Hello everyone: Was just having a discussion over chai with the content team - the same guys who work on MouthPad. They shared some interesting insights on the pattern of MouthPad requests, the ruminations of which I decided to make into a Diary Post.

While most of the MouthPad requests are straight forward and pertain to products - books, cell phones, movies, web sites, travel, hotels, restaurants, etc there are some which leave the content team scratching their heads. For instance, certain members want to write about festivals (Onam being a recent example), some about traditions (child marriage, Sati etc), some want to express themselves about human nature - greed, lust, friendship etc. So the requests sent in usually read like this: General Advice on Child Marriage, General Advice on Sati, Tips on Winning Your Girl Friend, General Advice on Onam.

Members, I would encourage you to use the Diary Post for such topics. I'll tell you why.

An advice is usually linked to a product category. So for instance, while General Advice on Indian Classical Music would find its roots in the Music category and Tips on buying a cell phone can be traced to the cell phone category, General Advice on Onam or Tips on Winning Your Girl Friend do not have any parent category to fall back upon. Yes, earlier we did try to squeeze in such requests but now the Diary Post is there to take care of such topics. I would encourage all of you to get into the Diary Post if you feel strongly about issues which do not fit into the product-review pattern instead of thinking "Will they accept, won't they accept?" Some members are determined to put jottings meant for the Diary Post into the review section. A few days earlier, a member wanted to write about God. So what did she do? She wrote about God under the channel God TV. Our compliance team deleted the "review" and posted it in the Diary Section and also sent the member an M2M informing her about the same. The member was livid and posted a review on MouthShut, a negative one of course. Not satisfied with this, she called up our office and demanded to speak to someone senior. She was transferred to my boss who heard her out. He tried explaining to her the dynamics about why and how her review was deleted and why a Diary Post was necessary for her "review". She was very, very, angry and refused to listen to anything he said. Finally, he asked a her a simple question.

"Are you trying to rate God? She was obviously taken aback. "What? What do you mean? How can anyone rate God?" My boss replied quickly. "But you have. You have given God 3 stars". And then she understood that she had written about God and given God TV a 3-star rating. It also meant that not only was her rating about God irrelevant, her rating on God TV was unfair. She kept the phone down, smiling, I presume.

I'm sure this post is going to attract bouquets and brickbats as usual. And yes, do not forget to write to me at jasmine@mouthshut.com or support@mouthshut.com. Have a great weekend. I'm going to watch Bachchan's The Last Lear tonight. What about you?

Regards,
Jasmine Ahuja
Head - Member Support
MouthShut.com