Critical Thoughts

I am very much fully aware of the attempts of some people to promote a relatively-new blog aggregator as the “competitor” of PPS. Never mind the fact that its features are very similar to ping.sg and offers nothing new in that regard. I have nothing personally against that blog aggregator (no need to mention its name here), by the way: I do use it myself and I have indeed found the backend intriguing and exciting. In fact, I am considering using some of its features as inspiration for the “future PPS”, which will radically change the way of how the current PPS work.

But I am digressing.

In any case, I find it very sad that such an interesting blog aggregator is being pitted against PPS as competition, instead of being a complement to PPS and the other existing number of blog aggregators around.

The polemics began after the takeover of PPS by VCTech Network. We know who these individuals are and we are not bothered by their attempts to discourage people from using PPS, since these people are on the fringe of the Malaysian blogosphere and do not represent the majority of PPS users. That, plus the fact that they themselves have not been using PPS for some time now, make their call for a “boycott” rather silly and ineffective.

I have to make it clear to these people that the very reason why I decided to make the purchase of PPS from its previous owner is the very reason why PPS is a success from its very inception: it is a unique Malaysian blog aggregator with a very strong brand. A so-called “boycott” of PPS will not stop people from using PPS, any more than a call to “boycott” other well-known internet brands such as Facebook, Yahoo or Google. PPS is not a new player in the world of Malaysian blog aggregators. There will always be new users who will find PPS, register their blogs with the site and make use of its features, just as there will be those who will stop using PPS after awhile. I weighed on these factors and deliberated on them for a long time before I made the decision to obtain PPS.

PPS will never die out unless if I forget to renew the hosting or decide to pull the plug on it. The possibilities of those happening is remote at this point of time.

So my message to these fringe groups is this: go ahead and call for a boycott of PPS. Go ahead and promote another blog aggregator service over PPS as “competition”, instead of something which can be a good addition to PPS and bring mutual benefit to all Malaysian bloggers and readers. Such self-serving attitude is simply going to backfire on you in the end, and I foresee the day when you decide to humbly return to PPS ,  quietly ping your blogs to PPS and utilise its services again — after the “other side” did not live up to your expectations.

Life goes on as normal, with or without your “boycott”.