Flipkart gift
vouchers poured like the soothing showers in Delhi’s July. That was the heyday
of Indiblogger. Apart from the plentiful gift vouchers were the blogger’s meets
organised in many cities and all the hectic activity at the community’s digital
site itself. My blog won hundreds of readers. Indiblogger built my reputation as a blogger.
I earned many friends.
Gone are those
days. Indiblogger has threatened to wrap up
because “the industry’s requirements have changed.” Did Indiblogger fall into a
trap of its own making?
It is an
arduous task to maintain standards when anything is popularised. Indiblogger
popularised blogging like no other blogger community did. It brought thousands
of bloggers together without any discrimination whatever. Into that quaint marketplace of immense
commercial potential jumped quite a lot of traders for obvious reasons. Gift
vouchers as well as occasional bumper prizes rained like manna from a featureless
heaven.
Manna cannot
continue to fall from any heaven incessantly. Commercial heavens are the least
benign anyway. The gods who supplied the manna realised sooner than later that
they were on quite a wrong turf. Commerce and writing seldom go hand in hand.
Indiblogger
tried to evolve into video blogging. I cannot judge the outcome of that since I
never ventured into that field. Nor did I take interest in those bloggers who
did. My passion has been writing and I chose to stick to it. I have been lucky
to retain the same number of readers for years now. I admit humbly that the
number has not increased much from the daily average of 200 plus views of my
blog in the last many years. But in a world where the habit of reading seems to
be on a slippery slope, I consider myself blessed to be able at least to retain
the numbers.
Popularity and
personal integrity are at loggerheads with each other in today’s social media
including blogging. I choose integrity. The political situation in India has
undergone such a sea change that personal integrity is perceived more often
than not as prejudice or even antinational stance. Many bloggers chose to
abandon blogging. Some others avoided political themes. Quite many embraced
expediency.
It is not
quite feasible to run a commercially viable blogger community in such an
environment. Indiblogger may not agree with my assessment. Many bloggers won’t
too, I know. I’m used to witnessing peripeteia and anagnorisis.
I started
blogging at the turn of the millennium. The platforms changed a few times until
I stuck to the present one, namely blogger, a couple of years after Indiblogger
took its toddler steps in the virtual world. I have travelled with Indiblogger
quite a long way now. Merrily. If Indiblogger does wrap up, I will be a big
loser. I hope that the community will find a new way ahead instead of wrapping
up. I’m grateful anyway for whatever Indiblogger has been for me so far.
I think there might be a decrease in numbers of readers because people are moving towards video and graphic content.
ReplyDeleteThat might be a difficult situation for people like us who prefer writing over making videos. and so as a smart blogger, we may need to find some innovative ways maintain our blog's popularity.
Writing is as different from video as Vikram Seth is from Chetan Bhagat. I'm sure Indiblogger will also realise that sooner than later.
DeleteYes, indiblogger not being there any more is a loss for every person who loves blogging. I still wish this is a dream that will end at day-break.
ReplyDeleteThis is a natural process. Indiblogger has to evolve. From the depths to the height.Yet another cycle in the eternal vicious cycle.
DeleteThanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHope Team Indiblogger will back soon.
Indiblogger is the story behind all the successful bloggers . I always agree with this . This is just the closing of old indiblogger but the starting of a new indiblogger .
ReplyDeleteTrue, Aditya. Something new is afoot.
DeleteSad to hear this. Indiblogger was the only blogger community in which I was comfortable. How about the blogger platform? any threat to it ?
ReplyDeleteBlogger will continue. But blogger plus is shut down :(
Delete