India 1 Rest of the World 0 (mouthshut.com)

Member Name: DaisyDuck

Product:	mouthshut.com
Date:	19/11/01 (186 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice technical features.

Disadvantages: Not getting Paid.

Mouthshut is a consumer opinions site much the same as DooYoo, writers are paid for their opinions on consumer goods, books , films and so on. Beware though, the chances of you getting any financial reward for your work is highly unlikely.

I joined back in April just out of curiosity, at the time I was doubtful as they don't state anywhere on the site a monetary value for the points earned from writing.
You have to belong for 6 months and have accumulated 600 points before you can be redeem them. They promise to E-mail you when you have reached the criteria, but from comments on the site itself and elsewhere, this in the case of British writers is not happening.

A number of writers from DooYoo and Ciao joined Mouthshut over 6 months ago, and have supplied good quality opinions , and for their troubles have received nothing. Some of those who have tried to get what is owed them by private E-mail or a publicly through opinions on Mouthshut have found themselves locked out. I have been watching from the sidelines a bit and have not gained the magic 600 points as it doesn't seem worth the effort.

So chances are you won't get paid, but I do think it is worth having a look at the site purely as a visitor as it does have some features that DooYoo could learn from.

So lets take a tour around Mouthshut.

Homepage
Links to joining, community centre, account/profile, star writer featured, latest 30 opnions and profile list.

Community Centre.
Hall of Fame, News, Hot Reviews, Member Flagged and Mouth Sealed.
Member Flagged is a naming and shaming of members who mis-use the site. A blue flag is a warning to straighten out your act, a red flag means the account has been disabled for a serious violation.
Mouth Sealed is a list of members that have had their accounts terminated and the reason why.

Your profile page.
Very similar to DooYoo, but you can post a picture for them to upload
on your behalf , if you do not have the facility to do it yourself.
You also have a circle of trust, and distrust. I am undecided on whether it is good to list people you distrust,it seems a possible vehicle for revenge and abuse in itself.
Member to member e-mail. This seems a good idea at first, rather than publicly display your e-mail address, Mouthshut will forward messages on to you through you profile page. Although this is a good feature as regards a members privacy, there has been some discussion amongst members that these messages are being censored. I have had a few e-mails blatantly asking me to rate and comment on opinions, so these have not been censored, I suspect that mail about non-payment probably is stopped though.

Writing an Opinion.
Choice of subject is much more limited on products, but there are plenty of books, films etc to write about. Mouthshut does have some good features to help you improve your presentation. Firstly you opinion is spell checked which is handy if you don't have a spell check on your own computer. From the asthetic point of view you can also use bold and italic type to make your piece look more professional and interesting.

Rating.
As with DooYoo a choice of 4, Highly Recommended, Recommended, Somewhat Recommended and Not Recoomended.
I do find that many people tend to rate on whether they agree with an opinion,rather than the quality and points raised in the writing.

Commenting.
A nice feature is that the comment has to have a title and be at least 10 words long. Having to actually think of a title and make up a decent sentence does discourage the people who comment for the sake of it.

Quality of Writing.
This varies greatly as many writers have English as a second language. The quality has gone down a lot recently as many good writers from DooYoo and Ciao have reached their 6 months membership only to find that payment is not forthcoming, and left.
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br>Censorship.
I mentioned earlier that there are concerns about the e-mails being read and possibly trimmed. Another more blatant form is that there are no opinion categories for similar sites such as DooYoo and Ciao, they seem unwilling to advertise the competition. I have suggested these categories more than once to be greeted with stony silence.

Racism.
A disturbing feature amongst the minority, opinions setting India against Pakistan, complaints that American writers are earning on an Indian site, and some religious vitriol bought about by the War against Terrorism.

So in my opinion you should not join and write for Mouthshut as they are not paying as promised. I would say it is worth a visit to get a different outlook on things, and also if you have an interest in Bollywood movies.

It appears that unless a miracle happens and the writers who have built up a good cache of opinions for Mouthsut get paid, that Mouthshut have won this game.

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