Avant Garde Bloggies Awards – Last Day of Nominations

Avant Garde Bloggies Awards as been moving on successfully with contribution from all you readers. It is going forward with the help of several gracious volunteers.

Nominations have been overflowing. It has been a tremendous response. I have received about four times the maximum number of posts that will go for poll. Thank you, all!

Today is the last day of the nominations. After this, we will invite entries in only few specific categories.

As I said, maximum 6 best posts will be open for polls. I do not expect a reader to read more than 6 posts in the poll.

For most categories (except 5), most categories have received at least 2 times more nominations. However, the current list of nominations is not final as it is not entirely compliant with nomination rules.

Nomination Rules

As per nominations rules, no post can be entered into two separate categories. There are multiple entries by a blogger in same category because as it happens some posts have been nominated by friends and readers. Sometimes the nominations have not been made in right categories and sometimes posts are more than year old. All of this is against the nomination rules.

Most informative post is strictly about link blogging. Here are few examples of my link blogging posts. Some nominations in this category are certainly devoid of links. Sometimes a post is clearly about social issues, yet it has been entered into most humourous category or most courageous category or most informative/best eye-opener. Sometimes bloggers are confused about which categories should their post fit in.

Scrutinising Committee

Therefore, to ensure compliance I have sought help from my Scrutinizing Committee: Reema, Smita, Vimal and Perx. These are the guys going through your nominations and ensuring that nomination rules are met. They are communicating and interacting with the blogger to ensure they put their best forward in a befitting category.

Scrutinizing committee members also have discretionary powers, they decide if a blogger can be allowed more than one entry in a category in exceptional cases. Their word, in this case, is final.

After nominations finish, scrutinizing committee will draw up a final list of nominations. I will publish this list here on Visceral Observations. This will pave way for second and third phases: Judgement by panel of judges and polling.

Process Revisited

I have a core team of 8 members in the judges’ panel, including me. These judges will shortlist 6 best posts in each category out of the final list of nominations. Only these 6 best posts will be open for the poll.

Each of these 6 best posts will also be rated on a scale of 10 by our judges. Each category will be judged by 3 judges (who do not have their nominations in that category), including me.

Combination of judges scores and poll results will decide the winner.

Who comprise the panel of judges?

Judges are from different backgrounds, agegroups and different sensibilities.

1. Me (of, course)
2. Nita: A fiesty, knowledgeble part-time journalist from Bombay who writes about India
   
3. Nikhil: A whacky guy from Bangalore who would not hesitate to write about wierdest things you can be shy of imagining
   
4. Museditions: An intersting blogger from US who calls herself lifelong student of philosphy, arts, science and music
   
5. Withering Willow: A blogger and personal friend with an artistic bent of mind. She would rather tell you about colour therapy, spas, chakras than any verbal activism
6. Rajib: A minute observer of life, he loves to travel and write. So far he blogs only for himself about quirks and tidbits in his life
7. Lallopallo: A well-read, aspiring filmmaker residing in Canada, with articulate and incisive thoughts  😛
8. Anshul: A cartoonist blogger who has been featured on NDTV Metronation as well as Indian Express for the uniqueness of his blog

Special Judges

9. Joseph Thomas: A singer, composer and podcaster from Kerala
10. Ankur Sharma: A firm apostle of culterazzi Web site that reviews everything from movie, music to theatre
11. Lemonade: A student from Chennai who loves to create beautiful blog designs
12. Sakhi: A doctor who loves to write stories and loves to cook
13. Vinaya: A champion of consumer rights and an expert in personal finance
14. Rashmi: A personal friend and English litterateur from Pune who loves to read poetry and books
15. Meetu: The lady who runs this hugely successful movie review site Without Giving the Movie Away (WOGMA).

Acknowledgements

I must thank my judges who are taking their time out of their busy schedules to be part of Avant Garde Bloggies Awards.

I must thank members of my Scrutinising Committe, who are doing the ground work for the awrads.

I also thank Chirax, Ashish and Withering Willow for designing the badges for Avant Garde Awards. I will publish the badges in my next post.

I must also thank Dinsan for being a helpful techie, Ish for clarifying facts about Avant Garde Bloggies Awards and Sakhi for being an ever-willing volunteer.

And special thanks to my official publicist, Nikhil, who sent most of you mailers and informed you of awards. He also created Avant Garde Bloggies Awards video.

Nikhil, you rock! (I never use this phrase though), thank you for being a part of Avant Garde Bloggies Awards.

Related Posts:

Nominations So Far (List where you can check out your competition and read ecelectic posts)
Avant-Garde Bloggies Awards – Some Clarifications
Avant-Garde Bloggies Awards