Student-Talk shows some love.
I receieved an email from the Student-Talk staff; I guess their might be a light at the end of the tunnel.
studentalkٍ wrote:
I would like to personally thank you guys for making my job easier. I just got the responsibility of re-vamping the magazine and its image. I knew that there needed to be a great deal of change taking place, but now , the argument I made is solidly backed up by all of you. So take a look at December’s issue and tell me what you think. If you still want more changes to happen, then I suggest you just directly contact us and maybe you’d be a valuable addition to our group..
Whomever sent this email should be given a raise, or better yet, I would just let them run the whole magazine. Instead of people admitting mistakes and finding ways to fix the issue .. they were pointing fingers and attacking their readers. The only two previous replies from the Student-Talk were from Dima trying to justify plagiarism among other things; and the Zeina (founder) stating I was jealous of student-talks success (and working for a rival magazine).
I personally believe the magazine could benefit from the following:
1. A fresh look; as the current design is lacking too say the least.
2. A new group of original, creative and determined writers with interesting articles.
3. A new theme in terms of columns or sections that can be found in every issue.
4. Ditch the question/answer thing; most answers are just retarded.
5. Add more columns that identify with Students/School (its called Student-Talk!).
I wish you the best of luck and hopefully you can revamp the magazine into something worth reading.
Also, for what its worth, if someone (’hint hint’) tells you do copy an article from the internet due, just say no.
I would like to tell whoever wrote that comment that, that was the best reply I have ever read and the best way to deal with the situation. Unlike other responses this one cut right to the point and thanked everyone for some “constructive criticism” and if the magazine is going to be heading towards a better direction then there must be light at the end of the dark tunnel.
I too think that the magazine catered to more nitwits than any students out there. Hell there should be a section talking about happenings in schools, bazaars, games, or anything that is student related! There is alot of things to talk about! Just don’t degrade us by thinking we are all stupid and enjoy reading pointless responses!
good start at damage control, let us see how the next student talk ends up.
I say hire writers who actually have a passion for writing and creative ideas. While the structure of a magazine (the types of articles that go into it, the layout, etc.) is important in shaping the final product, NOTHING is more important than having writers who can write well, who are inspired by their surroundings (and even a place that is ostensibly uninspiring as Kuwait can be the source of a great deal of inspiration - look at the blogs coming out of there) and who actually like to WRITE, and not just like to see their name in print. Of equal importance is a copy editor who knows the different between good and bad writing and has a passion for the written word.
But that’s just me talking.
By the way, whoever wrote the message to K displays an open-ness to constructive criticism and determination to change things for the better that will surely reflect itself in the coming issues. Best of luck.
K man, I simply love you.
You made me want to go back to my old blogging days.
This reminds me of the poem
BIIIIIIIIIIIIYCYCLE! BIIIIIIIIIICYCLE! BIIIIIIIIIIIIIYCYCLE!
I want to ride my BIIIIIIIIIIIIYCYCLE! BIIIIIIIIIICYCLE! BIIIIIIIIIIIIIYCYCLE!
I want to ride my bicYYYYYYYYYYYYYYcle
I want to ride my bike
I want to ride my bicYYYYYYYYYcle
I want to ride it where I like
This reminds me of Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends & Influence People.” Basically, “Don’t criticize, condemn, or complain.” This anonymous emailer from Student Talk took the better route since he/she admitted to the blunder and stated that it will be taken care of.
And also…
You say black I say white
You say bark I say BITE!
You say shark I say hey maaan Jaws was never my scene and I don’t like Star Wars!
: P~~
lol thid guy must be really happy lets see wat happens in the new issue
Well Well,what a co-incidence. Suddenly, the magazine is great now in everyone’s eyes. Finally, it’s not vividly emblazoned. Everything is just crystal clear now. How sick can this person be. So this person from studentalk sends u this post telling u, that he/she got the responsibiliy of re-vamping the magazine. What kind of re-vamping? i saw the december issue, there still had been some plagiarism going on! They still had stolen a few articles from different places. What’s different? Their designs? i’ve seen this design before its not a new one, it is also copied from a magazine i saw in lebanon called mindz, exactly similar. Same layout! So now they shifted to stealing designs? is that so? Waw amazing really. Lets see what they have to say about that. I can’t believe them.
Hey everyone,
grow up girl and stop lying to yourself
just to let you know that NO MERCY is Dima Damen and this is not the only name she is using to defend her self
K, this is real progress. If it amounts to anthing. I saw a copy of Student Talk this morning at Starbucks but I didnt bother to pick it up. I will leave it to you re-evaluate its contents and then I will take a look at it.
