The fall (?) of WeBlog

There has been a discussion going on in a part of Indian bloggers' world. This post is just about throwing more light on the issue by accumulating the links where you may like to read more about it and/or participate in the discussion.

First of all, this is the group that is in question: http://www.facebook.com/WeBlogg

It's a page where a few of fellow bloggers were allegedly verbally abused and blocked out of when they asked about the authenticity of the people behind the blog. Pathetic!

A comprehensive post mentioning what all has happened on and around WeBlog and it's owner (who claims to have sold it off now) here: http://mysterious-kaddu.blogspot.com/2010/11/biggest-controversy-in-blogosphere.html A few more posts by Kaddu on this issue can be read here and here.

There has been a debate going on Facebook here. See if you can go through it (Update: The picture has been removed from Facebook now).

A discussion was also going on on a thread on IndiBlogger. The thread seems to have been removed from the site. (Update: The thread is back on IndiBlogger, and again it has disappeared)

The purpose of this blogpost is just to make sure that more people are aware of this series of incidents so that people stop falling prey to scams like this.

PS: I'll keep this post updated in case the links I provided aren't enough.

Updated: Added the hyperlinks which previously appeared as plain text.

Updated (2100 hours): Made updates on the Facebook picture and discussion and on that thread on IndiBlogger site. I guess the further discussion will mainly follow there itself.

Updated (Dec 5, '10): Current/Final status of things as on December 5:

(i) The WeBlog Facebook page and its site on .co.cc domain, of course, still exist. However, 5 of my Facebook friends 'like' the page now against the figure of 20 when the controversy just came up.

(ii) As far as I know, no active discussion or activity against WeBlog seems to be going on anywhere on Indian BlogSphere.

(iii) The thread regarding this controversy which was opened by a famous blogger Mohan was closed, reopened and closed again. The probable reason behind the closure of that thread is IndiBlogger moderators/officials' belief that the discussion going on there was not very healthy.

Updated (May 18, '11): IndiBlogger blog mentions about Sourav Pandey's plagiarism here. A good move indeed.

Hypocrisy, show-off and political correctness

When I was young, I used to believe that everyone is almost always honest.

Now, I wonder at the ease with which people can tell a lie. It's really easy for them to be dishonest to themselves, let alone to others. When everyone is looking at them, they show off themselves for what they really aren't. They don't have the courage to face the truth. When they talk with someone, they would cross all the limits of dishonesty as long as they believe that this dishonesty is never going to come out. They can do this because often they either have power or are in a group of a bunch of people and have a fanfare of stupids following them.

I have learnt a few lessons after having been active in a forum:

(1) You are supposed to be polite and considerate to everyone on the forum.

(2) If you are new to the forum, you don't matter.

(3) If you've been on the forum for a long time, you can unlearn the above lessons.

(3) If you happen to have views different than the moderators of the forum AND you aren't close to any of the moderators AND you want to get actively involved in something you believe to be inappropriate which doesn't directly concern you, you're 'dusre-ke-phate-me-taang-adda-raha-hain'ing. Hence, you can be thrown out like a fly out of a cup of tea.

(4) Moderators of the forum need not follow the first lesson mentioned above. Moderators can bend any rule anyway as long as it's in their interest. They moderate the forum after all. Hence, they can bend rules even just for fun and you're supposed to keep mum if this happens.

(5) Moderators are always right. Or, at least that's what you're supposed to believe.

(6) There are more number of sane and nice people on a forum than you think there are.

(7) Of these sane and nice people, very less are ready to stand by something they believe in.

(8) There comes a time when you've to choose between the two - (i) standing by what you believe in and (ii) enjoying an educative/informative/funny forum.

(9) Most people go for choice (ii) in situations similar to the one above.

(10) You can bend the normal rules of the forum too provided that you satisfy one of the two criteria: (i) You are a good contributor for the community; (ii) You happen to be close to one of the moderators and/or the owner of the forum.

(11) You can get a threat to be sued by the community owners if you stand by what you believe in. Instead, you are supposed to stand by what moderators believe in. Why? See lesson (5).


PS: I normally don't prefer to use sarcasm in normal speech or a blog post. This is my first attempt at sarcasm (?). Feedback would be highly appreciated.

Edited: In lesson (9) above, I mistakenly had typed choice (i) in place of choice (ii). The erratum has been corrected now.

Gujarat not 'Fanaa' on Aamir Khan!

Now, what is this? India is a democratic country(, or at least believed to be so). Everybody is free to give his/her views on different issues or support one or the other ideology. And so is Aamir. He favoured those and spoke for the rehabilitation. And people in Gujarat banned his movies !! How disgusting !! Now, any celebrity would have to think twice before making any public statement on such issues. Doesn't it violate the very right of freedom of speech?