Chowk@Three: Opening Minds, Winning Hearts

I think Chowk is one of the best site anyone can ever come across.

Regards,

Aisha

Dear Chowkwallas (and especially Chowk Staff)

First and foremost, I want to be on board and yell out ‘Naraa-eeeeeee –Sadaqat’ : ‘Chowk zinda baad’.

The last three years are a monument to the spirit, courage, devotion and commitment of a very special group of people who are the ‘hidden hands’ behind The Chowk. I have had the pleasure to personally meet one and have electronically communicated with a few others. You are all hero and heroines.

We’ve all had our ups and downs, we’ve all loved and hated what we’ve seen and perceived here, but The Chowk has continued to grow and evolve.

It is almost the 26th of August in my time zone and this article has been on the front page since the 14th. It is now at the very bottom and may get bumped off tomorrow. This is quite reasonable. I’m so glad that the rapid-fire era of a few months ago, when articles were going from the top to the bottom of the front page in 24 hours, is over. That, for me was the lowest point of this site. It had also degenerated into a constant bickering match between the factions of Pak-Bharat jang enthusiasts.

I thought at the time, with a real sense of loss, that Chowk was over for me personally, because what it was fast becoming was something I wanted to have nothing to do with. But I was wrong.

This is a virtual community. And any community is only as good or as bad as the individuals that make it up. I couldn’t have been the only one who felt the same disappointment and thus was not alone. This made me come back because I feel this virtual community has enough diversity that each of us can find like minded individuals to exchange and share our views with.

There have been excellent suggestions for the editorial staff to mull over. It is a huge task to undertake and you cannot go wrong if you continue to experiment and be flexible and sensitive to the feedback of the community members.

So keep it up, O Chowk, and boldly go where no one has gone before!

Live long and prosper.

…SR

dude I wasnt even aware of the speaker`s corner and I have been doing this for 2 years! So now I feel a bit foolish :)

I got catchin up to do....

will be back!

the happy one #31:

No, shouldn’t have ‘chimed’ in. Now I know one Staff member who would smile, relax and sit back!
Did a quick scan of gumball site. It appears like another one Harish introduced me to at the atlantic poetry post/riposte. And I marvel at the calibre of responses.

Digression: I feel apart from the logistics here, another inhibiting factor for Chowk is the desi-maaN/behan factor. We desis are not known for displaying restraint and tolerance. Before you can say jana.mana.gana they start off fancying the mating habits of the other’s maaN/behan.

Digression: Go to the SPEAKER’S FORUM, bottom left of the screen and read some relevant comments on the current page and then some more around the #120 marker. (if you have not done that already)

And then you will have a feel of what has been discussed before. Perhaps then you should come with some distilled ideas and we will round up more interactors to discuss it.

As for commissioning articles from established writers, I should have added the caveat that they must interact. Otherwise there wasn’t any point in the exercise.

Varsha takes no prisoners. I like that, without necessarily agreeing with her. Did you read Dilip D’Souza today?

later...

rgds

t

Re: T #30

I`m actually glad you chimed in. As rare an opportunity as it is to have a tete-a-tete with the esteemed Chowk Staff, I was rather hoping to interact with fellow Chowkwallahs on these very basic issues.

The Chowk Staff, by defining their role as that of a `neutral party` or as that of `facilitators` have unequivocally stated that a lot of the onus of defining the `character` of Chowk rests on the interactors. I am disappointed that the interactors don`t sense that power or responsibility... no one seems to want to discuss it!

Regarding the enormous workload that the staff faces, I think they have to solve that one pretty soon. The site is getting more and more popular and the queues are getting longer by the day. They need to either expand their staff or appoint volunteers from amongst the regular interactors. Then of-course there is the option of making the cue a public domain. What are your thoughts on that? Have you been to gumballpoetry.com? They have a magazine that runs independently of the public `self-posting` area, which is a great area for writers of varied skills to post up `in-progress` works and get input. Sure a lot of work tends to be rough-hewn but that alone has its own charm.

Regarding established writers getting `commissioned` to write here, I think that Chowk has pro-actively avoided that whole deal. In a way I am really glad that Ayaz Amir or Pritish Nandy don`t write here. For one they wouldn`t even interact! Why do you think Hoodbhoy & Udaykumar don`t interact? Its cuz they think they are big shots and need to stay `above-it-all`. It wouldn`t be a Chowk anymore.... more like a freakin panchayaat! But I do share your fascination with Ms. Bhosle... she would, I suspect; relish the interaction!

Later.

The Happy One #29

(Pls. allow me to interrupt)

You wrote:
[3. Indians and Pakistanis submit roughly equal number of articles but the Pakistanis are quite simply the better writers. (As somebody whom providence planted to the east of the LC, I am distinctly uncomfortable with this possibility ;)]

You know why? If you go by the population percentage than this `roughly equal` spread is uncomfortable.

But even if it were true I am only temporal not (the)happy (one.)

The criteria here, I suspect with occasional lapses, is the quality of form and content though sometime editorial leanings to inject a direction in debate seems like a rushed, spontaneous decision; where the articles selected from the inventory on hand do not live upto the usual standards.

Also, I would bemoan the workload at Chowk, if I may? Being inundated with unsolicited articles (they mentioned 360+ p.m.) being overwhelmed by them, they do not have the time or resources to solicit commissioned articles.

I am sure there are established professional writers out there who would jump at the chance to come here if handled correctly. The exposure here is unlike any other exposure.

I share your disappointment with writers who do not inter-act. This is an inter-actvie medium. Makes me wonder why they write here at all.

regards,

temporal

Reference [Reply 27]

There are over a dozen articles that get submitted every day.

