New at dooyoo (dooyoo.co.uk in general)

Member Name: azana

Product:	dooyoo.co.uk in general
Date:	29/01/09 (193 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: I've had fun so far

Disadvantages: Reading badly written things makes my eyes hurt

My profile tells me I have been a member of dooyoo for 29 days - now I am not sure when I will lose my "new member" banner, actually I am strangely attached to it - but nearly a month has gone already so a good time to muse on dooyoo so far, and here are my thoughts and what I have learnt:

1) There are some fantastic writers on here who have a wealth of knowledge on all types of subjects. There are also a suprising amount of people who don't have the shift button (no capitals) or spellcheck on their machine apparently. I find the former's work the best read, the latter sometimes get a suprising amount of VU ratings and quickly drop off my radar, I wonder why they are here - is it for the money? Sometimes I wish someone would pay some of the worst to go away as when writing is really really awful, it hurts my brain. Some of my reviews haven't been the best (the early ones in particular) but I do hope I have always taken the care to think about what I want to say and to write as well as I am able, and reading other people's reviews has helped me to see what to aspire to. Also I try to write about things that I actually know something about and have experienced, this is not always true of some of the reviews here it would seem.

2) People have been really welcoming and helpful so far, thank you.

3) Dooyoo is surprisingly addictive, I probably should diminish my time reading on it but will I?

4) Some people will never ever rate your reviews even if you look at theirs and rate. Maybe they just don't have the time. Maybe they are just not interested.

5) More people buy things from Lush than I thought. There are more Lush products than I thought.

6) It would probably be ok to put a cap on the number of reviews of some things, like digestives or diet coke.

7) Reading dooyoo you might find out something that is really really helpful - I have found it surprisingly satisfying to share what I have learned about parenting and miscarriage etc and hope I have helped someone somewhere.

8) It is suprisingly nice to get a crown, of which I only have 2 so far - the reviews that you think you wrote the best aren't necessarily the ones that get crowned though - that in mind if I look at someone's profile I read what interests me not necessarily what is crowned.

9) There probably should be a cap to reviews per day, as suggested elsewhere 3 would in fact be a reasonable number.

10) I should watch more dvd's and read more books, one day I will.

11) Finally the reviews I write that I think most people will want to read are not necessarily the ones that actually get read most - my biggest read review so far is on breastfeeding - how? Maybe I posted at the right time, or rated or maybe people are genuinely interested in breastfeeding - I don't know! I only posted it as I had read one of the more recent reviews than mine which I felt was riddled with inaccuracy and lack of helpfulness - I guess if you read a review about a product or something that you feel that actually you know a lot more about then it is worth writing your opinion.

Overall I think dooyoo proves that some sites on the internet are real and thriving communities - it has been fascinating so far to read the opinions of people of all backgrounds and ages. The amazon vouchers are nice too - something to get a nice little treat for myself; a mama mia dvd is winging its way to me so that is number 10 covered!

Dooyoo is easy to use and friendly so far - I am sure as I get to know it more the innerpolitics of every site will become clear to me, but so far I am happy to keep my head down, write about things I genuinely care about and enjoy the good reviews - oh and shout at my screen at the awful ones j- who knew?! Thank you dooyooers for 29 great days.

Summary: 29 days of being a dooyooer