Writing for Rediff

Time was when, finding myself otherwise jobless (which is all the time) I used to head to rediff.com for my daily dose of entertainment. Insipid stories, terribly written out – but the comments following the articles making every moment spent on the site worth it.

It just seems to be getting worse… The problem is when good writers sneak in their pieces when no one (viz. me) is looking – and the same kind of comments show up.

In February, Sidin’s hilarious How to score a Valentine’s date in 10 days! attracted 86 comments, ranging from the mildly abusive…

v-date,bulshit
by Supriya mehta on Feb 09, 2008 12:31 PM | Hide replies

Hi,Ithink your analysis about girl is totally incorrect,& u has enough time to spend , making showoffs, did you personally ever tried the same,kindly lets us know the result,it’s a totally rottan idea.

…to the sincerely woeful…

Valentine’s Date
by cute plumcake on Feb 09, 2008 10:52 AM | Hide replies

Sidin these are cheap tricks yaar… to find a soul mate you need to be truthful to yourself and lovable..

I mean, how can one not feel all warm and fuzzy about ‘cute plumcake’?

Immediately after that, Anita’s travel piece on Top romantic spots for a perfect Valentine’s Day. The comments which are as always irrelevant or rude, suddenly take a turn towards ‘down with western culture’ – India survived for corers of years without vanentines day. Only two hundred year old country like USA is teaching us the way of expressing such love. New generation is falling for it.

Corers of years. Indeed.

This commenter Jayant Tilak goes on and on, to end with – Only those can respond, who can give their very considered opinion. No foolish comments expected please.

And poor Palani was disappointed, he expected to find out about erogenous spots and found himself reading about cool getaways instead – and suggests rediff has manipulated the title to attract readers like him – why not call it places instead of spots, he asks.

I mean, what? When is rediff going to get a comments filter or any kind of policy at all? On writing, reading, commenting…

So, here is what I have been wondering – why would good writers want to write for rediff?