Reading Rating and Reciprocating on Dooyoo (dooyoo - Members' Opinions On How to Rate And Comment)

Member Name: marandina

Product:	dooyoo - Members' Opinions On How to Rate And Comment
Date:	13/01/02 (74 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The reciprocation method may help

Disadvantages: You may not want to bother

I write this with a certain amount of trepidation having only been here for a few weeks. Of course, this is only my humble opinion and you are welcome to shout me down but I thought I’d give my version of the above.

Reading

There are lots of opinions on Dooyoo ranging from washing machine ops to penis puppet plays. How to choose which to read is a blur. Maybe a little clear thinking is needed here. So what are you interested in? Seems obvious but when faced with a page of 50 ops then it can seem a little daunting. If you are interested in the subject matter, chances are, you’ll read it. Of course, after a while you’ll build up a circle of friends and you’ll feel obliged to look after them. Well, that’s OK. Remember though, that they will write on subjects that you are not necessarily interested in from time to time. Depending on your loyalty, you can either bite the bullet and read everything they write or choose only those ops that interest you. If you go for the latter then you may risk losing their trust if they feel that you’ve forsaken them. It’s funny how everyday values filter into the cyber community! Of couse, Dooyoo, Ciao etc were put together to help consumers make informed choices. This seems a pretty good reason to use these sites! I seem to have saved some people 90 mins of hell through my opinion on Rocky & Bullwinkle. That makes me feel good as long as readers remember that it is just my opinion after all. I mean, I may not know what I’m talking about, in which case, read more than one op on the same subject. You’ll build a balanced picture and be able to make your decision.

Rating

Care needs to be taken not to rate everything as very useful. There are genuine consumers out there that want to know that an opinion is really accurate as they may be considering renting a film or buying a product. It’s easy to be nice but it counts for a lot to genuinely rate
a piece but qualify it with constructive criticism. Most folks won’t mind and will become better writers for it (thanks to Slim Lee who made this point very eloquently recently on Ciao where the affliction of over-rating is even greater). Just occasionally, I read a truly terrible op that lasts for a whole paragraph. Hmm…what to do? Well. So far, I’ve been nice and chosen not to rate. However, strictly speaking, I guess these should get an unhelpful rating with ensuing constructive comments.

***Cardinal sin*** Rating authors you are "paly" with and forming a click cartel. You may not set out to do this but I suspect it’s all too common. There’s lot of reasons to rate an opinion. These may include a) looking for a kickback i.e. rate highly so that your op gets read in return b)You are just too darn nice c) you are scared to rate anything other than top marks due to fear of reprisals; becoming unpopular; not getting reads back.

***Crowns***
I'm really gonna go out on a limb on this one. I generally haven't got a problem with the ops I've seen awarded crowns. Funnily enough, I'd like to see MORE nominations. There are many ops written that get loads of comments like "fantastic op" or "great stuff" etc that don't get the recognition they deserve. I think folks should use the nominate option MORE. I mean, all that will happen is that the good people of DY will have more to choose from when making their award. Bizarrely, I've had 2 ops with comments about being nominated - one of which did get a gong. *However, I've had 2 others where no-one's mentioned it as crown potential and yet it has been recognised with the pointy symbol (maybe they were aberrations on Dooyoo's part - probably explains it!). Yeah, I know the op should be of a suitably high standard. My contention is that many ARE and don't get nominated.

To sum up on this one ~ Rate as
you genuinely feel but back it up with helpful comments. I’m not going to say too much more on this one, as it is a contentious area. At the end of the day, if you are comfortable with your rating and motives then great...carry on and do your best.

Reciprocation

The bit I really wanted to write. I find it all very confusing when I’m faced with a long list of folks that have read my stuff. Firstly, I am flattered and get a real kick from the fact that people have taken the time to read my scribbling. I’m not bad but not the best either. So, I suddenly want to read everyone else’s stuff as a thankyou (yep, I’m sorta in the "nice" category although I try to rate genuinely). So far, this has been time consuming. However, I’ve now found a way to cut down on the time and make more sense out of the jungle of people that I read and read me.

***The method***

What I’ve started to do is this:

Excepting my COF, which I re-visit regularly.

1 I look up who’s rated my op.
2 I start a blank sheet in Microsoft Word
3 I click on all of the names that have read my op and highlight them.
4 I right click on my mouse and paste the list of names onto the blank word sheet
5 The list that gets copied across is automatically in HTML format
6 I then copy and paste the author’s name from this list into the search box at the top of the Dooyoo page.
7 I do a member search (using the drop down menu on the left) and, voila, author found and I can go to their latest op.

Prior to this I was spending ages back-peddling through screens and, often, I had to go back into my profile and slog through all sorts to reciprocate. If the Net was on a go slow then this became like a visit to the dentist when you know you won’t get away with just a check-up.

Well that’s it. I hope this helps and I realise that folks have all sorts of reasons
for reading, rating and reciprocation. All I can say is that I love this site and there are a lot of excellent writers out there who are helping me by just doing their stuff. Keep it up guys (and galls) and I look forward to your comments.

p.s. (and a biggie) Thanks to Scot Girl, I now know that I can right click on anyone's name and open their profile in a seperate window. This makes life distinctly easier when it comes to reciprocation. Ah well, if nobody tells ya, you don't know!

Very best wishes

Marandina

*My ops getting crowns ranks aside great mysteries like "What's at the bottom of Loch Ness?" and "Why is it that when I slip a book under the Leaning Tower of Pisa, nothing happens?"

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