Jul 4 2008

Ping.sg Blog Awards II – Vote For The Most Deserving!

Ping.sg is celebrating their 2nd anniversary real soon and the finalists for the blog awards are out! And I have the pleasure to be shortlisted in 5 award categories and here they are!

awards 1

awards 2

awards 6

awards 8

awards 10

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Yup! I am one of the finalists in the Most Entertaining Blog, Most Interactive Blog, Most Controversial Post, Most Entertaining Post and Best Citizen Journalism Post. I have this nagging feeling that this will be a big joke for me when I am shortlisted for so many categories but I will end up winning NONE!

WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHA!!!!

I hope everyone will just click on any of the images above and look at all the blogs and posts that have been shortlisted and vote for me, me, me, me and me the most deserving winner. Some of the categories can be voted once every 24hrs and some can only be voted once. So choose wisely and vote frequently!

Voting ends on Thursday, 24 July 2008 18:00!!!


Jun 23 2008

My 100th WordPress Post and I Owe it All to YOU!

The very first popular blog that I came across was Xiaxue‘s back in the days when she was funnier and less commercialized(IMHO). Blogs at that time were a form of entertainment and a way to keep myself updated on my friends lives. Having a steady income back in 2005, I got a webhost and the URL ‘www.krisandro.com’ without going through what most bloggers go through; Having a free blogging platform like blogspot/wordpress/xanga and then realizing later that they want a self hosted blog.

It wasn’t my intentions to use it as a blog in the 1st place but I eventually hopped onto the bandwagon and started to write. I used dreamweaver/frontpage to design and code my blog and it wasn’t powered by any blogging platform. I don’t have any friends who had a self hosted blog during those times, and without the knowledge of blogging platforms for self-hosted blogs, you can imagine how stupid it was for the period between March 2005 to Feb 2008. I was basically coding everything manually like my archives.

LOL

My traffic back then was mostly made up of my ‘offline’ friends and colleagues and then I start to hear good comments that I was ‘funny’. I then started to write a little more frequently and got ‘tomorrow-ed’ a couple of times. Unfortunately, after migrating to wordpress, you guys won’t be able to see the old entries that I had before Feb 2008.

I had a very long blogging hiatus for a period of almost 6 months because of personal reasons and there are 3 reasons that made me come back to blogging in February this year.

#1 – Friends

KuKuNehNeh knew me better through my old blog archives and after we got together, she kept badgering me to revive my blog. Friends like DX, Ade and my WLNY pals also popped by every once in a while through my shoutbox and say things like…

“YOUR BLOG IS DEAD!!!”
*REMOVE COBWEBS*
“KRISANDO!!! COME BACK! I LOVEEEEEEEEE YOU!!!

Okay, it’s obvious that I made the last one up but the point is, these people gave me the confidence that they would like me to write again.
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#2 – WordPress

wordpress

Seriously. Without wordpress, there is no reason for me to update my blog as often as I can now. Everything is great about the platform to the point that I only need to concentrate mostly on content, content and content. Well, in krisandro’s blog, it’s actually rubbish, rubbish and rubbish. But I know you guys like rubbish and rubbish is gonna stay!
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#3 – Ping.sg

stats
I don’t think the traffic for June can match the traffic of May though

Without Ping.sg, my blog’s growth would not have been what it is now. Nice folks do submit my works to tomorrow.sg every now and then but it is Ping.sg that gives me constant traffic. It’s also the folks at Ping who are very supportive of my blogging style and they make up a majority of the ones who leave comments whenever I post something up and it feels bloody nice to have people leave comments.
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This is my 100th wordpress post, and I’ll dedicate this to the 3 reasons I mentioned and all my supporters, including those who are SILENT READERS. You know who you are.. (Cuz nobody else knows who you are…)


Jun 11 2008

Ping.sg Blog Awards II – Why People Should Self Nominate

Ping.sg Blog Awards II nominations are NOW OPEN!!!

Er… actually, it has been open for a few days already, just that I am too WOLS to announce it. BUT! Since the nominations will be open for a week, it’s good for everyone to talk/blog about it periodically isn’t it?

icon razz

Like all most some of the Pingsters, I am very excited about the awards as this only happens once every year and since I only joined Ping in February this year, this is my first time taking part in this event! So what are you waiting for? Vote your favorite and deserving bloggers NOW!

The categories are:

1. Most Entertaining Blog
2. Most Interactive Blog
3. Most Insightful Blog
4. Best Photoblog
5. Best Audio/Video Podcast
6. Most Controversial Post
7. Most Dramatic Post
8. Most Entertaining Post
9. Most Insightful Post
10. Best Citizen Journalism Post
11. Best Review Post

12. Post of the Year (not open for nominations)
13. Blog of the Year (not open for nominations)
[ results will be determined by voting results of the above other categories ]

award nomination opens

Click Here to VOTE NOW!

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Well if you own a public blog and haven’t even joined Ping.sg…

WHY?

Don’t want traffic is it? GO WRITE A DIARY INSTEAD!

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Before the nominations opened up, I thought that I would easily find nominees to fill all the categories up but I actually had to browse through 25 pages of the top posts of the year to find suitable candidates.

Which brings me to my main point.

I do realize (again) that the most Pong-ed posts in the year does not equate to the best blog/post in ping. It’s just a confluence of factors like popularity, post title, topic & time that brings a post to the top. I am sure that there are many hidden gems in Ping.sg that get pushed down the every flowing page and chucked away like some forgotten treasure.

