The Malu Challenge: And why not? (Tips / Guides on Helping to Recruit Members to dooyoo)

Member Name: The Operator

Product:	Tips / Guides on Helping to Recruit Members to dooyoo
Date:	21/11/03 (50 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Never could do these

Disadvantages: Mmmm...where to start...

To see if I was still up to it, I thought I'd try Malu's challenge. Can't see why I shouldn't, it's been a while, after all...

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q: When did you join dooyoo?

a: I joined back in April 2001. Still a junior compared to some. Opinionating toyboy.

q: How did you discover dooyoo?

a: I subscribed to a newsletter, freebiersclub.co.uk, which featured it one week saying that you could get paid a shedload of wedge for saying what you felt. I do believe they'd been advertising on hoardings as well, as I seem to remember a vivid green and black poster by the North End Road railway bridge in Erith, Kent but memory may well be tricking me on that one. The newsletter is still going too and in a pretty healthy state.

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q: Why did you join?

a: Simple! I liked writing and I'd always been told I had an opinion on everything so the thought of getting a little something back for expressing those opinions without having to stick to deadlines appealed to me. The place seemed friendly enough too. I didn't realise quite how friendly it would become though.

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q: What was your very first opinion on?

a: I prefer not to think of it It was on my 5 favourite beers and is v.poor. Can't remember why I chose that category, I think probably because I thought I could write knowingly on the subject. I don't think it was as bad as some first ones though.

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q: Did you find it easy to get the hang of dooyoo?

a: In the olden days dooyoo was a breeze, it was so easy to use. Searches were easy to do, the latest opinions appeared down the side without you having to click on an unmarked link to find them (I click on the dooyoo logo to get to the home page - isn't that what everyone does?) and emails/ product suggestions were answered and added without hassle. Then the world went crazy and ev


eryone was up in arms because the new version was brought out. That was in May 2001. There was a backdoor way in provided by some clever cove somewhere which I occasionally used when there were problems with the latest update but those problems were nothing compared to those of today. Why oh why did they have to alter it again? Why ask for advice and then ignore it? Why beta test a live site and throw up all your mistakes for the world to see? That's what it felt like was happening and dooyoo suffered because of it.

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q: Did you read other opinions before you posted your first one?

a: I did read quite a few, yes although I don't remember which. I read quite a few as a non-member before I plucked up the courage to join. I wish more new members would read around a bit before they post anything. Don't confine it to the opinions either, read the comments and get a feel for the community - it doesn't take long to realise that there is a certain protocol to be observed and that there's no need to get suicidal when you see your first "useful".

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q: Do you write no/some/many comments?

a:I used to try and write a comment to every rating. I still do try to when I read new writers. The lack of a guestbook feature on dooyoo makes some of the comments look by turns daft and intriguing. Don't put my lack of a comment down to being rude though, there are myriad reasons why I may not have left one, not least because there is very little I could have said. I do try and make my comments comprehensible though, at least to the writer if not the other readers; confusing ones are just that - confusing. They say nothing about you and I don't know what they're meant to say about me either. The biggest con of all is the comment which indicates that the reader has not even read the opinion. I write to be read otherwise what's the point?

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q: When you click on the list of Newest Reviews, do you read your friends' opinions no matter what they're on/according to subject no matter who has written on it/preferably the opinions of new writers?

a: No! Everyone is equal. Some of my friends' opinions will go unread for weeks but again that's only because I'm being lazy. I usually only get enough time on the pc to check my email, let alone read and rate. There are a few people on dooyoo (and ciao) who seem to be able to multi-task their lives beyond comprehension. Either that or they've discovered something Einstein couldn't predict.

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q: Do you write your opinions in one sitting?

a: No. I have tried it a couple of times but I find it exhausting. I usually write it as a draft email and then come back to it whenever. I'm not the world's quickest typist either so a long one would take me ages.

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q: Do you use a spell check?

a: No, never. We haven't got Word, only Office at the moment, and I don't even know where it is on that. See, I'm a dunce when it comes to this because we don't even have Office, it's Works we have. I didn't even know that I could spell check on the mail programs either as I'm not exactly clued up about most of the software we use. As I'm a slow writer, I will read and re-read what I've written over and over again and, as I paid attention in skewel, I can spell pretty well even if I find as I get older that words look "wrong" more often. I don't trust spell checkers either; the dictionary's the best spellchecker as it's got definitions and you don't get them if you trust the boy Gates. Some of you ought to try it, or, sum off ewe wrought too trite. Bullocks, isn't it, eh? But a spellchecker would tell you there's nothing wrong with that phrase. It's definITEly, by the wa
y. Think FINITE as there's no such word as finate. Keith will now tell me there is. Ratfink.

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q: Do you think you can improve your chances to get a crown if you suck up to a guide?

a: No way! I don't trust the list of guides to be correct anyway so what would be the point?.I'd feel terribly foolish as well. Oddly enough, I trust the powers that be deciding these things to act sensibly. If I've received nominations then I'm certain they'll be acknowledged and as long as the opinion falls within the defined criteria then how can I argue? Crowns are nice to get obviously, but I'm not going to lose any sleep if I don't get one.

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q: Are you a member of a forum or a chat room?

a: I was a member of Opcom but I only ever visited once or twice, said hello once and then ran away. Maybe I just visited on the wrong day but everyone told me how wonderful it was and I couldn't see it. I was one of the half a dozen founder members of Tooyoo though. Several of us were chatting one night and decided that we were having such a laugh that we ought to form our own little independent offshoot, call it schism even, as we were breaking away from the established faith of dooyoo worship in opcom. That night, "Ilovejackdaniels" Dave hijacked an unused chatroom floating in cyberspace and tooyoo was born. I don't visit much there anymore either, sad to say' as there are just not enough hours in the day. I do visit Chatterweb quite often though and owe a huge debt of gratitude to its members who helped both myself and Sharon through a gruesome few months earlier this year. Such is the way of the internet; people you wouldn't know from Adam in the street become firm and reliable friends online. I moved to Crewe just over a year ago leaving friends and family way down south, hardly ever to be seen again; my net buddies though, were still there on the oth
er end of this connection. It was as if they came with me.

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q: Does it get to
you when members prais
e or condemn you?

a: Getting praise is always nice and the odd piece of well intentioned criticism does help to keep your head in check. Insults are just stupid. I can't understand the small-minded attitudes of people who believe that hiding behind the cloak of anonymity the internet provides gives them carte-blanche to hand out unnecessary brickbats. Are their lives so worthless that they find they have resort to insults to get their kicks? Maybe they have personal hygiene problems or something

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q: What did you do in your spare time before you joined dooyoo?

a: I played golf, went fishing, spoke to my children and called my mum and dad occasionally. SInce joining dooyoo I've not played golf, been fishing only a few times but not in the last two years and hardly ever see my children or parents anymore. But I also met the woman who changed my life there and I made the biggest decision of my life in committing to her because of dooyoo. So every cloud etc...

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q: What do you wish for the future?

a: That dooyoo is able to find and commit the necessary resources to making itself viable and not only the German site, either. It does have something to offer and although it's not an ebay or Friendsreunited, it can still be a success. If my advice is worth anything, dump the idiots at the top with all the degrees and get someone with talent in. No-one ever made it with a degree in business studies or an MBA because the ability to chance it just can't be taught.

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P.S.
Please don't take this challenge to ciao without asking MALU, she'd rather decide
herself what to do with a text she's written, when to take it there or if at all. Thank
you.

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