Losing interest in MS

From today it will be my 7th Year in MS. But instead of feeling bonded to it strongly I feel I am drifting away from it. Probably I would reduce my exposure to MS in the days to come.

In this post I am writing what I am feeling/observing of late. Please note that all these are personal notes and not intended to blame MS management or its esteemed members. You may accept or reject them. Please use your discretion.

I enjoy writing and any platform which encourages me to write and gives me readership, I’ll be more than happy to grab it. My attachment with MS was intact so far because I used to get a decent number of comments within first few hours of publishing a new review/post. However this trend has reversed of late and I feel I am not able to retain my readers at MS. I did a quick introspection to list the possible causes:

1 I am not spending quality time in MS. In the initial days it was only reviews-now we have diary posts, photos, SMS updates and so on. The quantity of contents has increased several times but no efficient mechanism exists to pick the quality one out of these. Finding it practically impossible to cope up with so many new entries. Once in a while I visit the profiles of people in my trusted circle and read what they have written recently. Even there, not finding enough time to read all the contents and contribute by means of commenting. So since I am not encouraging other members by means of comments and all, probably others have also decided to reduce their visit to my contents.

2 Its natural that MS management expects me to remain loyal to the site and contribute exclusively. But having my own identity at my blog, I don’t have a serious motive to write exclusively here. Writing same contents at both places will be duplication of efforts, though I did that so far because I had some decent readership in MS. With the diminishing number of comments, the efforts might not be worth it. Writing the same content at my blog too (which competes and beats MS at search engines) or leaving my blog URL naturally irks MS management, but everything I write is my intellectual property, so I can’t abstain from leaving a mark.

3 I seriously feel quality has taken a back seat at MS. Some members stay on front page 24 by 7 uploading a new photo or publishing a diary post every few minutes. 99% of the time these contents are freely lifted from elsewhere in internet, with no permission or not even a credit to original writer/photographer. Recent investment made by MS on their infrastructure is being drained by these sourced contents which seriously do not add much value. Do not mean to say all posts are bad, but good posts often get lost in the sea of contents. When I visit MS with a limited amount of time to spare, I am finding it difficult to pick few good posts which would be worth my time. I do not intend to fight a quantity war here.

4 May be there is a dip in my quality of writing. No one directly told me so, but maybe I should withdraw and try to analyze the situation from this angle. Given that same content is driving higher number of comment at my blog these days, I see a lesser probability though.

5 Had some distant hope that one day we might be able to exchange our MS points to something physical. That hope has dwindled now. While I contribute to MS ad revenue there’s absolutely nothing I get in return. I am yet to get my return tickets I won 18 months ago.

6. The good number of comments I used to get was the only thing that was holding me back. May be I am failing to keep up with the exectations of the readers hence unable to command much comments. With that motivation gone, I feel I’ll better invest my energy elsewhere. May be I’ll peep in once a while to have a look what’s going on, but posting new contents will be rare from now on, except when I feel highly compelled to write here.

Thanks to all of you who have been regularly reading, commenting and encouraging me all these days. Sorry I couldn’t reciprocate effectively. Thanks to MS, thanks all.

If you’re offended for making above remarks on your favorite site, please excuse me.

Best wishes,

Nidhi