Jo Starr Ate My Hamster (dooyoo vs other opinion websites)

Member Name: pje

Product:	dooyoo vs other opinion websites
Date:	26/10/01 (106 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: You get paid for telling people what you think...

Disadvantages: ...other people tell you you're talking cobblers.

So, why am I here?
Well, first there was a big bang, later after things cooled down
there were some dinosaurs, but then a meteorite hit the Earth
and they all died out. Ok, ok, I'll cut to this year...

When I decided to start participating in one of these opinion sites
back in January, I intended to start posting on Epinions -
I didn't expect to make any money, I just wanted to have fun
winding up the Yanks. Achieving the $50 needed to be able to
make a claim seemed unrealistic. Ditto dooyoo's daunting £50...

...or rather 50000 miles. That put me off. I don't trust imaginary
currencies likes beenz, ipoints or thingymiles because you can't
be sure you won't suddenly find the rug pulled from under your
feet at some point. The inventors of a currency rule over its value
and can change the rules as they go along. As they doo.

When I found out that Ciao paid in REAL money, and that I could
claim as soon as I reached £10, I decided to have a bash.
Fortunately there weren't too many people around to see me!

I would rather be able to cash in regularly than be at the mercy
of any dot.com. Particularly one that changes the rules on paying
out when it suits them, or worse still, one that could change the
value of your earnings. (And of course it won't be long before one
or other of the UK sites starts paying in euros, and we all know
that that little adjustment will be another excuse for a pay-cut.)

Now don't tell me that I shouldn't be in it for the money - that's
not the point. Yes, I would still write for nothing if that was all
there was on offer, but it's not. Plus, our time is finite, and there
are lots of other things we all enjoy dooing with our spare time.
These opinion sites derive all their content from us, the members,
and I suspect that it doesn't cost th
em more than the salaries of
a couple of employees. We are a bargain.

So to the big cheeses I say this: Be careful! You wouldn't find it
easy to hire a couple of people in Paris or Madrid to provide you
with all your content. I'll be interested to see how much content
is added to Ciao following their decision to slash payments.

I haven't spent a great deal of time on epinions, so, in the main,
this op will be my analysis of the significant differences between
Ciao and dooyoo.


Layout & Navigation
'''''''''& #39;''''' 9;''''''''' 9;'''''' ;'''''''''' ;'
Sorry, dooyooers, but I have to say I prefer Ciao's cosy layout to
dooyoo's huge expanses of white, which can be hard on the eyes
(especially late at night!) Ciao also use a slightly larger font size.
However, having the facility to view the most recent 75 opinions
[ops] (as opposed to 20 on Ciao) as well as every op posted in
the last week in any specific category is a huge plus for dooyoo.

As for navigation, well, both sites are a bit labyrinthine.
For instance, in the entertainment sections stuff is listed by genre
(which has led to a lot of duplication on Ciao), while A-Z lists are
buried. And the lack of a link between the comments and ratings
pages here on dooyoo is annoying. But there are worse things...

Here we come to the crunch, why did I forsake Ciao for dooyoo?
What overcame my reluctance to dooyoomiles and the silly name?
(What was it I used to call dooyoo? Hmm, I can't remember now.)


Ratings
'''''''''& #39;''''' 9;
Picture the scene, you get up on a Monday morning, and decide
to have a quick look at Ciao
to see if you've had any reads, and
you discover someone you don't trust seems to be working their
way through your recent ops marking them one rating level
below everyone else. Now the odd low rating may be justified -
you're not perfect after all, but some are just taking the biscuit.

This is a weak spot of Ciao. Here on dooyoo ratings are displayed
on a separate page, all together. On epinions the names of the
last few members to rate the op, and the rating, are shown next
to it. But Ciao adapted this badly. They display the names of the
last three members to rate the op AT EACH RATING LEVEL.

