Raindrops on Roses....D'oh! I meant profiles and Ratings! (Helpful Advice for New Members)

Member Name: Fishbulb

Product:	Helpful Advice for New Members
Date:	12/04/03 (123 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Better understanding, More fun, Everyone understands

Disadvantages: Rules aren't everyone's cuppa, some people are set in their ways

I never thought it?d happen, but today is my one-year anniversary with DooYoo! In honour of this occasion I?ve decided to mark it by writing an op about DooYoo. Now, if you look around this section, there?s lots of opinions on DooYoo on the whole, so rather than throw a snowball into a blizzard, I?ve decided to focus my opinion on just a couple of aspects, a couple of things that could do with a little Fishbulb guidance for newbies to understand and also things to remind us elders not to let our standards slip.

Majority of this opinion will obviously be more beneficial to you new guys +waves+ hiya new dooyooer, welcome to the site. I hope that this is of some help to get you started. I?m going to cover a couple of features on the site and tell you the best way to utilise them.


Profile Page

This doesn?t seem that important to a lot of people, but it really can be a tool for showcasing your writing skills/telling us about yourself/telling us a joke/good websites to visit. You may not think it, but having information on your profile page really does make people want to learn more about you. Also your choice of picture is a window to your sanity/lack of/sense of humour, you get my drift!

Good things to include on your profile are a brief bio, perhaps something interesting that?s happened to you lately, what you like, what you don?t like etc. Don?t feel like you have to fill in the personal details though, just fill in as much as you want. Don?t forget, you can always go back to edit it later on. Nothing is permanent! Apart from some hair dyes and whatever that weird stain is on my bathroom carpet, now that?s permanent! Flaming thing! Now, where was I? Oh yes, the profile page?if it?s blank then it looks like you can?t be bothered to tell us about yourself/don?t want us to know. Well, it?s a funny place to be shy, after all Do
oYoo is about writing about your experiences. Just remember what I said about permanence,
no, not the carpet thing but being able to remove or add stuff later on.

All the figures on the right-hand side are your personal figures take a look on someone else?s profile page and you?ll see they?re different. These figures tell you in an instant how that member has contributed to the site. Some people read lots, some don?t, some comment lots, blah blah blah?I?ll cover this a bit better in a second.


Rating Opinions, Why do we rate?

The main selfish reason to rate opinions is to let people know that I?ve read them. When you rate, your name is added to a list of people who have also read and rated that opinion. Your name also becomes a link to your profile, so should the person who?s op you?ve read want to read one of yours, they?re only one click away from your profile!

It?s a great show of the community on the site when you click on the ?ratings? link on one of your opinions and you can see all the DooYooers who have taken the time to read your opinion and want to share with you what they thought of it. (In terms of usefulness)

How to rate!!

Now, it?s easy to be confused in the beginning and there?s no shame in that. It?s also easy to abuse the rating system, but there?s not a great deal to be gained from that. If you are unsure of how to rate then please refer to this guide or indeed don?t rate an opinion until such a point you are comfortable in doing so. Why not instead, leave a comment (obviously relevant to the product/opinion) saying what you thought. It may take you a while to get into the swing of things, so don?t? expect to be perfect at everything when you start ? it takes time!!!!

I?ll cover briefly how to rate an opinion. I shall not tell you how to rate individual opinions but I will (hopefully) give you an idea of what is and what isn?t a great opinion!

I?ll start at the bottom (as it?s much easier) and work my way up.

I?m going to use the subject
of the product I dunno Stella?as it?s something I can think of off the top of my head.

NU ? Not Useful. - This is the rating you?d give if there was no relevant information in the opinion.

NU EXAMPLE ?Me and Barry drunk Stella once and got so drunk we stood on the cat and threw up on my sofa? << sad, yes, funny, possibly, useful in an opinion about Stella? Nope! This tells us nothing about the product, unless you knew that Stella was a lager, you certainly wouldn?t know it from reading this!!!

Somewhat Useful - This is the rating you?d give in an opinion with minimal product information included.

