| Product: |
dooyoo Addiction |
| Date: |
10/12/01 (153 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Good Community, Loads to write about, Reading
Disadvantages: Addiction, Bladder problems, Sleeping
This opinion is overdue, way overdue.
First though a small confession. Confession is good for the soul, right? I've been here before, no not in life (well I may have but I don't remember), here on dooyoo. I have been a member before under another name.
Some of you might recognise my style, and 2 of my opinions (the migraine and bereavement ones) are from my previous membership that I have freshened up. The proceeds from these 2 opinions are going to charity, although I don't know which one yet.
There are 3 lovely women here (who are also great writers) who recognised me almost straight away, and after torture by e-mail I confessed to them who I was. They're good you know, really good!
I was going to make this my first opinion but I was a little scared too and I wanted to get settled back in before tackling this subject. I wanted to make sure the spark was still there, that what I feared was true, I am addicted to dooyoo. I was addicted then and I am addicted now.
There, I said it, and now I shall explain more, ready?
In my previous dooyoo life I didn't write a tremendous amount of opinions, but the ones I did write I put a lot of effort into. I also read a lot of opinions, and I mean a lot. I think I enjoyed the reading aspect of being a dooyoo member more than the writing. I loved, and still do, reading what other people have to say about many different things.
I can't really remember how I found dooyoo the first time round, I think it was by accident whilst searching for something else. Out of curiosity I checked it out and thought the idea of consumers actually trading knowledge about a wide range of products and services with each other online sounded great.
And it was, for a while.
However like a lot of addictions the level of dependency became greater and in becoming more involved I found that there were a lot of things annoying me about dooyoo
than I really should have. Although I have to say that at that time abuse on dooyoo was rife, plagiarism was like a disease and there were quite a number of other problems too.
I can now admit that I let it get to me in quite a big way, but at the time I didn't really realise by how much. Anyway things came to a head and I had to make a decision. At the time I decided to terminate my membership with dooyoo, rather reluctantly, after discussing things with some dooyoo friends. I then consulted with the dooyoo staff (one staff member in particular) and on my request they agreed to lock/delete my account.
I would like to thank those dooyoo members who at that time gave me a lot of advice, telling me just to take a break and return refreshed. At the time though that wasn't easy to take on board and act upon. For me things were too much and I decided to make a complete break but of course as you can now see by me writing this opinion those people were right, I just couldn't see it then.
I don't regret taking that break though, and I suppose deep down I knew it wasn't really going to be permanent. When I made the break I sighed with relief, I really did, but it wasn't the end, no way was it. I was still addicted despite me thinking I had ended it.
I think to analyse how I felt and qualify what I have said above I would say this, and I wonder how many of you agree.
For all those dooyoo members out there who really enjoy the 'community' aspect of dooyoo then I suppose you may identify with this more.
I found that the more I was involved with and addicted to dooyoo then I sort of expected a type and level of use from everyone else too. Some of it could be classed as reasonable (no abuse, plagiarism etc.) but then because of the addiction some of that expectation was unreasonable, and to be honest I think a lot of dooyoo members are guilty of that, but not in a bad way. It jus
t seems to be one of those quirks of a site like this, as I have seen a similar type of expectation on some online game sites too.
It's a bit like an unwritten code of conduct we expect everyone else to understand and use the site by, but of course it can never be, not really.
There were a number of other reasons why I left dooyoo but I am not going into them here, as they are not important now but at the time they were factors for me quitting.
So, I left dooyoo and thought that was an end to my dooyoo addiction. I still used dooyoo but in a different way, as a non-member consumer. I still found that dooyoo provided a valuable source of product reviews that helped me make those valuable consumer decisions as to which product to buy or service to use.
Then the awful events of September 11th unfolded and that grabbed me so much that I was compelled to write something about it and then the dooyoo addiction kicked in again.
After writing that first opinion (or my return opinion if you like) I felt like I had come home. Does that sound silly? I hope not. All those good feelings about being a member of dooyoo started to come back.
I have to say here that I discussed with dooyoo what had happened and they were okay with me returning under a new member name, and for that I am very grateful, especially to 1 member of the dooyoo staff, thankyou.
Then, before I knew it I was sucked in again but as the saying goes 'once bitten, twice shy'. A lot of the things that bothered me before don't now, and I feel a lot more relaxed about the site. I know the pitfalls and am doing my best to avoid them.
This is one of the reasons why I waited to write this opinion until now, until after that 'honeymoon' phase, to see if that enthusiasm is still there.
The long break did me good and I would strongly advise that if anyone else here feels things are getting too much and they
are getting too involved then just take a step back, take a break, believe me it's worth it.
There have been a lot of changes in that time some good and some bad, but I won't talk about that here I'll save that for another opinion. Although I will say that it seems sadly quite a few members have left and there are a lot of new faces here. There are also still quite a few of the old die-hards here, still contributing quality opinions and to the dooyoo community. Now that is true addiction and it is sort of comforting to see these members still here.
Like a lot of things in life moderation is the key, and this also applies to dooyoo. Not all addictions are bad, and being addicted to dooyoo certainly isn't, to a degree. I think you just have to control it somewhat to get the most enjoyment out of the site and not let it get to you. Hard I know but advice worth bearing in mind.
Anyway enough of that, let's lighten the mood a bit shall we? Now I know there are a lot of opinions in this category and I have read some of them. Some are very entertaining and explain in quite a humorous way how dooyoo has affected people's lives. Even so I still feel I have to say my bit, okay?
So, here goes, you know when you are addicted to dooyoo when -
- Dooyoo is always the first site you visit when online.
- You make dooyoo your homepage.
- You check your dooyoo statistics to see how many more reads/rates you got whilst you were stupidly offline and getting some irrelevant sleep.
- You get like 'stage fright' just before you submit an opinion - is it a hit or miss?
- You check every new read/rate your new opinion attracts.
- You worry if nobody has read your opinion after only being submitted for 2 minutes.
- You worry that the opinion is either too long or too short, did you include everything you could have?
- You carry a pen and paper
around with you for those moments of inspiration.
- You have pockets full of pieces of paper with titles/ideas for opinions and/or undecipherable notes about products or services.
- You talk to your family and friends about products you have read about on dooyoo.
- You don't talk normally but in 'opinion' form.
- You give everything you see or experience a star rating between 1 and 5.
- You classify everything as being between 'Very Useful' and 'Not Useful'.
- You look for a potential opinion in everything you see, use or hear about.
- You take most of your meals whilst sat at your PC, logged onto dooyoo, because you are scared you will miss something.
- You let your bladder get to bursting point because you dare not be parted from the PC and dooyoo for any longer than is absolutely necessary.
- You say to the shop assistant that asks you if you need any help, "No thanks I am forming an opinion" instead of "No thanks I'm just looking".
- You make notes whilst watching TV, a video, DVD or film at the cinema.
- As at least one member here has done you use your family as a consumer base to test products, foods, and other things on and record the findings for a later opinion.
- You lose the concept of time.
- There is always 'just one more' opinion to read/rate.
- You deny you are addicted whilst
struggling to remember the names of your children and/or spouse/partner.
The list of course is endless, but if you recognise any of the above symptoms in yourself or others then it is too late, you or someone you know has been dooyoo'd!
That's it, the end of this opinion. Now I am going to submit it and get that dooyoo new opinion stage fright thing and watch and wait for those reads and rates. I am starting to sweat already! I hope you enjoyed this opinion and
feel free to comment!
Thankyou, and good luck with your level of addiction.
Oh, one more thing, I suppose you want to know my previous dooyoo member name don't you? Well it was…
:)
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