There are over 100 emails that are received, filtered, read, processed and deleted. Many of these emails contain articles, comments, abuse, threats etc. These emails are other than the ones originating form special interest groups who have Chowk as an address where they send everything that they publish.

We choose the content without bias. The name certainly matters - articles written by s.x. * * are rejected outright. Articles submitted by Salman Rushdie are rejected outright :=) Anonymous is very unpopuar. Writers who do not have email addresses that are verifiable get rejected. Plagiarized articles get rejected. And so on.

Chowk is not perfect. It is entirely possible that Chowk has overlooked a great article. Not because of bias, though.

Chowkstaff:

Congratulations!

And sincere thanks.

Reply # 23
Pardon my misspelling of ``Congratulations.``
-- Bila Ahmad

My tribute to chowk!

In Pakistan my morning did not start without reading ``Jang``

For for last 6 months my night does not finish without interaction on ``Chowk``.

My wife says ``You are still here``

Why chowk wants to destroy my family life. I have no idea.

Good job and congratualations!
--Bilal Ahmad

Re: Chowk Staff #21,

Thanks! I think you are going about this just the right (IMHO) way. I like your approach to let the users decide the identity. I have noted how you instigate this debate off and on by publishing articles regarding this topic. I think that should happen frequently because as you pointed out the identity of the people who use the site changes over time and this sort of debate has to be had every so often to hold `referenda`.

It is indeed interesting to see a lot of my fellow chowkwallahs try to attach a nationality to this site. Maybe they are just unwilling to grasp the concept of such a virtual community/ organism and fail to understand that this is not a conventional `magazine`. I like to bring up the corporate paradigm because I have noticed that desis (especially back in des) tend to look at American companies with full or part desi ownership as `desi` companies. To me that is as laughable as saying that Chowk is Pakistani.

On another issue... have you considered reflecting your `Chowk` and `Avenues` paradigm in the graphics of the site? Right now it just looks like any old magazine. I know that being a high access site you don`t wanna go overboard with graphics and make it sluggish but I think if somehow the graphics, iconography & link structure could reflect your `Chowk/ Avenues` paradigm strongly it would be awesome. Any graphics overhauls planned in the near future?

With reference to Replies 16 to 20:

What is the politics and identity of Chowk?

We want Chowk to find its own personality - an emergent personality. To a large extent Chowk is an adaptive purposeful system akin to a living organism. The second dimension called InterAction! lends Chowk the character of a street theater where things happen on the fly. Chowk is real-time journalism, Chowk is antithetical to manufactured consent. We try not to control for the sake of any particular ideology, philosophy, ethnicity.


Chowk is an intersection, a meeting point, a town square. There are always more travelers [those who stay for a few months and then move on] than residents [the regular voices]. Residents have their own leanings and biases. Often these leanings resonate with the travelers.

Chowk does not have a gender, color, religion, orientation, etc. How can it? It is a Chowk.
Residents and travelers are the ones who make Chowk look a certain way on certain days.

There is no bar on what is written - in general we will not let Chowk gravitate to the level of the lowest common denominator.

On the thorny issue of India and Pakistan, North and South - Chowk does not editorialize or promote any message. The residents and travelers have to only abide to the simple rules of Chowk disucssions.

Chowk may not have a visa to enter but it certainly has a passport for identification and passage. On that passport there is no picture, no statement for religion, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, limitation for entry and exit, color, identifying marks, etc.

Specifically, lest you think Chowk does not have a specific position - Chowk is left of center, modern, rational, independent of doctrine and dogma. We will not preach or allow religious fomentation, jingoism and nationalism, including fascism, etc.

Happy one!

I said this because this site has a pure Pakistani character, with infightings, biases, good thoughts, geniuses, elitist,Islamists, middle class mingled together to make it behave like this as we behave in our country.

(All the cut and paste job done by Mohajir are mostly from Pakistani Newspaper what he/she thinks is against Pakistan)

With turning it into a south asian site, there is a risk of it becoming a oneliner. Justifying our own Government.

And another thing Krashid:

Let`s say you went and worked for a company in the Silicon Valley which was founded by 5 Indians and 1 Pakistani. Let`s say that company had 6 vice-presidents 4 Indian and 2 Pakistani. And let`s say that 50% of the employees were Indian, 25% Pakistani and the rest were sundry. Would you feel that you were working for an `Indian` company?

I thought the whole aim (may not be the original aim but it is fast assuming that mantle) to this site was to demonstrate that when Indian and Pakistanis are thrown together they do not automatically get divided by a fault line. So far the way the interacts go it seems like Chowk actually proves that that`s exactly what happens. But every now and then one sees sparks of hope. To me those are enough for now and worth building upon. Have you not noticed how new arrivals to the site are more rabid but slowly tend to get toned down?

Dear Krashid:

This is an important debate. So let`s talk about it nice and calm.

A few questions for you based on your post.

1. Why and How is this a `Pakistani` site?

This leads to the general question... can websites have a nationality? And if a website can have a nationality... what are the parameters that govern or define that? Where the server(s) is located? Nationality of founders? Nationality of operators? Nationality of users?

These are all great questions. The only way for me to determine the `leaning` of Chowk right now is to believe what the Chowk staff says. And they say over and over again that this is not a Pakistani site. Are you disagreeing with them? Or are you of the opinion that a Chowk is a living and breathing community whose identity is beyond the control of the operators, and since right now most writers and interactors are Pakistani therefore the site is Pakistani?

2. You say that asserting a `no nationality` for the site is tantamount to `repeating Kashmir` here. How so? If this is true then the staff is actually responsible for `repeating Kashmir`.

Regards.