One of my ‘trusted’ stories is abt a neta coming home having lost an election. He told his wife ‘I am not sad abt losing, but sad to know EVEN YOU didn’t TRUST me’. Wife asks why he felt so. He replies ‘I got only 1 vote & it was mine’ ;-)

Why this I write this out of my plan to write on all community centre topics. now general thoughts on MS is only left, so Trust me, I will be Back (quote courtesy of Arnold Shivajinagar) These random thoughts are primarily intended to make u laugh (or smile at least), but if it provides any food for thought lets thank God.

MS TC: ;-) Just as a circle is a collection of equidistant points from a centre, a TC is a collection of ppl held together by ‘trust’. In a TC u are at the centre as well as the circumference. The TC becomes important as it is visible on profile. For example if I trust members A, B, C on each of their profiles says they are trusted by ME. Also on my profile it appears that I trust A, B,C . so they are part of my trusted circle with me as centre, if reciprocally they each trust me then I am part of their trusted circle, with each of them sitting at the centre, me at periphery. Now don’t imagine sitting at periphery & falling off ;-). Here Circles come in all shapes & sizes varying with number of ppl. it’s a mesh of circles out there ;-)

Since each member has his own idea of trust & own criterion to add ppl to TC, lets not make any generalization. But its funny to watch certain trends in TC. Though for the sake of being kind MS doesn’t have a Distrust Circle, there is option for u to distrust a member & to tell the world that u distrust him, on ur profile page. The contrary is true too. As with trusting we cant generalize the distrust criterion too.

Pros for TC: Without a survey it is difficult to say whether TC has been of any use to MSians. This clearly has no visible bearing on the quality of writing. It looks more like a feel-good gimmick, personal touch excercise from MS. Lets explore if there is anything good for this:
1)Feel gud, morale booster when someone trusts u, a short term encouragement
2)it looks good on ur CV err I mean profile: just imagine a teenage newbie on MS looking in awe at ur profile that says u trust 135 members & u are trusted by 531 members. He/she wud think ‘wow, if I am here, I have to trust him, I have to be trusted by him’ ;-)
3)Celeb status: creates hype abt u, more TC might help u become famous here.
4)Growing circle: u trust A, A trusts B, indirectly u trust B ;-), related alerts keeps u aware of growing circle. When someone who is part of a BIG circle trusts u, the rest also know u which all can translate to more RRC for u.
5)Community building: in its own way TC contributes to building friendships, community on MS.

Cons For TC: Having said it doesn’t contribute to ur writing there are points against TC. Breeds Grouping too many TCs centred around themselves breed what I call Mutual Admiration Societies, who are tapping each others back, congratulating, RRCing each other all within a TC. Also it brings upon a compulsion to RRC all things written by ur TC, a obligation?. What after TC. My name sits on ur profile & urs on mine, only to rust in time. a case of Trust loosing Tee(th) to turn Rust?

Types Of Trust: put simply trust means to have confidence in ur writing, have expectation of ur writing well, agree to reasonable extent to wat u say. Trusting doesn’t mean a VU always, there is still freedom to disagree. Now let me classify trust as seen on MS, holds good for distrust too.
Outside Trust this is very much like ‘outside support’ practiced by few parties in a coalition govt. here the members arent part of TC, still trust is seen thru their Coments.

universal trust: here the user just trusts anyone & everyone he comes accross, even based on 1 reading. He trusts whoever trusts him, very liberal

reciprocal trust: I trust u, u trust me ;-), many fall to this category as they trust just to return favor.

Magnetic Trust: I write this recalling a girl writing how she was getting more coments, M2M from guys. Since not all of us are of same maturity level these things will happen. In magnetic trust ‘the opposite poles attract & like poles repel’. This is gender based trust. Slight change to the rule when it comes to distrust: if a guy distrusts a guy it cud be like poles repelling, but if a girl distrust a girl then its more like Shakespeare saying ‘jealousy thy name is woman’ ;-)

Photo Trust: members use their face reading skills on ur pic to decide if u are trustworthy ;-)

Null trust: they don’t trust/distrust any, they are in their own TC. But they cud be trustd/distrusted by many.

MKG trust: it’s a la Christ – ‘love those who hate u’ type. Ghandhi said “easy to luv ur friends, can u love a person who thinks u are his enemy”. Can u trust someone who distrusts you? I am just listing it here, don’t know if any is practicing it here. List karney mein kya hain? ;-)

my views abt Trusting: First of all trust urself. How to check if u trust urself? Stand in front of a mirror, look straight into the eyes of the reflection, stare for a while, now smile at the reflection, if it smiles back – rejoice, u trust urself ;-)

If u think adding, being in TC is ok, do so. Trust based on reading ones writing for a period of time. Trust based on maturity, consistent writing, variety of topics written, like mindedness, message if any in the writing, IQ, EQ, Spiritual quotient of the person. Its for you to gauge these. also remember no loss by trusting. If u donot know the person then u are only trusting the view. Even ppl who write exactly opposite on a topic can trust each other, as long as both believe what they hold on to, to be the truth. Don’t go after numbers, even the person with most ppl trusting him on MS has to login ;-)

abt Distrusting: I frankly belive no member worth his salt (or sugar whatever he holds sacred) deserves distrusting. I don’t see myelf using distrust on anyone here. But still there are cases when u have to use that button. Such cases can include:a member who writes anti-national, becomes the evils advocate on MS, acts like a cookie for certain products writing favorably, gets into plagiarism, sends obscene comments, M2M to others.

As far as possible avoid distrusting, rather avoid reading them. what use displaying someones name on ur profile, only to say u distrust him. Don’t kill the messenger if u don’t like the message. don’t distrust someone just bcos he writes the bitter truth. Reminds me a story of a lawyer who won a case, so sent a sms to distant client saying “truth has triumphed”, the client sends a sms back saying “I knew u were a useless lawyer, appeal at once”.! Also don’t distrust anyone over 1 revu, don’t make ur distrust into hate, try to read him, who knows he might be changing.

Last Words:good if u trust & are trusted, better if u don’t trust & are not trusted, best if don’t distrust & are not distrusted by any. ppl are more likely to remember what u wrote than who trusted u, or whom u trusted. So TC or no TC keep writing. Begin with the comments … NOW ;-)