Member feedback on Ciao Community Points

For my 200th review, in the absence of any more inspirational ideas, I've decided to follow the round-number tradition and write an inward-looking review about Ciao itself. My subject is an aspect of Ciao some members feel strongly about: the community points system and the related scale of coloured dots. I'm not one of those members. I don't feel strongly about it, neither for nor against, though on balance I am mildly in favour for reasons explained below. Apart from that, it seems worth writing about because I find its effect on the behaviour of the Ciao community, myself included, very ... more

*I originally wrote this review over five years ago in 2006, when I was feeling particularly disillusioned, but I do feel it's as pertinent now as it was then. I'm going to make no apologies here, this is going to be a rant, so if you love community points (CPs) then I suggest you skim down to the bottom, give me a token rate, maybe leave a token comment and get a few precious points to add to your total. In case you haven't guessed I don't like the point system, I think it's stupid and encourages some very strange behaviour. Right that's my opinion, so now I'd better justify myself…. I didn't ... more

Maybe it's just me as a new member, but ciao community points strike me as a complete waste of time. What are they exactly? No one seems to know; apart from they give you a pretty coloured dot once you start accumulating them (apart from bronze dots, which frankly my dears look like poo). And why do people take the community points/dot colour thing so seriously. They don't make you rich, they don't make you popular, and they don't give you sexual pleasure (unless you're very very sad indeed) Now, until last week I was white dot, strugglinf (despite reading and rating others) to get any reads ... more

You know, my mother really wouldn't like these dots. Her name is Dorothy (her middle name is "even worse" but I shan't embarrass her by mentioning it here). Her most hated diminution is Dot or Dotty. She really, really, really wouldn't like these dots. You mustn't tell her but I think they're super. Or rather, I do now I have a violet one. The violet one is by the far the nicest colour, don't you think? I'd like to stay pretty violet for always. I should be serious. If you're new, you may not have a clue what I'm talking about. (You're probably not new, you're almost certainly less new than me ... more

. •@•@•@•@ INTRO: ISSUE SPOTLIGHT •@•@•@•@ After carefully considering the seemingly endless variety of problems currently confronting us, oh my fellow Earthlings; finding alternative energy forms, the rising cost of living, government corruption and oppression, the unrest in the Middle East and the Far East, finding a cure for cancer and various other diseases, squalor, famine, Ciao addiction, etc., I decided to discuss the issue that weighed heaviest on my soul: "WHAT ARE THE PRO'S AND CONS OF CIAO'S COLOURED-DOT COMMUNITY CASTE SYSTEM?" Due to previous derogatory comments I may have made ... more