SU EXAMPLE ?Me and Barry drunk Stella we bought from Sainsbury?s, you can buy it at most places for about £X and it was x%ABV it made us sick? Well, that?s more useful as it tells us a little about the product, but aside from the fact that it made ?Barry? sick, we know very little about Stella. Minimal information, nothing I probably wouldn?t have been able to guess/have known already! (Poor Barry, I always use the name "Barry" for inanimate objects/fictional idiots he has a tough life it seems ;o))

Useful ? This is the rating you?d give an opinion that was/is of some assistance to you as a consumer, but perhaps doesn?t cover all aspects of the product.

U EXAMPLE ?ME and Barry bought some Stella from Sainsbury?s we noticed it straight away in the white cans with the embossed ?Stella? logo in gold and red. It was our first choice of lager as it was 5.2% and it was also on special offer @ X£ per X cans.? Well, this is more useful, but still not quite useful enough.

Very Useful ? This is the rating you?d give if you knew you c
ould read it and walk away feeling like you had a great idea of what the product was like. I?m not going to go into giving an example here as I?m sure you?d agree an opinion within an opinion is like finding a pearl inside an oyster inside a pearl?hey, you get my d
rift?

VU EXAMPLE ? Instead of an example I?ll include a list of things that should be included as an example to make an opinion VU. We?ll use the example again of lager as it?s good to stick with something you know well ;o)

Price/packaging (bottles/cans/size of packs)/availability/look/flavour/serving suggestions/good with food/session beer/why do you like it or dislike it/ and anything else that you think of may be of interest to a consumer. Some people like to include the history of a brewery, but that does get a bit dull, after all, you?re buying the beer not the story. Include anything about the lager that you found interesting personally. And don?t ever forget that your opinion is just that. YOUR opinion of a product. Include a bit of personality, that?s what makes this site so great, you can read the real opinions of real consumers. Of course, I could go to the Stella website and see that Sebastian Artois did become the master brewer in a town called Leuven and made a lager?.blah blah blah?.very interesting (sometimes) but for the best part people want to know what the product?s like quality & quantity wise and how much it costs.

You need to look at each and every review you read through the eyes of a third party. Through the eyes of a consumer. Don?t just rate VU because it?s your mate. Don?t rate VU because you think you?ll get more reads/friends. << This will work initially, then people will work you out as a fraud and not bother with you! Don?t rate NU because you dislike the product; rate it on the basis of the value of the opinion, not how much you like the writer or what they?re writing about!

I?m not going to give you advice on writing opinions, there?s plenty of that in the comments among your first opinions on this site and I think that it?s been fairly well covered. What I will say however, is, if you?re here ?to make every op a crowned op? then don?t be so greedy, pigheaded or downright ignorant
. 1) There?s not always enough crowns to go around 2) You?re not going to make your fortunes from this site and 3) Being that self-centred isn?t going to make you any friends here. If you?re here for the community then you?ve certainly picked a great place to join. Every time you write an opinion it should be the best thing you've written, aim high and be consciencious of your writing, research and read lots, that's the best way to be the best!

I want to make it very clear that every last one of you is welcome in the dooyoo community, and that we each have our own views/opinions ? hence the whole reason that the site even exists. No single opinion/comment or user is more important than another; there is room for each and every one of us.

Now I know that this may come across as a bit of a rant, and I guess to a certain degree it is. The stupid thing is that the information contained in this opinion is really just common sense?.it?s something people should know anyway and it?s also my two-penneth worth to try and help you and other users get the most out of the site.

I hope that this has beneficial to you, either as a 'refresher' if you?ve been here a while or indeed as a new user. This is a bit of a serious one, but really something with an important point I feel.

Don?t ever forget that, in spite of all the information contained within this opinion and many others before it in the same category, there are people on the site who volunteer to help other users. Make the most of the community guides, they are volunteers who help for the sheer fun of helping. They?re not so bad and believe it or not, they?re actually people like you and me (that's meant to reassure you, not put you off ;o)). The odd question every now and then isn?t going to hurt them, no matter how stupid it may seem to you.

This site is a fun place to be and during my time here I've found it an invaluable tool for researching
my purchases. I've learnt a lot on here and I've made some friends too. DooYoo doesn't just stop after you've written your review, it continues through the comments, the ratings and everytime you read and rate yourself you strengthen your part in the community here.

Fishbulbs final thought: Have pride in your reviews, but don?t ever be too proud to ask for help.




Some of the things below are irrelevant, but I've answered the ones that aren't! :o)

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