Never Mind the Bollocks (Rating other's reviews: on dooyoo and beyond)

Member Name: Zmugzy

Product:	Rating other's reviews: on dooyoo and beyond
Date:	04/12/07 (229 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: You can give 3p to someone you love

Disadvantages: None

Dooyoo is primarily a consumer review site, but it is also partially a social network site as well as an advertising website. The reviews by members stimulate advertising revenue. The members of Dooyoo make 3p per read when another member reads their review. None of the members as far as I know are employed by Dooyoo. Some of them do it because they enjoy writing, some might do it for a bit of fun, but we all of us do it for the money. If that wasn't the case then why are we posting regularly here and not on any of the thousands of other sites where you can write about products or enter discussions and debates, and where you get paid nothing? I don't do this just because I enjoy writing. If it was merely a case of enjoying writing, I could write articles and stories and post them on a thousand blogs or other websites for nothing and probably get more feedback. The 3p per read isn't going to make you rich but it's a major contributing factor as to why people start writing on Dooyoo. My £150 computer monitor that I'm using right now is the accumulation of 3ps earned on Dooyoo. 3p per read is the major incentive to be on this site. There's no escaping that fact.


What to Rate
Reading and rating other people's reviews is therefore an important element of being a Dooyoo member. It's a major principle of good membership. Good members are those who rate and read reviews regardless of the product being reviewed, the subject being discussed or the opinion being expressed. As a member for some time I try to return read and rate reviews of members who read and rate my reviews even if these reviews are on subjects that I find little interest in (perfume for example). Some members choose to rate particular categories and ignore others. At first I had no problem with this, but then I began to think that surely this goes against the principles of good membership. In my view established members should try to read/rate across the board. Of course you don't have to read every review and your activity on site will vary over time, but we should all participate in reading and rating products that we might regard as really boring or of no interest.

What would happen if we only rated what we're interested in? Certain products would get lots of ratings and other products would get next to none. If we only rated the reviews that interested us then some product reviews would get very few ratings at all. Unless you're on the lookout for a new one or collect them as a hobby, who in they're right mind would want to read a review about a vacuum cleaner? Of perhaps the 36 members who read my review of a Typhoon 1800 Upright I would be surprised if more than one was genuinely interested in the product. On the other hand, everyone likes to watch a good movie, and as such film reviews always get lots of reads. But why should a member who only writes film reviews get more rates/reads than a member who writes reviews about washing machines and vacuum cleaners? That would be the case if all members only read the reviews about products/subjects in which they were interested - many products would be ignored and Dooyoo in its present format would not function under.


New Members
I agree with a recent reviewer on this subject that it is important to rate reviews by new members form time to time. Leaving a comment of encouragement is a good idea. However I nearly always avoid rating any new members who simply churn out half a dozen useless reviews in a row. You can usually tell they're useless because they're in a row. They obviously haven't read around the site and they shouldn't really receive any encouragement until they do so. Trying to communicate is often a fruitless task.


Comments
Some times I go through periods where I leave a lot of comments and other times I refrain from doing so through lack of time etc. I don't think it's essential to leave a comment and if someone simply rates a review then this is sufficient feedback for me. Although in 'speakers corner' it's usually interesting to make/receive some comments. There's no harm in trying to get noticed from time to time. Merely leaving a comment such as 'Great review' is fine by me and I see no harm in writing 'nominated' - even though you can never be sure if someone actually has given you a nomination. Sometimes it can be frustrating when people read your review but don't rate it - you don't who it is. However, one has to remember that this can happen by accident and is not always intentional.


Rating
For me a quality review will contain some or all of the following: it is enjoyable to read, well balanced, contains some detail, some opinion and entertains. Even if the review has little consumer information, it can still get a VU from me if it entertains. For an entertaining review can still keep the page counters ticking, generate advertising, promote the product, attract attention and alleviate the boredom of reading another review about Lipotrim.

Regarding reviews in speakers corner, although I know this is difficult for some people, I don't believe that you should give a low rating just because you disagree with the opinion expressed. I'm not going to give an NU to someone or not rate their reviews just because they think ID cards are a great idea, global warming is nonsense and Jeremy Clarkson should be the next leader of the Conservative Party. As long as the review has some balance, looks at the pros and cons etc, then it will get my vote. Besides, I can always write in the comments section what a load of bollocks their opinion is.

I will never rate a review VU if there are lots of grammar mistakes and bad spelling. Nor will I rate highly if the review is very short with hardly any detail or if there's nothing but a boring description of contents/features.

There does seem to be an overall bias by all members to give lengthier reviews higher ratings. Sometimes I feel tempted to give really long reviews a less than VU but I rarely if ever do. It's hard because you know the writer has usually put in a lot of effort.

Rarely do I give a NU, but I do believe that if you really think a review is crap, then you shouldn't be afraid to use the NU option. If someone writes five lines in broken English with very little detail or opinion then it's NU. So what if you get a revenge rating? It will usually be obvious what's happened if you receive a single NU or SU amongst a list of VUs. The NU rating is underused. If something's rotten it needs to be said!

Summary: Reasons for rating