eligible to be included in list of Super Veteran Blog-a-Tonics. Drop an email to any or all of the marshal email id’s to get listed.
4. If a participant has entered in fifty or more editions, then he/she is eligible to be included in list of King/Queen of Blog-a-Tonics. Drop an email to any or all of the marshal email id’s to get listed. If the participant agrees, then all the fifty entries will be compiled into an eBook by Blog-a-Ton Marshal. The book will be available for free download :)
5. The above feature (King/Queen of Blog-a-Ton) allows the respective participant to pick a special winner in any edition and to award a special badge for the winner.