The Final Conflict : Dooyoo Emerge Victorious! (ciao.co.uk)

Member Name: nicola21

Product:	ciao.co.uk
Date:	18/04/01 (60 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Get paid for writing opinions...

Disadvantages: ...at the cost of your patience and sanity!

I have been with Dooyoo for some time now and have established myself and my writing quite well. After reading other opinions on Dooyoo about Ciao, I decided to go and have a look for myself to see what all the fuss was about. As I worked my way around the site, I began to list the advantages and disadvantages of the Ciao site in comparison to Dooyoo which seemed to be the best in the opinion of many members here. I thought I would be giving Ciao a fair go, but I soon realised that the bad far outweighs the good. And if you are wondering: No, I don't have anything else better to do with my time today!

I'll start with my immediate impression of Ciao. Registering was fairly simple except you cannot save your own password as you get given a 10 digit code instead. The site says it has a function to save the password, but I cannot get it to work. Instead I must type in this ridiculously long number first. Apart from this, there was little else to grumble about. So then I shall go on to look at the main format of Ciao.

From the minute I laid eyes on the Ciao home page, it smacked of Dooyoo. The layout of the categories was almost identical. I do not know who got there first, but one certainly copied the other (and I like to think that Dooyoo was the most original first!) The font of writing is identical in both categories and opinions, but more importantly, I am used to Dooyoo's extensive range of categories and sub-categories and Ciao has a similar range, but nowhere near half as extensive.

I found it hard to navigate my way around to find a particular subject and although there is a search function, it isn't very responsive to categories, as rather to pick up certain products or services individually. There is no section to involve any opinions on society and life in general, just consumer products and services. I understand that Ciao has bases in other various European countries just as Dooyoo does, but within Ciao's cat
egory of "Travel" there are only categories for international travel to the largest, most famous of places. There are no categories for local British destinations, only the largest places such as Manchester and Oxford amongst world-wide destinations such as New York, Venice and so on.

There is the possibility of suggesting a new topic, but you cannot just submit an idea. You must first write an opinion on the subject with title, dis/advantages and all before you can submit the idea initially! I found this quite stupid (I think that is the only word to describe it!) Another major fault in the use of Ciao's opinion writer is the fact that you cannot incorporate any "special" characters within the title of the opinion ie: !,-:? etc... which often ruins a prospectively good and attractive title because you cannot use characters to express yourself. It takes away from a more appealing title and makes them bland and boring.

I will list the remaining advantages and diadvantages of the UK Ciao site now and be warned, the bad things just keep on rolling!


Advantages

1) Ciao is fairly well laid out although it is very similar to and could be mistaken for Dooyoo.

2) The 20 most recent opinions are immediately accessible to readers from the home page.

3) On every category Ciao posts the Top 5 products according to the majority opinions of the members eg: Top 5 PSX Games or Top 5 Mobile Handsets, which is quite helpful for an overview.

4) The search function, although pretty useless at picking up subjects, is capable of giving quick access to other members acounts as well as products, and you do not have to track a link to friends from your own page.

5) There is a larger space in which to write comments on opinions so you can see all that you have written without having to scroll up and down, however you cannot space comments as when it is posted, all the text bunches up together
again. Pictures accompanying products are larger and clearer than on Dooyoo but if that is all we have to argue with Dooyoo about, I hardly think that it matters!



Disadvantages

1) The first thing I noticed on Ciao was how slow the pages are to load. It isn't the fault of my browser as on Dooyoo, pages change immediately. On Ciao, you have to wait for anything between 20 seconds to a good couple of minutes, which lets face it, is appalling. I have often become impatient and closed down the site completely. Even when posting opinions and comments, the pages take ages to submit. I waited about 5 minutes to read one opinion once!

2) Editing of the personal account is painfully slow - enough to make you lose your temper. I edited my details once and it took 15 minutes to re-submit. It is disgustingly slow. And whilst I was editing, I did not realise that you choose there whether to receive emails whenever anyone comments on an opinion. It is automatically set to send you emails and I received about 20 at once! When I went to change it, the painful process began again, but I could stop the emails as the page could not be altered and took ages before the action was cancelled. I gave up in the end.

3) The way that Ciao deduce ratings on opinions is odd to say the least. Figures such as 3.1, 3.5, 4.1 come up on the screen but I have no idea what they mean. It looks like the results from international judges at an ice-skating tournament! It is very uncomprehensive, as is the way that they calculate the helpfulness of an opinion. It comes up as 50% helpful, 25% very helpful, oh, I don't know, but it isn't good or consumer friendly!

4) Earnings from writing and reads do not update until the next day, and I am not sure at what point of the day. I did email Ciao to ask, but that was a while ago and I have received no response as yet. (This shows what their community support is really like!) You probably already
know that they pay considerably less than Dooyoo anyway.

5) At the end of every opinion posted there is a Ciao disclaimer saying that "The above opinion is not a statement of UK Ciao and is the responsibility of the member author". Fair enough and I know that Dooyoo have a similar disclaimer (although not after every opinion!), but it reinforces the message too much at Ciao and you feel that you shouldn't be writing your own opinion in case it offends any company and you are legally responsible for slander!

6) There are no familiar faces of various category managers at Ciao, so there is no one to contact personally if you have a query or problem. Ciao is much more detached from its community.

7) Categories are laid out badly and it is hard to navigate your way around and find the appropriate place for your opinion. I found an opinion on Beanie Babies under the category of UK Universities! It had been there some time and no one at Ciao had bothered to correct the error.

8) The site is pretty disorganised in general. The home page tells readers that UK Ciao was rated "Site of the Month" in the April 2001 issue of Internet Magazine. It is difficult to understand why. Maybe they haven't come acroos Dooyoo yet!


In short, UK Ciao is a badly run site with a terribly slow loading process which does nothing to encourage users. Pages often have to be refreshed four or five times before information can be viewed at all. Navigation is painful and there are few categories to actually inspire the average writer. Waiting to read opinions and editing of personal details can seriously raise your blood pressure and the site is laid out in such a way as to deter rather than motivate members. The rewards are smaller and there is little community spirit.

Personally, I have opted to spend my time with Dooyoo rather than cause myself unnecessary stress and waste my time with Ciao. Maybe the literal tra
nslation into English of the name of the site says it all. Steer clear and invest your energy into Dooyoo instead. It is certainly more worthy and appreciative of your time and effort.

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