Kind Attn: Bloggers, Blog Readers & Good to Read/Write Participants!

A note to all Bloggers, Blog Readers & Good to Read/Write forum participants...

Dear All,

In any community of bloggers, it is not unusual that some hog all the lime light while the rest get comparatively less attention despite writing equally engaging stuff. This phenomenon creates negative vibes in those who do not look at it in its proper perspective. I have come across such instances in IL too. I do get feedback from time to time about groupism, favoritism and exclusiveness in IL . Such feedback arises generally out of the number of responses one gets as against another. I have stopped short of addressing those publicly because of two reasons. One, the feedback is mostly relayed to me as a general observation without any personal expression of discontent i.e. I don't feel that way but others do. Two, it is a view shared by a relatively small group.

I would have dismissed it as a general aberration that any cyber community will have to face but I have a growing apprehension that this relatively small group can get quite vocal and active through private messages and spoil what we all are trying to build here - a strong feeling of bonhomie and togetherness among all the members of the community. I have therefore decided to address a communication to all of you with a view to contain any damage that could be caused inadvertently through such expressions of discontent being voiced among a few of our members.

Let us look at the feedback from or on behalf of the bloggers who feel that their writings do not get the attention that they deserve:

1.Ms.X gets a lot of feedback because she has an army of friends and not because of the quality of her writing. In other words, these comments are a reflection on the popularity of the blogger and not necessarily on the quality of the blogs.

2.There is a "you scratch my back, I scratch yours" attitude here. Bloggers provide feedback to only those other bloggers who provide them with feedback.

3. Some people shower praise on below-average blog posts because of a strong personal equation with the bloggers while not bothering to write even plain feedback for excellent blog posts.

4. Some readers don't post responses for me because they are worried that their friends will get upset if their posts do not get responses on a priority basis.

5. Administrators are partial to a handful of writers by giving them sub-forums and pampering them.

6. Only South Indians (particularly Tamilians) get good responses here.

Let me address each of them one by one.

1. It is only natural that the success of a blogger depends on her popularity. Behind such popularity lies some painstaking efforts that she may have taken to make her existence known through some constant interaction with others. When she writes a blog, her friends tend to look at it as some kind of a personal communication and respond to it with gusto. If a new blogger looks to break into this carefully built fortress of friendship, she is most likely to meet with some initial resistance until she becomes part and parcel of this group. It is not far different from the resistance that a newly admitted student may face in a college!

2. When a blogger expects the world to pay her due attention, she must be aware of her obligation to reciprocate. Very rarely we find a blogger, who does not feel obliged to respond to others' blogs, making any place for herself in the blogging world. Reciprocity is an essential requirement in building up one's readership. If you don't like it, don't do it!

3. We all live in a winner takes all society. It's not fair, but that's what it is. Winners may seem at times to get disproportionately rewarded. But we must remember that a winner here, unlike in state-run lotteries, sweats it out before she becomes one. A new entrant may see only the success of the winner but not the hard work behind that status. For example, we in India may know the '20 hour a day toil' that AR Rahman went through for nearly two decades before he could grab an Oscar. The so called popular writers at IL have built their readership brick by brick over the last two or three years. You can't just take a snapshot view of today and tell that they don't deserve the attention. It doesn't work that way.

4. Each reader is entitled to do whatever she thinks is right. If she doesn't want to provide feedback to a few in fear of offending others, it's her call. I personally don't agree with this practice of restricting myself on some simple matters for fear of social discontent, but I can empathize with those that do.

5. We have addressed this question several times before. When IL started, we didn't have enough bloggers. So, we offered sub-forums for a few who were willing to commit substantial time to write and share in IL. As IL grew, we realized that having sub-forums for every writer is extremely complicated at the backend. Right around that time, IL blogs came into existence. We took the decision to let the people who already had sub-forums continue with the same while requesting all future contributors to take blog space which serves the same purpose of keeping all contributions of a writer in one place. There is nothing more to it.

6. We had addressed this as well. Because I am from Tamil Nadu, the members I got to the site through word of mouth, through my friends, etc. were all from South India (especially Tamilnadu) initially. The early discussions/threads that were started were mostly related to Tamil matters. Those threads showed up in Google earlier and consequently more Tamil people came in. Our site got featured in a famous Telugu magazine and a lot of Telugu members joined. While a south Indian writer might get a better response now and then, our readers have always embraced good writing, regardless of the origin of the individual.

Finally, I have this to say. "Focus on YOUR game!"

The blame game is a serious scourge that can seriously incapacitate the creativity of those who fall a prey to it. Just rise above that and focus on two things :

a. Write meaningful and enjoyable content and
b. Do your part in building readership.

Fame, adulation and responses will follow in due time.

P.S - I am not going to allow any open discussion on this issue as it hurts too many and help too little. If you have a constructive recommendation on this, please write to me via private message or email induslady@indusladies.com. I will do all that is believed to be best for the community. Thank you.