Dooyoo Members' Feedback Initiative: wiggglypufff (Public Notice)

Member Name: wiggglypufff

Product:	Public Notice
Date:	10/08/04 (89 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Having a say, Being constructive, Contributing something to the site?s future

Disadvantages: Doesn?t guarantee changes

The Duke says ~ This isn't really a challenge, although more of helping hand for Dooyoo to understand the members and hopefully, in return, a chance of a better understanding of Dooyoo for us. This is how it works:

You write an open letter to Dooyoo giving them your feedback on the site as well as any suggestions you may have for taking the site forward addressing any concerns you might have etc. The important thing is the feedback, so include as much or as little as you feel is appropriate to yourself. Don't worry if someone has mentioned a point that you want to raise - it's also important that Dooyoo see how many people have praise, concerns or suggestions about aspects of the site.

Then you do three things: first, you post your "opinion" on Dooyoo (the category is listed below) and include some blurb in it which I'll post below. Second (and this is the important bit) you email your opinion off to Dooyoo directly via the dooyooteam@dooyoo.co.uk address so that they can read it. Third, if (and the 'if' must be stressed here) or when you get a reply, then you post their reply onto the end of your letter thus giving a complete picture of your suggestions and concerns and how Dooyoo views them. Obviously, the blurb bit is important as people don't like you quoting their emails, so if a certain piece of text is included in the opinion, then they'll know what people's intentions are.

Paste this little bit at the end of your 'letter':
"The above was sent as part of the Dooyoo Members' Feedback Initiative. The content is intended to provide constructive criticism for taking the site forward from the member's point of view, and has been posted to the site as an opinion. Your reply, if any is received, will be posted into the end of the opinion giving members a bette
r idea of the Dooyoo and the site."

All entries must be entitled: "Dooyoo Members' Feedback Initiative: ".

The category to be used is:
http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/archive/internet/publi c_notice/


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Dear Dooyoo Team,

Let's start on a high... you did, once, have a great site. When I joined back in 2000 I wrote a rather bad opinion (understatement there, it was actually appalling) - some members complained, and within 20 minutes you'd deleted all trace of it. Jeeze I was mad at the time, and didn't visit again for a while. But, after I'd huffed a bit, I did come back to your site, and tried again. I read, rated, commented, and wrote ops that made sense. I realised in hindsight that what had annoyed me wasn't in fact a bad thing but a good one. Deleting my opinion was just one example of how 'on top' of things you were. You had pride in the site, you listened to your members and tried to ensure all issues were dealt with promptly and efficiently. I got to like your site, and visited more.

Then came whispers of a redesign, a new Dooyoo, a better site for all. This thing was named 'Aurora' and I looked forward to it as I think lots of other members did too - it should have made the site even better. Note the word 'should'. Oh Dooyoo Team, have you heard the phrase 'if it's not broke don't fix it!'? It kind of springs to mind right now ya know. I really don't have a clue what happened but somewhere along the line you broke your site. And you broke it big time.

When I visit your site now, well, I'm often naffed off before I even get to log in because pop-ups are flying at me left right and centre. After battling those, well it can
take an age just to log in, and when I've managed to log in I'll often be timed out before another page loads. It doesn't seem to matter what browser I use either. Some days you work for me in IE, Mozilla, and Opera. Other days, you just don't want to work for me at all.

When you are working though, it's still hit and miss. When I go to the profile pages of my fave members to catch up with their opinions or go to a specific topic I want to read on I'll often find the latest offerings aren't even listed there yet. It's so frustrating ya know, when I'm short on time and want to catch up I still have to trawl your latest ops list to find what I want to read. Some categories even state that no opinions have been written yet, when they in fact have been. (Database problems?)

Sometimes when I visit my own profile to look for new comments and such, it's not all plain sailing there either. There have been days when I've logged in and found half my opinions missing. At the moment they are all there although one has mysteriously warped itself under a different product to what it actually is (just in case you care, it's my Who Wants To Be A Millionaire PC game op, and it's now - along with all the others written about it - under the heading of Wild Wild West Steel Assasin PC game, whilst the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire category appears op-less!). That?s just one example, but not great for the consumer who's looking for info, is it?

Talking of looking for info it's not just the consumer that has trouble. I tried to find a specific something to write about a few weeks ago - I gave up after an hour of trying. Thankfully, some of your members pointed me in the direction of Google, and
job done, I found what I wanted. BUT, that brings up two points... 1) Do you really want all searches to be done off site, where there is a chance the consumer will find the info they want at a site other than Dooyoo? And even if that is what you want 2) Why was it left down to other members to help me out when you should be giving me that info. It does make me wonder how many prospective site users have been put off because the search facility has failed to give them anything productive?

Oh, and if by chance people do manage to find the op they want, erm, the overall impression of quality can be damaged by this capital letter loss thingy. If a site member can offer a fix, why can't you?

Everyone knows sites like this can blow hot and cold like the wind, one minute you're flavour of the month, the next minute you're less popular than meat at a vegetarian society dinner, but how many times do you expect people to come back to wet, windy and cold when they can have dry, fine and hot elsewhere? Most of the problems here probably aren?t that hard to sort out, I think Dooyoo pre-Aurora is proof of that coz the site did work then - it just takes someone to accept that things have gone somewhat tits-up and to actually do something about it.

I'll end, as I started, with a high - I've noticed some changes already during the course of this feedback initiative - you put links suggested to you on the community pages to member sites, the Google search and the caps fix thingy - that's a good start. Kinda gives me a little faith that you have been listening to what people said after all. I also noticed less pop-ups today and even managed to do some successful searches on site... coincidence maybe, but I'd like to hope it's the start of better times ahead. Your site has the potential to beat the ?competition? hands down?
but you have to make the changes.

You have some very loyal guides and members who are going out of their way to try and help - I think this 'Feedback Initiative' and the participation in it proves that so let it be the beginning of a new start. Poll your members, email them, ask them what they want, listen to the members and act for them, and they'll keep acting for you in terms of contributing the opinions/reviews that, at the end of the day, your site will be most useless without.

Thanks for your time,

wiggglypufff aka Karen

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