Ciao for now Ciao (ciao.co.uk)

Member Name: yummy87

Product:	ciao.co.uk
Date:	10/08/04 (246 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to submit reviews, Easy to navigate and search

Disadvantages: Payment structure is farcical, Abuse is rife

I would imagine that most of us opinionators have come across other sites apart from Dooyoo. I started off my opinionating addiction when I came across Ciao a couple of years ago. Initially attracted by a banner on another site urging me to sign up to the site for paid surveys, it was some time later that I discovered that Ciao was actually a review site and in essence I could get paid for writing those too.

In order to write your first review, or indeed take part in any surveys you will need to register with the site. This involves giving out demographic information and of course bank details in order for any payments to be made that are due to you. I would advise any new member to read reviews on the site before they put fingers to keyboard as there is a ?way? of writing, and new members are in such a hurry to earn a few pennies they do tend to write a one paragraph review before reading any of the terms and conditions or FAQs which are all listed under the member section of the site.

♥♦Product Proposals♥♦

The Ciao home page displays a list of sections on the site under which you can write reviews, although all categories are not listed here and there may also be times when a category does not exist for the review you wish to write. Requesting a product is pretty easy though, simply find the section in which you wish to write and a ?product not listed? prompt will appear. It is then possible to complete a standard form with the details of the category which can be sent to the Ciao team at the touch of a button. Product additions used to be entered fairly quickly although that is not the case now and members are waiting weeks for their new items to appear on the site. A mail is normally sent out to the member once the product is listed on the site, although sometimes there is a blip in the Ciao system and the mail i
s never received so unless you check the new products page you?ll never know when your request has gone live. There is a product proposal guide on the site, but he?s not around much and in all honesty it is easier to request yourself as he does like to baffle new members with his instructions on how to request when it is a very simple procedure.

♥♦Writing Reviews♥♦

I would advise members to write their reviews in Word first and of course to check for any spelling and grammatical errors before their reviews are submitted to the site. Submitting reviews is easy and takes a matter of seconds before they appear on the site, and it is also possible to write your reviews straight onto the website, where they can be stored as drafts before being submitted. The draft option is a bit of a grey area as members have lost work that they have updated in this section simply because the correct instructions to save it again before submitting can not be found anywhere on the site, so I prefer to use Word for any review I write.

♥♦Payment♥♦

Ciao used to pay a penny or two for each read but these days paying categories are few and far between on the site. A lot of the categories pay half a pence per read, but more often than not, you will receive nothing unless you?re lucky enough to win one of the coveted prizes in the Ciao Premium Fund, a series of diamonds or monetary awards that are presented monthly. How this works is anyones guess, but in my experience not a lot of thought is given when it comes to doling out the diamonds each month and I myself have had a ten pound diamond for a review that was clearly not worthy, in fact that was one of the major factors that made me leave the site a couple of months ago. Month after month the same people get the prestige of having a diamond, and so much is made over them when in reali
ty they just represent another tenner or maybe £15 in the kitty. Since leaving the site I have been awarded another diamond despite not writing for nearly two months as Ciao are so far behind with the awards it makes a mockery of the system. The PF system needs to be looked at as so many members agree that it is not fair, yet the site still stick to their guns and award diamonds for the most obscure reasons.

The amount of time that is spent on the site reading and rating as well as writing isn?t relative, so don?t go to Ciao if you want to make money, because with the exception of the surveys it?s not going to happen.

When I first joined the site, it was not uncommon for me to make twenty pounds or so just from the premium fund prizes each month, regardless of whether I received a diamond or not, but this year has been totally different. Members are lucky if they receive 50p per month and more regularly, not a bean into their account when the PF is awarded. Requesting payment is a bit of a minefield as well. Depending on how you time your request, it is not uncommon to wait for up to six weeks for payment into your bank account, although admittedly I have always received my money eventually. Payment for surveys is sporadic and a bit hit and miss too and it really is advisable to check any survey you have completed and keep a note of the payment as Ciao are prone to making mistakes. I have had a few surveys that are supposed to pay say £7 and I?ve only received £5 for my time, yet emails remain unanswered even months later.

♥♦Guest Books♥♦

Ciao promote their ?friendly community? and indeed even their banners on other internet sites encourage members to join the site to ?make friends?. The site provided guest books in which members can have a natter or an argument depending on their mood, and with the Ciao
relaunch last year, the private guest books were introduced. A big mistake really, as for the life of me I can?t understand why members need two guest books, and following the introduction of these, the site began to lose its appeal very swiftly for me. Abuse on Ciao is rife, and there are members, present or ones who have left who seem to revel in creating false accounts in which they can abuse whoever they feel like having a pop at that day. The Ciao team are sorely lacking when it comes to dealing with abuse on their site and indeed even seem to encourage arguments between their members at times as it puts ?bums on seats? so to speak.

♥♦Community Points♥♦

Members can gain community points whilst writing their reviews on the site. These colours range from white to gold, depending on how much time you are willing to spend on the site reading and rating, and with points given for leaving comments, members will write a flurry of ridiculous comments that are completely off topic, just so they can gain a few community points to race to the next colour. Points are awarded for reading, rating and commenting, and I do feel that this part of the site is abused greatly. For some members though, the prospect of their next colour will keep them on the site for hours at a time, even reading through the archives to gain more points.

