What not to Doo... (dooyoo - Members' Opinions On How to Rate And Comment)

Member Name: rosebud2001

Product:	dooyoo - Members' Opinions On How to Rate And Comment
Date:	02/03/09 (471 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: My opinion on reading and rating on Dooyoo

Disadvantages: No-one can please everyone all of the time on this site :-)

Ratings on Dooyoo seem to provoke a lot of debate. This is to be expected - we are all different people with different opinions, but there are some things I suggest you bear in mind when rating other reviews here on Dooyoo.

EFFORT

Don't mark up because a review is lengthy and you feel the author has put a lot of work into it. If the review is well written and tells you all you need to know about what the author thought of the product then great - it deserves a Very Useful rating.

However if its padded with ingredients, track listings, quotes that are easily found yourself from the manufacturer, and other unnecessary stuff that is going to be of no interest to someone who wants to know the bottom line of "is this product any good?", then that so-called "effort" doesn't need to be rewarded.

Also ask yourself - did you enjoy reading it? Lengthy doesn't always mean excellent - it can also mean turgid.

ALTERNATIVELY...

Don't mistake short reviews for something less than perfect - some reviews can pack a punch and in 250 or 300 words tell you all you need to know about a product! Sometimes short is beautiful.

READING

May sound like stating the bleeding obvious but judging by some of the ratings given to seriously inferior reviews lately, some people cannot be taking the time to actually read reviews. I know some of us read faster than others but some people I suspect are skimming rather than reading and failing to notice if a review is actually any good and worthy of a high rating.

REVENGE

So someone has rated your review as Useful or worse. Big deal. You still get 1.5p for it and going back to that user's reviews and giving a less than glowing rating just for the sake of it isn't the way Dooyoo works. And don't think they won't notice that you've picked a really early review to do this to either.

OVERDOING IT

Don't rate everything "Very Useful" because you think it will make you popular. Honesty is valued in the long-term far more I find and you aren't going to help newbies who need to learn the ropes by rating something that's substandard "Very Useful" when it quite clearly isn't.

You also aren't helping the non-member who has come to Dooyoo for good quality reviews on a product they are considering buying by over-rating substandard reviews.

Be honest - a Useful rating isn't a bad one and I have no idea why some people take it as a personal affront. It's only the internet - and like I said, you still get paid.

Try to develop the hind of a rhinoceros - it really does help.

DISAGREE

If someone argues or posts something you fundamentally disagree with in a review, don't let this affect your rating. If the review is well written with their case well put, you shouldn't let your own personal feelings affect how you rate.

You can of course comment that you disagree and start a huge debate in the comments section, which can be fun ;-)

NO COMMENT

If you rate something low and there is an obvious reason such as it is in the wrong category or is copied, try to explain why. However do not resort to rudeness - even if a review is downright awful - there's no excuse for bad manners. If a member wants to learn how to improve upon their reviews, they have the option to PM you and ask you.

It's also quite nice to tell someone you liked their review so do say so if you really did. You don't have to to tell someone if you nominated them or not - personally I do not and as has been pointed out in the past don't always believe someone who says they have nominated you either - they only said they did and I could tell you I won Miss World last year and you wouldn't believe me now, would you?

SO FINALLY...

Remember Abraham Lincoln's famous quote of not being able to please all of the people all of the time - works for me!

And please feel free to comment.

Summary: An opinion piece from me regarding the etiquette of Dooyoo ratings and comments