U-rate-it/DOOYOO EXPOSED!!! (u-rate-it.com)

Member Name: Adammico

Product:	u-rate-it.com
Date:	13/05/03 (162 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Member-Orientated Sevice, The Reviews May Appear Professional and Are Simple to Format, It's Free and Is Equiped With A Greater and More Advanced Rewards Program

Disadvantages: Mico Transferred :p

Background:

I am a relative newbie to consumer-based review sites. Formerly. I was involved with writing for online magazines; one was a journal-type and the other reviewed mp3's. I preferred writing reviews. However, I was totally uninspired by the content of mediocre mp3 submissions and became bored.

Writing is my creative release. Without having a source for that, I have similar symptoms of becoming Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey's role in American Beauty) . My career in government is 100% technical. I have a wife and child in suburban hell. Without this function, my life strongly resembles Ground Hog's Day (Bill Murray vehicle, in which he wakes up to yesterday).

As a result of looking for a new site to work with, I stumbled across consumer-based opinions on product. Wow! I could write reviews on everything that I want and receive a quick response. At work, I could write and access the site during my break time and also due this during my disposal time. Yes, I may have something fresh to look forward to, except these sites tend to pay their reviewers.

At work, we have an IT policy prohibiting us from being paid for work while using their resources to do so. As I looked for a loophole, I stumbled onto dooyoo. Dooyoo indicated clearly in their faq that they only pay reviewers living in the UK I live in the U.S. ;) Loophole found and I could access this from work (during breaks of course :D).

As a member of dooyoo, I saw a mass number of normally unacceptable faults with their formatting. There are no enhancements; a reviewer cannot bold or italicize his/her text. When uploading a submission, quotes become question marks and lines are split up all over. As a result, a member needs to return to his/her review and adjust these manually. To emphasize this, I will not edit the format at all in this review.

Dooyoo certainly has its benefits. There is traffic, a related message board, text message center





and a sense of community. Other reviewers understand that a re
ad of their work shou
ld receive an honest one in response. Katie, the dooyoo team liaison, will respond kindly to your suggestions and relevant emails. Lastly (but not least), my rewards could be donated to charity.

I was willing to accept this site because at the time, the positive outweighed the negative. There was a point at when I nearly broke and that is when I realized my concept could not be implemented due to the current database and unwillingness to amend it. I wanted to write a novella length series of relevant reviews of Elvis with frequent individual updates showing my new work.

I tried to write a 2nd review in an Elvis in General Section and it would not let me upload. If added, I could only modify my 1st review. Frustrated, I looked around and saw another 'Elvis In General' listing. Since it was not clearly highlighted, I assumed that this was a generic/undefined Elvis category. Once I submitted it on (Thursday), I found out immediately that it was solely intended for the Elvis official Internet site.

I felt stupid because I could not deleted the submission. Quickly, I commented on the entry that it was my fault and it was a 'stupid error' and e-mailed Katie. I noticed the guide, (The_Duke), gave it a not useful at all rating (my only such rating) and commented about it. Through a few emails, we both understood each other and requested a transfer and/or a removal of the original piece. At the time of this writing, it has yet to be removed.

During all of that hassle, I understood that if there was not small technical update to the database, that I could not create my 'opus'. My only longstanding and specific goal that I have not reached was actually creating a book. On my own, I attempted to do this, but with no luck. With some feedback after every 1,000-1,500 words written, I knew that I coul
d be
pushe
d int
o rea
ching
this goal. However, it was reported that the database is as the dat
abase is, so my options di
mmed.

I looked for input and support. I was not going to give up on what I thought was a reasonable request without a fight. While writing for this site, the sense of community with reviewing peers made it something that I did not wish to give up. My final straw was noticing that none of my reportedly nominated reviews were crowned.

Right before that realization, I was completely willing to update my current section until I could not do it any further. These updates would not appear as new reviews (although they were) on dooyoo and only bumped up my present list of reviews. This means that I either have to review someone, a reviewer wants to read an general Elvis or a person to actually look for my page in order to get any feedback. I knew that the chances were slim, but I could get maybe 10 reads by reviewers per update.

