what happened to monsterblog (2)

Okaylah, maybe I was not being entirely honest. In actuality, not *all* of us were bloody excited about the project. There were queries, apprehension and doubt; the main uncertainty was remuneration. Who the eff writes for free, right? We have our own blogs for that purpose. Before I make it sound like we were on a mission to save the world as opposed to contributing to a group blog (the uncertainty and doubt, whoa), Joyce for example makes a living writing and… erm, stuff 😛 (okay, I know she takes photographs as well). She could easily use the time blogging on Monsterblog to write pieces that guarantee payment upon publishing. But somehow me and maybe a couple of other people managed to convince her that this could and would really work, and it would be a really awesome project etc etc. I guess most of us thought that way; we were convinced or we convinced ourselves that Monsterblog would shake it like a Polaroid picture, and hopefully with that comes the monetary compensation.

It was decided that there would be two or three blog posts everyday. Each day of the week was assigned to a couple of sections: e.g. Monday would be entertainment and news, Thursday would be sports and food, etc. I think the first posts that introduced ourselves went up on 13th July 2006. Shannon Teoh was (last minute-ly) assigned to write something about Monsterblog on NST, which he did, which came out two days later. There were a few reactions on the blogosphere; some of them positive, some of them negative, most of them negative. Well, honestly speaking, NST wasn’t (isn’t?) the most loved newspapers around. So I guess a lot of people had fairly good reasons to form their own conspiracy theories. Although there were no legal papers to link NST/ eMedia/ JARING to Monsterblog, the fact that it’s widely seen to be hosted under the NST umbrella is more than enough to make people suspicious. Of course we all knew that lah. But I guess I was unprepared for misunderstandings that till this day has yet to heal. Don’t want to elaborate here, you can ask me privately if you want.

Fact #1: From its birth till its demise, there has never been any directives from NST to take down any blog posts on Monsterblog.

Fact #2: From its birth till its demise, no one has ever told us not to write about anything, with the understanding that common sense prevails.

Fact #3: Comments were moderated, but from its birth till its demise, I think about 80% of the comments got through. Most of the comments that we deleted were due to trolling, and a couple were due to possible legal matters. And some were really, really lost in cyberspace.

The initial focus was to get the hits up, which would then justify inserting any form of advertisement (err, I know it’s duh 😛 ). There was also a lot of waiting around, mainly for the big Monster portal which would be handled by NST/ eMedia to be launched. Which would make Monsterblog part of the Monster project, and more things could be done, bla bla bla bla bla. The team continued to update Monsterblog, but the waiting got a bit tiring and naturally the team became smaller.

In September I joined my present company, OLSB, brought in by Mack Zulkifli who had been working there a few months before me. Since the Monsterblog project was spearheaded by Mack, I got more involved in it, updating on a more regular basis since I was allowed to do so at work. In between that, there were a few meet-ups at NST to discuss the ‘progress’ of Monsterblog. Then Brendan Pereira left NST, and everything was put on hold for a bit because everything was discussed with BP. Then Syed Nadzri took over, and understandably had more important things on his plate than Monsterblog.

Sometime in mid-2007, I met up with Zainul Ariffin, who impressed upon me that neither NSTP nor eMedia would continue any relationships with Monsterblog. The impression that I got was that there was no place for Monsterblog anywhere within NSTP or eMedia at that time, and it would be better for us if we’d go off and do our own thing, without us having any ties to NSTP/ eMedia and vice versa. Another impression was that the editorial did not know how to, or had no time to layan Monsterblog because some things were out of their control, e.g. comments. And my impression was that they’d rather not risk it at that time. Maybe in the future, they could and would have something like Monsterblog, who knows, but that time was not the time for it.

Now, Zainul had been nothing but nice and kind to me, and I wrote all the above without malice or [insert negativity here]. It was just what happened, or the way I saw it happened. But that was not the reason for the demise of Monsterblog.

End of Part 2, because it is 1 a.m. and I need to sleep

** Click here to read Part 1, click here to read Part 3.

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Comments

  1. we convinced ourselves that Monsterblog would shake it like a Polaroid picture
    By the time monsterblog start, most people know Polaroid are not gonna make it vs digital camera.

    What lar….part 2 also YAT! (Yet Another Teasers!)

    We want conflicts,scandals,affairs….. oh wait,let me check out BN sandiwara.

  2. *pats Suanie on the back
    Kinda hard to accept MB when it’s associated with NaSTy Pee. The proxy used by KariUlar to take bloggers to court. Btards don’t even have the decency of using their own ill-gotten money to pay legal fees. Cheer up, there are way better initiatives to be hatched. =)

  3. Irrespective of the revelations of part 2, I think you personally should be commended for maintaining hope, when so many others fell by the wayside. I remember discussing it with you briefly in the cafe, and formed an opinion then based on your reaction.
    But kudos to you, and it took character to keep it up in view of all the sniping.

  4. “naturally the team became smaller”

    LOL, and I thought it was only you left, never saw posts from anyone else but you since I started making MB a daily visit back then.

  5. So there will be part 3?

  6. Dabido(Teflon) says

    ‘a lot of people had fairly good reasons to form their own conspiracy theories.’

    So, NST did shoot JFK! I knew it! They have three initials each and everything. Makes so much sense now! Must buy catcher in the rye! I am Holden Caulfield! I am Holden Caulfield!

  7. Eh, where are the juicy bit ah? Enuff foreplay already!

  8. yah i’m sorta wondering how you’re going to end this piece hahahaha.

  9. u know what on second thought i think seriously no harm writing about the ‘elitist’ dinner that was so WTF. Well at least, I went WTF when I saw who was there.

    Also write about what defella was drinking can also.

  10. What dinner???

  11. i dun think that your reason to end the Part 2 is valid. Come on… its only 1am. what is that for ms. Suan?

    spill the bean!!!!

  12. moo_t: choice of phrase, but you are right 🙂 but actually, the idea can still work one. it has been, and is successful elsewhere. guess this time just didn’t work out lor

    mob1900: i understand 🙂 the link to nst that is 🙂 but honestly, my experiences with them were more positive than negative lor

    Grant: thanks 🙂 but truth to be told, i can understand why others stopped with it. if i weren’t under instructions to update it daily and was able to do so at work, i would be reluctant to do it as well

    leongsoon: you came too late 😉

    simon: yes

    dabs: btw i am only just beginning to read ‘catcher in the rye’

    peter: *WHACK*

    chooki: with the truth, of course 😉

    frostier: erm, i really did go to sleep after this

  13. Dabido(Teflon) says

    Oh Good! Remind me to keep you away from rifles and book depositories. Or any musician with the surname Lennon. 🙂

  14. exciting bit still not here??!?!

  15. ky: huh?

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