Love Lost (dooyoo.forumotion.net)

Member Name: helencb

Product:	dooyoo.forumotion.net
Date:	04/08/09 (176 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Might offer a networking opprtunity for a small minority

Disadvantages: No thought for individual's privacy

The 'Dooyoo Lovers' forum been going a few months now and can be located at the following URL: http://dooyoo.forumotion.net/forum.htm.

There have been a couple of new skins around the forum, and for that reason the "We Do Dooyoo" logo which you see here is somewhat different now - hence I am a little uncertain over the name but Dooyoo Lovers (DL) seems to dominate. Joining up is simplicity itself, although you do need to be approved by admin. I was approved in a fairly short space of time though.

Since I joined there has been a key rule change, and you must now identify yourself using your Dooyoo username, or allude to that name in your signature. While I always tend to use the same name anyway, and have nothing to hide, I do think that it would be better to give individuals some choice, after all we all sign up to different sites for different reasons. At the time of this change, the site also went private and is no longer viewable unless you sign up and provide your contact email address etc. You now have to be a member to view any discussions. This did set off an alarm bell and indeed I know of at least one member who resigned as he did not feel he should have to make a change when his identity was known. Most forums are public, and all the previous review writer forums certainly have been.

Because it is a new site, the layout does seem to change quite a lot. I can give some indication of the current layout, although it might not look like that for long as it has only looked like that for a few days now. It would perhaps be unfair of me to unduly criticise the aspects of the layout I don't like as it could all be different again by the morning. However the telltale signs of the phpBB forum layout are now visible for all to see. Generally speaking the layout is functional, although I dislike the new chat box taking up quite a chunk of the top of the page, and I am a little lost with all the tabs on the top corner, as I am not sure what purpose they serve here. However, never having run a forum of this particular type, I am not sure how easy it is for the novice moderator to remove them.

I have been a member of a lot of forums over the years, including a few that were set up and created by reviewers. The most popular of course were Opinionators and Review Writers Forum.

At DL the chat forum has been subdivided into "Dooyoo Chat" and "Non Dooyoo Chat" threads. I am not particularly interested in the Non Dooyoo Chat side, as it tends to be the day to day stuff, and I don't have a lot of free time to just chew the fat with strangers. I was however an active and eager contributor to Current Debate on RWF so I guess that is just a timing thing for me.


The Dooyoo section is subdivided into five main categories, and these are (i) Crowns, (ii)Guides, (iii) General, (iv)Bugs and (v) Tips and Advice. The stats for the various sections are quite revealing. The busiest section, not surprisingly is General - as that is where everything goes that does not fit into the other four. The advice section is very quiet indeed and has just 28 posts compared to 3000 in General - so this is definitely not a place for newbie Dooyooers. Crowns and Guides fair a little better with around 400 to 500 posts each.

It is here where things start to unravel for me. Lets take 'Guides.' Now on the Guides Forum we have a section called 'Guides - duties etc' , which makes sense, given the point of the forum is as a communication channel, but on a site which is not approved by Dooyoo despite using their name, and was not even started by any Guides, I struggle to see what kind of posts or questions could ever go into that section. Nor is there a list of current guides, so it is not even acting as a reference point. There have been postings of new guide appointments, and discussions about guides roles and their reading and rating habits etc. I think I did raise that question once, as did others, and there is now an "Ask the Guide" thread.

"Crowns" not surprisingly is another busy little section. I have kept my feelings on this part of the site relatively quiet until now, but I do find it all rather icky. In particular, I don't find a thread inviting members to post a link to their reviews which they felt they might get a crown and didn't, to be appropriate. It's just not cricket. I also don't believe in the need to self promote reviews in this way - again something most forums would actively discourage. Otherwise there is the usual rush of Tuesday morning posts to announce successes.

The suggestion thread seems safe enough - it invites members to make suggestions for Dooyoo - what it does not cover is how these suggestions actually make it to Dooyoo. I think this can be misleading for new members, which is presumably who the site was intended for, as the site has got nothing to do with Dooyoo Management and unlike on previous forums, Dooyoo Management are not members there .

So that's the layout and typical topics that are discussed. But what do I think of the site? I have to admit, my first impressions were quite alarming, and I have posted a little over 100 posts , so a relative newcomer, but I got more alarmed by the day.

My main concerns with the site, could be broadly described as falling into three areas:

1. Openly discussing dooyooers who are not members and usually in a negative way. This was probably the most obvious and alarming thing I saw. They may not be named in the "This thread is about helencb" kind of naming, but they are clearly named or easily identified in other ways. The other day I argued about the ethics of another negative thread which led could have led me and anyone else to the reviewer in question in under 30 seconds. But this issue could have been discussed just as easily generically, without any reference to the review in question but that thread continued all day.

On joining, I was alarmed to read a discussion about two members who I know in the real world. I did speak up, to ask why they were being discussed - and thankfully those posts were eventually removed - but even then it was mistaken identity on the part of the posters, (two similar usernames) which shows exactly why it is important to have clear guidelines which are adhered to by moderators and members alike.


2. Poor moderation, with threads going well off topic very quickly

I find the moderation of threads really frustrating. I logged on the other day , and saw a thread that had apparently been started by me. I didn't start it. It was a thread that had been split and a new title created. Not by me. I have a problem, and I am sure I am not the only one, with something being "published" in my name, that I didn't start or title. As there is a lack of moderation, posts are often split several times. But there was no real explanation to why a thread was re-published in my name, and certainly no correction to the error once I highlighted it. As a result, and on getting no satisfactory answer or even indication that someone accepted responsibility for that - I asked for all posts to be deleted followed by my account.


3. Intolerance if you don't agree with the accepted view

I think there are some rules to the forum, but if you are disagreeing with the consensus view then they seem to go out of the window. I happened to have a few disagreements as I am more consumer centric, (i.e. what do consumers want need) and site centric (as a guide) rather than person centric, hence there will invariably be differences of opinion - but I found even the moderation were allowing personal attacks to take place of discussion.

Many debates were simply a bit silly and often without any kind of factual back up and would continue even when that evidence was provided.....e.g. Dooyoo being sexist (as it picks stereotypical guides - I argued I am a female MOTORS guide). Instead of focusing on closing the discussion the focus is always on the individual who dares challenge the thought process, and moderators are forever taking sides rather than being a little more impartial to do their job of moderation fairly.


Inevitably if you disagree, or even if you have evidence to the contrary, the standard reply is "Well it is my observation" and I am entitled to write that (Even though it is baloney and often offensive baloney - like Dooyoo is sexist etc).

I only ever made 136 posts and most of them were simple and straightforward although a few were to try and defend some of the principles outlined above. But there have been far better sites out there such as Opinionators and Review Writers Forum, which had fairly decent readerships in their day - and unfortunately this site does nothing constructive and positive to help the majority of Dooyoo members or indeed Dooyoo - at all.

The site only has a handful of members. It did have at least four more I know of but those members cannot tolerate the same issues either. I finally asked for my username to be deleted. Dooyoo Lovers demonstrates poor basic protocol for anyone running a website.

Which is a real shame. On the other hand these are simple things to address and if they are then it could become a much nicer place for everyone who wants to participate. So I hope that can happen and I wish the team success

Summary: It's not really about Dooyoo Love.