I was in two minds as to whether to put this in the 'frustrations with Dooyoo' category or this one. My main frustration with Dooyoo at the moment is with the crowns so I decided on this little category! It's not often that I have a rant and I am a very patient person but I have been getting a little disheartened lately!

I have been a member of Dooyoo since 16th September 2008 and in the last four months I have really enjoyed my time on Dooyoo and learnt a lot about how to improve my reviews and writing style. I have written 126 reviews and been awarded 5 crowns.

When I joined the site like many others I was a self confessed churner however I soon learned the error of my ways and I cringe now when I look back at my earlier reviews! I think in my first few days I must have churned out a good 20 to 30 reviews! I now try to write at least one review a week, sometimes two or three depending on the time I have available and if I have something worth reviewing!

I spend a good deal of time writing my reviews now, at least an hour on each and take pride in my work now. I have been nominated for many of my reviews over the past couple of months but the crowns have been few and far between. A couple of the crowns I received were in my opinion not for my better work but I am grateful none the less!

The incentive of earning another 1,500 Dooyoo miles on top of the basic 500 is what drives me to improve my reviews and put effort into them but it is getting me nowhere lately! It really rubs salt into the wounds when you see crowns being awarded for reviews for the same item with less information and opinion than your own! That hurts!

I know I am not alone as I have seen some fantastic reviews lately that have not been awarded crowns. On the flip side of the coin I have seen crowns given to reviews that in my opinion do not deserve them but what do I know? The Dooyoo crown system is a mystery!

Some members you look at have received crowns for nearly every single review they have written whilst others struggle to get just one. Maybe there is some kind of secret code you need to incorporate into your review that can only be seen by the Dooyoo team?!

At one point I thought that maybe there was a word limit that triggered a crown , say minimum 1,000 words but I have seen crowns lately awarded for reviews that are around the 500 word mark. That blows that theory out of the window! It isn't a newby thing as many newcomers have had crowns and it isn't a churner thing as persistent churners have received them.............what could it be?!

Do the guides have to nominate for it to get put forward to the Dooyoo team? Do you need more than one nomination? Do you have to nominate a certain number of reviews yourself? Who knows!

I understand that crowns are given to really good reviews that are very useful to the reader and have plenty of personal opinion. Whilst I am by far one of the better writers on here I do think I put a lot of effort into my reviews and they are useful to the reader. It has become a but of an obsession for me each day I log in to see if that little number 5 next to the crowns has gone up!

Despite my frustrations with the crowns lately I will continue to write and read as I enjoy doing both. There are some great members on here and sometimes a nice comment from a friendly member is as good to me as a crown as it gives me a warm glow!

I look forward to your comments! :-)