HOW TO PENETRATE MY RING 2 (Circle of Friends - tips on setting it up)

Member Name: marandina

Product:	Circle of Friends - tips on setting it up
Date:	30/09/04 (91 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: See above, Don't murder goldfish, It's dark now

Disadvantages: See below, Don't choose a user name with "fish" in it, My ring is dilated

You want to get inside my ring, don’t you? If there’s one thing you can get pleasure from on Dooyoo it’s folks trying to penetrate your ring. Of course, you may think that this is just an excuse for a cheap euphemism and..erm..actually you’d be right. Noooooooo…..let’s get serious and put all thoughts bum related to one side for a few minutes. So you're new on this old fangled and broken down sorta site and are feeling a bit isolated…what you gonna do? Well, you could always find the “circle of friends” button on other writers’ profile pages. Once found and clicked, that person will appear on your profile as a “friend of” and bob’s your uncle, you don’t feel so isolated any more. This works both ways, of course, with people slipping you into their ring too.

“What’s the point?”
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Well, what’s the point of anything, really? Hmmm…maybe that’s a bit philosophical. The point is that you can use the COF to mean anything you want really. If you simply want to feel inclusion and a bit of validation (psycho-babble, I know) then surrounding yourself with a few online friends may help. I mean, it’s all a bit Frasier-esque in a way but people really do take it that seriously tha knows.

Alternatively, you may want it to mean that the people on your list write opinions that you trust and that’s fine too. They may write consistently good movie reviews or maybe you like their opinions about toilet paper and other household products. It doesn’t really matter as long as you respect their stuff. Adding them to your COF may make it easier to look them up in future or even trigger an e-mail from Dooyoo that they have written another review assuming you’ve clicked the notification option on their profile. Personally, I’m not so keen on this as it kinda feels like you’re being forced to read stuff. Then again, I can be a bit random at times. Quite frankly, I like randomness (is that a proper word?). From memory, one e-mail arrives daily listing the writers whose opinion you’ve opted to be reminded of and that’s cool if that’s what you want.

“How big should your ring be?”
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One of the big differences between rival sites Ciao.co.uk and Dooyoo is that there are no limits on Dooyoo. Ciao now calls it’s equivalent a buddy list (formerly “circle of trust”) but restricts the number to 100. There is no limit to how people can enter your ring on Dooyoo but this brings mixed reaction from seasoned members. Some say that having a limit stops people filling up their ring simply to attract reciprocal reads whereas others don’t like being restricted in this way. Maybe they are simply so nice that they want lots and lots of cyber friends or perhaps they’re just folks that can’t say no (a bit like a former girlfriend of mine...well, with other fellas anyway). Who knows but it’s the old conundrum of whether folks are adopting tactics that will gain reads or being genuine about their ring. To be honest, there are bigger fish in the world’s sea to fry but it can be life and death to some and flame mail has been known to be sent to those appearing to whore themselves by having a disproportionately large ring. "Whore" is such an unpleasant word.

“How do I choose my friends?”
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To be honest I haven’t got any. Then again, that’s real life and I really must buy an effective deodorant. Notwithstanding my own problems, I have had people in and out of my COF in my life and times on Dooyoo. I generally put those writers who write well in my ring but I have been known to slip those in that I’ve taken a shine too anyway. Oh, you know, the odd compliment that may have been paid offline or a suitably placed fiver. Predominantly, it is writers that write well, though.

Conversely, you can take people out of your COF by clicking the same link as that mentioned above. This has the reverse effect. I do like to scour my list from time to time (as I’ve nothing better to do) and if the writer has become dormant by being AWOL for a few months then I may delete them from my records and possibly my online life. In fact, they may cease to exist and simply fade away forever. Again, I’m grossly exaggerating but this is important stuff, you know?

Then again, there will be people who are shy at using the COF facility. It may be that they worry that inclusion in a COF amounts to the same thing as an arranged marriage or they may simply not like anyone. In the grand scheme of things, it don’t really matter but then if the facility is there, maybe it should be used. It’s a bit like a story I always remember a teacher of mine telling in assembly one day. He stood up, plunged his arm into a goldfish bowl full of water rather theatrically, water cascaded all over the stage. As everyone in the audience looked at each other wondering whether he had just ceremonially executed some goldfish (don’t worry, there wasn’t any in there), he went on to make his point that life was just like that i.e. you only get out what you put in. The more you put in, the more you get out, hence the water pouring out all of over the stage. Oh well, I thought it was poignant at the time.

“Should you say thank you?”
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Ach, it’s up to you, innit? I find the thread format stops me thanking peeps for slipping me into their ring although others do get around this minor barrier. If you look at the rival site, Ciao, you eeeeeven get 80 community points to add to your burgeoning community score. As Dooyoo doesn’t bother with this sort of sham then you don’t get anything but it’s still worth participating for the reasons above.

If I was a shallow person I could use this as a retrospective thank you to all those people that have deigned to put me in their COF over my approaching 3 years on the site…erm…..thanks you lot.

Marandina

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