In a Land of Make Believe...... (The dooyoo guide system)

Member Name: marandina

Product:	The dooyoo guide system
Date:	01/12/05 (151 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Yes

Disadvantages: A few

"Run for the sun little one..." Ahhhhh, you can’t beat a bit of Buck’s Fizz can you? So anyway, I suppose in many ways I shouldn't be writing this? Well, I am a guide and I think that the actual reason for posting this new category is to gain feedback from the members about guides. Hmmm...well...I'll write this anyway and see what happens. I’m a devil aren’t I?

Let’s start by saying that the clue is in the question or in this case, the title. A guide is just that: a guide. A bit like a museum guide, a good pub guide or even a girl guide. No, no...maybe not a girl guide then. Yep, a guide is meant to guide the members. Of course, this presupposes that the members want to be guided in the first place but here in lies another nuance.

So in amongst all this guiding what does that actually entail? Well, my own interpretation is thus:

First of all – recommending opinions for crowns. Yessiree, tis the most popular subject on Dooyoo and the most contentious. A guide is meant to recommend the best opinions in their category each week. Dooyoo then award crowns to the top 10% of opinions posted. So if 10 opinions appear in, say, motors category, and 3 get recommended then only 1 should get a crown in theory. Now there has been some speculation over guides influencing their own crown awards and picking up more than their fair share. Even now to the point that the guide group feel it necessary to infer that it is now harder for them to win crowns than the rest of the members by having to be nominated by a non-guide member click to be eligible. There's a whole subject here in its own right but 2 things stand out for me. Firstly, if the guides are meant to be the better writers hence them being guides at all wouldn't you expect them to be regular crown winners? Not because they have a divine right to win crowns or even because of their guide status but merely because they tend to be good writers. Secondly, if we differentiate between guides and non-guides e.g. by saying "It's harder for me to win a crown than it is for you, governor, because I'm a guidester" then isn't that putting a group of people on a pedestal? I mean, I don’t like pedestals. I like kicking pedestals from underneath people. Is that an evil act? I dunno. For me, all members should have the same opportunity to win crowns regardless of whether they are guides or not and it's this aspect that sets Dooyoo aside so much so from sites like Ciao. OK, insist on a member click for eligibility for a crown but make it for every body and not just for guides.

I guess the acid test is as to whether there is a whole cache of illicitly crowned opinions by guides on the system somewhere that would prove foul play. I can honestly say that I haven't read a crowned opinion that didn't deserve it and that's a big up to Dooyoo HQ and a small up to the guides that have made the recommendations. Unless you know differently, of course...

So apart from crowns what else? Well, guides really should read all the opinions in their category as far as I am concerned. When I say that, I do admire the movie guide and others that work busy categories. You have to take your hat off to them for all the reading they do but it's only by reading every opinion that you can achieve consistency and fairness when it comes to crowns and stuff.

I guess guides should set an example although I think it's easy to overplay this. We are simply unpaid helpers on an Internet site and not an aide to the United Nations or summat. If members want help then fine, just ask. In my experience, I can't recall the last time someone asked me for hints and tips on how to write better opinions. I have done this in the past myself and found the advice invaluable but nobody seems to bother these days. I dunno, maybe I'm being presumptuous that I have the ability to give folks this kind of guidance *sigh*

There are other things within the subject of setting an example too. I guess the old chestnut of rating is in there. I certainly try to rate with my head rather than my heart but I do maintain that rating written work is not an exact science. One person's "VU" may be another person's "U" and there will always be differences at the margin. I guess the biggest lesson I've learned over the years is that a rating is a personal rating and should mean something to the person rating. What I mean is that if someone feels that a piece is "not useful" because they don't find it useful then so be it. I know that there are guidelines as to how to rate and there is a perceived ambiguity over off-topic opinions but the best example I can give is my last opinion was crowned and yet someone rated it "NU". Now I know the person rating and did query it ever so politely but that's as far as it goes. The "NU" is still there and if they feel it's not useful then it's not useful. This principle can apply equally to any other form of rating. The majority of members will always be reluctant to vary from "VU" for lots of reasons but the old mantra "rate the opinion not the author" really is true and a rating other than "VU" really isn't a personal sleight on the author (mostly!).

Oh yeah, guides really should be on the lookout for abuse too. We now have a nifty template that makes it quick and easy to report dodgey dealings and I reckon I use it to report abuse half a dozen times a week. *Sheesh* This site has become decidedly dodgier over the last few weeks.

To be honest, I think that covers it mostly but it is interesting to know what most folks think. As for the other topical guidey issues then:

Yes, I think guides should be rotated 6-monthly. If only there were enough people wanting to be guides to make this work though!

Yes, I think nominations for guides should come from members. I'm not really sure where else they would come from to be honest and it's how I started when Ken the mad_cabbie suggested I apply to Dooyoo a few years ago. (Yes, it's Ken's fault!)

Yes, I enjoy being a guide at times.

Yes, I also hate its sometimes. The site has been very frustrating over the years with all the technical problems it has endured and the occasional on-site spats that become personal and flare up in threads makes my heart sink when I think about the effect it may have on new members. Fortunately, this is relatively rare.

No, I won't be a guide forever. In fact, after doing my third or fourth stint (I forget) I think I'm close to the end of my current tenure. I'm sure that after reading this then there will be thousands of readers wanting to step into the breach (Yeehah!).

Ho hum...there you have it. My opinion for what it's worth but isn't that what this site is all about?

Thanks for reading

Marandina

Note/update Jan 06: I am no longer a guide although I stand by the comments in this opinion. However, I would stress that it is important to enjoy the site so try never to get *too* serious.

Summary: Guidesters