Pff. Last time I help YOU... (Helpful Advice for New Members)

Member Name: adidadi_young

Product:	Helpful Advice for New Members
Date:	13/08/01 (95 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: More reads! *drools*

Disadvantages: Pff. I dunno.

I, adidadi_young, have AOL. Sure, it’s rubbish, but that’s not what I’m going to brag on about. Neither is it what I’m supposed to be bragging on about in this section of Dooyoo. But let me just start my introduction.

So where would AOL have anything to do with this? Well, you wouldn’t guess it. Also, you wouldn’t kick yourself because you should have known it. So, I’ll get to my point. I have AOL. AOL has a built in ‘chat room’ system which, obviously, you chat in. Now, I, with my humble Screen Name ‘No need for dav’, I go into this chat room called ‘UK Games Chat.’ I go there every day, when I’m in, for several hours. I even stay up late to chat there. But there seems to have something developed in this chat room, one which isn’t in any others: there are a select circle of us (only about 16, though) who go there a lot. Nearly all the time. Don’t ask why, but these people (including me) have been called ‘regs’ (it’s short for ‘regulars’, if you didn’t know that). Yes. We go there a lot, and often talk about games. We argue, a lot; we also just talk about whatever we are doing, whatever music we listen to. This would come in the form of, for example:

No need for dav: ::Deftones – Pink Maggit::

Yes, so I would say, it’s more than a Games Chat to us. Some of the regs talk about Ultima Online, which happens to have sprung up quickly for some reason, and what they just stole etc. Sometimes we argue about totally different things. So, in my eyes (or fingers), it would sort of be a place to just meet friends online, whom we don’t physically know, and just converse about our plain everyday lives. Some of these regs have rather bad dislikings about each other *cough cough Tux + Evo cough*, and just planly argue.

But I would just keep going on about what we did in GC (what we call Games Chat)
, and you would want to know about how to help new members, wouldn’t you? Well, on the subject of GC, I’ll just round off what I’m going to say: I’ve been going to GC for ooh, I don’t know, about 4 – 6 months? And another thing that came as a big surprise for me, a fellow dooyooer was one of my mates on GC the whole time (“?”) and I had no awareness of it at all. So, let me round off my description of GC and start to get to my point:

So, I say there are around 15 – 20 of us, who come in the chat room a lot. But, this doesn’t mean they all come in at then same time. Sometimes there can be about 10 of us. Normally it’s about 5 or 6. At this time of day, as I am in it now (duh), it’s only 4 of us. You see, the regs are not the only ones who go into GC.

There are other people. We’ve grown so attached to this chat room everyone else who fills up the room, we call Newbies.

Newbies, yes.

So, there would be a distinct difference of regs to Newbies. I won’t name any of my mates for some reason, which I don’t know.

OnlineHost: “reg 1” has entered the room.
No need for dav: Hey “reg 1”.
“Reg 2”: Hey “reg 1”
“Reg 1”: Ty dav, “reg 2”.
No need for dav: “Reg 1”, have you bought Blue Shift yet?
“Reg 1”: No dav.
“Reg 2”: I got that.
“Reg 2”: Took me 2 hours. Pah.

And so on and so forth. That is normally the content of our ‘neutral’ conversations, and there is obviously the part, which the rest is filled up. This is, as I said before, fro Newbies. Some regs call them newbs, some call them Noobs. It’s just some reflex now. And by the way, these Screen Names are messed up.

EMINEM674264674: HI ROOM
Fo
otyman2001: who has metal gear sold press 123 nnow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
EMINEM674264674: FOOTYMAN ASL PLEASE??
Mr mom mr: anyone want TO HCHAT TO A 13/M IM ME PLZ
Footyman2001: EMINEM, im me plz and i will talk 2 u

And so on and so forth. But where am I going with all this? And what would it have to do with this subject? Well, all that what you have just read brings me the exact point I actually need to write about here.

Dooyoo. That’s what (I’m sure) you want me to start writing about, isn’t it? Well, OK then. As I have been a member of Dooyoo since April, I think, I have just cashed in 50,000 miles. Now I’m on the incredible amount of 350 miles. Well, that’s £103.50 for me, I don’t really find it anything personal. But still…

New members is what I will start writing about. I don’t call them Newbies on here, only on GC and other chat rooms, which I visit once every Solar Eclipse. I’ll just start off giving a few pointers about how to become a good writer.

1: Quantity.
Now, as a member of OpCom, I have explained about the quantity of my opinions to many dooyooers who I talk to occasionally. All of them reply ‘Quality is better than Quantity’. Well, I know that stupid, but I have seen many new members who have written about 6/7 lines (Well I don’t know about you, but I use 1024x768) and this is just poor. I thought even if it were their first opinion, they would at least be able to do at least 500 words, which in my honest opinion, is what should cinch you a VU. Having a U opinion is just not worthwhile. VU’s is what you should aim all of your opinions towards. That way you WILL get more reads, honest. I have seen this happen (I may say it was user HOT DOG GOD, well done to you) and his first opinion got 120 reads, and his second got 80. Now, I’d like to go onto milking/churning after, I would just like to say that I have seen the
se people do a very, very poor amount of words in their opinions and get about 7 reads each, 10 maximum. So that’s the first pointer.

2: Spelling.
For some reason, I have always been a good speller. I am not bragging or anything, but I just can never remember, once in my life, not knowing how to spell a particular word (although South Park’s Kroxyphyllik got me rather stuck). It is ESSENTIAL that you get every one of these words spelt right; it does make a difference between a VU and U, despite the quantity. Except if it was a 5,000-word opinion and you spelt ‘where’ without an ‘h’. And for the last note on spelling, it is one of the most important things ever, more essential than the one I said above (it is literally deadly important) to NEVER SPELL THE FIRST PART WRONG! If you spell a word wrong in the title, or in the first sentence, it won’t get near as many reads, as it goes onto dooyoo’s home page as ‘Most Recent Opinion’ and it is really off-putting. I never read a misspelled word on the home page. Never. So remember, proof read your opinion; it will help drastically. Putting it onto Word helps, which is the program I am using now. Remember.

