Some of you may have noticed over recent weeks a bit of rocknro11 about Dooyoo, I say that loosely as I refer to my username in case anyone was conjuring up an image of gyrating hips. Also many can be forgiven for opening up this review, expecting to read a film review about a man with no name. So what does a few dollars more have to do with Review Writers Forum?

I’ve used Dooyoo for quite sometime as a source of reference for consumer opinion and 3 weeks ago I decided I would like to start writing my own reviews. How do you write a good opinionated review was my first thought, so searching on the words ‘review writers uk’ in google, I found one of the first results listed was a review of reviewwritersforum.co.uk on Dooyoo. As I was going to be posting reviews on Dooyoo I was naturally drawn to this listing. I found 9 reviews, I scrolled to the earliest and read on.

In my opinion the review was written well, being laid out in sections, containing sub headings, which included the good, the bad and the ugly. When I say well written I’m not referring to the writers opinion, as one persons opinion on its own is not enough for me to formulate my own opinions. For whatever reason, it may well have been that the writer burst my bubble with reference to Elvis didn’t really still work at Macy’s, I decided to check out for myself what RWF had to offer.

I’m pleased to say that when first entering the website, there were no annoying advertising pop-ups and I was free to look around much of the site without having to register first. It wasn’t long before I felt this site could be of use, primarily I was interested in the section headed Dooyoo and on inspection I found topics on crowns and guides, Dooyoo rules, payments and frustrations to name but a few. It was enough for me to register.

Registration was both simple and trouble free, there is a registration link just below the RWF logo which is always displayed no matter what page you are looking at. When registering you will be presented with the rules that you will need to abide by once you become a member, nothing out of the ordinary here, 6 points that are really just common sense. You will need to agree to these terms to be able to proceed with registration. The next screen will prompt for you to enter a username, email address and password and you are encouraged to use either your Dooyoo or Ciao username but this is not mandatory.

Registration is not automated you will need to wait for a confirmation email from RWF before your account is activated. My account was activated in less than an hour and I was up and running. I received a welcoming message that also pointed me in the direction of the new members thread, which is where I could introduce myself to the rest of the community.

Navigation of the site is straight forward, finding your way to where all the topics are located took a little getting used to but after a couple of days I was familiar with the layout and could get around with ease. The speed of the site is to be commended, each page loads quickly, the designers have kept to a simple blue on white colour scheme and have not introduced any high-resolution graphics that would in turn affect the load speed of each page. This may to some on first impressions make the site look possibly old fashioned or bland but in my opinion, the speed is worth the sacrifice and although it wont win any presentation awards it is not unpleasant to look at and is extremely functional.

Just below the logo you will find links to a very comprehensive FAQ section, a calendar that lists members birthdays which I think is a really nice touch, a standard search engine to the site, a members list, access to your profile and an alert informing you if you have any unread messages.

The home page of the site comprises of 3 main sections, which are the Forum itself, Review Site Talk and Members Fun Area. There are subheadings below each of these sections that can then be drilled down further to reach the posts themselves.

--- The Forum ---

There are 2 subheadings under this category All Site Information and Competitions.

The former contains information on how to use the site, forum rules, a new members thread and a thread to attach your own picture, so others can put a face to the name. The latter gives details of the current competitions being run as well as the results of previous competitions. There seems to be at least 2 competitions being run at any one time, these are a monthly avatar competition, those of you who don’t have a clue as to what an avatar is, as I didn’t before I joined this site, it’s the small picture that accompanies every post you write. This month’s avatar competition is on heat, no nothing related to dogs, well I haven’t seen a picture of a Great Dane with a representation of the Eiffel Tower swinging between its legs anyway. You do not have to have an avatar but I must say it’s a helpful way of instantly recognising who wrote the post. That said as soon as the new monthly avatar competition commences these do change but you will quickly pick up who’s who. The second competition is also run monthly and requires the submission of an unpublished review, which will yield the winner a £10 amazon voucher. The rules for the competitions and what the judges look for can also be found in this section.

--- Review Site Talk ---

I consider this to be the heart of the site; you will find 6 sub headings. The first two headings are devoted to Ciao and Dooyoo. Both offer how to use the respective sites, you can post problems and questions and generally debate what ever you want.

There’s a generalised heading named Other Review, Reward and Survey Sites, that is a catch all where you can find information on other sites to write on and find out personal opinion about shopping and survey sites that spring up all over the place.

There is a section called Which, that allows members to share their opinions about anything from software titles to the best online flower suppliers.

There is a section entitled Epinions, I’ve never been on this site but it seems to be a smaller version of Dooyoo and Ciao.

Lastly the section finishes with the heading General Review Site Chatter. This is again a generalised area where you will find topics such as do your prefer Ciao or Dooyoo, or what the members feel are the most useful reviews for the public.

--- Members Fun Area ---

This section at present contains 9 sub headings and is a part of the forum you can enter to just have fun. Whether that’s just to have a rant, discuss the latest news, play a word game, discuss the latest movie releases or find out information other members have posted re the latest free stuff on line. There is even a section dedicated to Ebay. There is also a hidden section called 18 plus which you will need to request access to, as by default it’s not available. To my amusement one of the first threads I saw was entitled Free Condoms, why did I only find this after my fourth child was born!

When entering the home page and viewing the headings and sub headings you will notice to the left of each is an envelope symbol, if this envelope is coloured dark blue it indicates new posts have been added since your last visit and pale blue represents no new posts.

Complementing the site is the ability to private message other members, you will of course have to be registered first but if you want to enter into a one to one discussion or simply send a message to another member you don’t want the whole community to see, then this offers the perfect solution.



At the very bottom of the home page you will see a ‘who’s online’ box, apart from the obvious of informing you of who’s on line, it also lists who the newest registered user is, the total amount of registered users, which as I write this is 198, the total amount of posts added to the site and any users who will be celebrating a birthday in the coming 7 days.

--- Opinion ---

Reading some of the previous reviews, there seems to have been some mixed feelings re this site, especially with regards to moderating. It’s early days for me but I can say my experience does not match some of the previous reviews written regarding this subject, this may well of course mean that previous comments have been heeded.

Thus far I have found the forum, informative, helpful and friendly. I was made to feel welcome from the get go. The forum offered me a wealth of information re Dooyoo, that not only helped me to find my feet quickly but offered great advice on how to write a good review, which after all was initially my main reason for joining.

There also seems a healthy amount of debate threads being posted, which is good news for any forum, if you want to rant and put your own views across there is plenty of opportunity to do it here.

I have noticed several screen names on RWF that regularly write on Dooyoo, some of which are guides, don’t get me wrong its not a site run by Dooyoo guides but it is nice to see the ‘advisors’ mixing it up with us mere mortals.

On that point I posted a question re adding suggestions on Dooyoo, ten minutes later when I checked there were 2 posts added by different members, how’s that for service. One of the replies was from a Dooyoo guide that said they would ask Dooyoo on my behalf. The following day another post was left answering my question. You really can’t say fairer than that, having guides present seems to me to be a fast track to Dooyoo to get answers.

The forum seems active as several new posts appear every day and with just shy of 200 members that’s pretty good. I would encourage anyone new to review writing to pay this site a visit; you will be surprised just how much you can learn from it. Similarly any established writers who feel they could contribute to this forum I’m sure would be made to feel welcome.

I’m off to find one of those avatar things, now where was that picture of the Great Dane…

Thanks for reading.

Oh I nearly forgot www.reviewwritersforum.co.uk go on give it a try, if you do my birthday is on the 12th September to save you looking!