This means that if one person gives a different rating to everyone
else, their name remains visible in perpetuity. You don't need to
be an expert in Game Theory to understand that this means you
can steal an advantage (in terms of visibility) by downrating ops.

This is why I refuse to rate on Ciao unless they change. Although
I have been sorely tempted to prove my point by demonstration!


Comments
'''''''''& #39;''''' 9;''''''
The comments threads work upwards on both site making them
difficult to follow (how hard would it be for them to go the other
way?) Ciao use a smaller font which makes them more compact,
and they also split them up into subpages, whereas dooyoo put
them all on one page. More clicks or a long time to load the page
- you pays your money and takes your choice. Neither site allows
you to edit or delete your comments, which you can on epinions.
I've also noticed that epinions supports some text formatting
(e.g. bold and italic type).


OpCom versus The Grope
'''''''''& #39;''''' 9;''''''''' 9;'
9;'''''''''&# 39;'''''' ''''''''''
If you want to be privy to the goings-on behind the scenes of
both sites (and, believe me, you do) there are two main forums.

The Ciao yahoogroup: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ciao_uk
is the simpler of the two, with (effectively) one message thread.
Basically it's an unmoderated free-for-all. These messages can
only be seen by other members, but anyone who is mad enough
to want to, can join. It has become known as the Grope thanks
to wiggglypufff. Don't ask me why.

dooyoo's OpCom or Opinionated Community (which are the same,
only different, for some reason I expect isn't worth trying to get
my head round) is open to view by non-members, and consists of
several sub-sections each containing more threads than a wool
factory full of kittens. For more details see TheKnight's recent op.


Dosh
'''''''''& #39;'
I'll keep this brief, because you all know the score and it's vulgar
to talk about money. Ciao now pay a penny for your thoughts
for each member that reads 'em, but only in certain categories
(Banking, Cars/Bikes, Electronics/Photography, Health & Beauty,
Family, Food & Beverages and, inevitably, Telecommunications.)
Plus referral schemes, paid-for surveys (if you ever get any)
and the Premium Fund which divvies up £1100 between almost
2000 of the 'best' ops (paying bonuses ranging from 12p to £30.)

dooyoo will now pay thruppence a read, sorry 30 miles, with an
unspecified number of Premier opinions receiving a crown worth
1500 miles. dooyoo have allocated 4654 crowns to date, which
by my reckoning is an average of about ten a day (give or take).


The Crown versus The Premium Fund
''
'''''''''' ;''''''&# 39;'''''''''&# 39;''''' 9;''''''''' 9;'''''' ;'''''''''' ;'''''' '''''''''' '
Nominating an op for a crown is my favourite bit of dooyooing.
Effectively it gives us the much desired fifth rating level, enabling
you to distinguish between those ops you rate VU because they
are really brilliant, and those you rate VU, even though they're a
bit borderline, because you don't want to be the only one to look
like a stingy git. Or because the writer reads all your ops and you
don't want to risk upsetting them.

The only minor qualm I have about the crown nomination system
is that if you click the button by an accidental slip of the mouse,
you cannot correct your mistake, otherwise it's wonderful.

After the recent changes crowns are now worth £1.50, or maybe
I'd better say 1500 miles (just in case the dooyoomile is devalued
grrrr, don't even think about it...) However, there seems to be no
indication as to how many are handed out. Will there be more :o)
less :-( or the same :-?

Things are much less transparent on Ciao.
Let us now look into a very dark place...

The way that Ciao's Premium Fund is determined is kept secret,
to the extent that no-one is even supposed to know which ops
have been awarded a bonus payment. Nothing secretive is fair.
Secrecy is only used when there is something to hide.

The only exceptions to this secrecy are the "ten great opinions"
which are listed in Ciao's Community Centre each month.
These are now also adorned with a diamond, which, I think you
have to admit, look
even better than crowns. For the benefit of
anyone who hasn't seen one yet, I've nicked one from the mad
cabbie and stuck it on my profile page. (Unfortunately it doesn't
look so good blown up.)

