My Ciao'ing > Reviews (263)

Well, I haven’t been around for a while and as there are loads of new members who don’t know me I thought I’d take up the challenge set by ElizaF and hope that it well help the new members to get to know a little bit about me.

• Full name:

Julie - that's enough!

• Ciao Username:

Junkboxjules – when I first went online I spent hours and hours trying to find a unique email address and eventually came up with Juliesjunkbox – then as I started to sign up for different sites and needed a username I just decided to mess about a bit with the email address and came up with Junkboxjules – not very exciting I know but that is how Junkboxjules came about.

• Date when you joined the Ciao community

29th April 2002 – it doesn’t seem like it was nearly two years ago.

• Why did you join Ciao?

I was heavily into competition websites and was initially directed to the Dooyoo website because of a competition they were running – it was during my time reading other opinions on the site that I learned about Ciao and decided to come over and check it out – the rest, as they say, is history.

• Are you a member of any other review sites?

As mentioned above, I am a member of Dooyoo and I also joined Epinions - I still try to participate at Dooyoo as much as time allows but I think I’ve only ever written 2/3 opinions on Epinions. I was a member of U-Rate-It but they have temporarily gone offline until April this year.

• Reviews written to date:

116 – I think I wrote my first 100 really quickly but the latest 16 have been quite spread out.

• How many ops/reviews do you write in average a week?

When I first joined I was writing at least one review a day, but lately it has been more like one or two every 3-4 months.

I’ve spend the last few months busy with Craft Fayres and have been so snowed under making things and working at my “day” job that I haven’t had the time to visit the site very often. Now that the rush is over I am hoping to try and get back into the swing of reading and writing on a more regular basis.

• How long does it take you on average to write an op?

If I’m writing about a product then usually I spend between 30-40 minutes but if I’m writing about a personal experience then it can take anything up to 2/3 hours – sometime I could go on for hours and then I have to go back and edit out some of the drivel!

• How would you describe your writing style for ops?

I’m not really a very professional writer and I tend to write my reviews in the same manner that I’d tell you about something if I was talking to you on the phone. Personally, I prefer to read reviews that are written in this style as I find them easier to read and absorb than reviews that are full of a lot of technical mish mash and are not really based on much personal experience.

• Which is your favourite of all your ops?

It would have to be my Las Vegas opinion because it is the only opinion that I’ve ever received a diamond for and also writing it brought back so many fantastic memories of the best holiday I’ve ever had that I thoroughly enjoyed reliving the holiday when I was preparing the op.

I know you only really want one, but another opinion I'm really glad I wrote is the opinion that I wrote about Cipramil anti-depressant tablets - so many people contacted me and told me how much it had helped them that I really felt that it was worthwhile pouring out some of my innermost feelings.

• Comments written to date:

I have rated 5358 opinions and left comments on 2205.

• Do you write a comment with every rating?

No, I’d like to but often can’t think of anything of much use to say so I tend to just rate and depart – I know how much I like comments so I know I really should leave them more often and will try to make more effort in the coming months.

• What merits an ‘exceptional’ rating in your opinion?

An opinion that has been well written and kept me interested right to the end.

There are loads of VH opinions but to gain an E rating from me the review has to have that extra something, it must be based on plenty of personal experience and contain the sort of information that can only be given by somebody who has tried a product/visited a venue and has purely based their review on their own experiences and thoughts and not on those of others or those which have been researched just to fill the page.

It isn’t quantity that warrants the rating but quality.

• Have you ever willingly or unwillingly been a Ciao abuser?

No, not that I know of and I’m sure I’d know if I had!

• How many hours a week do you spend on Ciao?

It used to be at least 2 hours a day but at the moment it is probably more like 2/3 hours a week – I do hope to become more involved but perhaps not as much as 2 hours per day, more likely 30 minutes – 1 hour per day.

• Do you log into the site daily?

Mostly yes, even when I haven’t been actively writing, reading and rating, mainly just to check out my guest book and COT and make sure that any messages I need to reply to are answered.

With all my alerts going AWOL I never know when anybody has written a new opinion or commented on mine so I apologise to my COT and hope to be able to keep up with your reviews a bit more in the near future.

• What is the main time of day you are active on the site?

Mainly early afternoons and evenings – between 1.30pm and 3pm and from 8pm onwards.

• What is your favourite non-commercial area of the site?

I think that would have to be the Members Advice – I have learned such a lot simply by reading reviews about member’s experiences about health problems etc and have really learnt a lot about other Ciao members from this area.

It is also a very helpful area for other members and non-members to read and it is always good to know that if you are suffering from a similar problem that you are not alone.

I have also found that a lot of members actually feel that they can deal with their problems easier when they have shared their experiences with others – it is almost like it is part of the healing process – this can only be a good thing and this area is probably the most valuable area on the site.

• What is your policy on adding people to your CoT?

I’m very mean with my COT – not intentionally but as I’ve not been around much lately I don’t really know any of the new writers and a lot of my old favourites have left so I’ve kept my COT low in order to be able to try to keep up to date with those who I know and respect.

As I spend more time here I will be adding more members to my COT.

• How do you react when people add you to their CoT?

I’m always delighted – I have to confess that I get a real buzz out of knowing that others respect my work enough that they chose to add me to their COT.

I always leave a thank you note in the members guest book to thank them.

• Best piece of advice you could give a newbie? (1 piece only)

Not to get upset if they are given poor ratings when they first join – it is a new ball game and it is easy to get off on the idea of churning out lots of short reviews in the hope that you’ll earn lots of money – in reality it isn’t like that but unfortunately you sometimes have to find that out the hard way.

Stick with it and you’ll enjoy it and make lots of new friends.

• Best piece of advice you could give an oldie? (1 piece only)

Don’t be too harsh on newbies who churn out loads of reviews and knock you off the top stop and down the table rapidly – remember we were all new once. Having said that I get really annoyed when it happens to me so I can sympathise with you.

• What do you like best about Ciao?

The community element – as you will no doubt know by now, I haven’t been about much but even when I’ve been away I have had messages left for me in my guestbook – it is really nice to know that even when you’re not actively taking part somebody is still thinking of you.

• What do you like least about Ciao?

At the moment I’m cross that I haven’t received any alerts for months and despite keep checking my alerts and making sure they are all set up correctly I am still not receiving them!

• Can you remember the first op on Ciao that you ever read?

In a word no – I have no idea but I suspect it would have been written by a familiar name that I recognized from Dooyoo.

Hopefully you feel that you know a bit more about me and my views on Ciao - I do of course recommend myself and I have decided that my opinions are excellent! I hope you agree!!!!

Thanks for reading,

Julie