Attempted autoMSography
“I did not discover mouthshut, moutshut discovered me” … Hmm well, I can see the sigh on you face on reading this seemingly coincidental, uninspired thought that comes to every MSian who writes on this topic. I am not going to say that. Since there is nothing dramatic or exciting or different, I did not want to say anything about me and mouthshut either. But somehow I am tempted to tell my story after having discovered this topic and having discovered mouthshut and having discovered more about mouthshut!
Background
*Never had a great flair in my writing, except for the silly poems I used to write during my school days. But writing has always been an interest. Was waiting for some opportunity. Sureshmehcnit(Suresh) was my colleague and he introduced me to blogs(Yeah, didn’t know about blogs till then). I started blogging, but there was nobody to read. Then he introduced me to Mouthshut as well during the ‘Best of 5’ contest Jan 2006.
Posted a couple of reviews … so many VU ratings, so many comments, revs getting into hot revs, id getting into ‘Best debut’ … same experience most of us would have had. Just a small difference: won the ‘Best of 5’ contest as well, soon after entering MS. So, getting all excited started writing full-fledged …
About 20 revs on Mouthshut, all of a sudden I get this email from Jasmine Ahuja to send a photo and few lines about me and that I have become a star writer. Though I was happy, I could not control laughing. No one knows me better than myself. I could(can) hardly write a single proper English sentence and I became a star writer. First time, I suspected the quality of mouthshut management!
That was history. What is coming up is more history;)
More history …
I felt more responsible after been tagged as a star-writer. I started adding *more information into the write-ups than just some unintelligible scribbling I used to make. I got more involved with mouthshut. Still, I was not writing differently or on different topics. One of the comments I received summed it up my state at that point in time …
From QSB @ quicksilverbrain:“very hard to comment on ur revu yaar, u rite so neat, so to the point stuff, kya bole?. uuu.ok.’ nice revu, ’ will that do buddy?”
Now that helped me more than ‘good one …’ ‘excellent stuff’. That made me explore different topics and write more and to explore more.
Something interesting …
I remember it was 48th rev that I wrote on mouthshut that made me feel *insulted. It was deleted by mouthshut management. Though the outcome has always been craps, I have made sincere attempts in every rev I write.
That rev was about Mouthshut and against its decision to give away the ‘Go goa’ contest prize to one of the contestant who had just copied all the revs(Technically, plagiarism). That person had not written even one rev before the contest! Wanted to quit mouthshut, once for all. Not because I did not win(I never participated in the first place), but felt something fishy about MS’s winner selection strategy i.e. it was not a clean forum. But did not go away just like that, wanted to highlight the issue further. Wrote emails to all our Mouthshut friends gained some support and copied in on Faisal in all the emails. And posted this rev as well(49th) … after which I wanted to quit(Title: Mouthshut for dummies by a dummy)
https://mouthshut.com/review/Writing_Reviews_on_MouthShut-105680-1.html
No direct pointing but that helped to take a dig at the mouthshut management. But two of the comments made me stay longer …
Shyamnambiar: “vinayak. that review was midriff-splittingly humourous and relevant….** Am regretful I didnt get to see your review a month back when I joined.else I would have been in Goa Phhokat-mein!”
That was something different to the other comment some time before. Felt if I could manage an enjoyable rev, at least now and then, I have something to contribute to this forum.
And more importantly this one for the same rev …
Parikhrmunir: “And Vinayak, to be honest, nothing will change. One of these days, if this continues, MS will flag a reputed member and you all will leave, a new crop of writers will come and the circle will be completed. That is how it has always worked and that is how it will always work.”
And what he said happened. Juhita an excellent MSian who saw all these started writing against MS as well. Priya(Pri20) wrote a review as well. Both these revs were deleted. It was all against MS at one stage … but Juhita continued to write and write against and now you can see no traces of her. Her ID got deleted. Usually a member needs to be flagged or warned before removed. You cannot see her even on the members flagged or sealed column. To take a lesson from this history(just in case you did not know this before), never write against mouthshut!
Few more tragedies …
*Sometimes the longer you stay in a place; you tend to develop some sort of emotional attachment to it. Though through internet it is all virtual, people who interact are real. Felt bad when ketulshah(someone who I know pretty well, only through mouthshut) was flagged and removed. He was removed for extortion threat! Believed and still believe it could not have been him(he is a CA and someone who still writes for sites like moneycontrol.com and someone whose orkut profile almost always had an Indian flag besides it!). But, that is only what I think.
Sourray @ Anton was stranded at 99 revs when he was flagged for copyright violation. He was another dude for some reasons I missed on Mouthshut. He says he has been writing on other portals as well, which he posted on MS. No opinions from me here, but was thoroughly disappointed.
Mouthshut and routine …
*Whatever happened I kept visiting mouthshut. Wrote revs on regular intervals, read many revs and the wheel kept spinning. I got into a partnership with Thakurman when we both hit 50 revs almost together. Decided to hit 100 together; he doesn’t seem to be around these days.
Never got into mouthshut and its principles for so many months. Nowadays just restricting reading, writing revs. Infact I hardly get M2Ms these days. After a period of time, mouthshut suddenly appears new; lot of new friends lot of new revs; More fun, more information … and eventful.
Thanks to all the friends who have always encouraged; read revs; and commented … Just afraid to name the people for the fear of missing out names; there have been so many of them. Completed my 1 year at Mouthshut some 8 months ago, but celebrating now with memories;)(Should I not present a reason for the rev?;)Looking forward for more eventful and happy mouthshutting.
Had so much to write … but the write-up ends because it has to!;) Thanks for bearing a long nostalgic write-up if you have come this far
Smiles,
Envyram