THE CHRISSYPOP EXPERIENCE (dooyoo.co.uk in general)

Member Name: chrissypops

Product:	dooyoo.co.uk in general
Date:	21/09/01 (59 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some lovely decent people here on Dooyoo, Reading and writing opinions, Make a little bit of pocket money

Disadvantages: The minority who likes to cheat

Right, before I get started, I want to say "HELLO". .*WAVE* and "WELCOME* to Old and new Dooyoo users.

Just let me say that for whatever reason you have joined Dooyoo, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Dooyoo is so great for the consumer. Its full of advice on most things you can buy today and more. Whats more these opinions or reviews are written by the public. Normal everyday people who send their money finding a product which suits them. Each review is individual, personal and most are very helpful indeed. Not only do Dooyoo provide a vast amount of advice on products, services, but provide advice on hard hitting issues in life. Things like Depression, Bereavement and disorders of the mind, heart and soul. Dooyoo has even got a Speakers corner for those of you who are brave enough to have you say on topics like Religion Abortion and in the light of whats happened in New york last week, Terrorism.



These reviews can help you make more of an informed decision about what you want in your life and shared experiences. As they are written by the public, there's no sales talk, no hard sell, just honest impartial advice. Being a member of Dooyoo for just over a year has been great for my pocket too. I dont believe that the cheapest is the worse quality or the most expensive is the best either. I tend to go mid range in most products I buy and refer to Dooyoo on lots of occasions to read up on something I would like to get, but not sure on the quality. In fact, most of the members also use Dooyoo to buy new product and write reviews of their own.


So how do you write a well informed opinion on Dooyoo?


Well, when I was at school we had to write an essay about a book we had read but we had to write about it as if an alien had come down to earth to read it. Apart from the alien bit, this is exactly how you should write an opinion. You write it as if the people who are reading it knows NOTHING abo
ut the product, service, film, book etc. Its important to think about QUALITY, GOOD GRAMMAR and SPELLING and above all your OWN writing style or personality. You can write you opinion in WORD PROCESSOR which is on your PC. This really helps as word has a spell check, it can make your opinions look presentable and some have a grammar check too. You can also write your opinions off line and save them on your hard drive or disk. Dont be in a hurry to post them up either. If you write an opinion and save it, you can go back to it and reread your work. Its them you will pick up silly errors, rearrange sentences, add or take away sentences or words. Sometimes its good if you can get someone else to read your opinion BEFORE you post it. My hubby usually reads most of mine before I post them. This helps as sometimes you read what you want to read rather than what it actually written. This gives someone else a chance to proof read your work and give advice.

There are slightly different aspects which should be taken into consideration when writing reviews or opinions on different products. For example if you are writing a review on a book or a film then try not to give the plot away. Instead try and give a quick outlook on the film and then concentrate on what you really like or dislike about the film/book. Give a little background information about the characters. Anyone can waffle on about what happened within a film/book, it just takes a little more thought on what YOU really like or dislike about it.

Real life Issues or Members Advice on... is probably my favourite part of any opinion site. This is where members tell you the most detailed, personal aspects of what the opinion is on. There are some remarkable, brave, sad and brilliant opinions about. I think Members advice. ..is the most valuable section on this site just make sure when you read you have plenty of tissues. If you are thinking about writing in these sections write with an open heart. If
you are brave enough in writing about life experiences like Depression, Bereavement, or anything like that then write until you cant write anymore. I have written a few such opinions and it does bring out a lot of emotion but its kind of healing too. People might voice their opinion on here but all Dooyoo writers are very supportive. Its like having your very own community centre. Any thing like this I feel are invaluable to this community and the consumers too.

With most other reviews try and give as much useful information possible. Cost, where you got it from, how long you have used it? What you like and dislike about it? Specifications? Personal experiences with the product or service is always useful.


How do you develop a writing style or personality?

