And God said let there be Light ....
And voila! There was light ....
Its been put in our head in whatever corporate trainings I have had that customer is the king and what he or she says is what you are. What Mouthshut is providing many organizations is probably worth a lot. Each and every individual thinking is important simply because when voiced it can affect others opinion. Is some sort of responsibility placed on us when we use Internet as a medium? Probably yes.
Probably not. For some Internet is the only thing that has come next to God along with emotions, universe and reasoning. Its infinite and its independent. Number of arguments can be given on writing with reason and writing with emotion. What stands though is honesty. Its really tough as a hard boiled person to see things from other perspective but thats exactly what this new age is. Its not about not changing, its not about being static and its not about not being opportunistic.
The fluidity of rationale and fickleness of assumptions provides us with a time which in all probability is a Matrix, where only ones with dexterous moves of brain and physique can negotiate. Hence, it is not what I am hence the world is, but what the world will be if I am, that is an important paradigm.
Some of the writings on Mouthshut are neither spontaneous, nor refined and neither are they honest. But thats what the beauty of MS is. Its not an English Literature class where everyone is supposed to come up with most polished of prose or most innate of feelings. But what is definitely called for is honesty. Roughly around 30 percent of all reviews I read leave me dis-satisfied not because they are not well written but because they come across as dishonest. Sometimes I feel, the writer has liked the movie and he is bashing it for no rhyme or reason. Sometimes I feel the writer has really not been so annoyed by a product and is making up an imaginative encounter. (Imaginative me, huh?) What is surprising is why would people be so rigid in their opinions and likings? Its almost like I can only like this and not that. Well frankly thats not what makes you a bad reviewer but it leads to a bad and dishonest review and thats what makes a bad review and consistently written bad reviews make one a bad reviewer. Occasional taan thoda thoda chalda hai, par routine to theek hone chahiye na? Imagine a person who is routine vich bimaar and healthy only occasionally. Does it work? Alright if you cant control your bias in terms of likes, take control of others likes also (listen myself too). A large problem would be that most of us are confused (including me) for a difference between a forum and review discussion. Even mouthshut itself seems confused, are they looking for a criticism or an opinion? If they are looking for a criticism then you need to make sure only the most reasonable arguments are voiced, if its an opinion, short takes would work. At MS, we hang somewhere in between and place an onus on the writer making his/ her own understanding of what MS is. Keeping all these factors in mind, its not difficult to come to conclusion when or where we write wrongly and from this the worst of the reviewers would be:
1. Those who dont really have the time to write but still write. There are number of those padded reviews, poorly formatted and developed 100 word reviews churned in dime and dozen. Most debutants of late have been guilty of this.
2. Sometimes more than three reviews a day. Some motivation level for these guys with interests ranging from cities to bikes to cell phones to movies as old as whatever, you know what. There was one gentleman who was so kind that he provided us reviews on all the topics under ’’Reviews Wanted’’. Lol!
3. Forced wit ... I have been an offender here, I have tried a lot of time to forcibly introduce wit in my reviews when I dont want it, simply because most readers on MS like humorous reviews rather than neat analysis. Thats dishonesty but I hope practise will make things better. Wit is natural to your style, not all have it nor can all develop it.
4. Long Reviews. Yes you may have a lot to say, yes you feel strongly about it, but please stick to the limit. It looks like an awful attempt at drawing people to comments section, it means an added click, an added resource for readers. And most reviews dont really need going into comments section. And if you go then it better be something which makes it worthwhile and other than Karan’s review of K3G, I have so far not read a single review which could not have been wound up inside word limit.
5. Finally, those reviewers who dont read, rate and comment when they feel they should and those reviewers who will not thank the people who took time out to comment.
Since the topic is as such, its almost a guilty feeling that is dancing all over my head now that I am writing on an altogether different topic but I guess it deserves to be said, that finally, lets just keep it like this, that you too are a brand when you are writing and your review is your product, what others feel about it is important and learn to think from that perspective. Think of building your brand, let people identify with your brand, with your writings, your style and keep innovating. Put a lot of your self, your likes into the review but there must not be a honesty in review overall. Huh! Thats a lot of moral jingo for one review I think. Lol! Force wit you see, ok ok no Lol! Happy now?
So finally, let me just leave you with these things which MS advises us all, anyone who follows them to a T (and vote for Preity Zinta at Filmfare :p), would be a good reviewer, otherwise well go eat Dinosaur meat.
By writing reviews you are going to help people reach a decision. Please follow the guidelines given below for writing an effective review.
• Keep your review informative - it must be more than 150 words.
• The language of your review must not be offensive or abusive.
• Your review must be honest and based on first-hand experience.
• Check your grammar and punctuation.