If they want to make improvments they shouldnt attack its customers for pointing out mistakes and problems they have in these magazines. Who ever sent you the email should be given full control of Student-Talk if he/she has the right intentions.
No Show ‘No Mercy’: damnit…. get a life. Actually get a blog for your nonsensical nagging. Atleast that way we would get a chance to see your actual skills namely Ctrl C | Ctrl V of naggism too.
Anonymous Syudent-Talk writer: Good work, atleast you have taken a first step towards success ‘power of apology’
Repost from 20 mins ago - cause it’s still (sadly) relevant on this thread:
It kind of reminds me of a school playground in here…..pick on the fat kid.
Dima: you are wrong. Your ‘professional’ behavior is inexcusable. To simply siphon off someone else’s work - and pass it off as your own is ignorant, unethical and lazy journalism. You got paid to do a creative job - do it.
To the people who blatantly ‘attacked’ Dima: whilst some may be constructive criticism, others remind of members of the peanut gallery. Members of a clan who will lay in the boot when they see the corpse laying lifeless on the ground. Grow up with your vindictive comments, they aren’t clever or ‘cool.’
K, it’s a good point you’ve brought up, but sadly plagiarism is existent way beyond the boundaries of Kuwaiti journalism. People in Kuwait are so starved of any creative talent, it’s almost acceptable that they copy and steal other people’s ideas.
Check out any successful concept in Kuwait (Food Business for example), it wont be long before the blood suckers are out in force - mimicking and deriving blatant variants and rip-offs of it.
This is the 5th post about Student Talk.
toxy: you have an excellent article in bazaar magazine december issue! Keep up the great work.
No mercy: you are truly pathetic.K was trying to give them a break.Whats ur problem anyway? No one said the magazine was great and in fact I agree that the dec issue was almost just as bad as the november one but they are obviously trying to improve. Why dont you make up ur mind what you want exactly or better yet,why dont you simply stop posting here.
boss: if you know of any good copywriters, please have them contact bazaar.They are looking for one.
Thanks Ahlein, I have not seen it yet!….I am off to Starbux to get my copy….
Hero hahahaha you really have made my day.
ahlein, improving themselves in the same manner is not improving, that is becoming worse. What i want, is for all of you to stop this criticism and hypocricy. You either stick to your words or not.
I personally give credits to bazaar magazine.
from what I have heard from people involved with the top management in Student Talk, there are major changes going on and 2007 will be a fruitful year for them. They got a very unique idea going on, they just need to implement it better.
This is a reply to all of you.
This is a subject you will all love and accept
Admitting our mistakes before criticism
It is of a moral character that we have to respect each other, and one of the obligations before acting with others is to begin with ourselves by flinging our mistakes whenever we want to begin with criticizing anyone. Admitting self-mistakes and beginning with it before any kind of criticism is an educational method, which will give peace to the other part and makes him/her accept the criticism. We should never consider ourselves perfect and never do mistakes. Perfection is just for Allah Subhano Wata’ala. We all commit mistakes. This is nature. And a human’s nature is not being an angel or an infallible.
Also one of the important things when dealing with someone else’s mistake is growing it and giving it a bigger size more than it deserves instead of giving it its actual size and as they say don’t make it a big deal. We have to believe, consider and assume that we also could be fallible. We can always fix what had broke.
We all have to begin with ourselves by justifying our mistakes so we could justify other’s mistakes. Never go round and round ‘cause what goes around comes around and instead of attacking, humiliating others for their mistakes and break their feelings and integrity lets ask ourselves those questions and find answers:
1.Why do we follow other’s mistakes and forget ours??
2.Why do we break other’s feelings, abuse and hurt them though we went through this before??
3.Why don’t we consider it good and not evil?
4.Do we have to keep quiet??
If it is a small one then let it go instead of making a very big issue out of nothing. But if it was a big mistake and does not touch any of us, also let it go but if we feel we are concerned and this touched us then we could oblige ourselves to treat it in an educational, civilized method.
