It's worth taking MALU's Dooyoo Challenge (Helpful Advice for New Members)

Member Name: curious_tan

Product:	Helpful Advice for New Members
Date:	02/09/06 (294 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Im addicted to it!

Disadvantages: Well, so far so good!

After 2 months of being active in the site now, this is the right time to take the dooyoo challenge introduced by one of the respected members. MALU was able to formalise a set of questions for us to answer as a way of introducing ourselves being a new member of the dooyoo community. I believe that by doing this it will facilitate my interaction with other members and somehow encourage other new members to make them active and participate by taking the challenge as well.

For members who have the chance to read this, please take time to leave a short message for me to reflect, and thank you in advance for doing that. It will be highly appreciated!
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This Q&A challenge can help Newbies find out what Dooyoo is about and, if many established members participate, what the community is like and will hopefully convince them to stay and become active. To be sure, everything has been said before, but has it had any impact? Only for a limited time until the opinion disappeared from the front page! By presenting the tips on helping new members in the form of a questionnaire which can be done by several members the impact can perhaps be prolonged. Several members, better: MANY members, to show that many roads lead to Dooyoo!
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Q: When did you join Dooyoo?

A: June 29, 2006 (Thursday night), where? Northern Ireland
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Q: How did you discover Dooyoo?

A: I was browsing a particular title of a book using the google search engine. Then I was led to a review of that book. I read a lot of books and really wanted (desperately) to have my own site where I could share my opinions. It was a blessing that I was able to visit the site and, the rest is a brief history.
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Q: Why did you join?

A: I enjoy reading other reviews and opinions on stuffs that I am aware of. And besides, I have the enthusiasm to learn from other people and be part of a forum that you can share your views. And with no hesitation I fill up the necessary information to have a dooyoo account.
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Q: What was your very first opinion on?

A: I posted an opinion about an inspirational book written by a British writer. Unfortunately, that review did not make a good rating and the worst happened was I received an email from the dooyoo team that my review did not meet the prescribed standard and my account will be frozen momentarily until such time that I come up with a revised write-up! So, following their advice, I rewrite my review and posted it again after few days. To date, that review is still my lowest rating so far after two months considering that it was too late for other members to read that and have it rated.

Frankly, I felt sad about it but it did not stop me to continue up to now…The book inspired me a lot - to the extent of contacting the author and he acknowledged and thanked me on that (this another story)
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Q: Did you find it easy to get the hang of Dooyoo?

A: Yeah, not much of a problem. I easily adjusted to the icons on the homepage of the site. Quite easy to navigate since I am used to visit various complicated websites.
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Q: Did you read other opinions before you posted your first one?

A: Of course, it is necessary to make your review credible and interesting. Unfortunately, my first review was not rated very well because I put emphasis on my own personal reflection – what the author is telling me and putting them to reality. Sad to say, I did little information on the book content, thinking that this review will be different from others (even though I am still the first person who gave a review of the book).

Well, if you are interested to read this particular review, please do so and it was revised long time ago. Anyway, it is good to do little research on things you want to evaluate.
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Q: Do you write no/some/many comments?

A: It is my own rule to ensure that I will write brief comments to others especially on those areas that I have a good understanding or something that I have experienced of using the products or services. I believe that it makes the writer happy when someone is having extra effort to say something about his/her reviews. Unfortunately, I don’t get much of the comments!
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Q: When you click on the list of Newest Reviews, do you read your friends' opinions no matter what they're on/according to subject no matter who has written on it/preferably the opinions of new writers?

A: Frankly, I don’t have friends (as you call it) in the site, but lately after two months I am already aware of those members that make an effort to visit my account and rate my reviews. Recently, as a kind gesture I identified them as ‘trusted friends’ (in principle) or rather I call them ‘loyal members’. But prior to this, what I normally do is search the category that I am very interested in such as photography, travel, films, and books/magazines. Whoever that member did a review on these categories, surely he/she automatically receive a rating and short note from me.

And lately, I also check with new members who rated my reviews and somehow inspire them to do better with their write-ups.
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Q: Do you write your opinions in one sitting?

A: Yes I always do to have the continuity of my thoughts. Rain or shine, if I have the mood to write, I have to finish it even it takes me up until early morning of the following day. I normally write during night when everybody in the house is already asleep. I do the final editing before I pasted it to the dooyoo review box.
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Q: How often do you post a new opinion?

A: It really depends on my mood to share my thoughts with dooyoo members. If the product is available on-line then I could quickly make my review. It takes me sometime to write even if my suggested stuff is already posted. Maybe, I could say at least 4-6 articles per month.
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Q: Do you use a spell check?

A: No, I rather not. I will do it manually. I normally use the computer for sentence construction or grammar check (verb agreement, past tense, conjunction) not with the spelling. Also, I make sure that my MS Word or MS Works is set to English (UK) instead to English (USA) to ensure consistency of the words that I used.
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Q: Do you think you can improve your chances to get a crown if you suck up to a guide?

A: I don’t know about it. I visited the page where the guides where listed just to know who is the ‘cream of the crops’. That’s it… If I got a comment/rating from these guides, it is something that I need to worry about because it somehow affects the chances of getting a ‘yellow’ crown. Well, I am not really a crown conscious member, but I will be happy to have it. So far I got one within a span of two months. Having this crown, I considered it phenomenal. Why? Nobody dared to post a comment and 17 members gave an overall VU rating.
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Q: Are you a member of a forum or a chat room?

A: I recently joined the reviewwritersforum.co.uk where thingywahtsit is the moderator. She is also a respected member of dooyoo and a very kind person. I am not active with the group but maybe if my workload in the office lessens, then most probably I will interact actively with the members.

Prior to my dooyoo membership, I have 7 active memberships with yahoogroups: 2 of them are related to my hobbies, 1 related to my profession, and 4 are related to my alma maters. To date, my accounts with them are active. I have 6 email addresses just to accommodate the daily messages I received everyday.
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Q: Does it get to you when members praise or condemn you?

A: To be honest, I will be upset or feel uncomfortable if I read bad comments in my review especially when I have a full understanding of the products that I am promoting to the group. And of course, receiving praises from members is something that inspires me to write more. In general, no matter what the comment or rating is, I just move on and do better next time.

I am not a professional writer or a journalist, so don’t expect too much from my reviews to be excellent and 100% complete - having compared to others who really do well with their mother tongue.
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Q: What did you do in your spare time before you joined dooyoo?

A: I am a happy person with simple need in life. So, basically I make my spare time meaningful thru my hobbies: taking pictures using my digital camera and update my on-line photo album and blog, swim, play badminton, read bestsellers books, sing using my new karaoke magic sing microphone, and go shopping. For long weekends, I make it a point to travel out-of-town where I could also get good photographs (landscapes).
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Q: What do you wish for the future?

A: For dooyoo community – I do hope that this on-line group will grow and be a ‘think tank’ for people who want to enjoy life. In particular, dooyoo could do something that I could have access for non-members who visited/read my reviews – like a guestbook where non-members could just drop a line.

Also, I wish I could share my interest in photography and travel with MALU. Good luck to everyone. REYgards.
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If you want to participate, please add:

Please don't take this challenge to ciao without asking MALU, she'd rather decide herself what to do with a text she's written, when to take it there or if at all. Thank you.

Summary: An on-line group where members share their interests