On the Importance of Reclaiming Chowk

Re: # 106 urstruly`s words have a little bit of truth in them. i have also noticed that by virtue of india`s GDP argument, some indians here sound of fascism. i don`t know why?

poeple arguing about tight morality on chowk should try to peek inside their girebaan, i hope they will see that they live by a stubburn policy which they love to see imposed on everything they are a part of. not that that policy is bad or is regressive, but because the fact of this world is that there is no aboslute policy. diversity is the soul of humans taken in a collective sense, may it be of moods, behaviours, attitudes or beliefs. chowk thrives because it provides an outlet for this. i can blasphame on chowk, something which i cannot do in a real chowk in pakistan for fear of my dear life.

khowaab ki tabeer per israar hay jin ko,
unhain pehle khowaab se bedaar hona chahiye,

Shankar,

From time to time, chowkies have lamented the decline of chowk, and at times chowk staff have tried to ``improve`` the standard, the last time by ranking the interactors. None of these will work as long as having a large number of interacts is considered desirable by chowk staff.

The reality is that in the naonymity of chowk, there is no way that there can be any so called positive outomes. There have been attempts to collect money for noble causes, to create petitions for humane causes etc etc with out much success. Even the interacts on literary and scientific topics, psuedo poems etc were all ignored by chowkies.
Even indo-pak articles can reduce to a wimper if there is no one to spill the blood. In this context the decline of chowk during the absence of venerable jay is a good example.

It is afeeding frenzy on chowk, at times jay has taken the first blood as evidenced recently compared to a few months earlier. This is a sport, paki bashing for many and that is chowk.

Ref wholly-precious-you #120

[... even though the interactors have increased (although one can argue it’s only the nicks that’ve multiplied) the same old recycled arguments/obscenities/statements etc posted over and over and over and over...]

Not knowing Punjabi, my vocabulary of obscenities is sadly very highly limited!

...i think more than anything it`s the redundancy of the interacts that are a real turn-off... even though the interactors have increased (although one can argue it’s only the nicks that’ve multiplied) the same old recycled arguments/obscenities/statements etc posted over and over and over and over...chowk is definitely not its old interesting self circa ’99-02 or so...

The million dollar question is how many more interactors is chowk going to hemorrage while the narrow minded bigots reign?

Hope THAT pays off....

Aha-Snark:
Million dollar question is :

Why do chowkstaff allow anonymous posting?

the moment the peeps are gonna get ID`ed by chowkstaff, this whole circus will come to a grinding halt.

more flaming on this site means more hits which supposedly means more business. Harimau Sahib was right on the money IMO.

over to you.

Looks like I missed out on a nice debate around here. Just hate it when real life gets in the way of important stuff :)

Irfan.

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

Dear all ,

While I laud Shri. Aniruddh Shankar aka Aha_Snark aka Karim for his selfless struggle against the rogue elements of chowk , and congratulate Chowk-Staff for unearthing a truly world class talent...I take this opportunity to express my disappointment that the writer has failed to mention the inspiration behind his sincere efforts to impress upon us ``the importance of reclaiming chowk`` and ``Why enforcing community standards is critical to the life of chowk``....


Anyway... here goes... >>

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#19 The Sweltering Sky on April 20, 2005

by Aha_Snark


Dear all,

As you might have noticed on every interact page, the following words are present on behalf of chowk.

``All we ask you to be is civil. If your post includes words or masked references that are offensive, crude, repugnant, or obscene, your post will be duly deleted.``

The interact guidelines have stated:

{ http://www.chowk.com/show_interact_guidelines.cgi }

# Please refrain from abusive language and swear words
# Please refrain from personal attacks on writers and respondents
# Please refrain from frivolous statements that are inflammatory towards any race, nationality, ethnicity or religion

prashant 123 has said the following things:

Muslim bangladeshi refugees are a huge risk to the security and integrity of India. Must be tortured , jailed , deported etc. immediately along with FV-ji , Aha_Snark and friends ASAP. [1]

Beautiful Bangladeshi muslim refugee girls , if any , will be allowed to stay. They can be of a great service to India . Others leave. Out.[2]

(oh, by the way, cayenne, does the above sentence qualify as ``creepy``, as you are so keen to dub an entire country?)

