How Your Rating and Comenting Can Improve DooYoo (dooyoo - Members' Opinions On How to Rate And Comment)

Name: TheChocolateLady

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Product:	dooyoo - Members' Opinions On How to Rate And Comment
Date:	12.01.08 (199 review reads)
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Advantages: If we rate honestly this site will get better and we'll make more money

Disadvantages: if we don't, this site could eventually close down, and your income will end

With DooYoo's new mile system now in place, there are more and more reviews being posted on this site. While this isn't necessarily a "bad thing", when people slap up as many reviews as possible just to get 50p per, the quality of those reviews invariably suffer. That's why I thought it was about time for me to give some advice to my fellow DooYooers about rating and commenting on reviews here.

Let's remember that this isn't a non-profit site. In order to keep this site running, there needs to be income. The income for DooYoo comes from advertisers who know that traffic on this site gives them exposure, which in turn, hopefully generates income for them. They pass some of that on to DooYoo who in turn, pass this onto their writers in the form of cash-in-able miles. If the quality of this site begins to deteriorate, some of those advertisers might decide that this isn't where they want their ads to appear. If they pull their ads, that will mean less income for DooYoo. Less income for this site, means less miles for us writers, and so the tiny snowball could end up in an avalanche that pulls this site down forever. To keep that from happening, we need to keep up, if not improve the quality of this site, to keep it from deteriorating.

There are two ways that this site's quality will deteriorate, if we aren't vigilant. The first is allowing cheaters of the system to go unchecked. The second is rating inappropriately. Catching cheaters is partially the job of guides like myself, but if you ever find a review that's been copied from somewhere else (unless it is their own review from another site), please report it immediately. Rating reviews, on the other hand is where you, the writers and readers on this site, are completely in charge. And it is because of this that I'm begging you all to take what I'm about to say seriously.

Please be TRULY HONEST in your ratings!

I'd cannot impress upon you all enough that ratings here aren't meant to be a popularity contest. We shouldn't rate because we "like" or "dislike" someone on the site. Seriously, people - how many of you have actually met these people face-to-face? Do you go over to their houses, meet up regularly at the high street, go out for dinner or car-pool to work? Probably not. That means these people here aren't your "buddies", they are just a bunch of anonymous people trying to earn some extra cash, just like you. That's why it should be easy to be honest with them. If your real-life friends do something wrong, it isn't always easy to tell them about it, but you do it anyway because you care about them. Virtual friends, like those you "meet" on sites like this should be much easier to tell the truth to. The difference is, the reason we should be honest with writers here is because we care about this site.

How does this translate into ratings and comments? Simply put, if you read a review that isn't really all that great, you should feel comfortable to rate it lower than Very Useful. There is nothing wrong with rating a review Useful or even Somewhat Useful - if you find that the review is just okay or there are things lacking. Remember, the person you read will still get their 15 miles no matter what, so they're not losing any income if you rate honestly. The only rating that should be considered "bad" is Not Useful. If that isn't totally clear, here are my guidelines for rating:

Not Useful - for copied work or anything that goes against the site rules. Reviews that are totally and purposefully off topic (if it is accidental, just write the person a comment and send a message to the category guide to take care of). Also for a piece that is very badly written, usually with only minimum word count that has obviously been churned out just to get 50p per post. These writers don't usually return reads, so no harm done if you stop reading that writer altogether.

Somewhat Useful - for reviews that have very little personal experience, opinion or analysis of the product/service. Also for reviews that go on and on and on, including tons of stuff that isn't relevant to the product/service they're reviewing (often called 'waffling'). Also for reviews that give away the ending to a book or movie (these are sometimes rated NU, especially if the movie is new). Also for reviews that aren't very well written and have lots of spelling/grammar mistakes and concentrate on non-essential points that doesn't give us enough information about the product/service being reviewed (I call these "gripe" reviews because all the reviewer does is complain).

Useful - most reviews come under this category. They give us most of the essential information about the product/service, and include a good amount more personal experience, opinion and/or analysis than they do facts/statistics about the product/service. These reviews are usually fairly easy to read, although they may not be perfectly structured, may not be the most grammatically correct and could even have some spelling errors, but not enough to make the review unreadable. I'd hazzard that if we think about it carefully, probably 50-70% of the reviews we read here honestly deserve this rating.

Very Useful - a review that gives me almost all the essential information on the product/service in a clear, concise, easy-to-read style, and then goes on to include a good deal of personal experience, opinion and/or analysis. This review has to have a beginning, middle and an end, and should (where appropriate) let me know how I can find that product/service and what it might cost me, and conclude with the reviewer letting us know why they do or don't recommend that product/service for others. The review should be as grammatically correct as possible, and without spelling errors (that includes proper punctuation and capitalization). If a review includes all of the above and their personal experience, opinion and/or analysis is particularly well done, and I come away thinking I know if I want or don't want that product/service, then I'll probably nominate it for a crown.

That brings us to crowns. Since there is no limit to how many reviews you can nominate, we should be especially careful to only nominate those reviews that are really exceptionally done. That said, nominating a review for a crown should be tantamount to voting in a political election. It is a secret and should be between you and DooYoo, and no one else - not even the writer you've nominated. I will NEVER tell someone I've nominated them because if they don't get a crown, they'll either think I lied to them or get disappointed. Another reason for not revealing your nominations to the reviewer is because someone might see you've nominated one review and if you then read theirs and don't nominate it, they might get upset with you. If you want to indicate to a reviewer that you've really appreciated their review, you can say so (without mentioning the word "nominated") in a comment.

And that brings us to the comments. DooYoo will tell you that comments should be confined to what is relevant to the review you've just read. If a review leaves you with questions, you should put them in your comments. That will help the writer improve their review. If you loved the review, go ahead and say so (but remember what I said above about telling them you've nominated the review - PLEASE don't do that - for your sake and theirs). If a review is below standard, you may tell them this as well, but do try to be as constructive as possible when you do so. For instance, suggest they write their reviews in a word processor which can be put through a grammar and spelling checker to get rid of most mistakes. But being critical isn't easy to do, and you don't want to insult someone along the way. So, if you can't say it nicely, then maybe you shouldn't say it at all. By the way, comments are a wonderful way for newer members to get themselves known around the site. If you're new here, remember that - it can be profitable to you. And for the older reviewers reading this, if you see someone new put a comment on one of your reviews, do try to give them a little bit of attention - you never know, you might find a great writer has just joined who needs encouragement.

I think that covers about everything here. I truly believe that rating honestly will push the poor reviews aside and allow the good ones to get noticed. That should eventually encourage writers to strive to perfect their reviews, and that can only make this site better. I highly recommend people follow these types of guidelines (and do feel free to make your own up), rate appropriately and comment using common sense and courtesy in an effort to enhance this site. And the more this site improves, the more advertisers will want to increase DooYoo's income, which in turn, translates to more miles for you and me. It is your choice, and I hope you're with me on this.

Thanks for reading!

Davida Chazan © January 2008

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Technical Stuff:
As a guide (for Toys/Games and Telecommunications) I feel bound to note that it is your ratings and recommendations that decide which reviews get crowns. My job is just to watch out for abuse and make sure any really good review isn't overlooked for a crown. The final decision of which reviews get crowns is DooYoo's and DooYoo's alone.
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Summary: A personal overview to rating honestly and commenting on DooYoo