At the end I would like to point out a very important thing which I wish that we could get rid of. The gossiping habit and our happy feelings watching others tear apart, even if we do not know this person but just feel comfortable that we did help to scatter, step over him/her and walk away forgetting what we are also more importantly, forgetting Allah Subhanaho Wata’ala and our Prophit Mohamad peace be upon him:
قال الله تعالى في كتابه الكريم بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم (( والذين يؤذون المؤمنين والمؤمنات بغير ما اكتسبوا فقد احتملوا بهتانا وإثما مبينا)) وقال تعالى أيضا (( يا أيها الذين آمنوا لا يسخر قوم من قوم عسى أن يكونوا خيرا منهم ولا نساء من نساء عسى أن يكن خيرا منهن ولا تلمزوا أنفسكم ولا تنابزوا بالألقاب بئس الاسم الفسوق بعد الإيمان ومن لم يتب فأولئك هم الظالمون))صدق الله العظيم وقال صلى الله عليه وسلم (( من كان يؤمن بالله واليوم الآخر فليقل خيرا أو ليصمت))صدق رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم
survivor I hope you understand the scope of the subject itself. It was criticism of the magazine for not being of such low quality. We are criticizing the magazine, and whoever is associated with the articles.
If that said person didnt write (cut/paste) those articles then they have the right to sue the establishment plain and simple.
Secondly the only reason for the personel attacks from some people is because of the way Student talk, Zeina M., and Dima al-Damen reacted. Im not justifying what they did. I think its petty, especially the way the “professional” people were acting, they are supposed to be journalists, but it seems they fall far short of this job description.
The criticism that people are pointing out because this is a real business who is held to a higher standard for its actions. They arent just high-school students, its an official publication with payment from advertisors. And instead of trying to improve their actions they attack their own readership for the criticisms of their magazines. When anyone attacks bloggers they dont think of who they are addressing, bloggers range from young students all the way to 50 year old professionals.
No one is really making a big issue, its just that people are attacking the owner of the blog for pointing out simple facts.
1) They broke copyrights
2) They stole content
3) They are trying to brush it off as if it isnt their mistake
4) They are attacking the owner of the blog, and bloggers
5) acting extremely unprofessional in every manner
This email was the first sign of improvement anyone has seen. It doesnt mean anyone will bother reading Student-Talk. It just means that there is somebody who works there who thinks. Thats about it.
Survivor:
You say that pefection is only for God and that we must all submit to the fact that we make mistakes and that we cannot be angels or infallible. This is actually a very interesting issue that Islamic thinkers have been discussing for centuries, an issue in which you only point out one perspective. Another equally valid perspective is that there are several stages of being, the highest of which is not pefect like the Prophet but is pretty darn close. Humans are made up of varying levels of angelic and animalistic dispositions, and it is the person’s inclination towards one or the other that determines which stage he/she can attain. It is the duty of human beings, then, to approximate perfection as best they can, and to create a paradise on earth. (This is all specifically the thought of one Shah Wali Allah, an 18th c. Islamic thinker in New Delhi in his magnum opus “Hujjat Allah al-Balighah”)
How does this relate to Student-Talk and the discussion we’ve been having? Well, simply what we’ve been saying all along: that we shouldn’t be content with what is okay, but rather strive to make any of it perfect. A pessimistic or fatalist attitude towards anything that you do is bound to reflect itself in the quality of the final product. True, there has been some mob mentality in attacking the magazine, but it is not simply to make the magazine look bad, but rather to point out how it can be better. I know that if I wrote a bad paper or put forth an argument that was flawed, I would want some criticism. How else would I know that I did anything wrong to begin with? And how else would I be able to strive for that higher stage of being that Shah Wali Allah describes?
Ahlein: I would have done it myself (I used to be the copy editor at a Dubai-based think tank a couple of years ago), but I’m neck-deep in grad school work. I know many capable copy editors that I graduated with, though. Do you know if they have to be based in Kuwait?
Wa akheeran….there’s someone who admits that there’s something wrong with the magazine!
Way to go, K. *thumbs up*
Good for you K, all that kid needed was a wake-up call.
STEAK SAUUUUUCCCCEEE!!!! Breakin it down, like it aint no thang!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!
7ada Steak Sauce!
that was nice!
they are so full of shit its embarassing!
You did a good job putting them in their place
on to the next issue of crap-talk!
Dude, I just read all the posts about this issue….EXCELLENT job!
Im pretty sure they have ur blog bookmarked on every pc there and the fact that you had 3 ppl from them reply to you, out of around 10 maybe? Thats 30% of the staff replying to a post on a blog!!
The responses were incredible, especially the founder, must be the worst way of handling criticism ever!! Just like reading a reply by a 7 yr old!
Again, excellent work and keep it up!
…yawn!
I think this magazine is weak and needs a huge amount of content, I say I think cause I only saw one and not planning to see another for what it lacks.
I never ran a magazine, but I know what media is all about as it’s my feild, I would call it a nice try, but get better producers and writers and ideas.
ps:
the one I read said that of Kuwaities go to gym and exercise.. I mean com on
? = Ninety percent