Oh for God's sake - STOP MOANING! (The dooyoo Redesign)

Member Name: Boonoiy

Product:	The dooyoo Redesign
Date:	08/10/02 (48 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great new look, Easy to find your way round, Very good for newbies with a great registration process

Disadvantages: Took a bit of geting used to

We've all done a bit by now, whinge, whinge, whinge! I know I was not too keen to begin with, the good old Tooyoo message boards are full to bursting point with moans (many of which came from me to begin with) about the new version of Dooyoo and there are now countless ops (except that Dooyoo let us know, as they always have, how many ops have been written about the subject in question) decreeing the new version of the site to be, and I quote, "Shite."

Let's get down to the basics shall we? Why are we here? Why did we ever join up? And why do we stick with it if it is as bad as all that?

The simple answer, at least in my case, is that it is actually not all that bad at all once you've got used to it. When I joined it was because of a link on the ipoints site, this brought me into the nest and I have remained here ever since in varying degrees of intensity. The link brought me to the site, it looked nice, it was easy to understand what was expected of me as a member and I soon found a load of helpful people to get me out of my brief churning period (oh how the year has passed) and really got me into the whole thing.

Let's try again shall we - from the link on ipoints I click on "Dooyoo," I find myself on the homepage and, if I was a newbie I would never know the difference between the then and the now. The site is nice to look at (if you ask me at least), there is a brief intro to the site in the top left hand corner to let me know what's what here (no real changes yet) and I know what I will be expected to do when I join.

Would you believe it? A register link on the top of the site! Would this be the place to register? Let's have a click and see... Cool, a registration form to fill in. Let's get a username and a password then shall we. Oh there you go, registered.

Obvious link to the login and register bits of the site and an easy reg process. Nice to see it&
#39;s not changed too much eh?

So, I've registered, began writing and met all the old hands of the site, all seems well so far and I can check on my account through the big, obvious link at the top of the page and keep an eye on my progress. Easy to find ops on the front page, clear links to get into the ops I'm interested in and I think I've fallen in love! What a great site.

So, for those who don't remember any different, there's nothing to really be put off with. The site's new look is good and modern, there's the ever present banner ads but they've become a standard part of any internet site by now and not really a turn off any more (as pop-ups are - still a necessary evil for a site I suppose but not the favourite of many internet users). Let's move on to those of us who've been here for a while.

RUN, RUN LIKE THE WIND!

Horrible, nothing is where it should be, no sign of the balance on the front page, not as quick as it was, the drop-down boxes have gone (I used to love these) and it's all horrible and new and wrong and poo and waaaaaaaaaaa, gimmee back my site, poopy face!

We really do seem to have feared the change and reacted to it in a bit of an OTT fashion. The bad signs began on the day of the launch. Remember all the login troubles we all had? Remember being able to see a few ops and think that there's some kind of secret society which allowed only a privileged few writers access? Nasty-pasty and no mistake.

The whole thing seemed to be changed and bad to us and we didn't half cry out in anger! What about now though? I notice that there's a lot of new ops out there, my inbox finds a lot of my COF (Circle Of Friends) still writing new opinions and there is no real malice around by now. We've had a month (is it only a month or longer? Someone let me know as I've just got used to it by now and stopped my pining a while back) of t
he new site and I think that, on reflection, it is a lot better than it was. Let me explain. I love there being 6 new ops on the front page. I used to hate having to click on the "25 latest" link to get the new list and am glad it has been replaced with this as it's much more user friendly and does not look at all bad. We can check on the churning activity with this alone and save mouse fatigue. I like to see the product focus bit on the front page, it is a nice little addition and a bit of a better way of doing it than the "Pro and Con" bit that was there before. I found this to be a bit elitist and I never saw one of my own on there - now, if there's an op I've written on a subject and this is then put up as the product to focus on, I've got a better chance of getting the coveted reads as there will be the list of ops when the product is clicked on - lovely.

We've got to face it, we love the community feel of the site but it is the clicks to have ops read that keeps us here. I love to write about stuff I have enjoyed or have hated but the incentive of getting paid for it is why I stay and why I keep writing. The new design gets my ops read and I'm more than happy with it.

Let's see, what else is there? I have not yet cashed any miles in since the re-design so I can't comment on this bit of the site.

The op reading process! There's one that's changed. Ha.

How's about the new click to rate bit then? Quality or what? Yep, we used to have to use a drop-down box to choose our rating and then on a link to submit our judgement. How much easier is it in this new form? Yeah, I agree, much easier. There's still the additional click needed for the nomination for a crown bit but that's survivable really.

Finally, an overview of the site's new look and feel: I think that it was basically a reaction to the change, any change to the site which
has put so many people off the new version. I found myself in a bit of a boycott frame of mind to start with but then put my worries behind me and have now re-joined the love nest of Dooyoo once more. I think it's great, the site is very easy to get around, there is no real change to the writing or reading of an op and the whole thing is just great. Thanks a lot Dooyoo for moving forward with the times, now, ***Don't go changing, to try to please me.....***.

I'll be around for a while yet!

Boon ;¬)

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