YOUR QUESTIONS- MY ANSWERS.....
Why would I want to read this review?
You are a new member of this amazing P2P site and you are yet to build your Homepage here
You are an existing member who hasn’t yet found time to make that complete Profile Page and you are looking for ideas
You are an existing member with an all updated Profile page and yet you feel that the icing on the cake is missing
You are my friend and I love you to RRC on my reviews
What is a Profile Page?
A profile page is the page that opens up when a visitor to Mouthshut.com clicks on your id. The visitor may be a member / non-member, and you id may appear on your own reviews, a review that you have rated / commented, on the trust / distrust list of another member. In short the more active you are on this site, ie. the more you read, rate and comment, other than writing reviews ofcourse, the more links to your page in all of Mouthshut, and higher the chances that people will land up on your homepage.
What are the main categories on a Public Profile Page?
Basic Details:
MS id, Date of Joining MS, Name, Gender, DOB, Town , Country , Education.
You could chose to hide or display these particulars. From personal experience, I can say that despite publicly disclosing all actual particulars, never have I been put to any hassles / troubles by visitors to my page. Revealing your actual name will people address you more easily, had I not given away my name, I would have to be called “Autumn”, “pehli Pathjhad”, etc etc , not that members DON’T call me that now.
Showing your actual birthday will make sure you get so many more heartfelt wishes on your birthday. Your place of residence helps people from similar locations get in touch with you, for eg. When we decided to have the REAL LIFE MEET of all Mumbai members in April, it was so much easier to contact people who had written MUMBAI in city field. But ofcourse, you can even write witty stuff like REEPERLAND, HELLHOLE, for those from the OTHER WORLD, Roop Nagar, Prem gali, Kholi No. 420 for the Bollywoodicallyinclined.
Apart from the regular stuff like B Tech and MBBS, I have noticed interesting fillers in the -education column like High school dropouts, or OVEREDUCATED & UNDERQUALIFIED, School and Me?, MATRIC RELOADED !! Just use your imagination !
Are there any ideas to fill up the ‘Interests’ Section?
This category can be tackled in a variety of interesting ways:
i) You can just start off listing down your interests :
Eg:
Music
Gaming
Trekking
Chess
Crosswords
Salsa
Cooking
ii) ….Or you could also spice up matters with more details like, the type of music you like, your idea of the perfect night out, the best adventures you have indulged in……what makes your mouth water, what makes you laugh, what moves you to tears, what are your pet peeves…..the list is just endless……just get into the descriptive mode and watch the results…
iii) Another way of putting it can be Likes and Dislikes….
SO instead of listing your interests, it would be what turns you on and what puts you off….
Eg. Chinese food, French perfumes, Indian Handicrafts, American desis, Arabic Mehendi…
Or more down to earth stuff like the Sea shore, the snow capped peaks, the magic of the rains, the bliss of curling up with steaming hot coffee and a favorite book, secret rendousvouz with that special guy…..
And the dislike list could also get going similarly…..all these could be very simple stuff, but speak volumes about the person that is YOU !!
iv) You could also add a “COLUMN” that you could update everyday / every week / every month , the frequency of updating being indirectly proportional to how busy your work/ studies / life-keeps you. But consistency is important. The column could be a QUOTE , a JOKE, a TIP, a VERSE / SHAIRI or even a REVIEW OF THE DAY- a link to a good review selected by you.
When members know that you update your page each day, its an added incentive for them to click on your link !
So what does that leave to be written in the “About Me “ Section ?
Its true that there can be quite a bit of overlapping between the Interests and About Me section. Because your interests also speak a lot for you.
i) This part can be adorned with little anecdotes from your childhood, or your most embarrassing incident in college, your family, the last vacation you had in the North-East, or you can just write about something you are most passionate about.
ii) If you have used one of the ideas from Interests section, you can use the others to fill up this space.
iii) After giving brief but complete outline about you, you could go on about that Voluntary Work that interests you most, or your business ideas or your love for animals.
iv) This section can speak about your principles and ideals in life, you could go philosophical or whacky or Filmi, A-Z of me….etc…, Question-Answer formats- interviewing yourself…. just put on your Sochne waali Topi and get writing…..
Please note that this section allows space for more matter than the INTERESTS section. In case you post more than the allowed number of words in any section, the excess words will not appear on your page.
What about the photograph?
I would consider this one of the most important aspects of your page, its like giving the finishing touch to the entire page. The best option would be to upload a real pic of yourself, it should be a close up with good clarity. Posing with something / someone closest to your heart is an added advantage (eg: Maddy in his music studio) The space given for your pic being pretty less, its wise to upload a snap according to MS’s specifications, or you could end up looking 20 years older, or looking from a different species altogether !
A picture speaks a lot about the originality of your profile and the seriousness of your presence on this site. There are members who like to upload something other than their own pic- Media shy should we say? Even this gets pretty interesting, as it says a lot about the member- Cars / Cartoons/ Mountains / Bikes / Animations / Horror Pics…..you name it, you will find it here, creativity is in abundance here…..
New members could have some apprehensions regarding posting their REAL pictures on this site, and it is a genuine apprehension, with all the crazy things that go on in the internet. With personal experience, I can say that this happens to be a very safe site and lots of people have left their pictures posted here since they joined and there haven’t been any complaints so far.
Are there any pages I can get inspiration from ?
Almost each active member of MS has a profile page that makes wonderful reading- but some of them that are really interesting are :
https://mouthshut.com/user/karana23.html
https://mouthshut.com/user/PROFBBMOHANTY.html
https://mouthshut.com/user/rjois.html
https://mouthshut.com/user/chekmate.html
https://mouthshut.com/user/Koshish.html
These are just for the beginning, I shall keep posting new profiles here every now and then !
So keep watching this space for more...
Your comments are most welcome
P.S>
While giving so much gyan on this topic, I thought I had better update my profile too...so I have !
