Never mind the length, feel the width! (dooyoo Crowns)

Member Name: Judgee

Product:	dooyoo Crowns
Date:	25/03/02 (110 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Reward, Incentive

Disadvantages: Missed opinions

As in life, the allocation of crowns on Dooyoo is subject to much debate. Ultimately ending with the old saying "you can't please all of the people all of the time". Then the whole process begins again. So what is all the fuss about?


Crowns are awarded to opinions of particular quality. Generally they contain all the information that you could ever possibly want on a given subject. Well written, often funny or amusing. Easy to read and well researched. The crown award adds a nice crown-type icon at the start of the opinion title and 1500 extra Dooyoo miles. Often referred to as "shiny headgear" or "jaggy bonnet" they are what most Dooyoo members strive for when writing for the site.


How are crowns allocated? Well, any opinion can be nominated by another member of the site and each nominated opinion will be looked at by Simone or John who are employed by Dooyoo. Category guides can also email Simone or John if they feel an opinion is worthy of a crown. Ultimately it is Simone or John who have the final say, not as some people believe, the category guides. Regular members can also email Simone or John if they feel that another member has written an opinion that is particularly worthy of a crown and has been missed (not your own opinions as this will be frowned upon!)


How do you know if your opinion has been awarded with a crown? Well apart from the obvious appearance of an icon by your opinion title and the extra miles added to your Dooyoo account, Simone will send you an email, advising you of your award. So trust me, you will know!


One major topic of debate at the moment seems to be the length of crowned opinions and are only long opinions crowned? Well, as far as I can see... No! All right, the majority are pretty long. But that is to be expected. Crowns are awarded, because an opinion contains lots of information. Some opinions can contain all the relevant information in a f
ew hundred words, most however cannot.


There are also a lot of complaints about certain members receiving more than their fair share and others deserving more. Well, like it or not, some writers write consistently well and therefore of course they are going to get a lot of awards. Yes, they can get an "easy" crown on rare occasions but it is not the writer that awards it, it is the Dooyoo staff. What should they do about it, give it back? Would you? Good luck to them!


If you feel that you deserve more and that one of your opinions might have been missed, contact a category guide. They CANNOT award you with one, but they CAN mention it to Dooyoo if they feel it is worthy. Failing that, they can often give you advice on how to make your opinion more crownworthy. It doesn't even have to be the category guide in charge of the category in which your opinion has been written in (although that should be considered your first option). From my own point of view, there are some category guides that I just do not get on with (that's life) so I contact the ones that I do get on with and they have been more than willing to help and offer advice. I still respect ALL the category guides (even the ones I don't like!) and I am sure that any one of them would be willing to help out a member, so email them!


There have been many suggestions on how to improve the crowning system. But personally I feel "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!" Suggestions of a scaled or tiered crown system have been mentioned. Well if people are unhappy when the options are crowned/not crowned, how many MORE people will be upset when they get a bronze crown instead of a silver or Gold? If the Crowns awarded at present are considered inconsistent, how will widening the scope for variation improve the system? If anything, it will just make it worse!


The best way to gain a crown, is to write well. Research your opinion
and ask yourself honestly, does it really stand out? Does it really contain all the information that it could? If the answer to either of these questions is no, then why would a complete stranger think it is worth a crown? I have 10 crowns from 67 opinions (and recieved none of these in the first four months of using the site!). Nothing special, pretty average for the site, but I worked hard for them. When I got them, I was over the moon and each one made me smile. By all means write to get a crown, but if you don't get one, forget about it, life's too short. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again! I know I will!


As a final thought, please bear in mind that we the members have the power to get opinions looked at. So, it may take a few extra seconds to press the nominate button, but YOU would be a bit fed up if YOU missed out on a crown just because someone couldn't be bothered. Please don't fall into the trap of thinking "oh well it's good, someone else will nominate it so I don't have to bother". If we all did this, it might end up with noone nominating the opinion at all.The nominate button, gets opinions looked at. Use it, if we all read/rated and nominated other opinions fairly as we would like our own to be treated, then the site would be a much happier place!


For all those people who are so sure that the system needs changing, be careful what you wish for as it may just come true, and in the wise words of Kylie "Better the Devil you know than the Devil you don't!"


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