How DooYoo Get Crowned by DooYoo? (dooyoo Crowns)

Member Name: cbpotts

Product:	dooyoo Crowns
Date:	07/12/01 (175 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: you'll learn about whether guides affect the amount of crowns they've received themselves.

Disadvantages: It's a pretty long opinion, sorry.

Doo yoo just become a dooyoo community guide? Do they actually take turns crowning each other and thereby leaving us simple peasants out in the cold, no head cover whatsoever?

This question recently started turning in my head when I read another opinion that suggested just such a thing. The person that wrote the opinion is actually a pretty good writer and a nice guy and I'm pretty sure that he wrote out of sarcasm and frustration because he has yet to be crowned. So, because of that I'm not going to mention his name, but just reference the fact that he stated that he thought the community guides awarded all the crowns to themselves, even to the point where they pasted up new categories so they could write stellar opinions and crown themselves.

So, after reading this opinion, my curiosity about these gentlemen and ladies was raised and I decided to learn about each one. First off, in case you're wondering, this is the description that dooyoo gives for the community guides: "Community Guides are outstanding users of the community and experts in one or several subjects. They develop a great network of support on the site, offering suggestions and opinions, which complement the content that the categories offer. They are conduits between the Community and Dooyoo, offering help, advice and support to the Category Managers." Now that we're done with that stuff, let's learn a few facts about these Community Guides.

Movies and Television Guide: Peakly
Peakly's been around since July of last year but I have to admit that I've never read any of his stuff. Since he started with dooyoo, Peakly's written 105 opinions, 25 of which have been crowned.

Music: BlackJane
Believe it or not, this is a guy, not a woman. Mr. Jane has written an astounding 316 opinions (don't call them ops around him, he has a thing about that), 4 of which have received crowns.

Internet: TripleTheGame

Our Internet friend here is responsible for all those computer "geek" submissions about whatsits and doozeflops out there in electronic pixelation land. While he may not have any inspiration right now, he's done a fine job writing 190 opinions and getting 16 of them crowned.

Games: Mr. Coates
Mr. Coates has been with DooYoo since June 22 of 2000 and has written 234 opinions during that time. His first day as a member he submitted 12, count them 12 opinions earning him official churner status. He's proof that even a churner can change though as he's received 28 well earned crowns and has cut back significantly on submissions since.

Lifestyle: Celandine
A woman! Thank goodness. And, a woman to head up what I believe is the toughest community area on dooyoo. Sarah's only been a member since May 4, but even in that short time, she's earned 28 crowns for within her 58 opinions.

Sports and Outdoors: BizzyB
Another woman, and one that has had to put up with all of Smark's wrestling opinions. Rebecca earned my respect not so much for her 23 crowns, but for her work with the Cat Protection League. She's retiring from this community spot, unfortunately, but will hopefully continue to add to her 140 opinions.

Books and Magazines: Alkaguru
Scroll on down the first page of this guy's profile and you'll see crown after crown. Continue through the pages and you'll end up counting 36 of them. Trust me, I did it. He, like Mr. Coates began his dooyoo career on 6.22.00 by writing 25 opinions (his first had 57 reads!). All in all, the guru's written 607 opinions.

Shopping: King Herrod
A true dooyoo king, Nick has written 113 opinions and has received 41 crowns. Quite an accomplishment, I would say. He'll write on anything from Pledge to Potter to printers and do an outstanding job. King Herrod's been around here since February.

T
ravel: Myk Reeve
Myk was nice enough to let me know in his profile that he had 67 crowns so I didn't have to wade through the 282 opinions to count them (thank you so very much!). He is particular so watch your p's and q's (and apostrophes) around him.

Computers: Rob Writer
Did you know that Rob's studying physics? Makes me wonder how he's had the time to write 451 opinions, but he must be pretty good at it because 25 of them have been crowned. It could be 35 actually. My cat got frisky on the desk when I was counting and I may have lost ten somewhere. I didn't want to count again.

Electronics: Michael R
A member since 1.24.01, Michael has earned 8 crowns amongst his 111 ops. Unfortunately for this category though, he'll be stepping down as the guide. You should check out his nifty image on his profile page, by the way.

Kids and Family: Chele2002
A wife, mom and auntie, Michele still finds the time to create some brilliant ops (6 crowned; 78 total). She's been a member since February of this year but I think the crowning glory of 2001 was when her sister gave birth to two baby boys in September!