I have found that this comes with practice. If you write on an regular basis, whether on paper, other web sites, then your writing style is already there. If you dont write on a regular basis then it will develop in time. A writing style is unique. Its so unique that if someone decided to cut, paste and post it up on a different website, under another name, and you read it, you would know it was your writing. Many peoples writing style varies from being funny, detailed, blunt and too the point, or just a delight to read. Its this " personality" which is often present in your own persona, that attracts the ratings. I keep reading peoples opinions because I enjoy their writing style. Unfortunately I dont have as much time on this site as I would like. Having two children and other surfing commitments but I do try and read as much as I can.

What about reading on the site? Is it important?

Well, as well as writing, it is very important that you do read other peoples opinions. This is not to gain " TIT FOR TAT" rating, which is based on you rate me and Ill rate you sort of thing. The reason you read other opinions is to gain knowledge on how to
write through reading, to find people who you like to read opinions of, to read up on products etc you are thinking about buying, renting, reading etc. Some members on this site read far more than write. Some members write more than they read. Some hold a happy balance. I personally feel that the more you read, the better your writing becomes, you get your name around the site and you gain respect from other members. Whatever way you look at it, the main reason people read is because they ENJOY IT.

Now I had something happen to me on Ciao which astounded me beyond belief. Ciao is another opinion based website run very similar to Dooyoo. I have read many opinions about PLAGIARISM but I had never thought it would happen to me. Plagiarism is where a small minority of people cheat and steal part or all of other peoples opinions or information from web pages. Well when I logged into Ciao this particular afternoon and looked into the most recent posted opinions, a book review caught my eye on Harry Potter. As I like all the Harry Potter series I decided to have a look. Now remember I told you about writing style? Well this is what I mean. Although this person who had posted this opinion on Harry Potter had a different title, I knew within the first paragraph that this work was in fact MY OWN and copied from another opinion site which I do work on. I was so shocked, I even had to check my opinion which is still written in my word processor on my PC. They were indeed the same. I was just going to E-mail Ciao and report it but decided to let the person in question know that I knew. I went to the users profile and no E-mail. which is usually the case apparently. So I left a message on his opinion that he had 30 mins to change his opinion or I would report him. I did just that. I got left a comment on one of my opinions and it was the person concerned. He tried to bluff his way out but left a comment on his guest book that I had the opinions that he copied still one
my PC, so I knew that the were mine. True to my word, I gave him 30 mins to either delete my opinions off and either write his own or whatever. I was piped to the post. In 30 mins, a few other members had noticed that their opinions had also been copied over and had reported him to the Ciao abuse.

Their account has now been deleted.


This story is a WARNING to anyone who is thinking about copying OTHER PEOPLE'S opinions. Its against the rules on most opinionated sites and anyone that's caught doing so will be deleted. People work hard in writing their own personal opinions. Its not right and certainly not very fair in copying them. To me its immoral, selfish and very, very lazy. Although I did feel flattered that someone thought that my opinions were good enough to copy, they wouldnt of thought about it like that. They would of thought " AH yes... that looks like a good one" after reading a few sentences and then copied it. Looking at it from my side I still felt hurt, appalled and very annoyed in knowing that someone had the audacity to copy my opinions . What a cheek ! Some people are just so sad :-( As my Hubby as just put it its almost like Cyber- space burglary. Someone broke into my account, stole my properly to sell and make money. Goodness I got so mad, my hands were shaking as I typed a message to this member.

What about copying your OWN opinions from one site to another?

This is a real tricky one. I know quite a lot of people who do post some of there opinions on different sites... and why not. Why spend hours or maybe days writing an opinion to post it on one site, if you cant express that same view on others sites? Some people feel that its unethical but I dont. I feel that as long as the title and some of the contents are slightly different then why not? I would say if you are thinking of doing this then its on your own head. If you can keep the same user name and express in your profile that
you do use other sites. Its nice to know that other users do experiment with other opinionated sites. Whether its for profit, or so they can spend less time writing and more time reading, its upto them. Like I say I have no problem at all with it as long as I know that that person isn't a plagiarist.

I really hope this has been a help to both newbies and oldies on this site. If you are new, welcome, have fun and enjoy what you write and read. If you are an oldie ...put the kettle on.. I'm gasping !!!!

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