3: Punctuation and Grammar.
If I see an opinion with the word ‘i’ in it, I swear to you, I will scream. Not only that, but I will also give it a U or below. No VU’s. So another thing to remember, please just try to make your English language as fluent as possible, always put in the right capitals in the right places, and always make sure the other characters (, ; ‘ . ? !) are all in the right place. Always put a space after commas, after semi-colons; and after all others. Don’t you think so? I do!

4. Language and Presentation.
The opinions you write must be of good quality. Try to make it as much resembling to eye-candy as possible. This will really help you when you don’t have too much to
write about something. For example, instead of ‘I think that this film is really good it has a lot of special FX etc’, put ‘The quality of this film is superb. The special effects in the film will really make you smile; I really don’t see how they could have done this quickly. Cheaply, as well’. See where I’m going? Try to make it look professional as possible. This will really help you get that VU which you deserve. After reading this opinion, anyway. That’s that done.

5: Target Audience.
Before you write your opinion, or as you are writing your opinion, make sure that you really think hard about who is going to read this opinion, make sure that there would be no obscenities in your opinion, and don’t quote anything that wouldn’t be suitable. Don’t put in anything that refers to things young viewers wouldn’t want, like some racist/sexist comment. Or something that makes the viewer think of a naughty word. Doing that is a load of crap. So, just make sure you think of whom this opinion would appeal to, and keep the language best for that age range. For example, if you are writing an opinion on The Exorcist, don’t quote from it, and don’t try to picture some of the scenes from it. Also, you could try to make it only appeal to a certain age range, telling the readers what kind of age/personality you would own to be most suited for this film.

6: Other users.
You should try to fit in with other members. Just writing opinions will get you nowhere. So remember, it’s best to go to the home page and read the opinions that appear there, as that would be the most random way to read a variety of opinions. Also, it is always good to comment. If you comment on an opinion, they get your advice and thoughts on the opinion, but they will also come back to the top opinion in your profile. This will not only help you get more reads, but help you fit in very well in the commun
ity. Other users who comment might consider looking at your profile, which means even more reads. Another thing, if you like a certain person’s opinion, then go read some future opinions written by them. It will help, honest. If you really get to know someone well, and they have read a lot of their opinions, use the circle of trust. This should really be used for this purpose only; it’s not good to add random people for 5 hours. Well, have I gone through enough for you? Good.

7: Dooyoo rewards.
Now that I have told you basics of doing well on Dooyoo, you should get much, much more reads from now on. Now, that means you get more money. When you get a certain number of miles, then you can (£££) cash in. Choose an e-voucher, iPoints or a cheque. Now, Dooyoo’s funding didn’t come from trees, or someone’s endless pocket ‘o gold. So, they need some commission on stuff. Now, the thing to do: don’t cash in an e-voucher at £10. There is barely anything you can get without being overdue by at least £6, and this isn’t good. If you save up about 30,000 miles, then you should cash in your e-vouchers. That way you can get more, or something bigger, hopefully without being overdue. Trust me, it is much better. You can also get a cheque, but there isn’t really much to say about saving it up, you could just cash in £50 with 55,000 miles or £100 with 100,000 miles. I just cashed in 50,000 miles as it’s not the 13th yet.

Of course, I’m not telling you to do anything: You can do whatever you want. I’m just suggesting that it’s better to cash in higher e-voucher amounts.

8: The community.
This is going to be a bit small, but it’s a section rarely visited by Dooyooers, and is not really one you want to miss out on. There are competitions, all great to enter in (free champagne… hehe) and some other events, which would be better to enter than not to enter. There are
websites Dooyoo would want you to enter… Also, it’s good to join the OpCom (Opinionated Community). Go and have a chat to other Dooyooers, post messages on the forum… it will also act as a ‘read booster’. So, get involved – it helps!

9: Get addicted!
I’m not sure if you have read any of the opinions on Dooyoo addiction, but it will tell of the frequency of visits to the site from members. I, adidadi_young, find myself visiting the site at an accelerating number of times a day, which is just addictive. I always check out new opinions, invite friends, check out any new Hall of Famers (my name will be there one day… you mark my word…) that have been put on the community section, and generally just mess about on the site. So, come here whenever you are bored/are currently wasting time. It helps, like all my other advice.

10: A last note.
10 pointers… OK, this will be my last. The title of it was ‘A last note’, but I would really describe it as being ‘Have Fun!’.
If you really want to be good at Dooyoo, enjoy it! It’s the reason I go to Dooyoo; it’s just a damn good place to be. If you think that Dooyoo is boring and has no real fun factor on the site, then

--You haven’t been to the site yet (somehow)
--You only just got here (register and log in, THEN read my opinion!)
--You haven’t been here enough
--You have been to this site so much you are just getting sick of it (but that means you would really get much use out of this opinion, eh?)
--You aren’t doing well enough. Which means you should read my opinion and learn.

So, that’s the 10 pointers to writing well on Dooyoo. As I find that I am getting more and more addicted to it, I find myself writing more and more as well. I usually go onto this site as soon as I connect, to paste up an opinion I wrote from Word (which is what I’m doi
ng now, 12/08/01 18:10), to read some opinions and get some extra miles, to check out the community and what’s new, or just to generally mess about and go around blindly. I sure hope you people found my advice helpful, I didn’t know I had all this knowledge in me!

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