Obstruct the rivers that flow to Bangladesh from India by constructing dams and water blocks at critical points. Cut off the water supply to Bangladesh.[3]
Obviously the whole point of the exercise is that you have a crush on some poor young Bandhadeshi illegal immigrant boy (your man servant ? ) and are petrified that we hindooo fanatics will have his ar$e (your love) deported back to Dhaka......I mean , thats terrible , right ? Violation of human rights and all that ....[4]
...those Indians who want India to tolerate illegal immigrants from Bangladesh need to be jailed , tortured and maimed for support of anti-national activities.

so, prashant123 has made violent and abusive post advocating violence and breaches of International and national law against me, Bangladesh and Bangladeshi reguees. He has stated that only ``beautiful Muslim Bangladeshi refugee girls`` should be allowed to stay in India as they can be of great service to the nation.``

My question to chowk staff is :

Despite blatantly and repeatedly violating the guidelines set forth by this website, which I have been reading long before prashant123 became a member, no action has been taken so far against him. What, if any, action is contemplated ? Can we expect that you will live up to your assertion that posts that even include words or masked references that are offensive, crude, repugnant, or obscene will be duly deleted ? Can we reasonably expect that those who gratuituously violate all stated standards and all standards of decency be not allowed to vitiate the atmosphere ?

prashant123, please show how your posts are in consonance with Interact Guidelines.

[1] http://www.chowk.com/show_article.cgi?aid=00005033&channel=gulberg&threshold=-1&layout=1&order=1&start=70&end=79&page=1#72
[2] http://www.chowk.com/show_article.cgi?aid=00005033&channel=gulberg&threshold=-1&layout=1&order=1&start=70&end=79&page=1#75
[3] http://www.chowk.com/show_article.cgi?aid=00005033&channel=gulberg&threshold=-1&layout=1&order=1&start=70&end=79&page=1#77
[4] http://www.chowk.com/show_article.cgi?aid=00005033&channel=gulberg&threshold=-1&layout=1&order=1&start=70&end=79&page=1#78
[5] http://www.chowk.com/show_article.cgi?aid=00005033&channel=gulberg&threshold=-1&layout=1&order=1&start=80&end=89&page=1#82

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Re: # 106


.......Yeah pakistanis are ever so decent.They cover their faces and display their genitals when defecating near railway tracks, unlike we desis who bare all.How civilized.We do have a lot to learn from you guys.

Re: # 112

It has no connection to the topic at hand; that is why it was for your eyes only. I was just concerned about your well being and prosperity, that all

urstruly,

.......... thanks for the info ..... next time i am in the gulf i will make sure to stop by and see a fahash pakistani cabaret - mujras are an integral part of our culture and the more fahash the better ..........since you are a pakeeza fan, you should know that ... no?

............ the entertainment business in the gulf is very competive with people from all over the world competing for the bedouins` dinar - if our atristes can compete, more power to them ........... and, besides, we need the forex

...... but what does this have to do with the subject at hand - are you suggesting that we have some people from the badshahi masjid area on chowk ? ...... if so, who are they ?

specially for cut n paste abdul hates

* * *

all those arguing for colour on chowk ... just in case a miracle happens and everybody begins to abide by the guide lines on main page and interacts civily ... there is always the unplugged for insecuristas

:)

I would like to make the following suggestion:

I think we should encourage more abuse on Chowk. Not less. Why, you may ask?

Well, we all know that nothing sells like sex and violence. I had earlier suggested to the Chowk Staff that they need to introduce more sex on this site. There was even a small effort on this site, when a group of desi ladies starting publishing dirty jokes. I think that would have sent the ratings through the roof, had Chowk Staff pursued it. But they didn`t.

So, now violence is the only avenue left. An article that prints something decent like poetry or history or economics gets no responses. However, anything offensive or potentially confrontational gets hundreds of responses. That is Chowk`s bread and butter.

If everyone became civilized on this site, the number of hits and interacts would decrease exponentially, and Chowk would go out of business............

I second this article... it is when people can`t argue logically they resort to insults and abuse... Some of them will soon make an appearance on this board.

FOR HAMIDM`S EYES ONLY

Great Business Opportunity in Middle East

(Sorry dude, can`t translate it into Roman script, saaraa mazza kirkira ho jai gaa)