If I was Mr Dooyoo... (Feedback and General Suggestions for dooyoo)

Member Name: dave27

Product:	Feedback and General Suggestions for dooyoo
Date:	19/10/02 (37 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Still a great site

Disadvantages: Very quiet around here these days

...what would I want to achieve as I waved my magic wand?

Well, the first thing is obviously to ensure that anyone whose user name included 'dave' or the number '27' received double points, of course, but leaving aside the obvious, let's consider how Dooyoo in the post redesign era could be changed for the better.

In many ways the recent redesign was something of a watershed in the history of the site and at the time there was almost unanimously hostile opinions posted about what the powers that be had done to 'our site'. Much of that criticism was down to the fact that the redesigned site had been uploaded into live mode while it still literally dripped with bugs and glitches, and suddenly the activities of members ground to a halt while we all took a collective breath and waited to see if things would return to normal.

Of course, some of the problem was also due to the shock of the new because it was a pretty radical redesign and it was difficult to work out what you needed to do to get things moving. Any change is inevitably difficult to start with and I have to say the first few days felt extremely strange.

Some of the wiser heads amongst us (and I exclude myself from that little number because I was righteously miffed at the time) reasoned that eventually things would settle down, the glitches would be fixed and we could get back to business, and so (eventually) it turned out. These days, the Dooyoo site's functionality is almost back to normal and we've all got pretty used to things round here again,

However, the damage has undoubtedly been done and life around www.dooyoo.co.uk is undoubtedly a great deal lonelier than it was three or four months ago. The initial 'wait and see' approach has grown into a 'can't be bothered anymore' feeling and many former regular contributors seem to have deserted what could be seen as a sinking ship.

Certainly the
volumes of reads has plummeted these last few weeks and what would normally have garnered in excess of 50 reads or so is now lucky to scrape into the twenties. Of course, things move on and new members have started to appear, but inevitably with newbies there's a tendency for a large proportion to be of the churn 'em out thick and fast brigade, with little concern about either quality or volume.

So, here's my first suggestion, Mr Dooyoo - increase the quantity of Crowns awarded for a while and make it well known that you're doing so, to encourage people back into the fold and try and increase the general standard.

Tied in with this, let's consider increasing the minimum number of reads required for an opinion. At the same time, remove payment for any 'not useful' reads, but temper this by boosting the payment for other reads, say from 3p to 5p, even if it's only for a couple of months.

Dooyoo desperately need to get people contributing regularly again, because the number of contributions per day is significantly down on what it used to be.

Also, the Dooyoo guest book program which has been set up at Tooyoo needs to be officially endorsed and brought into the site to improve the community nature and qualities of the site. For my money Ciao has always had a far better community feel, and even with its inferior rewards people feel happier over there and get higher reads.

By and large, however, I'm still a very happy Dooyooer and am content to contribute my regular humble opinions. However, it would be nice if Dooyoo went out of their way to ensure that their better members (how do you judge that one? Who cares as long as I'm one of them) know that their efforts are appreciated.

Dooyoo may be a consumer site, built around providing a service, but it would be nothing without its members and their contributions. I've lost count of the numbers of moans I've heard th
is last couple of months and them upstairs need to recognise that disillusionment has set in rather more than somewhat.

Summary: