A question about Pak blog Awards part 2

Unexplainable PhenomenaFK15

The question I initially had, about the blog awards in part one of this post has been half answered. My question was a result of the confusion generated from giving an award in the current affairs category to “The news” I had asked how this blog could win when it had not even been nominated. A fact I displayed by exhibiting two screen shots of the nominated blogs in this category.

As anyone can see there is no blog called the news nominated on these pages.

I was informed by Tamjid and Awais via twitter that the blog which got this award was not the blog belonging to the news website but this one. 

Obviously this fact was not evident to us from the audience as there was no clarification given, no url displayed and no answer from the organizers of the pak blog awards.

Now for the next part of the question : Would someone let us know who the judges were in this category? How did they reach the magnificent decision of awarding this blog site the best in current affairs blogging in Pakistan? The  over all judging criteria is listed on Pak blog awards website but I fail to see how the winning blog even qualifies.

Let me state this clearly. I am not nominated in this category neither is it my intention to malign the organizers of this event. I just wish to know the truth and therefore I am asking for a reply.

This is what the Pakblog awards website shows us on the judges page…complete blank. See where the issue is now? I would also like the blogging community of Pakistan to come forth and ask what they want to ask. I have heard enough in private conversations.  I think its time we all came out in the open with what issues we have within our community.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

15 comments

  5. Rashid the link you have given leads to a blank page…i took the liberty of taking a screenshot of it as well http://deadpanthoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Screen-Shot-2011-12-27-at-2.54.19-AM.png

    The objective here is not to unnecessarily criticize or malign anyone. I do understand that the title of the blog awais pointed out was not on the nominations page but only available for viewing by clicking the link of the blog. Hence my initial confusion. However upon taking a five min time frame on the blog in question it is as obvious as day to me that this blog doesn’t even come close to some of the other blogs nominated in this category. Now again im not saying this blog should not have won but now that one confusion has been cleared why cannot someone tell me the criteria for selecting this blog and the judges who made this decision?

  6. By the way since the bigwigs of this community refuse to comment on my question then i am going to keep asking it..and other questions to follow. If you think this made people uncomfortable wait till they hear what else i wish to ask..

  7. @FK .. I know it leads to blank page. I was actually criticizing them as the page says that Judges Profiles will be available by Dec 5 but they aren’t there even after winners have been announced.

    BTW, do you know that some ‘blogs’ even launched the ‘giveaways’ for their readers who’d vote for their blog?

  9. The best technology blog (international). Here is the ‘GIVEAWAY’: http://techdeville.com/2011/11/14/techdeville-giveaway-modern-warfare-3-battlefield-3-skyrim-minecraft-a-lot-of-goodies/

    The text in that post has now changed and I was too late to take a screenshot. Ironically though, you can find a pingback from that blog post on this page: http://pakistanblogawards.com/2011/11/12/technology-blog-%E2%80%93-international-technologies-dr-muhammad-ali-khan/ 😉

  10. ZaViews getting an award does raise eyebrows, you are right. But this is something only organizers can answer or comment on. And of course I’d like to know the judges too =)

  11. Agreed Farhan – instead of answering the impression of me being a sore loser is being handed about..someone tell me how they can lose if they weren’t even nominated?

  12. People are afraid to ask questions because apparently the organizers of the blog event are not very open minded about answering criticism. I believe that we should be thankful that they have chosen not to respond because when they are responding to criticism they often loose temper and act very rudely.

    Judging criteria was not only flawed, it was actually very humiliating to see the kind of blogs that were winning. For example, the tech category. I mean there are like a gazillion blogs about iphones and android. Talking about gadgets is not exactly talking about technology. A gadget review website is not exactly a technology blog. It has no opinion on trends reshaping current and future technologies, no commentary on latest happenings in the tech scene and certainly no knowledge that could help people understand tech in the information age. However, judges were either blind, or too stupid to understand that, or may be all they had were these gadget review, jail break, ios, android, mobilink, HTC blogs.

    In Urdu blog they awarded a blog that is not even worth reading (My apologies to Farhan Danish) just because of votes. Since Farhan is among my facebook friends so I knew how he begged on each page, group and profile for the votes.

    There is criticism for each and every category which I witnessed and heard first hand since I moderate the largest online community of Pakistani Bloggers on Facebook.

    There is usually criticism from loosers and commentators after each awards. Whether its Grammy or PBA. But it was clearly evident that judging was not done properly and the event was organized half heartedly. For example, the performance of school children was stupid. The repetitive mention of the friends by the hostess was really annoying. The hostess asking attendees to give standing ovation to Imran Khan was also unethical. Inviting Imran Khan to use this platform for publicity, without informing the attendees was also unethical.

    What “national anthem” had to do with blogging? Why it deserved an Award? If any tom dick and harry started the most people to hold Pakistani flag campaign, or most people to say i love Pakistan campaign would we start treating them as bloggers? I mean please stop selling us crazy PR campaigns in the name of patriotism. Please stop making people fool in the name of Pakistaniat, patriotism and soft image.

    Also the blogging community is really tired of seeing the same 5 to ten people in each every event occupying the lime light and not letting the others to shine. At each event friends and their friends overtake the entire event and other people, the participants, feel foolish. The organizers who actually love organizing events should at least allow participants to take over the lime light and do something. They should highlight the attendees take their pictures ask them questions make their videos and share them on social media.

    In the end, I would like to thank the organizers for having the decency of not giving an iPad to one of their friends.

    I support Pakistan blog awards and encouraged group members to nominate and actively take part in the event. I will continue to do so, and I will continue to hope that people who can do events will try to improve their attitudes and their events. Because honestly guys, if you were any good at doing this, you could have changed the tech scene altogether by now.You are doing it for years, may be you live in cave age but in information age this is a lot of time to admit failure and move on.

  14. @Rahid: I don’t normally respond to possible hate comments but this is different. First of all, we held the giveaway in extreme openness, it wasn’t hidden or termed wrong. Having giveaways is a normal part of every tech blog and it just denotes healthy competition in the awards. It wasn’t against the ethics in any way shape or form. Secondly, the text was changed because the competition was finished. The pingback wasn’t “ironic”, it was generated because I “linked back” the PBA page from my post. I “intented” to send them a pingback. I didn’t know using unnecessary “emphasis” was still a part of this century.
    Now about the actual giveaway, we received a total of 160 entries = 160 votes, but our vote count was 400 because of our huge fanbase on Facebook and our well wishers outside of the bloggers community.
    About the win, I honestly wasn’t expecting to win, there are only a handful of sites I respect today in our tech industry and RedmondPie is one of the leaders. Even though the had 80 votes I knew they’d win purely on the plethora of content they have and the amazing writers they keep.
    As far as “The News” or Zaviews is concerned, all of their articles are completely copied from other big websites, I have no idea how such a blog was judged to even be a part of the competition let alone be a winner. It was clearly mentioned in their guidelines that any blog supporting spam or not being original would not be a part of the event. I am an avid reader of Faisal Kapadia’s blog and it did deserve to win.

  15. Pingback: Second Pakistan Blog Awards by CIO Faces severe criticism | Green & White

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