Monday, June 21, 2010

Me and Mooplace

I am a 48-year-old certified Internet junkie, and I click almost anything after a short scrutiny if the site is safe or suspiciously viral. I am attracted by colorful graphics and flowery worded texts. And that is how I got to know about Mooplace.

I was browsing over the INQUIRER.net and I happened to catch the words "New Zealand," "networking site," and "100% Filipino." Clicking on the link, I got caught even further when it mentioned a carabao as its logo. And I asked myself, "How Filipino can a site get?"

Signing up, I was welcomed by very friendly members, foremost of which was its creator, Bob Carpenter. It was from him that I learned about the interesting name of Mooplaceand his reasons for putting it up. More interesting is how he became a Kiwinoy, courtesy of his marriage to a smart and hardworking Filipina--Edith from Pampanga.

Browsing through the members, I found familiar names that went with friendly faces. Everyone looked and sounded Filipino. I liked the things I could do with my page and the quiet it exuded and I immediately warmed to it. It simply felt HOME.

The most exciting that happened to me at Mooplace was the photo contest. At the time I was a member, it was already the second photo contest. I am not much of a joiner in competitions like this. For one, I don't consider myself a professional and I just do photography as a hobby when there's nothing else to do when the Net goes off. So, it didn't really matter if my entry won or not. At the back of my mind was also a question as to whether the contest was for real. Well, there were the past contest winners posted on the site. For whatever it was worth, and because I didn't want an empty space on my page, I searched for one of my favorite shots and entered it in the contest.

You can imagine my delight when my entry won third prize. Even more delightful when my prize was mailed to me so soon, I had to read my e-mail thrice before it finally dawned on me that the Mooplace sponsors are really down to earth. And what better use did my prize go, but a Sony Cybershot with which I am now using to shoot more photos to share at Mooplace.

The photo contest was an opportunity for everyone to have more friends as more friends meant having more to vote for your entry. For the site, it meant more members as the photo contestants invited more friends to join the site. Yes, the photo contest fulfilled its purpose for the site and its members. As far as I am concerned, it gained me Filipino friends from all over the world.

With the goodwill created by this experience, I knew that I will always be a Mooer. On the net, there is no home like Mooplace.

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