MouthShut is a forum where members express their thoughts, ideas and beliefs depending upon whether they are writing on a product, service, personality, or simply handing out advice.
MouthShut is a unique place where members can not only read reviews of other members, but also have a chance to strut their own stuff. They can even comment to their heart’s content if they so wish to do. Reading, writing, rating, and commenting are independent of each other and every member has the choice of doing what he or she feels without any compulsion. In fact, most regular members use all the options available including member2member emails to either appreciate or give vent to their thoughts.
The casual visitor, who may or may not be a member of MouthShut, generally stops at the first step – reading reviews. This casual visitor is not much interested in members but is more interested in the reviews about a product or service. And, not all such casual visitors become members of MouthShut. It is safe to assume that many who have the writer’s itch tend to become full-fledged members (with multiple reviews to their credit).
The active members of MouthShut come into ‘virtual contact’ with one another, interact, and exchange views. Reading reviews and interacting with members helps in forming opinions about the members. Most members through interaction form a positive opinion about the members they are interacting with and they feel a certain urge to express that positive opinion either in words or in action, and that brings us to the topic - MouthShut Trusted Circle.
MouthShut Trusted Circle is a nice way of showing other members that we respect their opinions and it doesn’t matter in the least if those opinions are sometimes diagonally opposite to our own. Differing opinions and perspectives on the same subject or topic actually help us in reassessing our own position and viewpoint. The bitter reality is that on many occasions we realise flaws in our own thinking and assessment of a given situation only after seeing the point of view of others. But then, there is a weakness in all of us called ‘ego’ that blinds us from seeing true reason. If we remove this veil of ego that clouds our reasoning then we may see clearly what was hidden from our view all along.
My best friends inside and outside of MouthShut are those who seldom share my opinions or agree with my views - they are my best critics. These are the people who help me hone my skills, my thought processes... these are the people who expand my horizons. A friend can be one who agrees with my views; a friend can also be one who totally disagrees with my views. In every situation leading to a potential face off there exists an unaligned region where you can either ‘convince or be convinced’. What is required of us is an open mind, and the humbleness to learn from others.
MouthShut (despite certain inherent flaws) has been such an invaluable help to me in overcoming my weaknesses and developing my dormant creative talents. Most of the members on my trust list have had an important role in my journey from an insignificant member to a Star Writer to Hall of Fame. But these tags, though welcome, are not what I sought when I started writing on MouthShut. It was always the members’ incisive comments that I looked forward too and received with unfailing regularity.
Every time someone places me in his or her trust list I experience greater thrill and excitement than finding one of my reviews in the Hot Reviews section. If I feel all excited about this even after more than two years on MouthShut you will surely realise how important trusting and being trusted is to me.
Some members on this site may not agree with me on the issue of trust. They may ask, "how can I trust a person if I have not met him or her?" Or, "trust rises from long periods of physical association, so why should I trust any member here?" To both these questions my reply is that they are absolutely right in thinking the way they do. I even go to the extent of supporting them on this because trust does rise after trying and testing people in various demanding situations. But the word ‘trust’ has different connotations and when we talk of trust on MouthShut we generally do not think on the lines alluded to above.
Trust on MouthShut means identifying with a member’s thoughts, views, or writings. It is understanding a member’s views and accepting them for good or for worse, but definitely not for ignoring them. It is in this context that we trust members on MouthShut. We may not entirely agree with their views but we respect them, nevertheless.
I am a staunch advocate of trusting members on MouthShut as I believe that it helps in bringing the MouthShut fraternity closer and together though physically we may be thousands of miles apart and that’s the most useful feature of this site. At the same time, I admit I don’t think too highly of the distrust feature as errant members who are out to settle scores at the expense of honest members can misuse this feature in a frivolous manner.
I think there is a case for disabling this feature just as the "Five worst reviewers" and "Five best reviewers" have been disabled. If a member does not agree with the views of the writer he or she can simply use the comment section to good effect, why should the distrust feature be misused?
Trusted Circle is an important feature on MouthShut and that’s what makes this site more appealing to members like me who are a little old fashioned in their ideas. Trusting members on MouthShut is an option that may or may not be exercised by members for reasons best known to them and as I’ve said before it is just an option and there is no reason for us to get too technical about it.
I completely agree with mah_e_tamam’s views on the need to trust members as a visible sign of appreciation and acceptance of their views.
mbfarookh.