Speakers Corner: KenJohn
Well, when I said that Celandine's Lifestyle community was the toughest one to guide, I may have been a bit off. This one may take top billing. Our favorite Irish cabbie is no stranger to opinions or crowns. He's earned 73 out of 245 opinions in the past year and a few months. He's also earned my respect for his kindness, humor and beliefs.

Motors: SidneyGee
Probably the first person on dooyoo to ever have their very first two opinions crowned, Sidney can boast 51 crowns out of 115 opinions. Of course, they were both about cars so it's a good thing that he's the guide for this area.

House and Garden: thanatoszana
Even though I've not written much here, it's my favorite area so you'd think I'd
get to know this lady well. However, while 115 of her CoF have, I haven't. Even so, I think I shall since she's good enough to earn 11 crowns with just 51 opinions.

Campus: Nolly
A friend to every student out there, Neil offers us some good advice, "Don't kick a dog up the bum when your hand is in his mouth." Now we know why he's in charge of the campus area. It may also be that within his 123 opinions are nestled 7 crowns.

Service: SueMagee
Sue is dooyoo's money lady and she should know about it since dooyoo's been good to her with 43 crowns in just 95 opinions. I have a feeling that even with that level of success, it does little to fill the empty space she has at the moment with the loss of Luce. :(

Food and Drink: JillMurphy
I am rather surprised to find Jill here instead of in the book section, however I've tried one or two of her recipes and this fits her just as well, trust me. Writing is also her forte. Check her first page of her profile and you'll see every single op on it crowned. There's a total of 73 entertwined with the other 182 opinions.

UK and Ireland Profile: X_Elff_X
Our final guide is a lady with great taste (said simply because she quotes Stephen King in her profile). Even without this one she likes food, alcohol and books. I rest my case. Elff is also a writer that has produced 49 opinions since May of 2000 and received 16 crowns.

Phew, I didn't realize that this would end up taking that long or be that comprehensive, but there you have it; nineteen people that have written 3602 of dooyoo's opinions. However, since this opinion is about the crowns these folks receive, how about we do some math and see how it all adds up:

3602 opinions divided by 573 crowns equals a crown per every 6th opinion. Not too shabby in my book.

The top writers (Jill, Elff, Sue, Sidney, Ken, Myk, Herrod, Bee and Celandine) have
produced 1225 opinions and 399 crowns. That's a crown for every third opinion.

Seems like an awful lot of crowning going on in the guide ranks doesn't it? I thought so as well so I decided to do the research and find out a bit more about all this crowning stuff and how us lowly peasants add up. Still with me? Ready for just a few more numbers?

ANDREWSJK, JohnMDR and I have received about one crown for every sixth opinion we've written. A-true-ben, on the other hand, receives a crown for about every other opinion he writes. My husband, gbopotts only has one crown, but it was the second opinion he ever wrote and he's only written 7.

While these statistics did provide a level of comfort and made me feel good enough that the scales of justice were balanced properly and our Community Guides were indeed doing their jobs properly, I thought I'd get confirmation so I wrote dooyoo and asked them what the criteria was for guides choosing which opinions should receive crowns. It must have been the kind of question that causes dooyoo alarm because it was forwarded to a pretty high level for response. And, it is that response that I would like to share with the dooyoo community at large. It is with that that I will end this opinion, but before I do so, I would like to say one final thing. As mentioned at the top of this opinion, these people have been chosen to be community guides because they are outstanding users of the site as well as experts in their fields. Of course they're going to get crowned a lot. Also, they have a job that I wouldn't want at all. How can they trust that anyone who befriends them on dooyoo isn't trying to get more crowns out of them? I'd like to express my thanks and admiration for the job that they've taken on and the grace with which each has done it (though please do have a look at my Blues Brothers op, it really DOES deserve to be crowned!).

Ok, that being sai
d, here's dooyoo's official response to my question about how crowns are handed out:

"Guides do not decide which opinions are crowned, Dooyoo allocate crowns. Guides suggest opinions to us because they are the most active users on the site. They also make a point of reading as many opinions on the site as possible. We also look into your nominations. We also read opinions ourselves.

Crowns are given to opinions which we consider to be exceptional. They are well written, comprehensive and are extremely useful. They are not based on rating nor are they dependent upon the author."

Summary: