I read many takes on the new look of MS and while replying to them, my left hand said to my right - why should I be left.
As hands are an integral part of my anatomy, and because I do most of my talking with my hands rather than my mouth, I asked the right one to not make his counterpart feel left!
It is almost unanimous that the new look is 'confusing' many people and has gone down as nicely with members (writers) as a bottle of 'karela' juice (bitter gourd) . The question that remains to be asked is - was it necessary for MS to become just another social networking site?
People who write for MS (we) were already networking here via reviews before MS had a virtual "diar(y)iohha" (I forget the writer who introduced this term - as witty as it is - it had to have been introduced by FE or Doc) - while people were still recovering from its symptoms, they were hit by another wave of change.
The message sent out by this change was - more focus on social networking and less on product reviews. Product reviews is the very reason members (writers) liked coming to MS. The social networking that followed was a healthy by-product on MS - but one that was liked by its members - because it was not 'mindless networking' as on facebook or 'groupism' as on orkut (where most people had to know each other prior to being accepted as friends)! This networking on MS was different - it had intelligence associated with it! Members (writers) networked with wit because they first had to write good to make other members (writers) notice them. In the days of writing revus, it was even better, because one really had to think hard to be able to review something as mundane as a water filter or a can of cockroach killing spray, and yet make it presentable, readable, convincing and sometimes, funny!
Alas, with the new changes, all that seems to be lost! Which is why the members (writers) are showing so much resistance in swallowing the bitter pill of change this time around!
The focus is more on gifting and M2M exchanges (notice how these 2 are in bold on your dashboard?). Fake profiles of semi-clad good looking woman (or men) will be prone to getting more hits than members who have wit as their USP! But this change was being perpetrated since a long time ....... remember the (in)famous m2m from Faisal - people who don't have a profile pic will not be trusted by me - I for one was appalled and offended by this message from the CEO of a website that had so many intelligent people amongst its writers - because I thought the underlying message portrayed by that statement was shallow! While the writers wrote of equality and justice and freedom, the CEO was shifting focus on looks! - that was the vibe given out by that statement.
Enough digression - thwack thwack - getting back to the topic at hand (there is a word limit, remember!) Is the new transformation necessary for MS to be more successful? or more importantly - will it make MS more successful?
Here is a thought - the new MS is a facebook, orkut, ebay, etc combined in one. These sites - individually - are banned in most offices (office is a place where most of MS's intelligent writers login to MS from) because these sites are for social networking they are all banned (ebay is an exception, but still is banned for being a market place website where ppl have to bid for things). By being ALL of these, I feel MS is only giving more ammo to the network admins of offices to ban MS from offices. But if thats what MS wants, it has done a great job in ousting the current members to make way for an entirely new clientèle.
The good news is - I always use MS from home - I'm unaffected by it directly - but not being a hunk - I need people who appreciate the little intelligence that I have to be someone who is 'passable' enough to interact with - and most of the people I interact with will be affected by this change adversely!
Note: The speed of the improved version of MS is indeed fast! Thanks Faisal!
And 'hole' is still not a bad word!
