I would be lying if I said I wasn’t expecting this – in fact, I was. However this soon, perhaps not. Desipundit is closing down. Patrix wrote a farewell post on Desipundit, and his opening lines immediately stuck a chord with me:
We are shutting down DesiPundit. Although it has been a great experience, it requires time and dedication that I can no longer afford to give. Other personal and professional commitments must take precedence.
The first thing that came to my mind, honestly after reading it was Dogmatrix.com. It was a difficult choice a couple of months back for me and the jedi to come to a decision to close down dogmatrix, but it was more or less similar reasons. In a farewell post, I had written:
At the time DMX (dogmatrix) came out, there was a need to educate, need to create a space of our own, and a community where we could share our opinions. DMX achieved all three; After 2 years though, life and its vagaries have taken its toll on all of us who were involved in the site – people have moved on, life’s changed dramatically and things are not the same anymore. Given the predicament, and also considering some of the facts that motivated why DMX ever came along into existence, it seemed a bit pointless to continue the effort anymore..
And I began to wonder, why we come to such decisions. Being in Patrix’s position, I can completely understand the feeling. It took me months to let go off my favorite web project too. There is just too much more priority stuff happening in our offline lives that suddenly our online priorities begins to take a backseat. There is only so much you can do in a given day – and suddenly increasing work commitments, academic pressure, offline relationships – begin to take a toll on us, and I guess the first place where we all make an adjustment is to let our online life go.
It only makes sense though. After all, however grand my online life may be, my offline physical life is much more important to me.
Add to it, efforts like Desipundit, while taking way too much time and effort, also requires the whole “team†to put in. Lately though for the last couple of months, I thought Desipundit had become a Patrix–Ash show, with other contributors contributing little or no links to the project. I had begun to feel right then it was about to lead to today, though I had sincerely wished it hadn’t.
I did have my share of differences of opinions with Patrix, and frankly didn’t begin on a friendly scale. But that aside, I’ll admit I admire his initiative and commitment to Desipundit. I still remember I and the jedi discussing making nokjhok a directory of links to best Indian blogs, only to discover Desipundit two days later. We abandoned the idea then and there, because Desipundit had already matured into something way superior and was doing a great job back then. There were was so much variety, so many contributors, and it seemed like a true community.
Having led an online life since 1999, beginning at age of 21, I think I’ve seen it all (Spoken like a sage don’t I). First there was apnaguide.com (which previously used to be a community driven website where users contributed reviews) where I wrote regularly for the community and got to know some wonderful writers. Apnaguide faded away, and so did many of the members. Others, like me moved on to Mouthshut for a while.
Similar things happened on Mouthshut – there was a time when it was brimming with brilliant writers, perhaps the best writers I have come across, and then it too faded away. Mouthshut led to us making a egroups for ourselves – lots of us joined and left and joined and left. Eventually, some 25+ people stuck it out, and we still have a egroup – nobody writes on Mouthshut anymore, but is still a part of the group.
Though now, even the groups have also started becoming redundant – a once brimming with life group has now relegated to hi-how-are-you group.
Then followed Desipundit, a site I was addicted for many months. I simply loved the idea behind the site itself and took it as reference point to know other bloggers. After a while, even Desipundit began to fade away from my radar – it was feeling stale, and it didn’t matter much to me anymore. Perhaps that was why I was not as shocked or stunned as other bloggers were reading the announcement.
The point of reciting this is yes, there is a pattern, in all online communities. And its this: online communities fail over a period of time. You can only make the best of it while it lasts.
The problem is not the community itself, the problem is relation part of it; However strong your online friendships are, they are still very fragile. It is very easy to hurt someone’s ego by saying something that you didn’t even mean. It is very easy to piss of people, and generally people online tend to be more egoistic in nature, simply because they can. Add to it, after knowing someone for so long online, and then not being able to meet them in person begins to have its effect on your relationship. Suddenly, they don’t seem to matter anymore as you get too busy with your life; since you’ve never met them, there is neither commitment to the friendship nor expectation. They just end up being yet another online social contact sooner or later.
In my last 6 years of online life, I can count exactly two friendships that have lasted this long. Just 2. One, I’ve met, and one I am yet to meet. Yes, whether you accept it or not, it is that difficult to build communities online.
Coming back to where I started, I guess that is the path Desipundit took too. It was a great idea that began well, and everyone enjoyed it while it lasted. Perhaps many of them found friendships and contacts through Desipundit too – they are lucky.
Dogmatrix began as a small project and ended the same. Desipundit developed into a huge community connecting lots of people, and now it too has faded. But its not the end. Its just a pattern. I now await the next big idea that will start this circle again of connecting dots, all over again. Who knows what that idea might be.
If anything, more than the linkfest, I guess Desipundit’s biggest achievement would have been to connect people across the globe, and hopefully some of the connections have and will last a while. It is in this, I guess I must admire you both, Patrix and Ash.
Good job guys.