The Pros and Cons of Nokia's MOSH

Back when MOSH was in its early stage of beta, I became a member to test out the service.  At first I loved the concept, but was very very skeptical.  I was afraid that it would turn into a nightmarish upload center for users to abuse... with Nokia's name and approval on it.  Looking at the content now I can see that I wasn't too far from being correct.

What I liked about it for my taste was the fact that I would have a centralized place to store all of my favorite applications that have travelled with me from phone to phone.  Trust me... having many many S60 devices since the beginning of S60, you end up having a slew of applications that you never know if you will ever need again.  Which in my case is sad because I basically horde everything as if I'll need it again.  But for me MOSH seemed like the perfect solution.

Even still, that is not why MOSH was created.  Being a forum moderator, I've come across developers that are looking for people to beta test their applications and provide feedback.  I thought this is what MOSH was designed for.  Even though my use was not of the developing nature, I still didn't think anyone would mind the content that I uploaded.  Lol, as you can see, most of my content has been Nokia applications from the 'days of old' that are no longer publically available, ie.  Nokia's Pink Puzzle. 

What's wrong with MOSH in my opinion is that it's not properly moderated.  I myself have to laugh at that statement because a month ago I received an email saying that something that I uploaded violated copyright... although it wasn't stated what it was.  I'm assuming it was an mp3 of some sort.  My mistake, I apologize.  But sometimes I log in and am immediately hit with images of boobs and butts right there in the sidebar.  Not quiet what I was expecting!!!  A few weeks ago I decided to test out some tags and came across an upload for a cracked application.  Now that definately shouldn't be there!!  Where are the moderators?  Is it moderated at all?  Or is it that the people in charge don't know what to look for?

The not-so-recent news regarding the Nokia Music Store and Warner Music Group pulling out because of the content thats uploaded to MOSH comes as no surprise to me, but I still don't think that's a good enough reason to squabble... but that's just my opinion. 

Although it's quite evident that even in its short time being public, MOSH is in need of a revamp.  I think at this point adding MOSH to OVI as part of its Internet Services might even be a very very bad idea.  Not saying that this is going to happen, but I just hope that wasn't their initial intentions.

In conclusion:  While I continue to favor MOSH and its initial concept, I think that maybe pulling back on the option to upload music files, images, videos and files should be either thoroughly sort through or removed completely.  Leaving the options open for applications and files should be sufficient enough which would bring it back to its original idea for MObilizing and SHaring.  Lol this is just my own opinion and doesn't reflect that of the company that I love. :)

Comments

[Kay]

I love MOSH, but I was surprised to find it disordered. I was looking for apps for my Nokia N80 and ended up with cracked apps in the results. Just search for bin-pda! And soft porn too ("and they're so badly lit!" as Woody Allen would have said). I'm sure Nokia guys are reading your post.

[Andrei]

I have to agree with you with one thing: MOSH is looking like a failure at this point. Nokia has taken the decision not to moderate, but instead to rely on the users to moderate it and flag inappropriate content. While I appreciate the faith Nokia has chosen to put in the users, this decision has backfired.
Another thing that I really think needs updating is the search tool. I browsed MOSH a couple of times, I quickly gave it up because content was hard to find, repetitive and irrelevant. Not to mention... quite poor.
My advice for Nokia: moderate it. Seriously.

[Cris]

I agree with everything u said but...what's the problem with cracked apps?I don't have the money to buy all the original apps for my phones!Or you're just saying that cos it's a Nokia site?Can u explain Darla?Thanx.

[Max Waterman]

I agree that Mosh has "lost it's way", so to speak, though I don't think it ever really had a 'way' so much as has been looking for a 'way' :)

I noticed a fairly recent post by Russel, and it seems like it's still gonna happen, for some definition of 'happen'.

I have a free application (Cinema3D) up there :

http://mosh.nokia.com/search/?find=cinema3d

and it's been downloaded a few hundred times, which is something I guess :)
It's difficult to get traction in the S60 market, so any outlet is good.

IMO, what we (developers) are really in need of is a way to easily bill people without having to have an agreement with service providers. Most of the existing methods require a credit card (ie too much hassle, esp. for small purchases) and/or have a fixed fee which is too much risk. Well, I've yet to find a solution to this problem anyway...

Max.