great site - for the most part (dooyoo.co.uk in general)

Member Name: fantiquitous

Product:	dooyoo.co.uk in general
Date:	10/04/09 (93 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: lots of helpful reviews, potential to earn money

Disadvantages: system allows for abuse and petty behaviour

When I first joined there were those who were both welcoming and friendly, and I thank them for that. But there were some members who really did wreck my first impressions, seemingly intent on making the whole dooyoo experience an unpleasant one. I was receiving negative comments, focusing only on minutia, as well as being accused of rating falsely, and received personal messages threatening to report me. (I had been a member for less than a day). I did not feel like coming on the site for a while following this, but have since given it another go. Now after being on this site a while, my opinions have changed for the better. I have now learned that a rating of 'useful' does not mean 'useful', but 'I hate you', with anything below that the equivalent of a murderous attempt on a family member. I stand by the fact I think some people take this site far too seriously. Although being able to clearly understand a review is important, I refuse to accept that imperfect grammar or spelling is worth unconstructive, negative comments. The behaviour towards such minutia is nothing short of rude, and is extremely petty. Especially seeing that those who complain rarely get things perfect themselves. I wonder if rule number five is invisible to some. But despite the bad, there is a lot of good here. I am even starting to enjoy my time here; i am enjoying writing reviews, and some seem to enjoy reading them. The community actually turns out to be a largely pleasant one, and I receive kind, useful, constructive comments. And the bonus of getting paid to do this makes me keen to stick around.

There is something I both like and dislike about this site. The rating system. I think for things to be genuinely fair, unbiased, and useful, the ratings should be anonymous. There is too much room for people to give falsely positive, or negative reviews, based on the other persons rating, rather than the review itself. However I do realise it's an important part of the dooyoo community to thank people by rating them back. And it's something that helps keep the site active. But it just leaves so much room for biased ratings and abuse.

The site is generally laid out very well. It's easy to look at the various basic stats you may want to check on. It's very simple to check up on who rated you, how many points you have, and all other such information. It's even quite easy to suggest a new product without too much waiting. Initially I did find it tricky to find out how to write a review on a product, but it is not complicated once you are used to it. The search bar is extremely useful.

The pay out level of £50 is pretty high but I do not think it will take forever to get there. I think this site offers good incentives, and the payment system is nice and clear. Although I think it might be all the better if reviewers could obtain points from non-members reading our reviews, and finding them helpful. Before I was a member I often found helpful reviews from this site (and similar) cropping up in search engines.

Summary: a great site, so long as people don't take it too seriously