Then I realized that these reviews if read by one member would not be considered a new read and no reward points would be had. Still, I was able to struggle through that because I did not have any options at the time. Back to the crowns...

I had three well-received reviews that I felt were crown-worthy that week (based on prior crowns and their faq about crown-worthiness). Two of my reviews dealt with brand new and highly anticipated album releases and another dealt with a movie that I felt was an extremely creative and effective review (along with other reviews). They were passed over for some that could barely spell his/her name. It offended me. My mind was made up, I was going to find a new avenue and if not, be so intolerable that I would be banned from the site.

Onward to you u-rate-it (finally):
For the next day, I did just that. Fortunately, I stumbled onto a new site. This site is u-rate-it.com. I read reviews of it here. I knew that it w
as new, un
establishe
d, had a s
ingle owne
r and poor
design.

Since I read that there was a one kind support person/
administrator (James), I thought that I could convince him to do this
on a trial basis. There was no need, he immediately responded and bashfully pointed me into that direction. He was bashful because it was not an exact match, but I was gleeful because it was close enough.

As I read the faq and reviews, it was obvious that he was hands on and cared. It was not corporate at all. I did not feel like I was a peon being corresponded to on a superficial and degrading level. When you are on his site, it seems that you're immediately on his team, which is comforting.

Graphically, the front page is far more advanced in appearance than dooyoo and there aren't those annoying pop-ups that disrupt your page loading time. Flipping through u-rate-it with my cable modem is a breeze. The profile page on dooyoo is better with its isolated feel, but u-rate-provides all of the options as that page as well. Both pages have a homepage, picture upload, reward list, reward tokens to date, friend lists and recent reviews links. U-rate-it excels in its approach to the reviewer.

When bringing your review up, you have a number of special formatting options. All you need to make a section bold is to surround the text with [b] and [/b] and the same applies for italics. There are many emoticons to use to help spruce up your review as well. Also, I never had any trouble with my lines splitting up. Just load it up and your edits are minimal to none.

As a review is submitted, there are three options as to what level of originality that your review is to the site. An exclusive review means that it is piece specifically designated for u-rate-it. Revised for you rate it is defined by posting the same review on another source, but is spruced up a little or a lot for the site. The final option is no
and that is whe
n you copy a re
view from one s
ite to another.
The 1st two op
tions are revealed on the review and the 'cut and paste' variety does
has no such designation. For this writer, the system makes me want to creat
e reviews only designated for u-rate-it.

The most practical system advantage is the ability to CREATE new topics for your review at u-rate-it. At dooyoo, you have to beg and plead without results. Here, they have the resources to make it happen and the ability to fix if placed in error.

The combined end result is a personal review with a professional appearance. As I look back on my work with dooyoo, I notice that I spent so much time on the formatting that my writing did not meet my standards for several of my reviews.

Mico, get to the rewards!

Okay, since I cannot explain the rewards better than the site, I cut/paste (my only cut and paste) the relevant information in that section of the faq.

********************************************** ************************

"Do I get paid for submitting reviews?

We like to thank our reviewers with draw entries into one of a number of regular draws and by paying for high quality reviews in certain categories.

How do I enter the draws?
At u-rate-it, you collect 'tokens' which provide entries into the draws.

Can you tell me about the Member Read Payment Scheme?
The Member Read Payment Scheme has been changed.

Certain categories are eligible for payment for Very Useful or Useful ratings. These categories are shown below:

DVD 2p (VU) 1p (U)

MP3 players 2p (VU) 1p (U)

Console Games 2p (VU) 1p (U)

DVD Players 1p (VU) 1p (U)

CDs 2p (VU) 1p (U)

Computers 1p (VU) 1p (U)

DVD Players 1p (VU) 1p (U)

Consumer Electronics 2p (VU) 1p (U)

Mobile Phones 1p (VU) 1p (U)


The
following terms and
conditions apply:
<
br>
(i) The read
er must read the rev
iew by using the [More...] link on the review.

(ii) The amount shown above will be credited to your account for each unique member read (our account system will only allow one payment per read per member) depending on the category and the rating. You will not receive any money
for visitor reads.

(iii) The payment will be credited to your account imm
ediately and once your credit has reached £10, we will contact you via Private M
essage.