If you're wondering why anyone would continue posting ops in
those Ciao categories that now pay no money at all, you clearly
haven't been on the receiving end of a big payout. Basically the
Premium Fund [PF] is just a slush fund that Ciao use to keep
most of the best contributors on-side, and on-site. It pays out
big-time to a few lucky recipients, and dishes out the equivalent
of a few crowns to many others. Or rather it did...

Now there is now going to be less money spread amongst more
opinions, with many ops receiving a paltry 12p, while a few will
receive a whopping £30. A bit like a raffle, except it's not random.
Ciao will rely on members fancying their chances of beating their
fellow Ciaosters to the jackpot. The belief is that all ops, including
those in the unpaid categories, will be eligible for big PF pay-outs.
But anyone who has investigated the PF can only conclude that it
has always been biased towards some categories, according to
an undisclosed pecking order, and I can't see that changing now.
When the first of these payments goes through I expect war to
break out on the Grope between the lucky, smug, self-satisfied
few, and everyone else who will be spitting feathers.

So in the matter of the Crown versus the Premium Fund, I find
the Premium Fund guilty of fraud. Now where's my black cap..?


The Future
'''''''''& #39;''''' 9;'''''''
A lot of Ciaosters are going to become very demotivated as they
see their account balance crawl upwards or get stuck altogether.
Something had to give.
When I posted an op (okay, it was more
of a rant) last Sunday evening I was staggered by the number of
instant reads it received; and looking around the site it was clear
to me that the average number of reads people were getting had
increased by a huge amount in the last few months. People had
become very proficient at giving each other more of Ciao's money.
These sites have a very limited number of staff, with a limited
number of hours in a day to chase down possible avenues of
revenue, so they must have to prioritize. Generally, Ciao have
always seemed more interested in ops on expensive consumer
gizmos. You won't see (m)any diamonds next to book reviews,
for example, while Aspen's fine gardening advice clearly didn't
butter Ciao's parsnips. It's interesting, and perhaps significant,
though that the Health section on Ciao is one of the few paying
sections, because Ciao's numero uno (Trampus) has contributed
greatly to that section. Well, yoodoo have to look after your star
talent, don't yoo? And condom ops still pay too, so wigggly's ok.

I don't believe that either site is doomed, but in order to co-exist
I've always felt that they would have to diverge at some point,
and aim for different markets. Ciao seem to be taking the road
less travelled by, which makes me sigh. I have some good friends
who are totally committed to Ciao and who will doubtless soldier
on while the reading and rating system collapses around them.
(How much reciprocal reading/rating will there be if no-one is
getting a penny for it?) The only thing they get out of writing for
Ciao now is the possibiliy of a PF windfall, and an orange bindi.
(For those who haven't heard, Ciao have introduced a caste
system whereby members are given a rating and a coloured dot
to indicate their status.)

If you ar
e a really good writer then it's possible that for ops in
the categories that pay you may be better off posting on Ciao
and chasing the Premium Fund jackpot, but otherwise you're in
the right place here on dooyoo. The knee-jerk reduction in rates
here smacked of panic or opportunism, either way it looked bad.
But the fact is that dooyoo are still paying, and paying quite well.
They even pay for waffly ops like this, and those in Speakers
Corner as well. Does anyone else pay you for your opinion on
stuff like that? Or your top ten this or that? If so, please tell me!

In my first op I said that the excellent books section was one
thing that convinced me I should be here. Hopefully dooyoo can
capitalise on this strength somehow, they don't have much choice
in fact, because some of dooyoo's star talent write about books.
So I feel as safe an unpopular bearded bloke in a deep tunnel,
which by dot.com standards is secure indeed. (Sorry, is it in bad
taste to make jokes about Noel Edmonds?)

So, as Dido might say if she dooyood: it's not so bad.
Ummmm, I wonder if she does...dooyoo dooyoo Dido?
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