This is my 100th review on Mouthshut. It is great writing here. It has been a great platform for me to share my unrevealed thoughts about my various interests. And also I am happy that site has officially declared me as one of the Star writers of the site. Some of them would have seen my profile under Star writer section on the front page.
I don’t know whether I deserve this title given by the site or not. I dedicate all my success to all the writers here who have been encouraging all my efforts and supporting me all these days. I feel it is those comments, criticisms, appreciations of all these writers shaped me as a writer as I am now. I am now going to write a review on ?Community Center? feature of our site. The Community center is like a virtual notice board of Mouthshut community. Here are some of my thoughts and suggestions about this feature.
Member News: I read member news very rarely in this section. There might be two reasons for this 1) The messages send are monitored and only selected mails are displayed as news. Or 2) Members are not really interested in posting any messages (news). If condition 1 is true then Mouthshut can make it clear that what kind of messages and news they will select to put it in this section.
Member Contests: It is one of the great features of Mouthshut, which drags more reviews from the members, and it is really encouraging. Since I joined MS I have come across two contests. I took part seriously in one of the contest and I didn?t show much interest in maximum reviews contest because I was not able to write from my heart, if I write something it was on a compulsion and it didn?t deliver my best. In contests they mention that both quantity and the quality of the review matters. But during these contest periods, I realize there is a fall in quality of reviews written.
It doesn?t keep the Mouthshut drive clean and I see lot of junk reviews and many reviews from the same writer in a single day. If the purpose of the site is to help the consumers then such reviews will do nothing to sever the purpose. One more, sad thing is that the results of Maximum Review Contests are not yet announced; even everyone has forgot that contest. I feel the best contest so far is Mouthshut Logo Contest. May be someday I will win a contest.
Mouthshut Logos: All the festival logos of Mouthshut look cool. Among the members design all the logos are creative and conceptually fitting. But personally I like gurusmaran?s design; it is simple but has a modern look.
Hall of Fame: This is the dream section where everyone would like to find his or her profile in it. This is the list of highest MS points holders. But as there is no any subjective analysis based on SORT technology, finding a place here doesn?t excite me. It is like getting a Lifetime achievement award. But one drawback is some of the old writers are still there in this section and Mouthshut can send a mail to these members to continue writing and participate in day-to-day Mouthshut activities. But still it is an honorary position for those who are regular in Mouthshut.
Best Debut: This is the most encouraging section for newbies. I was also listed in this section for some two months when I started my life in MS. Initially, I was so happy to see my profile here, but later I came to know almost all newbies will find a place here one day or the other. Here is the future Star Writers.
Hot reviews: It is the place where most read reviews are listed and again there is no subjective analysis on reviews listed. I feel Mouthshut can make clear about how the reviews are judged as hot. Sometimes, I see reviews, which is rated only by 10 members and only 1 comment also listed in this section. Does the number of times the review read is also considered. And sometimes I get my one-week-old reviews as hot in this list. I am can?t clearly find out how it works. So far only some 15 reviews of mine got listed here. Why reviews on advice topics are not listed in this section. I suggest they can also add a separate list for such advice topics. It is great and exciting when you find our review here.
But I suggest a new methodology here to analyze the review subjectively and so that if subjectively good reviews are listed here, it will be more fitting.
How can one judge that a review is subjectively good or not?
There are two factors to judge it
1) Overall Rating 2) Number of Comments
The most important factor is the Number of comments. Again in this a problem arises, if a review drags more comments there could be two possibilities. Either the review is too good and everybody agrees with the content of the review or the review is too controversial and most of them disagree with the content. Here Overall rating plays its role, one can judge whether the review is good or not by overall rating. If overall rating is very useful and the number of comments is more then it deserves to find a place in hot reviews section. If the overall rating is SU or NU and drags more comments it implies that many members don?t agree with the content of the review and also it may be controversial. Again a problem arises, if we judge from the number of comments, the comment added on the review by the writer himself will also come into account. So, to avoid all confusions MS can award one point for commenting on others reviews and two points if your review drags a comment with a overall VU or Useful rating and no point if your review drags a comment with a overall rating SU or NU. And it can calculate the total points that a review has gained and based on the total points the hot reviews list can be sorted.
Members flagged and Sealed: This is a very much necessary section as there exist lot of writers with different attitudes and some always do something to disturb the harmony of our community. But I don?t know how they track the members having multiple accounts.
Mouthshut direct: One day or the other everyone will be interested to write a review on this topic. Most of them keep this topic reserved to write on a celebrating day like 25th day, 50th day etc., Everyone put their utmost effort to come out with their best in this review. And obviously the most read and written topic in MS. The reviews are more heartfelt ones than reviews on any other topics.
Star writer Guidelines: Guidelines are apt to find out the deserving to be designated as star writer. My long time goal is reached in short time. Becoming a star writer is not the success it is one step that leads you to. Way to go. A list of all Star writers of the site can be put up here so that everyone can know total number of star writers of their site and their profiles as like Hall of Fame and Best debut.
Search A Friend: This feature allows us to invite more of our friends to become the member of Mouthshut. The search can have some advanced options. The mail-id alone can?t make it an effective search. Moreover, a person might be having some other mail-id for Mouthshut, which nobody else knows. Needs improvement. One more suggestion is that online chat feature can be added to this Community center where members online can chat with each other and also it strengthens our community.
100 is a mere number but a critical point to look back and celebrate our work?.Way To Go??