I read a book once. When I was younger I was really into Fantasy Books, and saw one plain bound title on my parent’s shelf – ‘The Citadel’ by AJ Cronin. I’d never heard of AJ, so had visions in my head of a massive castle, with monsters battling, heroes and magic.

Well, I was a bit surprised to read a story about a young doctor up north, but I really enjoyed the book – so much so I decided I wanted to become a doctor myself!

The point is that what I took to be one thing from the title and binding turned out to be something completely different, but pleasantly surprising.

A question for you; When you receive a gift, do you pay more attention to the packaging or the present? Is it ‘Nice new jumper, but LOOK AT THE BOX IT CAME IN! WOW! Its so...so...cardboard and plain!’. Somehow I doubt it. You’ll turf out the packaging without a second though to admire your new item of clothing/video/electrical item.

‘Where is this op going Mush?’ ‘What is the point of this latest aimless rant?’

The point is this. In the time I have spent writing items for Dooyoo I have occasionally been a bit ‘liberal’ with Categorisation. Quite often I will have something to say that isn’t really covered by any specific category. Take, for example, the time I wanted to write a bit about Alec Guinness after his death. There isn’t a ‘people’ category, let alone an ‘Alec Guinness’ one. I didn’t want to stick the op under some film title, so I used a bit of imagination to decide which of the other categories might be most suitable. In the end I chose a category for Guinness beer. OK, I know it’s not the same thing (and didn’t need to have it pointed out for me), but it was close enough. I was able to put some of my personal thoughts in writing as my tribute to one of the greatest actors ever, so I was h
appy. Anyone looking at my personal page would be able to find the op. so no problems there. Furthermore, anyone looking to read about Guinness beer might have a bit of a ‘Citadel’ situation, and be pleasantly surprised to read an op which was quite different from their expectations.

As time has gone on, I have continued to write ops on the items I want to write about, and then worried about correct categorisation once the op is being placed on Dooyoo. Amongst others ice cream, ‘yapper’ type dogs, criminal children, stress and chocolate have all been subject to this to some degree. On the whole they have been well received for what they are (or I hope them to be) - hopefully a well written, interesting op, which may well be different from the norm and what people expect initially.

Some people tend to have a problem with this issue of correct categorisation and not deviating from the category subject. If I was to receive a penny for every time someone write a comment about ‘incorrect categorisation’ I would be able to go out and buy….some….thing. It appears to me that there are Dooyooers who get a bee in their bonnet about such an issue – this in itself isn’t bad, but actually commenting about it time and again may well be a waste of the little time we have on this earth.

I’m not stupid, and believe that most of the people who frequent dooyoo aren’t stupid. I KNOW (and believe most other dooyooers also know) when the categorisation might not be perfect, and would hope that people respect this fact. There is usually a reason other than ignorance that an opinion might not be in the most suitable place, or fit the category exactly.

I also know that it is possible to contact the Dooyoo bods and ask for the category to be created. Quite often I’ll contact them after submission to say ‘this op might be in the wrong place, feel free to move it or
set up a category if you think it’s appropriate’. Usually they deal with it in the best way. Sometimes there isn’t anything to do other than leave it to provide a bit of variety.

I would actually be reticent to contact Dooyoo every time I write an op that doesn’t have a distinct category. As new categories are added the site becomes larger and larger, harder to navigate and manage. I’d prefer that people were a bit more flexible in what they read and we keep Dooyoo to a more manageable size.

Furthermore, imagine if no-one ever deviated from the prescribed category listing! You may well find that you simply get the same points regurgitated in different ways by different people. OK, maybe that is a bit extreme, but variety is the spice of life! Heck, I want a list of ops saying lots of different things, and it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t do exactly what it says on the tin. I want to hear ALL about a particular subject, not just the prescribed points, and if the review deviates slightly then I may well find myself reading about things I may never have considered previously.

I think that’s enough ranting. You get the point. If you do read an op, and it isn’t where you think it should be, ask yourself ‘does it really matter? Sometimes it may be entirely inappropriate (fair enough), but most of the time please save your comments and just revel in the fact that you’ve had the opportunity to read something a bit different. You can concentrate on the package, or the present.

Dooyoo is fun, so we should all do our utmost to keep it that way.