Happy New Year and the IMAGE for Blog-a-Ton 6!

Date for Blog-a-Ton : January 9, 2010

Lets welcome the new members of our Blog-a-Ton family -

• Ruchi Kumar (Please provide us your Bloglink to be blogrolled)
• Kalpita (Please provide us your Bloglink to be blogrolled)
• Richa Joshi (Please provide us your Bloglink to be blogrolled)
• Golden Vulture

As you all must be knowing by now that for Blog-a-Ton 6, we have slightly changed the format of this event. So, this time there is no common topic to write on. Presenting to you the Blog-a-Ton 6 Image -

I must congratulate Me, Myself and I for suggesting this image and thank all those who voted for it. Frankly, even I am not sure, how am I going to shape my post ;)

Now what you have to do is, take inspiration from this image and write a complementing post. For those who find the image dull, try to add spice to it with your words. That's what Blog-a-Ton is all about.

Give whatever title to this image (and its complementing post) and wait for the final rules and reminders, next Friday.

While dealing with this image, 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 Jan 9, 2010 to post it finally along with everyone else.

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.

Kindly help in promoting the first Blog-a-Ton of the year 2010 by inviting others to participate through status messages and tweets on your social networking profiles.

Wishing you all a Happy and Prosperous 2010
Blog-a-Tonically yours
Vipul Grover

MERRY CHRISTMAS (belated alright) and a BREAKING NEWS!!!

Date for Blog-a-Ton 6 : ?????
Date for Topic Declaration : ?????

Hi fellow Blog-a-Tonics, a merry christmas to all of you. I hope Mr. Santa delivered you all the goodies in the last two days. There is still one remaining and he wants me to deliver it to you. Yeah yeah, Blog-a-Tonic of the Month ofcourse. But still, a lot of time remains.

Lets welcome the new members of our Blog-a-Ton family and then continue our tete-a-tete

• LaafatLife (Please provide us your Bloglink to be blogrolled)
• Anu K (Please provide us your Bloglink to be blogrolled)

BREAKING NEWS - Blog-a-Ton 6 has been postponed by a week

Date for Blog-a-Ton 6 : Jan 9, 2010

Date for Topic Declaration : Jan 2, 2010

The reason behind this decision is simple - give you a break during this festive season, so that you can celebrate a great New Year. But the other reason is to allow participation of more Blog-a-Tonics in the topic discussion this time. I believe, once a person, takes part in this phase, he/she gets more inspired for the next one, that is marathon. Let's see if this hypothesis of mine holds any weight. So all of you have another week to put forward your suggestions and vote for those you like.

Move to the previous post for topic discussion.

Here are the present suggestions and the number of votes they got.
(Name of the Blog-a-Tonic who suggested and the link to his suggested image - Name of Blog-a-Tonics who voted for it (Total Number of votes))
Vipul - Vipul, Nethra, Pushpee, Mou, Neeraj, Preeti (6)
Pramathesh - Pramathesh, Deepti, Debosmita (3)
Sid - Sid, Narendra, Yemiledu (3)
Aneet - Aneet, Psych Babbler (2)
Madhu - Madhu (1)
Raji - Raji (1)
RajiM - RajiM (1)
Dil - Dil (1)
Talking Skull - Talking Skull (1)
Nethra - (0)
Now, those who have not yet suggested/voted, prefer to vote for one of these images or you may also suggest more images, if you want.

Kindly help in promoting the first Blog-a-Ton of the year 2010 by inviting others to participate in the discussions and the marathon through status messages and tweets on your social networking profiles.

In the comments section of this post, also suggest other ways as to how a blog-a-tonic can promote this event and invite both the existing members and potential members for the event.

P.S. The suggestions should be directed to fellow blog-a-tonics and not me as I am off to a much desired and deserved mini-vacation till next friday :)

Wishing you all a A Great New Year Bash
Blog-a-Tonically yours
Vipul Grover

Time for BLOG-A-TON 6

Date for Blog-a-Ton 6 : January 2, 2009
Topic declaration : December 26, 2009

I hope you all are geared up for the first blog-a-ton of 2010. And we will welcome the new year with a new format. I'll come back to this after welcoming our new members -

• Chhayapath (Please provide us your name to be blogrolled)
• Dagny Taggart
• Mou
• Bird Fan (Please provide us your name to be blogrolled)
  
  You all will be blogrolled soon.
  

