Mouthshut isn’t just a website for us. We are more of a community here. Like the members of a family. Just like in a family we find all kinds of personalities. On this website too, we find people with different tastes, nature, choices and personalities.

The best way to encourage someone is to appreciate his work. And the best way to appreciate someone’s work is to give him an award. We have many Bollywood award functions each year, in which the best performers of the year get their prizes. Following this trend these days we have even the cricket awards. So I thought, if we can have awards on movies and cricket then why not Mouthshut. So here we have MS Awards 2004. The choices are completly mine and you may or may not agree with me.

Before we go to the awards I’d like to make a few suggestions for the improvement of the portal.

(1). 2004 saw some of the most dirty reviews ever posted on this website. Some of the members were maligned in the most ridiculous manner possible. And we couldn’t do anything. Members said, ’’Ignore the basta*d. Don’t respond to his work. Don’t read his work.’’ But sadly it doesn’t work this way. Not many rated his reviews or commented on his reviews. But I’m sure almost all of them read his reviews. And that’s what he wanted. So he achieved what he wanted to. His defeat would have been if he got less number of clicks from the members. But that didn’t happen. And I don’t blame you, it’s human nature, to read or watch such stuff, in some cases enjoy it too, and then to be politically correct, criticse it. Latest Example - DPS scandal. Well, anyways I don’t want to get much into human nature here.

My suggestion to stop such reviews is that the MS management reads each and every review before posting it. It’s a review, not a news, so it doesn’t matter if it gets delayed by 15 minutes. And if they find it too tiresome, then start charging for a new id. The amount may be as less as Rs 50 but we need to have it. Then we will see how many times can the person keep sending 50 rupees to create a new account, after his review and id gets deleted. Only those members well get free membership who are referred to by some other members. And if that new member tries to do something ’’naughty’’, it will be the equal responsibilty of the member who refered him.      

(2). Since this site is democratic by nature, it won’t be a bad idea to give some rights to members as well. Elections can be conducted for various posts, the polling would obviously be done online by the members, and the elected representatives can have their stint for one year. This would be helpful because many members complain that their problems are not being catered with or they have been treated unfairly. Sometimes their reviews are deleted or some member is flagged or there are any technical problems or if the members don’t like any particular topic eg 5 worst reviewers, it would be the duty of member representatives to deal with these problems. They will work as a link between the members and the MS management.

I find the site’s strategy of flagging members on the basis of IP address really humourous. What if two persons of same family are using the computer? And what can you do if the same person uses a cyber cafe to create a different account?

If these two suggestions are implied then I think, many problems of MS can be solved and keeping it clean is going to be a cake walk. Okay folks, it’s AWARD TIME now. There are 15 categories of awards. I hope you enjoy the function.
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MS AWARDS 2004

15. Encouragement Award
This award is to encourage those members who have lots of writing talent but are not utilising it properly by writing very less number of reviews. I hope this award encourages them to write more reviews in 2005. This award will be given to ten such talented writers and to give the award we have with us Mr.Rahul Dravid. And the award goes to - starpluswatcher04, bewafa, snaz, parikhmunir, nenners, bluerain, eagle_eye, aradhanavarma2002, hercules and buddingwriter.

14. Best Reviewer on Bollywood Movies
To give this award we have with us the one and only King Khan. And the award goes to mouthshutdotcom who has given us brilliant in-depth and timely reviews on Bollywod flicks week after week. Sureshmehcnit was also a contender but his reviews were more on southern films.

13. Most Humourous Reviewer
Laughter is the best medicine. To give this award we have with us Mr. David Dhawan. And the award goes to Zuludancing. Nikamma1112 also gave him a very tough fight, but I somehow feel that he still has a lot more in him. He has made all of us laugh, but he still can do better, the talent is there. I hope he does it in 2005.

12. Best Travel Reviewer
The award for this category will be given our PM Manmohan Singh since no one travels as much as the politicans. And the award goes to cousin2. Traveller was also a main contender for this award, but he should share his experiences with us more often. Maybe he will in 2005.

11. Most Versatile Reviewer
This award is for that writer whose area of expertise isn’t limited to a few topics. It’s for that person who can write ’’Very Useful’’ reviews on most of the topics. To give this award we have with us one of the most versatile actors of Bollywood - Naseruddin Shah. And the award goes to - thegreatone who can write on varied topics from Honda activa to Rahul Dravid to Bryan Adams. Darethisdevil was also a contender but she should write more often and I’m very happy to see that these days she is.

10. Best Reviewer on Hollywood Movies
To give this award we have with us - Mr.Tom Cruise. And the award goes to Elwing who has given us some excellent reviews on these Hollywood flicks since she came on the scene. Well done! Activeace was also a tough contender. Better luck next time!

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