Ladies and gentlemen, please read this as many times as possible before MouthShut’s Webmasters get themselves into a twitch and delete it.
With that being said, let me touch upon both the positive and negative aspects of MouthShut - and, for the record, I put this under the category of the Trusted Circle because, quite simply, it IS a matter of trust: Or, rather, my lack of this for MouthShut.
MouthShut is a wonderful community of users from all over the world, with their very own opinions and personal experiences. This is a great site for people to come together and share those thoughts and experiences in order to help the rest of us make better decisions. We can discuss everything from bath soaps and shampoos to stereo systems and child-rearing - all in one site! This is very similar to (that other site that beings with ’’E’’) and other sites, in that a wide variety of products and information are available for discussion. Also, this site allows us to rate each others’ work so that it will either rise to the top or sink to the bottom of the pile - thus helping others have a more rewarding experience here at MouthShut.
There is also this thing known as the Trusted Circle: When you read several writings from the same person, and decide that the user is trustworthy, you can add him or her to your Trusted List. This way 1. their reviews will float to the top of your screen and 2. you can keep track of that user in order to find future reviews and writing. Plus, other users who add you to their Trusted List can look at YOUR Trusted List and find links to OTHER great writers here at MouthShut - it is sort of like building tiny empires that interact with each other, if you get what I’m saying.
MouthShut, if it were a user instead of a corporate entity, would not make it onto my Trusted List because they are NOT user-friendly. We are supposed to earn points for each review we write, with additional points for each member read of these reviews. This is great and fine, and the points actually add up quickly. Once we have been members for at least six months, and have at least 600 points in our accounts, then we can redeem those points for - ?
They don’t tell us what the hell we’re getting when we cash in our points. We’re supposed to get cash but, MouthShut is based in India. Does MouthShut give me the Indian currency, or do I get American dollars, since that is my home country?
We can also redeem points for prizes - though MouthShut does not tell us what prizes these might be. A new toaster? Tickets to the opera? What? Personally, the fact that I have no idea of what I’m getting in exchange for my points makes me a bit leery and untrusting regardless of what site we are talking about.
Besides all of that, there is the secrecy and control utilized here at MouthShut. We have a member-to-member e-mail system - to communicate with other MouthShut members without giving away e-mail addresses and other information such as IP addresses and all of that. This would be great, except for the fact that MouthShut 1. does not wish for us to post our e-mail addresses on our profile page (they kindly ask that we remove them for our own safety - whatever!) and 2. They do not deliver half of the member-to-member e-mail - ESPECIALLY if this e-mail happens to contain contact info such as ’’Hey, hit me back at my e-mail, which is...’’ Apparently MouthShut does not want us communicating outside of their site - because we would eventually spread the word that we believe this is a sort of con job?
Okay. Also, the censorship aspects of this site tend to hack me off. I cannot mention (that site that beings with ’’E), (that UK site that begins with ’’C), or other similar sites here - apparently MouthShut does not want other users to know that there ARE, indeed, alternatives! I cannot even write an opinion that TRASHES (that ’’E’’ site again) for their recent decision to stop paying members who have been contributing for years! This is ridiculous, ladies and gentlemen: What’s the big deal in letting users talk about the other options that are out there? (Besides which, MOST of us are still loyal to MouthShut even though we have joined several other sites similar to it: We don’t stop contributing here in order to participate elsewhere. It IS possible for us to multi-task, you know.) As you’ve noticed, I cannot even WRITE the NAMES of these other sites! WHAT is the problem with it!?
Finally, the runaround gets on my nerves. I cannot get HONEST replies to any of my queries! Generally I get messages to the effect of ’’Your email has been delivered to the proper person.’’ WHAT does that mean? Somebody passed it around to somebody else, and that somebody passed it on, et cetera? Why can’t I get a straightforward answer out of these people?
I don’t write on the Internet because I want to become rich or get new refrigerators from the likes of MouthShut. No, I do it because I have a passion for writing. There are better, more talented writers here and elsewhere on the Internet, yes, but I have that particular itch that cannot be scratched. If I don’t write, I am miserable. MouthShut and other sites are outlets, so that I can scratch that itch, if you will. I enjoy doing it because it gives me an outlet - it gives me something to do. It is an automatic-feedback system: The second I post a new opinion, other users are quick to critique it. The ratings system helps me know whether or not I am being thorough and coherent, and comments left by other users help me to improve my writing.
So, all in all, I love MouthShut for the other users, and will continue adding them to my Trusted Circle because that helps promote them, and it helps to promote me as well. I don’t like MouthShut for the fact that the Webmasters and owners are being very quiet...very obscure...they are not telling us the whole story, and that greatly irritates me as well as several other users on this site.
I can already tell you what will happen to my account, because it has happened to other users in the past:
Because of this editorial - one that is NOT flattering of MouthShut - my reviews will be deleted, starting with this one. Then I will not be able to access my account - whether for one day or ever again. So, in the future, if you don’t see me here, feel free to check out other writing sites, because that’s where I am. At least with places such as (That ’’C’’ site again!) and (another UK site that begins with ’’doo’’ and ends with ’’yoo’’) I KNOW that I’m not going to get any rewards from them because they said that up front. MouthShut promises that International users such as Americans will receive rewards, but many fellow U.S. members have seen nothing, and their e-mails are NOT being replied to. This is an atrocity, a scam, a con job...and very disappointing.