This time we won't be blogging on a common topic. We will upload an image and it is upto the members to interpret it and write a post on it. It is something like a caption contest. The differnce here is that along with a suitable title, you have to write a complete post.

So with this, I invite your suggestions for a suitable image for Blog-a-Ton 6. Please keep the following things in mind while suggesting.

• Each member can suggest only one image
• Ensure that there are no copyright issues with respect to the image.
• Provide a link to that image in the comments section
• Use the following code to ensure direct navigability

        <a href="ADDRESS OF THE IMAGE">YOUR NAME's Suggestion</a>

         Eg. <a href="ABC.com/image1.jpg">Vipul Grover's Suggestion</a>

• Before suggesting, go through the previous ones for sure.
• If you like any of those, VOTE for them rather than giving a new suggestion.
• While voting, just write the name of the person whose suggested image you are voting for. Use the name that he has provided in the above code.
• In case you have already suggested an image but find some subsequent suggestion better than yours, you are allowed to vote for it. But this can be done only once.
• Give your suggestions and votes in the comments section of this post.
• Do not embolden your comment using HTML bold tag. Only the Marshal is allowed to use it.
• 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.

Hoping to receive some cool suggestions
 Blog-a-Tonically Yours

Vipul Grover

How can Blog-a-Ton 6 be made more interesting?

Hi fellow Blog-a-Tonics.

The next Blog-a-Ton happens to be the first blogging marathon of 2010 and also marks, reaching the half way of our own blog-a-ton calender (Aug 1-Jul 31).

So should't it be special?

Before proceeding further, lets welcome the new members of our family

• Yemiledu
  
• Abyss
  
• Dobin (Please provide your bloglink to be blogrolled)
  
• S...
  
• Varun (Please provide your bloglink to be blogrolled)
  

You all will be blogrolled soon.

 Recently, I received some mails from the members where they shared some suggestions for making this event more massive. (I am sorry, I have not replied you personally because of some time constraints).There were some good suggestions but I am afraid that most of them were too ambitious. Blog-a-Ton is just a part of my daily routine and hence, to keep a balance in all my activities, I cannot contribute more time than what I am doing already. Moreover, I want to keep this blog, a blog and not transform it into a website. However, I am not averse to including some members into the marshalling team to help me with certain stuff if the need arises.

Keeping these things in mind, pour in your suggestions to make the next blog-a-ton special. It should be specifically regarding a new format for Blog-a-Ton 6. For eg, how about having a common image to take an inspiration from rather than a common topic?

Looking forward to a community effort

Blog-a-Tonically yours

Vipul Grover

Here, we present, the fifth Blog-a-Tonic of the Month!

With the voting over for the fifth edition of our event, this happens to be the final post for it.

Before we move further, lets welcome the new members:

• Sayan De
• Lavender
• Subu
  
• Mirasham
• Jen
• Varun (Please provide your blog link to be blogrolled)
• Loku

You all will be blogrolled soon!

Without building any suspense this time, here are the results:
As evident, each vote from a participant =2 cheers whereas from non-participants =1 cheer

Congratulations Pawan, what a way to win. Kudos! You will soon receive our badge award!

You all can also read the voting comments now. Just click here to find what others had to say about your posts!

A personal note from the Marshal:

For those who read my entry, must be wondering how generous my organisation is and how much fun I have, working there. But some invisible hand conspired to take away all that fun and I have been keeping very busy because of it. This is the reason that I could not personally visit and comment upon each entry as I have done in the past Blog-a-Tons. This also stole away from me, the opportunity of welcoming the new blog-a-tonics who debuted in this edition. I am extremely sorry and hope that I'll be able to make these personal visits soon enough. And because, I couldn't read all the posts, I refrained from voting this time. Moreover, as I am the only person who knows the trend of voting as it proceeds, I might decide not to vote in future too. I hope all of you appreciate this decision. :)

Promising a bigger and better Blog-a-Ton 6,

Blog-a-Tonically Yours

Vipul Grover

Its time to find the BATOM 5 :)

Voting is over. Kindly wait for the results!

