I've been reading a lot of reviews in this category which cover the new dooyoo miles system, and I wanted to add my thoughts to the collection. I'm not going to describe the system here - this is an opinion-based review.

Firstly, there seem to be a lot of people complaining that DooYoo didn't mention the changes beforehand, send out a survey etc. I don't have a problem with that in itself, because they were always going to make the changes and there would have been a massive influx of reviews (particularly in food and drink) before it took place. However, I do think that DooYoo needs a better way of communicating (e.g. official announcements appearing at the top of the screen like message alerts, or even just a message), because chancing upon an ad or scrolling through the community news or worst still, reading about it in someone else's review is not the way to do things. (I don't know if any emails were sent because I opt out, but I'm assuming there weren't).

I'm also amused by the amount of people saying they aren't here for the money - there are plenty of review sites out there which don't pay so why not try them out? These same people seem to be knocking out reviews in the top tier on a regular basis and complaining about areas that don't pay so much as well. Just be honest, there's no shame in admitting the money is a reason to post or even just a nice bonus.

I also don't like the fact that I can't see what level the category/reivew is purely by going to the Write or Product page.

Music/Film Reviews

I'm going to be controversial here and say that I really like the fact they're tier 3. Don't get me wrong, I feel bad for the talented writers who put tons of time and effort into crafting great reviews, but these topics aren't something that appeal to me, and they tend to be overwritten. To be honest, if I want a film review/rating I'll go to IMDB - and music comes under my view of perfume (more on that in a bit). If I like the artist, I'll already own the album or at least have it on my wishlist. I can't tell at all what an album sounds like from reading a description of songs, and people have such personal taste in music anyway that it's rare that my opinion will match up with theirs. If I want to find out about new music, I'll listen to the radio or follow my favourite/suggested artists.

Film and music reviews on DooYoo *can* be dangerously prententious for my liking. Some people seem to like to pretend they're broadsheet columnists or something. Less of them can only be a good thing in my opinion, particularly as there's the whole issue of reviewing the product vs reviewing the film.

Top Tier Reviews

Most of these are understandable. However, I do feel in some cases that certain areas have been 'pushed through', for examples kids' pushchairs reviews are popular because they are expensive mistakes, but things like board games I'm sure have just been pushed through under the general kids' category. So maybe we'll see some more reshuffling as time goes on.

I am one of those unlucky people that doesn't own countless laptops, fridges etc. and doesn't have young kids. So it's difficult for me to find topics to write on in the top tier - but I've gone through the areas and found things to write about, and making a list as you go along works well too. It's a good chance to develop writing skills in other areas, though it will be more of a challenge to find products I own and have used extensively enough in the top category.

Perfume is one of those surprising top tier ones. I have no idea why this is so highly thought of by DooYoo unless it's for people looking for gifts (if you are buying someone perfume as a present by the way, just bloody ask them what they like in a subtle way or look on their dressing table - or even, y'know, go into a shop and smell some and pick one out yourself). Perfume is impossible to describe in words - it's 'smell' not 'sight' after all, and again it's too dependent on personal taste. You don't necessarily know whether you're reading the review of a 70 year old woman or a 14 year old boy for starters.

Food and drink

People are complaining that this is so low when it's popular with non-members. Guess what? It's not unless it's a new product. Maybe there could be some time-delay or something, but that would encourage massive influxes of reviews in a short space of time, not to mention making everything more complicated for DooYoo and its members. Food/drink reviews are only popular with members because they are easy to read and easy to write. DooYoo used to have a policy of not allowing bread to be suggested, because they didn't want hundreds of reviews of it. So I personally think that if all this food and drink stuff was restricted by DooYoo as it used to be, then we may not have had such a massive overhaul of the system in the first place.

Churners

Yes there are a lot more 150 words of rubbish about laptops. Most of the reviews there are poor anyway though, whether they're 150 words or 600. If I'm honest, most of what's written about electronics is only 'Somewhat Useful' to me. It's nice that you're honest enough to admit you don't quite know what RAM is or you think that your computer is 'good', but don't try to blag it by writing about stuff you have no clue about, because it's very obvious and not helpful to potential buyers.

Overall, I think there are some good changes and some bad. I am slightly worried that the day will come when I have nothing to write about for more than 10p, and I'm also kind of bored of reading about appliances already, but what can you do?! I'll probably be writing about perfume before I know it.

I'd prefer a system like someone else suggested in a review, where it's based on the member not the reviews. So an algorthim based on how many reviews you've rated, how useful your reviews are, how long you've been a member and how many reviews you've written are all used to determine what you're paid, a flat fee which could potentially go up or down over time. This would stop churners in their tracks and also reward DooYoo's funniest, finest and generally pretty spectacular writers and keep them here.