Topical and passionate, that is the ongoing debate of guides on Dooyoo.

Some people enjoy slating guides as they are fair game, usually being prolific writers or long term Dooyoo members etc. it gets a bit boring after a while to be honest as they are not paid to do their job nor are they given any preferential treatment, much to the disbelief of certain sectors who seem to think that guides get a crown for burping on Dooyoo.

Truth be told, being a guide on here is a thankless task, or has been in the past. Some of the long term guides have given their time despite the problems Dooyoo had with their inability to add new suggestions and the dire search facilities, not to mention the lack of decent posts.

Now I can write from a neutral point of view as I am not currently a guide but have been twice in the past, once for speakers corner and once for motors. When I was guide of motors, I was lucky to have one post a week so it became a bore rather than a chore, and speakers corner became a non-crowned section which kind of deflated the whole point of having a guide, being one if not the most important jobs of being a guide was to select a handful of reviews you thought were worthy of Dooyoo’s consideration for a crown.

NOTE: notice how I said selected for consideration for a crown?
Well, guides do not give crowns, they forward what they feel are crown worthy opinions for Dooyoo to consider and crown if they feel they are worthy of such an accolade. Crowns are also awarded to reviews nominated by Dooyoo members so there is a second chance option if a guide feels your review is not of a crown standard. So do not think that by sucking up to a guide you will get a crown, it won’t happen.

Now another rule of a guide as I interpret it, is to make sure people understand what is needed to make a review in their section better. Just the basics here, such as product info and personal experience. This to me is the hardest bit of guiding because 99% of opinionaters tend to take offence when told that the review they have submitted is perhaps not the best thing you have ever read. You do get a bit of banter that may not be desirable nor friendly but then I guess that is an acceptable “perk” form some peoples perspective.
I know on a site called epinions guides were moronic creatures that frowned on the less educated (or more educated) and would lock your review if you happened to mispell misspell! Fortunately the majority of guides on Dooyoo tend to do the job because they like it rather than for their own gain which is apparent when you see a few guides do not write much so do not tout for reads by flaunting their position, the three-penny whores!
Seriously though, you would be hard pushed to realise who the guides were if you did not go to their profiles or the community page.

So, the guiding system, does it work?

You know what?
I think it does.

I have had a few issues with guides in the past about what they deem to be the correct category to post in and competitions that they organise in your own section, but these are more personal issues rather than steadfast site guidelines and I will carry on arguing with guides who I feel are perhaps not viewing things from an equal perspective. It has been so long since this happened though, I think all the minor disputes have indeed sorted themselves out now and having Sebastian (Greek God of Dooyoo, although he is not Greek nor is he a God!) on board, they have someone with a bit of backbone who also listens to what you have to say. He has helped push the guidelines into a clearer perspective and ensure an even keel amongst the guides, I mean, they can’t all be seen to be pulling in different directions although I feel having a bit of passion amongst the guides helps show a genuine quality and dedication to the post.

It’s not easy sometime traipsing through a load of churned out short reviews to find a decent one worth putting forward to Seb I bet. I mean, have you seen how many food reviews are being posted recently? If I was the guide in that category I would be screaming at the cat! 1000 words on a tin of baked beans would not warrant a nomination from me, but an examination from a doctor! That is why a guide should be someone who knows what they are reading so that they can help someone (seek medical advice) perhaps shorten a review or lengthen one if need be. This is only my thoughts and of course someone guiding should only offer advice if they feel it necessary to do so, being pompous at times can often offend.

I have not had a guide tell me anything productive about my reviews for a long time. Although I get comments from them saying things like “Why are you still here?”, “Have you taken your medication today?” and “Nice review!” I have not really had any guiding for a long time but I guess I do not see myself as needing any, which is wrong.

As a guide, I would expect to read every review in the category I was guiding in and leave a comment if I deemed it necessary. If you have told someone once that their reviews are too short at 100 words, you don’t really need to tell them that again do you? Well, not on every 100 word review they post.

I feel as a whole the guiding system is fine and not cliquey, which is an important factor here. I remember being on another site where it became a us and them situation and it killed the site for a lot of people. I can’t see Dooyoo going this way.

What I would like to see from the guides though is a harsher rating on reviews that are not quite in the right topic header and also reviews that are not really personal. I would also like to see them taking notice of the guides ratings and comments on a review. I know this is going to be controversial but there have been times when a person guiding in their own sections has rated a review NU as it was off topic and another guide has rated it VU, and this has caused no end of arguments. I appreciate everyone has their own view and that they can differ, but if a guide is saying something posted in their category is off topic and it is not, then why are they guiding in that category?

So basically for me the guiding system works fine on here and can be a little “nice” at times.

I would love to guide again now the standard of reviews and traffic has picked up, but don’t expect me to change if I do.

I will still be that lovely little cheeky chap you all admire so much. ;o)