Top blogs

The debate on net neutrality has been going on globally for some time. It has become scorching hot in India, after the telecom regulator TRAI came out with its discussion paper on this subject and then the leading telecom company Airtel started offering a zero-cost service to netizens for visiting corporate sites and apps. Before coming to the debate and how it might even impact blogging, a few lines on What is net neutrality? Net neutrality means keeping the internet neutral, i.e. not letting internet providers favour or disfavour net services based on content, source, etc. It means, internet providers [=Internet Service Providers and Mobile Internet Service Providers or Telecom Service Providers] cannot say, they’d give more speed if you browse a particular content or a particular app and reduce the speed if you go to another site.  Now the debate on #NetNeutrality TRAI recently came out with a consultation paper [You can download the pdf  here], seeking ...

Some bloggers have asked on Quora and two on email whether they can earn enough from blogging. One query is from a new student blogger. His classmate, who has opened an SEO-crammed blog, claims that he would start making at least a thousand dollars a month from the blog within a few months. [We asked the blogger after many months of publishing this blog, and he shared that that the friend is now into 'other type of businesses' on the web!] One query is from an old blogger who has tried all tricks given on reputed websites that come up on top of Google search pages when you search for making money through blogging, but has failed to make even Rs.70 (about a dollar) a month from AdSense and almost nothing from a host of affiliates. In fact he has tried a number of other things such as being active on forums and link farms, paying money to a techie on the promise of making the blog a money spinner, himself trying monetization tricks on the blog, trying the tips given by blog...

A month back, Google announced that it would ban explicit matter on public blogs on Blogger platform. The ban was to come into effect last fortnight. That didn't happen. Google says, it has decided to live with its existing content policy. This policy allows bloggers to post nudity or explicit sex-oriented material on blogs provided the 'adult content setting' is turned on. The setting in turn warns visitors about the content. In addition, Google says, "commercial porn will continue to be prohibited".  Immediately after Google decided to ban porn, a large number of established bloggers protested, saying that the move was against the avowed policy of Google not to curb freedom of expression on the web. Many of them feared that if Google forced them to go private, they would lose all links, shared data and community participation that they had generated over years. What is Indian Top Blogs stand on this? As a decency-oriented site, are we at ITB peeved, yo...

Let’s start with the calamity, not because that makes the headline but because it is too unfortunate to have happened. Bangladesh blogger - the third one in a year - pays with life Yet another blogger, Washiqur Rahman, has been killed in Bangladesh. Remember the recent killing of Avijit Roy , another blogger, by extremists? A year back, another blogger had met with similar fate. With the murder of  Rahman , fundamentalist forces in Bangladesh have reinforced their message that criticism of fundamentalism or spread of liberal thought will not be tolerated. Rahman's Facebook page Dhaka police say, attackers brutally hacked  Rahman  to death with big knives just 500 yards from his home. The suspects are students from two religious schools of the city. Rahman blogged under a pen-name, Kucchit Hasher Channa (= Ugly Duckling). Later he shifted to Facebook where he wrote satirical pieces on Islam and joined a number of liberal groups. The pretty ugl...

In the past one year or so, blogs were seldom used to settle scores. At least not in Indian national scene. Senior politicians would reflect on others' actions and try to justify their own stand on political or social matters. It was time when BJP stalwarts, Advani, Jaitley and Modi wrote good blog posts on myriad matters. Some posts were excellent by all standards.  In those times, the job of shouting at each other by politicians themselves or their fans or trolls or back-end boys was done through Twitter. Now we might see a new trend. Politicians, at least of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), are fighting on blogs [Yogendra Yadav, Mayank Gandhi, Rakesh Parikh...]. The pour out their sentiments and disparage those of opponents on their blogs. That has happened in the last one month or so. We think, it might have to wait to become a trend, as no other party is undergoing tumult at present; they all have either total authoritarianism or disarray. Twitter, as a medium is much more ins...

The film 'Daughter of India' is banned in India and yet is available freely on the net. People are crying hoarse that  the film tries to put the Indian society in poor light and is insensitive to a girl who was raped and murdered, and  why such films must not be shown. On the other hand, a large majority says, banning the film is an attack on the freedom of expression. BBC website We bring you the facts and leave you to decide what is good. The only comment we'd make is that banning it has only brought the government in poor light and made the documentary more popular than it should otherwise have been. #Nirbhaya documentary factsheet In 2012, a girl [now known by 'Nirbhaya', not her real name] was gang-raped and then murdered in Delhi. Mukesh Singh is one convict, awarded capital punishment by the court. In early March 2015, a documentary was made by Leslee Udwin and was slated to be shown on the International Women's Day (March 8) on BBC. The f...

We have this shocking piece of advice for friends who have 'fallen into' blogging for wrong reasons.  You will agree that when commitment, focus, proper tools and adequate time and energy are not there, even the best things in the world are likely to fail, and blogging is no exception.  So, bloggers, stop blogging if you suffer from any of the following: 1. Someone forced you into blogging but you hate it You are a kid and your mother feels blogging will improve your writing skills, and you do it though you hate it. Or you are a student who is forced by the teacher to keep your 'student blog' active. Or you blog just to show off your intellect because you fear that otherwise your peers or friends will look down upon you. In all such situations of forced blogging, your mind and heart will not be into it, and you must quit it and feel relieved. If you cannot leave it, do it at the minimum level that is acceptable, and relieve yourself of the burden. But be...