I am surprised to see a request for a review on mouthshut.com on the site’s front page,since so much praise has already been bestowed in the hundreds of reviews and comments.
I ,however,suppose that new members like me are being asked to write something about this site too as a feedback..So here I go.
I have been a member of an international blog site called opendiary.com for about 4 years. It was very interactive and interesting but one wanted to know more about Indians and there were just 20 active Indians on that site.
I found this site to be a very interesting idea indeed for one can share ideas esp about products ,shopping,books etc. So it is a blogging with a plus.It is different from a usual diary as one is also contributing to marketing decisions and ,hopefully, urging the merchants to make their services useful by incorporating suggestions.
Basically the site has great features,ideas are great,technically perfect,down days are hardly any.
&n
bsp; I ,however have a wish list which may make it more interesting and interactive and also make more of an impact. Change,as they say,is the only constant in life and we must keep running to stay ahead of competition.
1. Basically ,all blogging site members are those who are fond of both reading and writing. That is what causes fine interactions between members. Here I find the emphasis is more on writing.That is good as youngsters need to improve their writing skills and what better way than to write reviews on their favourite film or the restaurant they visited .
However it makes sense to also encourage reading. I find that in most blogging sites,the ratio of a blog to comments is at least 1:10. On MS, you will find 1 comment on 10 reviews. Take the reviews on lage raho munnabhai--the last film I saw. It has nearly 200 reviews.The last 10 reviews have been mostly rated as very useful but between all of them they have hardly 4 comments. This is pathetic--you have to comment if you find a review very useful. Ticking an option is easy but justifying it takes skill too.
&nbs
p; This anomaly can be corrected by the site administrators by giving points for comments also. In fact if 1 point is given for rating a comment must have at least 3 points,just less than a full review itself.
This will inculcate the habit of reading a review,referring to it while commenting or writing one’s review and also stop the writing of so many reviews which itself defeats the very purpose of offering a choice as most reviews are repetitions of many points.
I do not know what the significance of points is but it is human nature to get pleased when one is rated on any scale. So points may encourage a person to write.
2. Repetitions--- there are so many of these that the people concerned stop paying attention to them. I set an alert for ICICI Bank. Every day I get 2 alerts . I read --it is the same comment about a poor service of call centre or staff apathy to complaints. Now,the public relation deptt of that bank will just say--oh don’t bother,another sob story from mouthshut--don’t pay any attention.
On the other hand when there are fewer reviews,they catch the eye. When I wrote a review on deutche bank,mine was only the 3rd review and I got a feedback from one of the NGOs interested in that bank and also from my relationship manager from the bank.
Similar stories pertain to mobiles,and related services---reviews upon reviews on hutch,airtel,reliance--today out of the last 50,at least 20 are on these. I wish these could be condensed in the form of comments to have an impact.
One way could be to archive the older reviews. Another to lock a thread for a period after saturation is reached.
Finally,most important,these reviews which are so common should not be displayed among reviews of the day on the front page.
3. Review of the day--this is an anomaly. Firstly the review published is not written on that day but weeks before.Secondly,it seems to be selected by some method which does not justify its inclusion there. I think visits to the blog is one such criteria. I saw one review on 3 separate days ,hardly did justice to that.
Review should be personally chosen by moderators. The ignored categories should be encouraged. Like biotique --was ignored for 3 years till I wrote a review there.
The reviews on hotels in Goa are lying blank.
When I wrote a review on firstandsecond.com,a book site,not only did the site administrator sit up and wrote a rejoinder to my review in the comments but also made sure that two of their cronies wrote favourite reviews on the site--read the last reviews on that site and you will know what I mean.
4.Star writers---hardly does justice. The same faces are displayed. In my 2 months since joining,I have read them all--there are hardly 60 I think. This is precious space on the front page--rotate it with new writers or old writers or writers by age or gender or city--make it more interesting.
5. Have a section for rejoinders or communications from the product owners.
6. What about some additional features displayed like
a. total number of members.
b. new members joined per day or per week.
c. a site meter--number visited the site on a day or number browsing at a particular time.
d. city wise break up of members. Age-wise break up also.
7. What about introducing some quizzes based on products?
These are some of the things I can think of right now on my currently favourite site,mouthshut.com.