It seems Blog-a-Ton is stuck somewhere. Third time is a row, we have got just around 40 entries. However, having read some of them, one thing is assured that the quality of entries is going up, the quantity might be stuck!

On this good note, let us welcome the new Blog-a-Tonics first of all -

• Shahid Mukadam
• Preeti
  
• DilOnTheRocks 
• Madhulika Garg (Please provide a bloglink to be blogrolled)
• Shalini Puthiyedam
• Sweetu (Please provide a bloglink to be blogrolled)
• Psychedchick (Please provide a bloglink to be blogrolled)

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 short, 37 entries came in so far. If there is anyone else who was unable to post in time due to any genuine reason, please convey it to me at 'Contact The Marshal' along with the link to your post.

Please follow the following rules while voting:

1. You must cast only 1 vote and of course you can not vote for yourself.

Don't vote for more than one person because that will be of no use for any of them as your vote will be discarded without any prior warning.

2. Your Voting Comment should start as follows:

---

In case you participated -

I participated - http://vipulgrover.blogspot.com/2009/12/all-in-days-work.html

I vote for - XYZ; his/her postlink = http://ABC.com/pqrst.html

Code:

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

<b>I vote for - NAME OF THE BLOGATONIC YOU VOTE FOR; his/her postlink = <a href="HIS/HER POST LINK">HIS/HER POST LINK</a></b>

---

In case you did not participate -

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

I vote for - XYZ; his/her postlink = http://ABC.com/pqrst.html

Code:

<b>I did not participate but I am blogrolled by the name of YOUR NAME ON OUR BLOGROLL. </b>

<b>I vote for - NAME OF THE BLOGATONIC YOU VOTE FOR; his/her postlink = <a href="HIS/HER POST LINK">HIS/HER POST LINK</a></b>

---

Replace the parameters highlighted in red with their actual values.

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.

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. Vote for only those entries which are listed here. If there are any late entries which are allowed to participate, they will be posted there as well.

Now coming to the other rules:

• Voting ends at 2300 hrs (IST) on  Dec 10, 2009.
  
• Post your vote in the comments section of this post.
• 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 there are multiple entries from any Blogger, while counting the votes received by him/her, the entries will be considered individually for the award.

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 at 'Contact The Marshal'. I'll try to get back to you asap.

Hoping to see dozens of votes this time

Blog-a-Tonically Yours

Vipul Grover

Rules and Reminder for Blog-a-Ton 5

Time for link submission is over.

Date for Blog-a-Ton : December 5, 2009

Before I give you the details about posting, lets welcome the new Blog-a-Tonics

• Saurabh
• Ashwini
• Nethra
• Rachana

As you already know, the topic for Blog-a-Ton 5 has been finalised as:
All in a Day's Work

Please follow these rules while publishing your post and thereafter:

• The title of your post should be the topic itself; i.e. All in a Day's Work.
  Please do not use any alternative title or your post link will be removed.

• The post should start with this text within blockquotes and with link to this blog. 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 5</b>; the fifth 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://blog-a-ton.blogspot.com/"><b>Blog-a-Ton</b></a>.
  </blockquote>
  </div>

• The post should end with this text within blockquotes and with links to the comments section of this post and this blog. Just copy the following HTML code and paste to ur 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://blog-a-ton.blogspot.com/2009/12/rules-and-reminder-for-blog-ton-5.html#comments"><b>here</b></a>. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following <b><a href="http://blog-a-ton.blogspot.com/">Blog-a-Ton</a></b>.
  </blockquote>
  </div>

• Publish the post on December 5, 2009 anytime between 0000 hrs and 2359 hrs (IST).

• 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 - ALL IN A DAY'S WORK</a>
  
  It will look like this: Vipul Grover - All in a Day's Work and will link to your post.
  Please follow this rule to ensure easy navigability to your post as this time no separate list of the participants will be provided later on.
  
  
  

• 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.

• Return on Dec 6 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 one. 

Looking forward to great participation
Blog-a-Tonically Yours

Vipul Grover