So, all you bloggers who think that your blog/post is worthy or knows someone who is like that, please nominate yourself or your friend! Nominate yourselves so that the committee at Ping.sg can scrutinize your blog and if it’s good, they will put you up for the voting round!

And if it isn’t good…. well, nobody will know that you nominated lar.

Nobody except….

Uzyn…

and…

the TWENTY OTHER COMMITTEE MEMBERS.

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But in all seriousness again, please nominate yourself or your friends if you deem it worthy!

Oh by the way, I am also in the committee and the bribery may begin now~

WAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAA!!!!

 


May 30 2008

You Pingsters Deserve an Explanation

I am breaking many of my personal rules here, but here I am posting another community related post about Ping. I need to address a few issues about my last post, and this will be the last time I am talking about it as a post on my blog.

To address some points that Endoh pointed out and other comments left on the blog, I have the following to say.

Before Daphne spoke to me over msn on this matter, I was already aware that at least 2 people were openly disliking the level of interest in the mundane topic of Daphne’s crush. I DIDN’T CARE, because I am in for the believe that everyone has a right to like or dislike topics or blogs as long as they don’t declare war over it. Like what Uzyn said,

“Everyone’s unique. Every bloggers are unique. Ping.sg is started not as an aggregator for smart bloggers, nor is it started as an aggregator for immature bloggers. It’s started because of blogs and bloggers of Singapore.

Everyone’s unique, and every bloggers have their own readerbase, even before Ping.sg. Ping.sg gives the bloggers a chance to exchange each others readership and naturally, a reader who likes to read sports blogs wouldn’t like to read a fashion blog, but that doesn’t mean the fashion blogger IQ is lower or anything.

Let’s open our arms and accept that all of us are bloggers (I know I’m becoming less of a blogger now due to the inactivity of my blog, paiseh) and all our blogs are unique in one way or the other, ok?
icon smile
Anyway, here’s a promise. As long as I am able to (unless gahmen say i kenot), Ping.sg will always remain neutral, open and free. That’s my goal and my dream, and I’m sure most Pingsters’ goal and dream as well.”

I believe in that vision and that’s why I don’t care about the indifference towards such topics. Only when Daphne told me she felt really affected by it was when I got very upset. I got upset because, it’s the core community that is affecting her. And I do believe that these people are actually friends with Daphne and they really shouldn’t hurt her like that.

I also agreed in my post that Daphne SHOULDN’T be so affected by it as everyone is entitled to their own opinions!

Now it comes to the part where Endoh and anyone else asks,

“Where is the evidence? Give us names!”

I didn’t care on gathering evidence nor screenshot the shoutbox or twitters as I already know the displeasure of a few people towards the ‘shallow’ topics. Moreover, I regard some of them as friends and my post isn’t about pointing out individuals. If I wanted to do that, I would have approached them through private ways.

Then some say,

“If they are your friends, then why are you trying to attract attention through such a title and make a big fuss over it?”

I used my blog to express my opinion about them because it isn’t my business to approach them about the matter in the 1st place and I would rather voice my views at them while preserving their anonymity. And to those who think I am trying to attract attention or raise my popularity with such a posting, I’m afraid you are right.

Right in the sense that I am a blogger and my posts are made public. I want high readership like any self respecting blogger who admits to it. BUT, I am like what a few mentioned in the comments for the last post.

“I don’t care much for being in the top 10.”

That is true for me as well but I will like to elaborate it so that it is more correct. I did mention to Wishbone sometime back that people with good content who are not ‘popular’ in Ping need not worry. Those with good content will eventually have a fanbase. Why? Because eventually, it’s the content that makes people bookmark/subscribe/visit your blog. If a blogger has poor content and constantly misleads people with his/her title, he won’t get much traffic on days where he doesn’t blog and also in the long run. And I do believe that I have a group of readers that may be relatively small, but they enjoy what I write mostly. Ping and tomorrow.sg may have been two of the driving forces behind my websites growth, but I don’t need to whore myself to get reads. If I manage to get into the top 10, then it’s just a bonus. The loyal readers will still come to appreciate my posts.

The last post was lousy content in my own opinion, why the hell do I want attention to such a post to ‘raise my popularity’. I had common sense to think that the so called ‘popularity’ would actually dip because of it. But I still wanted to say my peace because I have an opinion and I am not afraid to say it with tact.

And if you think it wasn’t with tact, you’ll be amazed at what I really had in mind.

It’s weird but I think the word ‘shallow’ also affected more serious bloggers than the ‘shallow’ ones. I think I could have stepped on a sensitive spot somewhere. I do admit on hindsight that it could be wrong to label it as ‘shallow’. Maybe ‘mundane’ would have been a more tactful word.

In conclusion, I admit that I am shallow(like always… but i am extremely proud of it), I might have mislead people to think that I am waging war against certain people. But there is nothing I disagree on when I look at the post over and over again. I may have been seen as being exaggerated or making groundless accusations but I still stand true to my opinions.

Sorry if you still want me to post pics here and there and to link here and there to point fingers. I still won’t do it because it wasn’t my main purpose in the 1st place. My biggest point is still,

“There is nothing wrong with shallow bloggers/posts/topics. Good content can still come from it.”

I know I could have unwittingly created discomfort or discord amongst certain bloggers but so be it. If the relationships are that fragile, I don’t think the affected bloggers should be sad of losing a friend or two. And I still welcome and cherish whatever friends that I have made in wonderful communities like Ping.