How to use the blogs- Your Opinions

Post by **Dhruv** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 7:54 pm

Ok. First off I'd like to discuss how to use the blogs so soliciting opinions.....

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 8:22 pm

For starters, I would restrict it to sports stars, e.g., Harsh, Sania or her parents, Karan, Prakash, Anju George or her husband, Joshna, etc. It will require some forum members who know these people to contact them and get them interested in starting their blogs. These players can share their thoughts without having some member adding nasty comments in the same thread.

Once the blogs of the sports stars become popular or don't fly then we can revisit this topic and see if it should be open to all the forum members.

Why should I have my own blog at Sports-India? Am I missing something?

Sandeep · Post by **Sandeep** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 9:19 pm

Why should I have my own blog at Sports-India? Am I missing something?

Bsharma, some of the informative posts/opinions in the forum are not read by everyone once they become old and are buried under new posts. This is where blogs come into picture.

Ok, here is an example. I know in the past you have posted few informative messages on Indian genes and how it effects sports etc in this forum. But there is noway I can dig them out now. Blogs make it easier.

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 10:20 pm

Sandeep,

Do you think that most of us really care about what each of us wrote a few months back, and if it is buried somewhere at Sports-India or not? Often we do not read what a person had written a few hours earlier before replying to a post. I may think that my post about some player is so important that I want it in my blog, but the reality may be that no one else cares about my post.

I am more interested in reading what the players have to say about their day-t0-day struggles on the Tour, or their opinion on some subject, and I believe that some of them are reluctant to put their views in the discussion forum threads because we tend to react positively or negatively to them and express our views. These players have to read the positive and negative comments everytime they put their message in the discussion forums. Having their own blogs will provide the players a place where they can put their messages without the viewers' responses in the same place. People can express their opinion in the player's thread that a player can choose to read or not.

We can revisit the issue of having blogs for each forum member later. I am open to suggestions, and I am trying to express my opinion on a subject in which I am naive. Please bear with me if it does not make much sense.

Post by **Dhruv** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 10:23 pm

nothingnew wrote:
Why should I have my own blog at Sports-India? Am I missing something?
Bsharma, some of the informative posts/opinions in the forum are not read by everyone once they become old and are buried under new posts. This is where blogs come into picture.

Ok, here is an example. I know in the past you have posted few informative messages on Indian genes and how it effects sports etc in this forum. But there is noway I can dig them out now. Blogs make it easier.

If it was that informational and helpful, I'd expect to see it in the knowledge base. But keep the suggestions coming.....

puneets · Post by **puneets** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 11:23 pm

Yup..Blogs will be a much better read if it is exclusively left for the players/coaches/their family members etc (as BSharma has pointed out).
If a user feels that his/her post is important (and does not fit the the Knowledge Base Category), then they could probably include a link to their post on the forum and add that to the "Miscellaneous Links" section. I'm just thinking aloud...it may not make a whole lot of sense

Sandeep · Post by **Sandeep** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 11:28 pm

That is right, but it is very difficult to get players to write blogs here. Isn't it?

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 5:51 am

That is right, but it is very difficult to get players to write blogs here. Isn't it?

No job is very difficult unless we have tried our best and have not succeeded. Then we should start all over again after determining why we failed in the first attempt.

I believe that the most important sections of Sports-India should be:

1. Forum discussion by members
2. Up to date news
3. Blogs by players/coaches/family members
4. Depending on how Jay feels about it, his daily news can remain at his website but can also become part of Jay's blog
5. General information about sports

Other sections can be added as we find them to be useful for the viewers.

How can we get our sports stars to write blogs?

- Show them examples of other players' blogs, e.g., blog by the tennis player many of us read during the Chennai Open.
- Convince them that their blogs will be appreciated highly by the fans
- Assure them that they will have exclusive right to write in their blogs and that the fans will not be adding their comments in their blogs. These comments can go in a seperate thread that they can read or ignore it.
- Make is easy for them to add their comments in their blogs if they are very busy or have slow Internet connection in some remote area of the world, e.g., they could e-mail their comments to Dhruv or Jay who could add their entry.
- Players should be contacted by forum members who know them well and can convince them about advantages of a blog.
- Find out why the stars are reluctant to write blogs and then try to remove those barriers.

Forum members can add their suggestions about how we can convince our sports stars to write blogs. Once we can get two or three stars to start writing blogs then other stars will follow.

Sandeep · Post by **Sandeep** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 6:11 am

I don't think players will have any problem in writing Blogs. Infact they will be more than happy to do so. But to contact them will be a tough job. But as you said we can try

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 8:21 am

But to contact them will be a tough job.

Let us not be negative in our approach. Dhruv and Jay with the help of several hundred forum members have made Sports-India a place that is respected by many sports stars and sports fans. If Dhruv, Jay and some other fans approach these stars and provide them with a vehicle to express their thoughts that will be read by true sports fans then we can get these sports stars.

I believe that Dhruv and some other forum members have personal contacts with Karun and possibly Narain and few other motor-sports stars. Similarly tennis blogs might be easy compared to some other sports. If we can start with these two sports and we do a good job then other Indian stars will follow. Who knows we may have golfers, hockey players, badminton players, chess players, athletes, etc writing blogs.

Let us not forget that we have people like mugu, Sukhwant Basra, etc who can help us get in touch with some of these stars.

Post by **jayakris** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 8:33 am

Interesting opinions. I am not clear what is best - so no opinion yet, but I am trying to form one

Jay

suresh · Post by **suresh** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 10:13 am

I think player blogs are a good idea. For instance, it is better for us read Harsh's blog
instead of searching through Harsh's thread for his comments amongst the zillion
entries we put in. I am not big on member blogs in the sense that there are million
sites which offer the same. But who knows, maybe Bhushan's top 10 lists can
be part of his blog?

Post by **Dhruv** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 3:24 pm

Ok I'll take them down until we have formed an opinion on how to use them. Easy to renable them.