I was going to write about what happened during the blogathon when I recalled the bad press that came up. At first, I wasn’t gonna bother much about it. But as more and more people jump on the bandwagon, I couldn’t help but to read what they say and to feel affected by it.

I thought, as one of the 10 #bthon bloggers, maybe I could say something about it?

The biggest issue was that, a lot feel that this blogathon competition had a wrong “cause” and that blogathons are only meant for charity or to raise awareness about an issue.

So may I ask, who ever set this regulation? Isn’t blogathon just a mesh up word of ‘blogging’ and ‘marathon’? Why does all these ‘-athons’ have to be done in the same fashion all the time? Well, to me, I like to think adding that suffix simply means a prolonged period of that particular activity!

Charity or not, it’s a totally different issue. Yes, this is an event for brand awareness and a lucrative competition for the bloggers. But no one ever promote this blogathon as a charity/cause-related. And may I emphasize that none of us ever use the idea of a good cause to mislead the public to the attention of this event.

That aside, another problem faced was if we’d breached Blogathon.org’s Creative Commons license. To be honest, prior to this blogathon competition, I had no idea that there is a Blogathon.org. Little did I know that there have been blogathons that were held in the name of good cause. But it’s a little frustrating to read the writeup of the use of ‘blogathon’:

I’m interested in using the name or concept of the “Blogathon” for my own project. Is that okay?

In most cases, yes! Anyone may borrow the name “Blogathon” and any information posted here in the Frequently Asked Questions as long as they abide by our Creative Commons license. Generally speaking, if your “Blogathon” is for a charity/charities or simply to raise awareness about an issue, you’re welcome to use our name! We only ask that you mention us somewhere in your project.

The one instance where we do not allow use of the name “Blogathon” is in for-profit events or events sponsored by a corporation/corporations (for brand promotion, event promotion, etc.). If you are interested in using the name “Blogathon” for this kind of project, please get in touch with us directly.

I find it too vague to simply say that a word belongs to you. Especially when it’s a noun like that. It’s like saying, “OKAY, I shall copyright “walking” and I will sue anyone who uses it.” (…it’s just like that stupid company who patented the ‘way’ of hyperlinking via images)

What I am trying to say, I feel that a blogathon is not like a “product” that someone created. It’s a movement, and an event that can be generalized as it, if it is, well, a blogging marathon.

I’m sure the people who came up with the Tangs Blogathon didn’t have any intention to violate the use of the word. In any case, if they’ve known earlier about the issue, I believe they would have changed the name or the spelling of it, just so it’s politically correct.

But overall, it is STILL a blogging marathon right?

During the blogathon, a flamer caught our attention with the obvious nickname, BthonSucks. He/she goes on whining about how the blogathon is pointless, the bloggers were like caged animals, and etc. Well, methinks the lady doth protest too much.

Like I mentioned earlier, it is obviously a brand promoting event. A marketing strategy, and an unconventional marketing campaign. I don’t understand why people like @BthonSucks have to pull it down so badly.

Cheap advertisement? I can’t speak for them, but idea and the amount of effort that goes behind this blogathon clearly shows how much they’d put into. FYI, the people from Ogilvy, Levono and Tangs stayed up with us throughout the entire event just so our IT/food-support (LOL! but yes, we even had supper!) can be accommodated to. Not to mention, the laptops, that we were using, were not even launched, and they were so new that they’d to be flown in the night before.

So what’s the point of this blogathon? Well, a friend of Nadia has already written a very blatant and brilliant post on it, do read up on it.

Let me just leave you with this quote before I end the blog post:

“You can please some of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.”
- Abraham Lincoln