Well its not news to anyone who regularly follows Karachi Metroblog but at this moment all of our current batch of authors are effectively sidelined and trashed. Sean the co-founder from Metrblogging wrote a post after he disabled all authors from the system where he states that the ongoing bickering and fighting amongst the authors and the management was the reason why he had to shut the site down and we all got the axe.
Dear Readers of Karachi Metblogs,
It is with a sorry heart that we at the Metroblogging headquarters in Los Angeles have to announce that Karachi Metblogs will be shutting down for a while while we decide what is the best future for it. While I could certainly try to sugar coat this and blame corporate restructuring, the truth is we are just sick of the constand bitter rivalry within the ranks of the authors which has lead to absolute chaos on the site. Honestly, not a day goes by that one author isn’t e-mail me complaining about this or whining about that, and quite frankly I just don’t care enough to keep putting up with all of it. It’s become a nightmare and it has to end.
To solve this issue we are forced to start afresh close the site entirely, step back, and decide what is the best future for this site. As the loyal readers of the site, we feel that your input in valuable and we’d like to get your thoughts on some of the options we are considering. Please take a moment to vote in the poll below and let us know what you think would be the best option for the site at this point. Please know that this wasn’t an easy decision for us, but for our own sanity we had to do something. I’ll be disabling comments because I’ve seen how long comment threads get here and really don’t have the patience to sort through something like that.Karachi Metroblogs has been a great experience for us at Metblogs and we hope that it shall return to the forefront very soon, please bear with us. Until then KMB Rests in Peace.
He then goes to place a poll on the blog and what was really salt on sore wounds was the item Shut it down entirely, and redirect traffic to Lahore Metblogs that really hurts.
I am still investigating the issue, but must admit it does come as a shock. KMB has been the bread earner for the Metroblogging network since long and it was easy for them to make a decision and cut the lifeline. Attached is a screen capture showing my disabled account from Karachi Metroblog.
Comments
21 responses to “RIP – KMB Going Down”
I think they are making April Fool
Well Dr Sahab you know who is responsible for this!!!!!
Infighting and ego trips never lead to anything but disaster.. and this has been proven once again!!
Dr. Alvi, we met at the Asia Society event in Korea. I have enjoyed your blog ever since.
I would like to state that I am good friends with Sean Bonner of Metblogs and that while I do not know the details of this particular issue, Sean would not have take this drastic measure without significant cause to do so. Closing Karachi Metblogs is not good for Metblogs or for Sean. I am sure he did not want to do this. The Sean I know would have taken a lot of time to consider his actions before he did this- I do not believe it was an action taken lightly as you might imagine.
I hope that this will be resolved gracefully and KMB will be back running peacefully soon.
“bitter rivalry within the ranks of the authors which has lead to absolute chaos on the site.”
Who could that be?
Mansoor?
yeah, who is it? Care to let us in on some of it TM? Personally, I always thought the authors were so flamed at by the readers that they’d be united and defend each other. I guess not!
As much as I think, I can’t see it as prank. I find the whole situation quite funny now, why would authors fight among them ? Dr. Sahib you should please disclose all the stories that happened behind the door. May be some authors were removed from panel recently so they did not like it but this is a failure for the whole team. Umar left the team as he moved to Dubai but Mansoor was adamant to stay even though he moved to Islamabad. May be some one demanded Mansoor to leave the panel. May be some newly added authors did not like the dictation from old authors especially MB 🙂 who would just go on with his rants. May be Balma and Adnan emailed Sean to make them an moderator for comments section :-). Any how I find it a loss for all of us because that site helped me to keep connected with my home town. I will personally call Sean tomorrow to find the whole scene and request him to reinstate the site with few bloggers like Zainub , Neoka, Teeth Maestro, Faisal and Zag. I would also like to see Ramla back.
Don’t expect any sympathy from us dear TM. The authors are solely responsible for this, and that includes you. In fact, they are responsible for causing a disgrace to our nation yet at another level. And please don’t even think of tainting a racist aspect to this embarrassment by say, “and what was really salt on sore wounds was the item Shut it down entirely, and redirect traffic to Lahore Metblogs that really hurts”. It’s purely the bickering of the authors that caused it… nothing else.
As long as NAB is not dissolved, a case should be filed regarding this issue. 🙂
BTW, the reason mentioned by Sean doesn’t seem fictitious either. I agree that authors of KMB are used to make immature posts but not 100% believing that they fight with each other as well but then anything is possible.
p.s: an attempt of april fool prank? 🙂
“I am still investigating the issue, but must admit it does come as a shock. KMB has been the bread earner for the Metroblogging network since long and it was easy for them to make a decision and cut the lifeline”.
If it was the bread winner, why was it an easy decision to cut the life line?
i don’t blame them for taking this step. KMB was a dump anyway(Except for doc’s posts). I never had any fun commenting on the posts there cause of the snarky replies. Half the time it seemed like everyone had an axe to grind with someone. Good riddance if they have really taken it down.
I am 99.9% sure that it’s APril prank. Comments are still open on other blog posts. If KMB was closed, all posts would have been comments option suspended.
Nice way of making an april fool out of this.
Well folks what happened to the CHERISHED FREE SPEECH here?? Live and Let live
i am waiting to hear from a PPP jiyala blaming the closure of KMB on the “establishment” and “dictatorship of musharraf”
Have to agree with Adnan. The fact that this announcement was made on April 1 just CANNOT be discounted. Maybe, it’s all part of an elaborate prank, you never know.
what a disgrace!
KMB authors should apologize to the readers.
this represent that we cant even run an online forum peacefully.
shame on all the KMB authors.
“it better be a prank, otherwise its hightime we should have a seperate independent blogging homeland(karachi.bloggers.pk?) free from the influence of EastIndia Company(Metblogs Los Angeles).”
Quaid-e-Azam Muhammed Ali Jinnah 1 April 2008
I am 98% sure that this paisayPay website is a jaali website like “Mariam Abacha”. Doctor saab, you might like to start investigation to save people from a misery?
Thats not good. How would people expose MQM now?
I guess IGNORANT_REALITY, AMMAR and other *poisoned* persons would be happy.
Then again, lets not just expose MQM, lets expose PPP, PML, JTI, IJT, JI, PTI, BLA and what not….
Uff!
Mein tu Musharraf kay is conspiracy mein involve honay kay intezar mein sookh gaya 🙂