My review on the review writers forum! (reviewwritersforum.co.uk)

Member Name: Brown_eyes1984

Product:	reviewwritersforum.co.uk
Date:	24/06/06 (278 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: a good place to hang out, get to meet new people

Disadvantages: site is a bit plain, not enough member participation!

The review writer’s forum is a forum started by quite a popular member of both review sites, ciao and dooyoo.

Thingywhatsit – or Rachel, as she is also known- set up the forum in the hope to bring members together to have a laugh, make new friends and basically just create a happy, easy going web space for members of all review sites. But can a forum ever be completely happy? And does the website provide harmless fun or is it just another boring site that people sign up to and never take part? Well, as someone who frequents the site daily, here is my view on Thingywhatsit’s online forum.

*** The Layout ***

When the site first loads you are greeted with a rather plain looking site, though it does contain a nice little logo with a cartoon picture of what I presume to be as Rachel. It’s a fun logo with Rachel holding out a drink, toasting the fact that you have come to the site. I think this is very fitting to Rachel’s welcoming character and it goes really well on the site.

Below the logo you can see links to an FAQ, a calendar of posts, a search section, an option to either login or register, and a link to get back to the home page. Although the writing for these links is quite small, they are written in blue and are against a white background so they stand out quite well, without being in your face. This is good news for me because I’ve visited some sites that I have wanted to join, and I haven’t for the life of me been able to find the link to sign in/register. So I do like the clearly visible links.

The colour scheme runs the same throughout the site, with it being mainly white and two different shades of blue. The main forum page is on the first page that loads up which is handy. It doesn’t mess around, it is a forum after all and that is what loads up first, no fancy homepage or anything, just a simple forum with selections for different topics. Now on one hand people could argue that there should be a few different pages and although it is a forum, there should be other stuff there too such as an ‘about me’ page or an introduction before you get to the forum. I personally feel it might be a good idea to have that but on the other hand I do like the fact that it is what it states in its title – a forum and nothing more or less.

So although a little plain, the site shows you all the information you need to know, as well as providing clear links that are easy to navigate through.

*** The Content ***

The actual topics themselves on the forum are quite varied. The main categories are:

• All Site Information – Click on this category and it will take you to a page with forum rules, how to use the site, a newsletter sign up thread, a welcome thread and general information about new things to the forum and competitions that may be running.

• Ciao – A place to chat about everything related to Ciao

• Dooyoo – A place to chat about everything to do with Dooyoo

• Other Review, Reward and Survey sites – A good Place to find out about some other sites you may not have heard of.

• Epinions – All things to do with the site Epinions

• General Review Site Chatter – A place to compare, ask questions and discuss all things to do with review sites.

• Banter and Fun – A place where members can talk about whatever they want to, related or not related to review sites.

• Entertainment – A place to talk about what you have seen on TV, or anything to do with the entertainment business.

• The Arena – My favourite section – A place to play online games against other members. New games are posted all the time so there is always a variety to choose from.

• All About Books – The title speaks for itself really. This is a good place to share your views on recent books you have read or you can find out some info on books you have been interested in reading.

• Ebay – A place to discuss Ebay. Have you had any bad experiences? Have you got any tips on how to sell things on eBay? If so this is the place to let it all out.


As you can see, there are quite a lot of topics available to chat on, so there really is something for everyone. I have especially found the review site sections helpful when I have been stuck on something such as suggesting a topic, or if the site has been playing up a little and I need to know if it is just me who is having problems.

Another handy thing that is provided is a private messages section. This loads up a separate page when you click on it. Obviously you have to be a member to receive private messages, and once you have joined they really are useful, as it is the only private section in which you can post messages to any member you choose.

*** My Overall Opinion ***

I do like this site and as I have said, I visit it daily. I especially like to go on the arena section every day to try and beat as many scores as I can. I am extremely competitive and hate to lose things. One particular member keeps beating all my scores and she is annoying me in the nicest way possible lol. It is a good way to release stress if you’ve had a bad day and there are quite a few games in there now with new ones being added every other day.

There are always the odd one or two people who like to spoil things for everybody else and Rachel’s forum has been a victim to these people on a couple of occasions. Overall though the site is a somewhat friendly place to be and my only concern is that it needs more members’ participation.

Currently boasting some 174 members, the forum gets roughly around fifteen people, if that, participating frequently. More people need to start joining in to make this site as good as it can be. I would love to compete against more people in the arena and it would be good to see more member input on topics in the banter and fun section. Rachel encourages friendly debate which the site does tend to have a lot of. The members that do participate are all different and have very different perspectives. This leads to entertaining, funny at times, debate and at times it does tend to get a little heated. If that does happen then I always just go into the arena and ignore whatever is going on. That makes the experience a lot better for me if I don’t get too involved.

I do think this site has the potential to be really successful and I congratulate Rachel on running the site mainly by herself. She has put a lot of effort in to make a good little community for members to hang around in and I feel the site definitely deserves more members’ participation. So if you are a member and you don’t participate as much as you could please make a little more effort. It really is fun once you get in to it and it’s always nice to meet new people. Also if you aren’t a member I would seriously consider joining.

All in all I’d say Rachel has achieved what she set out to do but please people… we need more members!

Summary: a good, friendly place to be