മലയാളത്തില് ഞാന് ഇതെഴുതിയാല് ശരിയാവില. ക്ഷമിക്കു
I have deliberately not read all the comments regarding this debate on Pinmozhi.
a) because most of it will be rubbish and irrelevant
b) Time constraints
But still I feel commited to put in my two cents (fils) into this debate.
Lets reconsider what this "Pinmozhi" Thing is. Its a Malayalam blog aggregator, nothing more nothing less. Of course a rather popular aggregator at that. Popular because the blog community collectively assumed that there would be no need to create any more subject-wise aggregators ever. Now over the last few years The Malayalam Blogosphere has blossomed into a full grown voluptuous young teenager. Attractive, wild and nasty. She has picked up all the habits of the times. Some good and some bad. But on the whole she had hopes of becoming something extraordinary.
The community was not really interested in reading the blogs and responding to the content or the debate in the post, but was actually commenting on the comments. This reduced the Pinmozhi into a third rate mallu chat room. Pinmozhi also became the the ultimate dumming down tool. Everyone is equal here. The academic is on the same level as the housewife who writes cooking recipes. So those capable of discussing government policies, paeleo-botony, material sciences, and the art of cleaning gunk from the exhaust fan were all equals. There were no distinctions.
Due to this obvious lack of focus and immense popularity amongst the general public someone once decided to point out this obvious problem. He pointed out the need to create more aggregators so that there will be some content based specialization. But this was not mainstream thinking and was booed down. The community was not interested in content or discussing matters of social significance. It had already become what many had always dreaded: A glorified mallu chat room.
Unfortunately Pinmozhi which was once the bulletin board of Malayalee Bloggers had turned to be its own nemesis. It was instrumental in bringing together the thought of all and sundry.
One of the fundamental error in the Malayalam blog community has been the misconception that all Malayalees share some common bond just because they spoke one language. This naive assumption promoted the myth that more aggregators would distroy the mythical "blogger unity".
People are not united by language alone. There should be unity of purpose. A random selection of people from varied backgrounds cannot be expected to have common goals and objective. The blog is a means and an end in itself for most Malayalee bloggers. Today It rarely transcends the boundaries of gossip and petty ego clashes. Little or no meaningful discussions arise from this crowd.
If I was asked my openion I would not shut down the Pinmozhi. I would request the creators of Pinmozhi. to create more aggregators. Broken down to subjects. Let there be Pinmozhi. The choice to join or not join Pinmozi is still in the hands of individual bloggers.
If we do not seriously look at this growing number of bloggers and how to aggregate their comments based on the content and class of their writing there will be trouble. Within the next one year many of the serious writers and thinkers amongst the Malayalam bloggers will disappear. The blog will blend into insignificance and perhaps disuse. Like the countless similar media before.
