All things that don't change with time go extinct. Review on Indiamike

This is an intriguing category to review - A quick glance suggests it has a lot of things going for it, a pedigree, lots of content, seemingly changing content on a subject matter, Travel to India, that, lets face it, is exotic and at the same time a little frightening.

Searching the forum for information is difficult - you come up with old, potentially obsolete or irrelevant information; for example searching for "theaters in Delhi" gives me links to "Is Being Tall a Problem", "Gay Man coming to Delhi", "Explosions in Two Cinemas"; now I'm not tall, nor Gay, nor a terrorist, I just want to go to a nice cinema in Delhi. Better to read LonelyPlanet or the classified section of a Delhi newpaper.

Ahh but supposing I go to look for Delhi Newspapers in IndiaMike - I get links to "Where to buy UK newspapers", "Hotel Ajanta", "Malaria" - all interesting topics no doubt - but fat lot of use to me.

In contrast, I google "Theaters in Delhi" and I promptly get names, address of 35 theaters in Delhi, showtimes, movie names, distances, reviews, ratings  - no maps though but Google maps will solve that.

Perhaps its information is more esoteric - how about finding "bhang shops in rajasthan" in IndiaMike - Ding, ding ding we have a winner - "Bhang Shops", "smoking pot in India"! How does GOOGLE compare I wonder so I check it out - you won't believe it; the first link that google gives me is to.go on, guess, go on. YES, a double winner - Google tells me to go to IndiaMike.

So we have the market segment that IndiaMike caters to, I suppose - dopeheads. Unfortunately, I have better things to do.

There is an aspect of cliquiness to IndiaMike; 1 member has contributed 35000 posts, just 4 members together have contributed 75, 000 posts - I don't care what they say, nobody knows THAT much about India; perhaps its the same post 75000 times! Now there's a thought! More modestly, 42% of its members haven't contributed a single post,  and altogether 88% of the members have contributed less than 5 posts each; now that's modesty for sure, but it hardly speaks for diversity does it - it enforces the image of cliques. Intriguingly, there's an discrepancy of 20, 000 posts - this raises the intriguing question of hidden posts, hidden topics available to certain privileged members.

The ban of advertising raises troubling issues, especially as some commentators report a taint of racism at that forum - Its not all advertising that's banned of course, the site displays ads by google, so the sites is clearly a commercial site not a community one. Usually the google served ads are by the big guys, from and of  THE WEST. The ban applies to agents etc -  in practice, its not hard to see that these little guys are the ones based in INDIA; by  this ad policy, ostensibly on all advertising but actually on Indian agents, what you actually get is INSTITUTIONAL racism - the way segregated neighborhoods caused inferior funding and worse schooling for blacks - no we don't discriminate against blacks, no siree, its just that they don't live here so can't attend our schools.

One can undestand that spamming is irritating, but any good website seems to cope with that menace well - the lack of any Indian agents advertising their wares in a, in a simple once-off manner is troubling - Could it, no, it couldn't could it, could it be because they are INDIANS?

This is a deeply troubling issue of course. Add on the aspect of cliques, potentially hidden posts and we have a troubling picture.

One gets the feeling that the forum and its cliques have not kept up with the massive changes that have occurred in India - of a rising thrusting, middle class; IndianMike is stuck in the patronising pat on the head type of thinking about India, which raises the hackles and the suspicion of soft racism about it amongst the younger generation of Indian that has only known independence.

Perhaps they are really smart; their market research may show them that their prime audience is white, older, patronising, soft racist  Westerners, and those Indians who have lost their self-esteem and have coopted into this thinking and they gear their policies, practices and content to meet that niche.  That's quite fair. Its a free market of course.

Those younger Westerners, Indians and desis who don't have this mentality -  I say - use GOOGLE, use books, use LonelyPlanet, to carefully plan and enjoy your trip to India.

But if you want BHANG in Rajasthan, India - IndiaMike is your guy.