Mouth-shut? (UPDATE: JUNE 20,2001). Review on Mouthshut

This is what appears when one clicks help-center on mouthshut.com.

''

What is MouthShut.com all about?

Welcome to MouthShut.com. A web site that gives you information on products and services. But it isn't just boring facts and figures. The information you will find here is real-life experiences and opinions voiced by other people about a wide range of products and services.

So the next time you are thinking of buying something, you don't have to check with friends and neighbours. All you do is log on MouthShut.com. target="_blank">https://MouthShut.com, and you will find innumerable opinions, advice and experiences. All of which will help you make a more informed and better buying decision.

Here, you too, can voice your opinions. Write about your experiences with products. Good opinions or bad opinions. And you will make it easy for other people to make their buying decisions. ''

Cool. Nice concept. Nice clear explanation. Then comes the flaw. What are sport personalities doing on this site? Are they any kind of services or products? The logic behind including them as mere commodities just defies explanation. Thus begins my review on mouthshut.com. Agreed, this is just my fourth review…but for me its been enough to make a review on the site. I always maintain that reviews should be objective, and should provide the other person an opinion, and not one own’s conclusion on something.

Same is with this review…I am just opining on the site, and the views here are my own. You may agree or disagree.

To begin with, let me list the pros of the site:

1.Extensive collection of products/services as they call it, ofcourse, without those sport personalities! A huge product base ensures, u normally get opinions on whatever product you want.

2.The rating system is nice and impressive. You also get points for rating other’s reviews, which is a nice concept.

3.The system of allowing to see the latest 30 reviews is indeed a nice idea. It helps the writers too, in having his/her review for more time on the home page.

4.The high ranking/ low ranking review system is also nice and sometimes it is interesting indeed to see a high ranking and low ranking on the same products!

5.The speed of the site is also good. The pages do load fast generally, thus making surfing easier.

6.The user database is simply wow. I find so many people from other places as well who are contributing to the site.

1. the part of spell check system while submitting the review is a very good and innovative feature.

UPDATED JUNE 20,2001

1. The email alert system has just got better and robust! Users now have the option of receiving only one email per day regarding the ratings/comments on their reviews. I think this is indeed a great idea, coz it saves my mail box from cluttering. Also, with this option, I can safely enable

all email alerts of read/rate/comment..and I still dont need to worry about getting hundred mails in a day! There is also the option of receiving a daily digest to all the reviews, which makes it more worthwhile. I think, this is huge plus point for MS...and yeah...i must commend and thank faisal for bringing out the changes. good going MS!

But, somehow, with these cons, I believe that its cons overpower its own pros. A few of them for me are:

1.The overall design of the site is not appealing. The Homepage lacks that punch to rope in readers. I think, the layout should be made more broader, with lesser number of things on homepage.

2.Managing your account is nuisance in this site. If all things were incorporated in a single page, it would have made a big difference. I personally find those like/dislike an absolutely unnecessary thing serving no purpose. The e-mail alert could have been easily avoided, for it serves no purpose again. If those options were incorporated within the submit review option itself, what was the point adding this feature.

3.One of the worst features is allowing the readers to rate review with HR without commenting on it. Whenever a good review appears, a little input from MS fellow members would really be a nice feeling to the person who read and rate it.

4.the mail alerts on other member writing other reviews tells me nothing about what topic he/she has written, except that it has been written with a title. How am I gonna make out on what topic the person has written;obviously this is a marketing gimmick to forcepeople onto the site, rather thaninviting them. if I know the topic on what the other person has written about, then I know whether to read it or not depending on my interests.

5.I dont know but I have a feeling that all the good writers down here are quite high headed, who immediately get into a verbal jargon on a slightest note. This is one feature, which honestly has put me off. After reading so many reviews where people go on bitching each other, I feel no point in commenting further. People who claim huge things in their own self write-ups, get down to utter silly arguments on what and how it should be; whether it is baazee.com, India or may be even fashion tv. the list goes on.

This is what I felt about mouthshut. Certainly, its a over-rated site. A suggestion too I would love to give MS members:

'' please write your reviews in a nice, objective manner, so that the end reader benefits from it. Don’t make this site a playground for removing your frustrations on something, place or any other matter. The bickering around also has to stop.''

With this I withdraw! and thanx to Faisal for implementing the suggestions.