Oct 20, 2005 03:05 AM
1968 Views
(Updated Oct 20, 2005 03:06 AM)
Ever since the first day of school when you apprehensively sat biting your nails at the towering monster(teacher) before you to the present day, each and every one of you must have read a little. I would guarantee it. How can I be so sure? You’re reading this review!
After you have learnt the joys of the alphabet, there is nothing preventing you from reading. Slowly but surely, the majority of you will expand your horizons as to what exactly you read: perhaps you begin with a picture story, leading to a fairy tale, some experimentations with a short novella which gradually would expand to your ability in reading anything and everything. In other words, we progress our reading skills by continuing to read.
There are many cynics in our world who state that reading is useless, unpractical and a sheer waste of time. This may possibly be because those individuals have never had anything to gain from reading. Because the fact is that reading would give one the power to acquire the most authoritative tool of life: knowledge. Knowledge gives you the strange satisfaction of having opened one of the many closed doors of life. It gives you an insight into one of the possible unanswered explanations in the world. Simply by reading, you are able to discover a new era of perspective.
And you must ask, what is the stimulation to read and gain this power? A simple yet horrifically difficult to find answer: interest. Whether it is a book, magazine, newspaper or review, humankind narrows their reading opportunities down to things, which interest them. And this leads to the depths of my review.
By my eight months experience on Mouthshut, I have noted certain factors, which are essential to attract a greater number of readers to a review. There are not many members on Mouthshut who will read any review that comes along; I am of course suggesting those by a writer who is unknown and/or on a topic that is uninteresting. At this point of my review, it is necessary to mention the names of Prasidddha, Citicize(Pras) and Cousin2(Lyla), who are some of the writers that I have seen to read, rate and comment upon those reviews which wouldn’t attract the masses. Obviously there are many more of you lovely people on Mouthshut who do the same, but these three appear the most prominent.
These are some points, which I think encourage people to read reviews on Mouthshut and draw in the largest number of readers:
When the review is written:
If the product in concern is a newly launched one and the review is one of the first on that product then it is sure to attract the most readers, simply because everybody wishes to discover the facts about that particular product, which they cant obtain from other reviews.
What topic the review is on:
By my familiarity with Mouthshut, the products, which clearly seem to appeal to the majority of readers are those based around the ‘Entertainment’ topic, although there are some exceptions. This is self explanatory, as the world revolves around entertainment and it is by far the one, which interests the masses. Another topic, which attracts crowds of members, is that which is related to any aspect on Mouthshut. The reason for this: straightforward but brutal. People like to read about themselves and the community because the modern human race is extremely self-centred. This is not meant to be a callous comment; my implication is that everybody loves to relate anything and everything to their lives, and obviously everybody desires the honour of seeing anything even distantly associated with them in print. But that doesn’t stop everybody from being his or her lovely selves!
Who they are written by:
This is possibly one of the largest anomalies on Mouthshut; the most popular writers attract the most readers. Evidently this is because people put their trust on these writers and they know for sure that the reviews written by them will either be fabulous, or extremely entertaining, or will even create much controversy. A worrying number of deserving writers would go unnoticed because they are ‘new’ or ‘unpopular.’
The problem:
You may argue that an exceptional writer can never go unnoticed but even shunning somebody worthy of praise to the side for some time can bury their anticipations as a writer. The first two reasons are justifiable because obviously everybody would have different tastes in the reviews they read but I think that the third reason is uncalled for.
We all worship the eminent writers on Mouthshut, but that doesn’t mean that the only reviews we read should be by them. And if a review on a topic that you’ve never heard of has been written, at least try to start reading the review and you may find a new interest. As a community member, I request all of you to not stop reading reviews but to take the extra five minutes or so to read more, so that those writers do not feel so neglected. I know that sometimes, you may come upon a worthless review, but that should be a trivial risk compared with how somebody would feel at your positive reception.
Large quantities of you wonderful people say that the problem with Mouthshut is that the numbers of writers are exceeding the number of readers. By taking time to read a review you may have never thought of reading, you could be obtaining knowledge, which you would have never imagined, and you would have encouraged talent. And this would also encourage new members to follow your lead!
As everyone says: “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”. By reading a variety of reviews, we will be securing Mouthshut’s place as one of the most fabulous places on the Internet!:-) Oh and when you read a review, if you have time do attempt to leave a rating and comment to show your appreciation or criticism!
Will you do that for me?:-)
And I know this review is so tedious and unexciting: I will try to go back to my normal strange self next time!:-) But important things like this require seriousness!(Hence the title: P)
