I must admit, I was one of those dirty newbies that arrived in droves after the MSE email. I'd always enjoyed writing, I'm quite opinionated and I was told I could make up to £200 a month! Excellent! After churning out naff review after naff review I finally got an idea of what was expected and what constituted a decent piece of writing.

I've been here about 6 weeks now, maybe you think that's not long enough to form a worthy opinion but hey ho, you're getting it anyway!

~ Reading and rating others ~

I really have found it genuinely useful to read other people's reviews, from opinions in discussion, to reviews on shampoo, hotels and pets products. I, like many, have tried more products after reading rave reviews on here.

I tend to read and rate quite a bit, and always try and return a rate. I like to think that my ratings are fair; I try and give newbies the benefit of the doubt as I know many of you did for me. I very rarely give NU unless it is blatantly copied or auto-translated. If I give SU, it's usually because there is no actual opinion, just description of the product. I tend to give U if there is opinion, but not enough information overall and VU speaks for itself.

When reading reviews, it is annoying to see complete rubbish getting VU. It's clear that either people aren't reading the review at all and are merrily clicking everything as VU, or they are scared of being honest and receiving a revenge rate.

~ Revenge ratings ~

Probably the worst thing about this site. I recently (and I know I wasn't the only one "attacked" by this person) gave a very generous SU to a newbie who then in turn gave me 10 NU. When I questioned him about it in a PM he replied with all kinds of expletives before calling me a "pez". Charming. Needless to say he's been reported to Dooyoo and I'm just waiting for him to be kicked off.

I also recently rated another member (not a newbie this time) a U who then went and gave me 8 usefuls of my own. My husband who is also a member had the same thing happen to him. Is a U a revenge rate? I know we should be thankful for the extra 1.5p, and that we are told that a U is still a positive rating, I just find it frustrating that reviews I have written that have been given VU by over 70 people, including guides, are then marked down as useful. Don't get me wrong, I know my writing isn't perfect, I don't expect to get a VU from everyone but the fact that I received 6 usefuls from this person within 3 minutes shows he didn't even bother to read them. To me, that is revenge.

People complain about members becoming upset over ratings they have received but I think you can see it in a positive light; they clearly take pride in what they've written. If they didn't the odd U or SU would not be an issue.


~ Crowns ~

I can't really comment on what does and does not warrant a crown as I am yet to receive one myself. I personally nominate quite a bit, sometimes I tell the person, sometimes I don't. I tend to nominate anything that exceeds a VU, something that goes above and beyond.

Another issue seems to be whether or not we should tell the person we've nominated. Like I say, sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. Some people say that by telling them, we are putting pressure on them to nominate us back, or we are getting their hopes up unnecessarily. I tell people to show them that their work really did stand out to me; I'd never do it to obtain a nomination myself. I think from now on, if I do want to tell them, I'll do it in a PM as I don't want others reading the review thinking I have done for any other reason.

In terms of getting their hopes up, I don't think that's really an issue. Having not received a crown myself, I have had plenty comments saying I have been nominated. I'm not overly concerned about the crown itself, I'm just pleased to know that people have enjoyed my review enough to nominate at all.

~ Churning ~

Like I said, for the first couple of days I was a churner myself, and I now realise how frustrating it was for others. I find it hard to churn now, I'd rather spend time and effort to make them of decent quality.

I also find that the more you do a day, the less they get read. What's the point in putting the effort in if they don't get read? I therefore aim to write a review a day, sometimes it's more, sometimes it's less but that's usually my aim. I personally feel, the more I do, the more they can be overlooked. I put a lot of time and effort into my New York and Austria hotel reviews and only got around 20 reads for them, whereas my review on a bag of Revels I did just the other day has easily passed the 60 mark.

Having said this, those of you who can write a lot of very useful reviews in a day (there's a few that I read regularly that are consistently VU), good for you. I'm only jealous that I can't do the same!

~ Guides ~

There's a lot of guide bashing going on at the moment, some of it justified, some of it not. I find it particularly annoying to click a guide's profile to find a list of do's and don'ts. Don't put this in your comments, don't say that. Don't write your reviews in this way. I'm sorry but I'll do whatever I damn please. Some of them are just power crazy and act like head teachers dealing with a class of naughty school children.

Another annoying thing is the way they down grade a review just because they don't like the style of the person's writing, or the way they have laid the review out. That's just ridiculous. You can't justify giving a well thought out, and well written review a SU just because you don't like, for example, track by track music reviews. That's like me saying I won't give anything above an SU that doesn't mention the word "pebble" and then happily rating everyone down because of my own ridiculous rule.

Having said this, I do feel the majority of the guides are doing a great job. Can I name names? Sod it, I'm going to. Glitter Princess is fab, she writes really interesting reviews, rates fairly and offers advice should you want it (there is nothing this woman doesn't know about cosmetics!). I Am Joy, pmcds and Four Paws are also up there among my favourite guides, as they write interesting reviews and rate fairly. Obviously I haven't come across every guide and I'm sure there are more out there who are great, and I think the ones that are should be applauded.

~ What I am spending my money on? ~

So the £200 in a month thing was a bit of an exaggeration but I have now been here six weeks and have just reached the £50 mark. As I've mentioned before any money me and my husband make is going straight in our three month old's Child Trust Fund. We are also saving for a bigger house so we can fill it with children and dogs, so the money we make on here going in our son's CTF means we can put the rest of our spare cash in our other savings account.

~ Summary ~

Advantages:

Enjoyable to give own opinion
Reading others opinions
Seeing your points rack up
Helpful guides
Crowns rewarding exceptional work
Genuinely helpful and friendly members

Disadvantages:

Addictive
People abusing the system
Power crazy guides
Revenge rating