And Never a Hater Be... Review on Mouthshut

OK, my comments were too big for the comments section, so I decided to post a review. I was hoping never to have to review MouthShut - but heck ;-) - the opportunity did arise finally.

Before I comment much on MrHater's review let me state the two reasons I love MouthShut:

(1) As a desi residing overseas, I am absolutely thrilled to have this medium to interact with people from India. It makes me feel connected. Jai Hind!!

(2) Also, being a picky consumer, I am thrilled to share this forum with people who likewise watch for the good-the bad-and-the ugly when they go shopping.

So, keep it up MouthShut. You are a high availability site, where signal-to-noise is better than most other sites (you have to go other places to see how ''c-r-a-p-p-y'' such forums can get). Sometimes, we complain about not having shoes all the way till we finally see someone with no feet. I have seen and been to other forums. I have finally found one that works for me...

Now on to some observations on MrHater's post...

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Seems like you tripped over your two pet peeves concerning MouthShut-

• no clear guideline for a Star Writer (I don't know if there is one, and haven't bothered to find out).

  
  




• People with pretty pics get large Trust Circles.

  
  

If the policy for the former is not clear, then that's not good. I think there ought to be some objective criteria for people becoming Star Writers.

Having said that, I will tell your ad hominem against Raju is ill founded. I have interacted with him directly on some technology related issues on and off the MouthShut forum (using mail the member feature) and this kid knows more about tech than most senior programmers that work for me. So back off already ;-) Raju, you go guy, and keep up the good work. We expect to read about you with your pic on the front page of some major tech/business magazine in a few years, and then we will say ''we new him back when...''!!

As for pretty faces getting large trust circles. I don't think MouthShut can do anything about it. That's more a reflection on MouthShut members. And that is a diverse lot - there are the likes of you (and, ahem, me, who aren't easily tricked by a pretty pic) and there's the rest of the world. It's a common human failing, I think. I should say, again, in defense of Amrita, she has written awesome reviews and comes across as a strong (leader-type) personality. We humans - we like assertive and confident people. So more power to Amrita as well (yeah, you go girl!!).

Many others have written good reviews and they have yet to be star members. Some days, yours truly will post his pretty pic on this site too - I hope to have a lot of people trusting me then ;-)

But I think MouthShut is just picking up. My guess is these guys aren't spending money the DOT-Com style (read ''crash and burn'' style) and so don't mind their not DOLING out money. I have a job and make my livelihood doing other things. I hang out here coz I can VENT and let others benefit from my good and not-so-good experiences with the world ;-)