(iv) When your credit reaches £10, you will be given the option to cash your credit in for gift vouchers from leading online stores including Marks and Spencers, MillerPC, CD-WOW and Amazon.co.uk.

(v) Your credit has no monetary value.

(vi) u-rate-it reserves the right to amend the categories that have a credit associated with each member read at any time. Users will be informed by newsletter of any changes.

(vii) u-rate-it reserves the right to amend or close the 'member read credit scheme' at any time. If this does occur, any credit of £10 or more will be paid in vouchers. All balances under £10 will be void. Users will be informed by newsletter of any changes to the scheme.

(viii) u-rate-it reserve the right to amend the details of the Token Scheme and Member Read Payment Scheme at any time. In this event, u-rate-it will provide details of changes via newsletter or as a news item on the site.

Note that gift vouchers are only available for UK-based websites.

How do I know how many tokens I have earned?
When you log-in, click the 'My Details' link on the Toolbar. The number of tokens earned to date is displayed at this page.

How do I know if I have won a draw?
We announce the winners of the draws via the u-rate-it Newsletter and also as a news item. We also send the winner a private message with fur
ther details about how to
claim the prize.

Priz
e draws will take place o
n the last day of each mo
nth and will be announced via newsletter and news article online.

Please note that we can only ship draw prizes to addresses in the UK and Ireland."

********************************************** *******

My only critique of the scheme is that is nothing for do
nating to charity yet. I sent James a message and he immediately responded (on a weekend
no less) that this would be considered in the summer when a rewards update is consid
ered.

********************************************** *******

Service and Community:


There are five helpful community guides (including James), which is a solid amount for the traffic it generates.

Per my experience, the members have been very kind and helpful. Many of the members are also affiliated with other like sites, but seem a little more relaxed in this environment.

Since there is no a corporation and it is run by a single very writer-orientated actual staffer, there is no sense of negative politics. He even writes reviews (over 100 in fact) and jabs himself in his profile that it is definitely not his forte. His hands-on approach and humility really drew me closer to the site because I have always resisted authority and an environment tends to take the personality of its leader. James acts as a peer and the site really uses that to its benefit.

The only politics understood is the need for new reviewers to write exclusive material for the site. My personal perception is that the site will not be relevant if it cannot have enough of those members. Hundreds of people have registered with the site; some are less consistent than others, but it really has a sturdy base. My reads are only down about 25-30%. A positive note for u-rate-it for me is that my visitor reads are actually 50% greater on this site tha
n they were for dooyoo (invest
igate yourself). It implies that ther
e may be more interest in this
site from the outside of its
community than with dooyoo and that certainly bodes well for the future of u-rate-it.

A compare and contrast with dooyoo was made because this is the only other site that I had any inside experience with. I am not angry at dooyoo anymore, but found a better option.

U-rate
-it won me over and I felt expendable at dooyoo. If you are a writer that wishes to be pamper
ed by all the right gizmos and service and a reader that cares to read formatting that won
't make your eyes bleed, consider u-rate-it.

None of my reviews will be crowned after I became too political (following my Pixies crown). Katie indicated that her crowns are based on merit and implied that it's not political judging by the blatant comments to crown a number of my (better) reviews since the Pixies, I know and you know that it's a bold-faced lie.

If you are foolish enough to stick around here for reasons other than being a non-UK resident and charity donating purposes. I am most disappointed in my friends that won't consider a move due to being unwilling for change.

Thank you for reading.

All of my best work has been removed (in portion) from this site because I do not care for being lied to.

Key to crowns at dooyoo:

Write okay. Kiss Arse. Be friends with your review's guide. Give everyone else very useful ratings. Baah like a sheep and do not bother the dooyoo team. Have a nice day.

DOOYOO STEALS MILES BACK! NEARLY 700 OF MY MILES WERE REMOVED WHEN MY REVIEW WAS DELETED WITHOUT BEING REPLACED. THE CHARITY WILL NOT RECEIVE THE CASH. IT'S BAD ENOUGH THAT CROWNS ARE NOT REWARDED UNTIL DUE, BUT DO NOT STEAL WHAT WAS ALREADY EARNED.

Summary: