A few of my thoughts on Dooyoo (Feedback and General Suggestions for dooyoo)

Member Name: sandemp

Product:	Feedback and General Suggestions for dooyoo
Date:	15/08/09 (157 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The best site of it's kind (in my eyes)

Disadvantages: Not perfect

Having been a member of several review sites over the years, I have to say that Dooyoo is my favourite and the one I've found myself spending the most time on since once more finding myself able to connect to the internet. That's not to say it's perfect, because it isn't. So what do I think would improve the site and what do I think is perfect as it is? Well read on and I'll share my thoughts......

The first thing I noticed on returning to the site after a two year break was the new payment method. Dooyoo never used to pay 50p per review, there was just the flat rate of 3p per member read. While I understand the general idea behind paying for each review published (excepting speakers corner and archive), I think Dooyoo's really shot themselves in the foot with this one. Yes they've encouraged an influx of new writers to the site but a lot of these post countless reviews that barely scrape a SU rate let alone U. The number of reviews on chocolate bars is ridiculous, come on, does anyone really look for somebody else's opinion to read before deciding to buy a Mars bar? Thought not.

I think that removing the 50p payment would discourage this get-rich-quick mind set and encourage us all to spend a little more time and thought on each review. To off-set this potential loss of earnings maybe the payment per read could be increased to 2p. This would also encourage the newer writers to spend some time reading other peoples reviews rather than just posting in a production line manner. I struggle to write a review a day, I've no idea how anyone can manage 20-30. Sorry yes I do have an idea, but I just wouldn't feel right only making half-hearted attempts at getting my point across.

Carrying on from this point is the minimum word count, 150 words is just not enough to provide a balanced opinion on anything. Yes there are some great writers on here that could possibly write a Useful review in these few words, but they are very few and far between. Personally I would like to see a 250 word minimum as I feel that a Useful review could possibly be contained within this length. Although this may just increase another bane of the site, description rather than opinion to me it seems the lesser of the two evils.

Another bug-bear of mine is the very obvious over-rating on the site and the apparent inability to accept anything lower than VU. There are simply too many reviews that contain nothing but drivel, or lists or in the cases of films and books simply recount the plot with no opinion which are given blanket VUs. Then someone comes along, rates U or below and receives nothing but grief. Me, I can ignore messages where the writer is less than pleased with being given a rate lower than VU, but not everybody can. So what do I think the answer is? Well a good start would be to make rating anonymous. I think this will make those scared of revenge rating far more likely to rate how they feel, and then the site will end up with far more accurately rated reviews, which means it will be easier for the consumer to find a review that will help them decide whether to buy or not. I'm not saying that there shouldn't a list of who's rated the review because I know that a lot of reads come from my username being visible in a list of who's rated. But personally I feel that the actual rates should be between the rater and their conscience rather than visible to all and sundry.

Yet another suggestion, is to do with the actual suggestions. Now while I like the fact that all the suggestions I make are listed within my profile and each of them is given a number 'in the queue', I don't like the fact that this number never changes. If I hadn't of realised it wasn't the case I could easily come to the conclusion that there are 30,000 odd suggestions ahead of it. I would imagine that this could be very disheartening to the new member making their first suggestion and I really can't see why this position can't be regularly updated. I'm sure that when the system first came out it was updated, because I remember a suggestion steadily working it's way up the queue until it got to number 1. So why is this no longer the case? It can't be that hard to implement, can it?

Well that's the changes I, personally, would like to see made to the site, now I'm going to give my feedback on what I like about Dooyoo (just to balance things up). I do like the far more open reward system here, the crowns are much fairer than the jewels on another site. Yes the payments are considerably smaller, but they are spread between a far larger group of writers, and it's very easy to see which review has been rewarded. It's been said that Guides have a greater chance of receiving a crown, but I really can't say that there's been any difference in the rate that I get them now to when I was a guide. It makes sense that guides do receive a fair number as one of the criteria to becoming a guide is that they are decent writers. It's also very rare that I see a crowned review that I, personally, don't think deserved one and the nominate button means that everybody has the chance to bring a review to Dooyoo's attention.

I also like the payment system here on Dooyoo far better than on 'the other side'. I find it easy to earn enough points to cash out for an Amazon voucher and find I normally receive a voucher within a week. I've never cashed out for a cheque, so I've no idea how long that takes to arrive, but it can't be longer than the six weeks I've been waiting for another site to put my money in my account. I like the fact that I don't have to hand my bank account details over especially in this day and age of internet fraud.

So all in all, yes I do like Dooyoo even though there are a few aspects that niggle. As far as I'm concerned it's the best site of it's type, but as with everything there are improvements that could be made that would make my time here even more enjoyable.

Summary: My suggestions for improving the site, and what I don't think needs changing