league table (dooyoo Crowns)

Member Name: pje

Product:	dooyoo Crowns
Date:	31/03/02 (94 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Transparency is better than secrecy any day.

Disadvantages: Everybody wants 'em, and some people want one every time.

Maybe I'm breaking a big taboo here, I don't know. Maybe it's sneaky, doing it on a Bank Holiday Weekend. Maybe the mad cabbie will boycott me for a month for doing it. Maybe Jill will go 'Eeek!' and never forgive me. But at the bottom of this opinion there is a league table showing the most crowned dooyoo members. (Come back when you've finished looking, ok?)
Yes, the usual suspects are all there (apart from Keyser Soze who seems to have escaped) but maybe there are more of them than people realize. My figures show that 67 members have accrued twenty crowns or more, and 171 have at least ten. In all, 1,247 members have at least one crown.
So, so what if Jill has more crowns than anyone else, and the mad cabbie is right behind her tooting his horn? Besides, they had a head start - they've been pumping out good ops here on dooyoo since the year dot. What is much more significant is how crowns are being allocated this year.
Look at how the last thousand crowns have been spread around:-
---------------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ----------------
dooyoo members with the most crowns out of the last 1000 awarded
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
17 marandina
16 Mauri
14 Sub Conscious
14 zoe_page
13 collingwood21
13 jillmurphy
13 kenjohn
12 davidbuttery
12 george_lazenby
12 grinchgirl
11 jammaker49
11 JOHNDMR
11 KingHerrod
11 ks.h
11 MALU
11 merv
11 Ophelia
10 chris105
10 IainWear
10 SueMagee
`9 chele2002
`9 cmh4135
`9 indiecater
`9 triplecthegame
`9 wampyrii
`8 cazm17
`8 hogsflesh
`8 Sexy Kay
`8 Shazzy
`8 spoonfacer

`7 [another `14 members]
`6 [another `12 members]
`5 [another `14 members]
`4 [another `16 members]
`3 [another `36 members]
`2 [another `52 members]
`1 [another 156 member
s]
---------------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ----------------
So the last thousand crowns to be awarded (about eleven weeks worth) have been split between 330 different members. Which means that if there is an 'elite' it's a very BIG elite! And as you can see, there are some fairly new and less well known members scoring quite well in that list, too. It seems to me that crowns ARE being spread around, and that there are a large number of very good opsters on dooyoo.

So why the moaning peeps? I think the trouble started when payments were reduced and people expected crowns to make up the shortfall. Which they don't. Plus there has been some bad feeling about the instant crowning of some ops. (And far be it from me to say that some of those people had worked out that the best time to post an op was a Monday lunchtime, just before dooyoo started to dish them out that afternoon.)

And then there are those people with lots of crowns on their front page (because when someone gets a crown for every op, something IS wrong.) They remind me of that nutter who celebrates Christmas all year round. Just because you CAN, doesn't mean you SHOULD.

Crowns should be for those special ops that someone has put that extra bit of effort into. If people are putting that extra bit of effort into EVERY op then they are being too dang conscientious (or else just plain greedy!) They maintain that it's possible to write a crownworthy opinion every time. Well it's certainly possible to only ever POST crownworthy ops, but it's not necessarily good for dooyoo, in my opinion. And here's why:

Suppose everyone did that. (Only posted crown-standard ops, that is.) What happens then? Do dooyoo crown every op - which would cost them much more money for fewer ops? No. They would go bust. So they would have to raise the standard required for a crown, and then you're back to square one,
except that fewer ops are being posted, and members unable to reach the new standard give up the ghost. And so m'lud, I put it you that dooyoo NEEDS lots of bog-standard ordinary opinions (preferably VU ones, of course) otherwise we might end up with fewer and fewer people writing longer and longer opinions (like my absurdly long Top 10 Children's Books op, which I might finish tomorrowish with a bit of luck) and dooyoo would become a waffle shop. And how many waffle shops have you seen on the high street, huh? None, because there's no call for them. Capisce?

