How many will read this? Twenty? (dooyoo Crowns)

Member Name: Aang

Product:	dooyoo Crowns
Date:	02/04/02 (75 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The crown system causes a lot of unhappiness.

Disadvantages: More crowns would mean more encouragement.

School Prize Giving: Anthony, who is considered by some to be clever and scholarly, but by others to be not wildly useful, walked off with tons of medals and cups and books; Jane, who is an original thinker, received one small medal; Sally got flip all, even though she worked flat out and had all sorts of quirky talents. Billy got nothing because he lacks encouragement and lots of other things.

Anthony is now a civil servant at the ministry for selling weapons of death and has received various honours from the state. Jane is now doing good work among the poor and will never be rewarded by the state with anything other than a poor salary. Sally is now running a major company which employs thousands, but she does not donate to any political party and will not receive any honours. Billy has given up.

Lord Archer and Robert Maxwell received honours because they looked and sounded impressive. Graham Greene never received a knighthood because his tastes in politics and sex were unorthodox. Van Gogh's talents were not fully appreciated by the awarders of honours. Prize givings and honours systems are often unfair. But does it matter? Jane and Sally have done well in their own ways.

Well, I think it does matter when a system is unfair. I would like to see a wider circle of talent being recognised. I'd like Billy, who might be the next poet laureate, to be given some encouragement. I'd like Billy to have a look at some of the rubbishy and marvelous stuff that I write.

The dooyoo 'crown' system does not work as well as it should. I wrote a mediocre piece on Samarinda and it immediately received a crown. I wrote a much superior piece on Melaka and it received no crown. I could quote other similar examples. The majority of dooyooers are not being rewarded appropriately for their efforts; and many appear to have given up.

Now, you could argue that a dedicated writer should not worry about whether or not a 'c
rown' is awarded. But I worry about the fact that so many of my 'circle of friends' no longer write for dooyoo. I worry about the fact that it is the same few folks who are regularly writing and reading ops. I want a reasonably big audience to see the wonderful things on dooyoo.

I write for a local newspaper. Each article takes about two hours to compose and is read by thousands of people. When I wrote a piece for Asiaweek, it took me half an hour to put together, and it would have been read by some highly influential people. But, when I write an opinion for dooyoo, it sometimes takes me DAYS to do all the research, and then perhaps only 20 people read it. That is not a lot of people.

So, may I propose either the scrapping of crowns.

Or, something like the following system, which would award more crowns to more people-

1. There could be Platinum Crowns which would work just like the existing crowns, except that no member could receive more than 12 per year. People like Anthony might get a few Platinums, but hopefully the talents of someone like Jane would also be recognised.

2. There could be Gold Crowns, awarded to opinions of merit, which for some reason do not quite qualify for the superior Platinum award. These Gold Crowns could be worth 500 points and no member could receive more than 24 per year. The persons awarding the Golds would be different from the persons awarding the Platinums. Hopefully, Sally, whose English is not so hot, would qualify for some Golds.

3. There could be Diamond Crowns, awarded by an independent panel to writers whose talents the panel felt had not been fully appreciated by dooyoo. Perhaps Van Gogh, Graham Green, Billy or even Mr Speaker would get Diamond Crowns. Diamond Crowns could be worth 500 points.

4. There would be Silver Crowns. Every time a dooyooer has written 10 (or 20) opinions that person would receive one Silver Crown. That crown would signal the
opinion which dooyoo considered to be the best of the bunch of ten (or twenty). The Silvers would have no monetary value.

To sum up: all dooyooers should find themselves receiving regular crowns (and not just Silvers). Only the worst of the churners would fail to receive anything but a Silver.

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