A repoll for the design category

Indibloggies is a site for celebrating Indian blogs and there is no place for any dispute or controversy here. After the polls began, questions were raised on the choice of blogs for the “Best Designed Indiblog” category. For the juror it was a point of confusion, should you judge a blog as a reader or as a designer, which probably resulted in great amount of debate among the jurors and we thought we should give preference to blogs with original designs or those with customized templates. There has been a major folly on my part to have retracted few blogs from the list and declare new nominees for the category.

There is no need for me to say here that no malice was involved. IMHO the only criteria for a good site design would be that on visiting the blog/site I should like it. My own conviction about this category was not to really care who designed it; the site-owner might have got it done from a professional designer, s/he might be a designer himself or s/he simply uses a template designed by others with or without customization. In all of these cases the choice is a reflection on the blogger’s taste. When I honour any of these blogs I actually honour the guy who has put-in efforts designing it. Simple thought!

To make it a leveler I have decided to hold a repoll for the Best Designed Indiblog category with all the nominated blogs in the fray, no juror verdict applied. This would be conducted as soon as the main poll concludes. This poll would be open to all the people who votes in the main poll and all of them would receive an email invitation to vote.

This repoll is meant for you people to decide the winner blog, without applying any filter of our opinion. Original, customized, template-based; simple, complicated, usability-friendly, apply whatever criteria you deem right. You are the juror, you are the judge too.

Update [11 Jan, 2005, 0045 HRS IST]: Those who had cast their vote in the final polls are eligible to vote in this repoll. All of you who registered for the main poll ~~are being~~ have been sent email invitations to participate in the repoll. Please check your mail.

Update [12 Jan, 2005 23:30HRS IST] : The Poll is now closed.

January 10th, 2006 | Announcements

17 Comments (Add your own)

1. Anand Rao | January 11th, 2006 at 2:32 am

Hey People behind Indibloggies, I think i should vote for this site http://indibloggies.org as the best designed site! Wat say people? Good one!
2. ggk | January 11th, 2006 at 2:45 am

Templates Vs Content!
——————–
Please look at content.
Also indieblog means indian from india?
or does it include our ‘friendly’ neighbors
those who didnt want anything to do with india
but now beg for inclusion in the South Asian label.
3. Vote For K2, Vote For PRM&hellip | January 11th, 2006 at 6:33 am

[...] Due to the initial confusion, a repoll has been declared for the design category, and it has been clarified that blogs nominated for the same should be judged purely on the basis of how good they are, to look at, for the average visitor, regardless of who designed them. Quoting Debashish: IMHO the only criteria for a good site design would be that on visiting the blog/site I should like it. My own conviction about this category was not to really care who designed it; the site-owner might have got it done from a professional designer, s/he might be a designer himself or s/he simply uses a template designed by others with or without customization. In all of these cases the choice is a reflection on the blogger’s taste. When I honour any of these blogs I actually honour the guy who has put-in efforts designing it. Simple thought! [...]
4. Nikhil Pahwa | January 11th, 2006 at 7:03 am

No questions. Just a comment that apart from a couple (simpli-city and the yellow one with the glass), the Indian blogosphere seems to lack imagination/awareness when it comes to design. A majority of the templates up for contention were standard template with little or no modification. Check this out. Her blog is down, else I’d have nominated it.

Cheers,

Nikhil
5. MV | January 11th, 2006 at 9:23 am

I think you must just give the award to Megha, she is not very pleased! And anyway on sheer popularity she will win, the others stand no chance at all! Why waste time doing repoll?

It seems like all Bloggers are taking this wayyyyyyyyy toooooooooo seriously!
6. Twilight Fairy | January 11th, 2006 at 11:44 am

It’s too late to say it, but arent the categories too few? What about best food blog, best music blog, best travel blog, best podcasting blog et al? Check out this.

Debashish replied: Nice suggestions! Many people have suggested newer categories and we would change with the changing times for sure. Watch out for a post on this. Podcasting is a fairly new phenomenon on the Indiblogging circuit and next year would certainly be a good time to include this category.
7. A journo | January 12th, 2006 at 3:22 pm

when are the results out?
8. Suyog | January 12th, 2006 at 3:28 pm

“My own conviction about this category was not to really care who designed it; the site-owner might have got it done from a professional designer, s/he might be a designer himself or s/he simply uses a template designed by others with or without customization.”

