I don't feel the love... (dooyoo.forumotion.net)

Member Name: dididave

Product:	dooyoo.forumotion.net
Date:	21/07/09 (125 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Simplistic, easy to use site with a good reason for it's creation.

Disadvantages: Wild and varied moderation, strange ethics.

I have been a member of ever opinion site related forum know to man over the years. I have posted quite prolifically on all of them and was quite enjoying the idea of being involved in another one. Perhaps it says it all that with fewer than a hundred posts under my belt I have asked for my membership of dooyoolovers to be removed.

Created by dooyooer fiver29 as an offshoot of a dooyoo help thread on MoneySavingExpert.com, I am sure the site has been created with good intentions. The site is basic and functional and joining up is straightforward. Split into three main sections of announcements, dooyoo chat and non-dooyoo chat it does not suffer from the clutter some other boards I have been a member of have been. It is all a bit dark but it is easy to access and read and the sub-forums are sensibly organised.

However, the layout and navigation of a forum is of very little consequence to most people. What really matters is the membership and contributions to the board itself and this is were I have had serious reservations. I don't want to make this a dooyoo versus MSE debate. MSE has caused problems for this site in my view but there are members of this site that have made a valid and useful contribution to dooyoo. However, it does appear that the cash cow brigade are prevalent on dooyoolovers and are such a vocal group that any dissenting opinion is shouted down as unreasonable. Post from dissenters are ripped apart semantically rather than addressing the topic at hand and when all else fails members resort to pedantry to avoid answering direct questions.

Ironically this was a site formed due to the cliques on other forums yet there has been immediate cliques formed here. A site that is allegedly for members who love dooyoo is dominated by a membership that seem to have a serious downer on the Guides, dooyooteam and the site in general. Topics are often approached from a fiscal point of view with the essence in milking the machine for all it is worth and the few members who try to stress the community aspect are mocked for being silly.

This is a forum that stresses to the point of madness the importance of being nice to everyone and is full of people patting each other on the back. There are "well done on your crown", "well done on being made a Guide" posts everywhere and despite finding this sickly sweet I have no issue with this. However, I do think that the niceties are only on the surface and if you look below there is a lot of aggression to be found here if you dare not to tow the party line as threads such as, "why didn't I get a crown?" are also common. There is a lot of inconsistency in the moderation of the site that does not sit well with me at all. Threads wander wildly off topic but then threads are hacked to pieces seemingly at random. There is no explanation given for this and it often seems like this is done merely to stop members questioning decisions. Members are also moderated in a terribly inconsistent and to me biased manner with some members apparently "favourites" while others are treated with scorn. This seems to be a site were you can say what you like as long as:

1: Your face fits.
2: It is part of the consensus.

Members are told not to be rude yet other members and indeed moderators are openly quite aggressive. The whole place is full of double standards and the recent insistence that user names also be your dooyooname for transparency is just one example of a reactive team. The transparency claim is particularly strange for a site that keeps itself private and only viewable to members. Perhaps this is because there is no naming policy and you could find yourself talked about whether you are a member or not? Just a thought.

Dooyoolovers is a site that I simply cannot get on with. The site creator seems reasonable enough and has responded well to my request for deletion. However, it would appear that in a similar vein to other sites I have been a member of, by trying to be all fluffy and friendly the opposite effect has been created. It is not a place I will return to.

Summary: Not somewhere for me.