So I don't think dooyoo should dish out more crowns, because they would become meaningless if they were everywhere. And the gold, silver and bronze idea would just cause more controversy ("What? My op not even worth a Bronze? I demand satisfaction sir!") Besides, bronze and gold both just look orange on a computer screen, and do I not like orange. ;-)

I think we should be trying to write good VU opinions, and OCCASIONALLY going overboard where something is particularly deserving, or where we have relevant special knowledge. When I defected to dooyoo, I came over the wall armed with an op which I knew would get a crown because it was such an Unbelievably Fab One. But I quite deliberately held it back until I had posted a few 'ordinary' ops because I was wary of falling into the trap of high expectations: whereby everyone expects every one of your ops to be crown-standard. If you fall into that trap you will inevitably find yourself stuck for things you can write 'good enough' ops about. (Maybe we should force those people who insist on only posting crown-grabbing ops to write about disinfectants, cheese and video recorders!)

Seriously though, crowns are much better than Ciao's Premium Fund, which is shrouded in secrecy to stop people finding out how unfair it is.
(It seems to be based around ratings, but with a very heavy bias toward
s certain categories.) Dooyoo's crowns are there for all to see (and moan about) so you can check out exactly how many crowns any member has, and whether some categories are more equal than others, which is good.

However, I think that the mountain you have to climb to reach a pay-out on dooyoo diminishes the motivation to get down and write another op. Perhaps the powers-that-be should give out a few LESS crowns, making them more special, and spread the money saved amongst other VU ops. (But that's another op altogether - if I can be bothered to write it.)



So, here it is, the dooyoo league table, don't say you didn't want to know, 'cos I won't believe you!

Close your eyes now if you don't want to know your score...
______________________________________________ _____________ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
The Top 100 most crowned dooyoo members (Easter 2002)
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ¯
93 jillmurphy
87 kenjohn
78 MykReeve
66 nikkisly
60 sidneygee
57 ScotGirl
56 SueMagee
55 D1A1
55 KingHerrod
50 TigerTiger

48 lily7star
46 JOHNDMR
41 LatexFanClub
41 MALU
41 peel.rebekah
41 rob_writer
40 alkaliguru
39 a-true-ben
37 george_lazenby
37 grinchgirl

36 defiler
36 Sexy Kay
35 wampyrii
33 Silent Bob
32 Brett Bligh
32 hugon
31 karenuk
31 lamorna
31 MR.COATES
29 chris105
29 zebra
28 1maryanne
28 Celandine
28 chrissypops
28 zoe_page
27 assethound
27 themoomin
27 triplecthegame
26 ashford
26 avitallly
26 idodoyou
26 Peakly
25 collingwood21
25 dave27
25 KathrynPenguin
25 Mauri
25 ronniec
25 Smark1985
24 BizzyB
24 Ian Proudfoot
24 jusophine
24 Parsley
24 Slim Lee
24 TJ-Mackey
23 Tr
evor15
23 wishywalshy
22 fluffypup
22 hogsflesh
22 michaelhudson
22 mo79
22 pje
22 Tcraze84
22 x_elff_x
21 ermintrude
21 GR-Design
21 The Duke
20 marandina
19 cmh4135
19 Daisybelle
19 dreamerz
19 easypar4
19 huddro
19 indiecater
19 libertybell
19 star500
19 Whitehorse
18 Belgian999
18 chele2002
18 Diaz
18 ks.h
18 paule23
18 steveymacca
17 kittykat18
17 scattyredhead
17 Sue Ellen
16 IainWear
16 MorganaDQ
16 Rumblefish
16 sunbeam
15 Ann J Sec
15 Aspen
15 gollygumdrops
15 indigojade
15 JamesD22
15 LOOKAROUNDCAFE
15 lordpercy
15 merv
15 Morgenhund
15 Nibelung
15 Redhead23
15 trampus

And before anyone complains, two words: public domain.
OK, you can go 'Eeek' now Jill...
______________________________________________ _____________ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

Summary: