Being a former Mouthshut greenhorn(fresher) myself, I have always been on the look out for an article or review about’Dos & Don’ts of Mouthshut’ or plainly speaking’MS etiquette’.
*What is Mouth-Shut?*
Mouth-Shut is a community of people, who take time off their often busy lives to write reviews on different topics of interest; to help other members of the community & other readers.
Now these topics fall into 2 categories
*I. Product Reviews*
These are about products which are seen/used in real-life by people. it may be a Bath Soap, Tooth paste, Books, Movies, Countries and even Cricketers & other Sporting personalities [ Being the products that sell other products?]
Product reviews need to be objective. That is give details pertaining the product like .
a) What is the product all about? [if it is not self-evident to most readers]
b) Some background information [History, how you came to know of it. etc.]
c) Why did you choose to use the product?
d) What were your personal experiences using the product? [ Personal Experience is the Holy Cow of Mouth-Shut ]
e) What you liked & didn’t like about it [A balanced view is better appreciated]?
f) Given this background do you Recommend(R) or Not-Recommend(NR) the product? [ Don’t commit the *Faux Pas* of highly praising a product to NR it at the end & vice versa]
**Review Writing Pit-falls**
1) No ones interested in reading your 25th, 50th review etc. Don’t make it the title for your reviews. Please mention it politely at the very end or in the comments section.
2) Stick to the product under consideration. Comparison with competing products in little doses is appreciated. *But don’t make it a review about some other product.
3) Personal anecdotes add life to the review especially if they happen to be funny *But don’t make it your Auto-biography
4) Jokes/funny comments are the way to go especially for Bollywood movies, actors, actresses etc. Let all the fun be relevant to the topic [ don’t include unnecessary jokes to just make it funny]. *Don’t make your review a Joke itself
*All off-topic things are best left in the comments section*
5) Avoid writing more than 2-3 reviews in a day. If you write two-dozen reviews in a day, you’ll neither do justice to your reviews [ which could have come out better if you had given more effort ]. also others can’t read/rate so many reviews from a single reviewer in a day [ People like variety in whatever they do].
It also does injustice to other reviewers whose reviews get flushed-off the 5+ 30 [ 5 on main page+ 30 on more.] MS’Span Of Attention’. Just imagine that happening to your reviews. Would you like it? Be courteous to others. Don’t SPAM the community with a shower of reviews.
In other words *Give others some breathing space. Live & let live
( This is not about any individual in particular . but general etiquette to be observed by all Newbies, Debuts, Mid-ways & Star writers included)
6) Give your reviews their due. Dont type *ghhhh.jjkk.* etc. to just fill the space; or copy paste some other users profile, Review of the Day etc. If you don’t respect your own opinions who else will. *Respect your reviews
* II. Advice *
These are more subjective topics than Product Revs. you have more freedom to compare products, recommend a single product you like [giving reasons] etc.
These are mostly written to help others decide on general topics of interest.
Most of the rules still apply but you need not strictly stick to one product here. But don’t meander too much from the topic.
How to distinguish an advice from a review?
Advices don’t ask you for’Star ratings’, ’Recommend to a Friend’ & other extra questions.
A lot of products like Indian Army, Govt. Offices/Depts etc. also fall under this category.
*Mouthshut is about people*
MS is a community of people. Like any other on-line community it is made by the members
1) Members who give their opinions on topics [ Reviewers ]
2) Members who read & agree/disagree with these opinions [ Audience]. sometimes leaving comments behind explaining why they concur/disagree with your views & mostly make additions to your review in the comments section [isn’t it nice of them]
*How to rate others?*
Now members wear both these hats based on if they wrote the review or not. * My advice is don’t just change the hats but also place yourself in other persons shoes before expressing your opinions*. May be then you’ll appreciate their opinions better.
The debate about how reviews should be rated is never ending like Coffee/Tea discussion. But the general rules are
1) HR - Total/Maximum agreement with the opinion.
2) R - Review is good. but still short of full justice to topic
3) SR - Review is just so-so
4) NR - Total/Maximum disagreement with the opinion, totally off-topic, plagiarised from other sources [ the Net, mags, books etc].
**Rating Pit-falls**
1) Rate the review. not the Reviewer [ whatever your personal equations with that member]. Ratings/Comments if taken in the right spirit could be proper tools to help the reviewer write better reviews in the future.
2) Be polite to the Reviewer. avoid personal attacks, profanity, abusive words etc. [ whatever you don’t expect from the others ] even if you don’t agree to his/her views
3) Avoid rating the Rater low for all his/her reviews just because he/she rated you low for some review.
It is his/her way of suggesting that you need to improve. Whether you agree to it or not is upto you [ no ones forcing you ].
’Revenge Ratings’ not only lowers your stature in the reviewers eye, but also that of other reviewers. You’ll be treated as an immature member & your reviews start getting Ignored by others. whether they add you to’Distrust List’ or not [MS Trust List/Distrust List happens to be a sub-set of our mental TLs/DLs.]
*Comments Section*
Whatever you would like to be discussed publicly should be expressed here. The Comments are meant to be your review of the’Review’. Give it the same respect as you would give to your reviews [ correct spelling, grammar etc. by’Edit’ option].
Comments are a great way to share ideas, make [on-line] friends, develop our writing skills & knowledge. Aren’t these what on-line communities are all about?
*Member 2 Member [M2M] *
Any private discussions with member can be done by’E-mail to ’ link on members profile page [ if the member has enabled it].
The best candidates for M2M are .
1) Congratulations on completing 50th revs, 100th revs etc.
2) Chronic disagreements which cannot be done in public.
3) Friendly advice to improve or’Fall in line’
4) Spelling/Grammar mistakes
5) Factual errors in the review
6) How can I improve my reviews?
Since M2M goes as E-mail to the other member, please follow same etiquettes as E-mail
1) Don’t send too many M2Ms. it will be construed SPAMING.
2) Avoid unnecessary M2Ms. it could annoy the other member
3) Don’t make them too long & boring [ Look who is talking now?;) ]
4) Avoid abusive language & profanity
*Use this M2M tool prudently.*
Having written so much. now I should make sure that I too follow most of them in the future:)
Rest in the comments section. Completed editing. Comments most welcome:)