– I am sorry I dont agree with this. You are saying that people who will eventually win and get the prizes are the people who merely took the theme and put it on their site, because it reflect their taste? So, wouldnt it be fair that ppl who actually designed the site (and in most cases ppl they are not Indians) should also get the award? So, in that respect anybody using Squible or Hemingway themes for wordpress are eligible because they are excellent themes, both in design and layout.

I think either (a) this category of awards should not exist or (b) if at all this category is to be awarded, then “originality” and “creativity” should be the key, and how the blogger has put in effort towards the same. If there is only 1 contestant - fine - that contestant should be awarded, but modifying the rules/regulations just to suit the awards, and to include ppl who otherwise would not have been seems rather vague to me.

I did rather not vote in this category at all then hehe Cheers!

Suyog

Debashish replied:

…but modifying the rules/regulations just to suit the awards, and to include ppl who otherwise would not have been seems rather vague to me.

And what makes you think that rules were modified? Do have a look at past winners in this category! You are are free to express your opinion, but please do watch your words before you make any lame accusations here on this site.
9. KarmaDude | January 12th, 2006 at 5:35 pm

My only aside is when you use a template,containing hardly any substantial redesign, the credit has to go to the person who designed it, not the person who uses it. Just because I like a template and use it, does not translate to the credit going to me, the user, for the design, that would be a copyright violation and unethical!

Using the services of a designer to design your blog is fine, as long as the designer is credited as well, unless he has given up all copyrights to his design.
10. curious ming | January 12th, 2006 at 10:07 pm

When are the results out?

Debashish replied: Hopefully by Jan 15th. Am pretty swamped right now.
11. Amit Gupta | January 13th, 2006 at 7:32 am

Well, I’d say that I agree to it as well that this award should go to ones who are not using free templates & rather created one themselves!! Taking a free template & using it doesn’t make a person worthy of being awarded best blog design prize, since he did nothing to design his blog & I think that the allowance that a blog can be considered if it has significant changes to the free theme should be made so that the changes to the theme have to be visual. Making changes behind the scene in HTML or PHP code etc which are not visible shouldn’t count, since its an award for design & not coding etc. Besides, more than one person might be using the same theme & both of them might be nominated. then what? Obviously the person who’s popular among the visitors here will get more(or all) votes, which IMHO is not fair!!

I know its late for these suggestions, & I’m not giving them for now, just thought that I should voice my suggestions to be considered for the next year!!
12. Bhupendra Singh | January 13th, 2006 at 7:55 am

Indibloggies is a better site than others. My congratulations to the concerned editor and all members of the team. Design is execellent and very attractive. In future, this site will go ahead. With the best compliments,
-Bhupendra Singh
13. Dubukku | January 13th, 2006 at 9:35 am

I second Amit Gupta.
Using a free template without modification probly. reflects the taste and the award for the category should be “Best Design Taste” award

In my opinion for the free templates blog the award needs to go the original designer and not to the people who have used them unless consideration customisation has been done.
(I know then there will be issue of how to quantify this “considerable customisation” )

No offence meant and I respect whatever decision has been made for this poll.
Just for your consideration next time.
14. Bonatellis | January 13th, 2006 at 12:52 pm

ok, so when are the results gonna be out???
15. Suyog | January 13th, 2006 at 5:21 pm

I am not making an accusation, I am making an observation pal; I am sorry if I intepreted it wrong - Example: Vulturo was nominated for best design previously. After it was discovered that he used K2, his nomination was revoked. Now the rules have changed and suddenly he is eligible again for the award. Mayhaps, the sequence of events made me think that rules were being modified to suit ppl.

My apologies if you think I got it all wrong. Maybe I did get it all wrong… and this is not what you meant or intended either. Either case, I hope this clears the misunderstanding…

Cheers!

Suyog

Debashish replied: “After it was discovered that he used K2, his nomination was revoked. “
Dude if you have not noted already, please be informed that “all blogs” nominated through delicious for this category were included for the final Poll to make it a levelled playing field for all. All of them. So the rule was changed to “there are no rules” and all are eligible. We also refrained from providing any additional details about the blog-designs to readers so as not to prejudice the. We made a mistake in “rating” them so we left the decision to the “junta”.
16. Suyog | January 13th, 2006 at 8:02 pm

That does clear up my misconceptions debashish - thank you for replying to the post. I think I made a mistake in understanding the rules and messed up further on it by assuming things. My sincere apologies…

Cheers… waiting for the results now !!!

Suyog
17. world from my eyes - द�&hellip | January 14th, 2006 at 10:06 pm

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