STOP RIGHT THERE (Helpful Advice for New Members)

Member Name: Daisybelle

Product:	Helpful Advice for New Members
Date:	07/04/01 (90 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: You've got a clean sheet

Disadvantages: A lot to learn too

Hi there. If you’re new to dooyoo, then welcome, hello, congratulations on dropping in, this is a great place to be. More important than my felicitations though, you might be wondering where to start. STOP RIGHT THERE is the first thing I’d suggest, if you want to get off to a successful beginning. Through painful, well embarrassing really, experience, many of us will attest that writing opinions on dooyoo isn’t something you should be rushing into. This is probably the single most useful piece of advice anyone will give you (I bet nearly every opinion in this section will include it), so please read on and at least bear in mind the reasoning behind it.

The first thing I did after joining dooyoo was to churn out a load of fairly short and poorly constructed opinions. I sat back and watched for a few weeks, and guess what – hardly anyone read them, and those that did rated them quite low. I read very few other opinions, so didn’t have a yardstick to measure my own against. What I completely missed by not exploring the site, was the fact that the minimum standard (75 words) accepted by dooyoo, is below the minimum standard that the majority of your peers will consider acceptable. So what should you do before starting to write?

Explore the site, and read opinions, is the simple answer. Reading the opinions is the more important of the two, in my opinion (You’re going to hear that word a lot – it is, after all, the crux of the site). The “Home” page offers a variety of links to different subjects. Before you start to yawn, I’m not going to patronise you by explaining every last little feature of dooyoo. I didn’t know half of them were there myself until this morning, when I decided to write this op, (Op is the common abbreviation for opinion), and it hasn’t spoiled the pleasure I’ve got from being a member. I’ve been here since August 2000, in case you’re wo
ndering whether what I’m saying is worth paying attention to.

Back to the home page. Pick a category you think you might like to write about and explore it. Don’t just read the opinions though. Pay careful attention to the ratings they’ve been given, and read any comments that have been made. Don’t be shy to add your own comments too, you want people to notice that you exist, and the best way to do this is to wave and shout “I’m here, please notice me”. Don’t be rude though and don’t write anything when you’re inebriated either – you’re new and want to make friends, remember. Tell people you’re new, and don’t be afraid to e-mail for help. My address is at the top of my user profile (Click on “Daisybelle” at the top of the page) and the offer of help is there for anyone that wants some. Another thing to note is that comments often include Usenet abbreviations, here are a few common ones to get you started –

“lol” – lots of laughter.
<g> - grin.
<bg> big grin.
IMHO - In my humble opinion.
IIRC – If I recall correctly.
AFAIK – As far as I know
ROTFL – Rolling on the floor laughing.
SO – Significant other - husband/boyfriend/wife/girfriend/sheep etc.
:-) – Made me smile
;-) – Being wry/slightly sarky
:-( - Made me sad

Rate the opinions you read too, this will help to get you noticed – there’s a link to “dooyoo guidelines” on the home page – I read it ages ago, but can’t remember what it says. I’m sure it’s good though, as the staff here isn’t known for sticking a load of rubbish up for you to read. Once you’ve done this a few times a pattern will begin to emerge. There are some very good ops, a lot of decent ops and a number of rubbish ops. You’ll notice the odd “Gold
Crown” too – this is an award of 1,000 miles given by staff for the top ops. There is a link to the most recent ones in the middle of the home page, under the name “Premier Opinions”. Read some of these, they’re as good as it gets.

This is when you need to make a choice. What category do you want to be seen as belonging to and what are your motives for joining dooyoo? If you want your ops to be read and enjoyed by people, rated highly, and perhaps to be awarded the odd gold crown or two, keep reading. If you’re happy to be average but respected, keep reading too. If you just want to make 25p an op from the couple of reads it’ll get on the front page, you might as well stop reading now. Well you probably did two paragraphs ago anyway.

If you’re still unsure what a decent op looks like, click on “Daisybelle” in the title of this piece. This will take you to my user profile. On the left hand side of the page is a green box titled “circle of friends” .In this box is a list titled “dooyoo-Members, that Daisybelle trusts”. Click on “more” and it’ll take you to links to the people I’ve added to my circle of trust. All of them are good writers, so have a browse through their work.

By now you should have a mental picture of what a good op is like. It’s interesting, constructed in paragraphs, has reasonable grammar and spelling and is at the very least 200 words long. A big help in achieving this, when you do begin your first op, is to write your opinions on a word processor to minimise spelling mistakes, and cut and paste them to dooyoo. If you’re familiar with Microsoft Word/Works ignore this bit, if not read on

- Put the cursor at the top of the article. Click on the "Edit" section at the top of Word, slide down to "Select all" on the drop down menu and click on it. All of the writing should
now be highlighted in black. Click on "Edit" again, and now click on the "Copy" option. When you want to paste it just right click on the writing area of the dooyoo page then select paste on the menu. Keep the Word document open whilst doing all this as it's simpler -

Now you’re just about ready to write some ops. Just one or two last minute things before you begin. On your profile page, in the top left corner it says, “modify your user profile”. Click here and you can add in details about you that will appear on your profile. Other users like to know a bit about you, so even just listing your interests will be help other users feel a rapport with you. I don’t have much detail on my profile, as I’ve written too many dodgy things about myself to want people I know recognising me – that’s a personal choice though.

The other thing is making sure you really ought to be writing this opinion. Is it about something you’ve experienced fairly recently? Have you done a bit of research, have you mulled the subject over in your head? By research I don’t mean reading other peoples ops, although it’s a good idea to begin with. Now I’ve got the hang of writing reasonable ops I never read anything in the category before writing my own op (Except by mistake), because plagiarism can be subconscious as well as deliberate. Deliberate plagiarism is infuriating. Some b**stard lifted an op of mine from here and posted it on Ciao (Another, not so good, opinions site). The Ciao police booted him out very quickly, as will the dooyoo police if you’re tempted to commit a similar offence, e-mail – police@dooyoo.co.uk if you need assistance.

Back to your first op though. Another idea is looking at the following category - Home > Internet > Information > Reference > dooyoo.co.uk > Tips / Guides to Writing Good dooyoo Opinions. Have a good scan through the premie
r opinions in there and you will find loads of constructive advice on how to write an opinion well. It’s best to start off on the right foot if you want to find a niche for yourself.

So you’ve written your first op. If you like, include a bit at the end of it saying it’s your first op and you’d really appreciate some feedback on it. Most of us won’t bite, and those that sit monitoring the new ops coming in tend to be both prolific and decent writers, who won’t hesitate to give some friendly advice. If they point out any glaring failures you can always use the “Change opinion” feature to remedy them, so don’t despair.

Well that’s about it. This is a fairly long opinion, don’t think this is what’s expected of everyone – it’s just a big topic. I could probably have written more about the flashing lights and bells that dooyoo has to offer, but didn’t want to drone on for too long – anyway, got to leave something for you to explore:-) Please comment on this op if you’re new, as I will alter it if feedback suggests I’m being unclear or misleading. Also rate it. If I don’t recognise your name I’ll assume you’re new and will have a look at some of your opinions. Hope this has been useful, and I’m looking forward to reading your first opinions.

Cheers
Daisybelle

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