♥♦Account page♥♦

Each member at the touch of a button, can see all their reviews, points, money earned, as well as any comments they have written or had written on their reviews. There is also the option to display any Ebay auctions you may have within your account page and this seems to be used widely by many members on the site. Members can also write a small piece of text in their profiles as well as create their own personal homepage. The homepages used to be displayed within the guest b
ooks on the site, but since the relaunch they are now hidden away, making it difficult for members to find so are not so popular these days. A member picture can be uploaded onto the site but this has to be a specific size and approved by the Ciao team, so can take a long time to appear, if at all, and also email alerts can be set up from within a members account for notification when they are left a guest book message, or when other members read or rate their reviews, as well as the function to receive an alert if anyone writes on a subject that may be of interest. I did use the email function when I was active on the site, and at the click of a button these can be turned off if you are going away on holiday. Oh yes and there?s also the option to add buddies, supposedly for the people whose writing you enjoy but this is another area of Ciao that is much maligned and abused. There is a limit of 100 people that each member can trust although there is no upper limit on how many members can trust you. Personally I think these options are a bit of a waste of space and I don?t tend to use them very much.

♥♦Café♥♦

For those members who prefer not to write consumer opinions, Ciao came up with the idea of creating a Café section whereby members can write on virtually anything that interests them. Unfortunately in recent months, the Café has become ridiculous and has the most inane and ridiculous categories listed such as top ten foods, top ten chat up lines and similar categories following that vein. Members also set up the most mind boggling challenges on the site, which are grasped by at least 50 people per time, and consist of questions such as ?What colour is your duvet?? just in case anyone is remotely interested. I have to be in the mood to visit the Café, which is not often and although I have written a few light hearted reviews there, it is c
ertainly not my first port of call when visiting the site. Awards are not given out on Café reviews, nor are they earners, which is just as well when you see some of the tosh that is written there (no disrespect to anyone intended).

♥♦Category Assistants♥♦

I am probably going to start World War 3 here, but in my opinion category assistants on Ciao serve little or no purpose. In theory, the idea is great with members looking after specific categories on the site, and they can dole out advice to members who have problems. That?s where it stops though really, nominations for outstanding reviews from category assistants are given little or no attention, and even though the Ciao team promise that their assistants are given priority over emails, in my experience priority means that your email will be answered in a vague manner and normally not within a week, or it will be ignored completely. Ciao Category Assistants are only there to do the Ciao team?s work spotting abuse and the like, for no reward whatsoever, normally not even a thank you. However, with the exception of maybe two, most category assistants are friendly and will help members in any way they can if they need help requesting products etc, although now the product proposal guide is available that aspect of helping members is somewhat defunct. Also my biggest complaint is that a number of the category assistants do not even use the site on a regular basis, nor do they answer queries left in their guest books, so it is hardly worth having their names on the community page. I left over two months ago and my name and profile is still on the Category Assistant page and I?m not the only one.

♥♦Rating♥♦

There are five buttons that can be used to rate reviews on the site in order of merit. In the ?old days? pre Ciao 2003 relaunch any r
eviews that you felt should be nominated for a chunk of the premium fund could be sent to Ciao via a link at the top of the page. Now the site have introduced the ?E? button which is the members way of telling another member they have nominated their review. I?ve never been a fan of the ?E? button at all and because members can see who has rated a review Exceptional this has a number of negative points. Firstly it encourages sheep rating, whereby other members will follow suit and rate a review E just because someone before them has done the same, or it can propel some of the schizoid members of the site onto opinion forums asking members to go and read a certain review because Member X has rated it E and it clearly shouldn?t be. It also encourages some members to go to the person who was given them an E rating and rating their reviews likewise just to say thank you. A big yuck to that and a big sigh to Ciao for introducing the E button really, because for the unhinged members who let opinion sites rule their life it has caused nothing but trouble. Also not much notice is taken of the E button anyway and I myself have received an overall exception rating on a review yet received nothing for it, so the whole concept seems a little strange unless the Ciao team just like provoking conflict!

The other buttons are self explanatory; Very Helpful, Helpful, Somewhat Helpful, Unhelpful and Off Topic but full instructions are given within the Member Centre.

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I really have tried to be as balanced as I can about Ciao but it?s been a hard review to write, particularly as the site isn?t one that I use regularly now, although I used to be on it every day. What I will say though is that I just logged in to do a bit of r
esearch for this review, and came across a guest book argument immediately. Ciao used to be great ? monetary awards were good, morale was good ? now it seems to be a sinking ghost ship in the middle of a very large ocean with members deserting it like rats in the night. I think the biggest problem the site has is the community aspect as it seems to breed contempt, and is the main cause for abuse on Ciao. My review does seem pretty damning but there are good aspects of Ciao. It?s easy to submit a review, it?s easy to read and rate and to navigate, and their search function does work when members need to locate categories on the site, but for me the good points are few and far between these days.

I?ll probably venture back one day but for now I?ll keep away :O)

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