Earn money, speakers corner, good community spirit
Disadvantages:
Not as good as ciao of course !
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Dooyoo, for those of you who don’t yet know, is an internet community along the same lines of our beloved ciao. Although a lot of people reading this will no doubt be members of both sites, the general view is that dooyoo and ciao are rivals – personally, I prefer to think of them as being complementary to one another. I have to confess, though, that I joined dooyoo not for literary reasons or out of a motivation to impart my wisdom on a range of topics vital to today’s consumer, but because I got mypoints for registering with them. Once a freebie addict, always a freebie addict.
HOW DOES IT WORK? Dooyoo operates with pretty much the same ethos as ciao. You register as a member, then are free to read, write, rate and comment on opinions submitted on a variety of subjects – the big difference with dooyoo is that it doesn’t stop with consumer reviews; the site also has many fora for debating issues, as well as a “speakers corner” section. Here, you can write on topics as diverse as whether university tuition fees are a good idea, to immigration & asylum, and capital punishment – there is also a section for general consumer issues, something that ciao does not have. Dooyoo also has “circle of friends” system that works just like the circle of trust here, with no limits to the number of members that you can trust or be trusted by. This is therefore not strictly a consumer site in the way that ciao is, instead being more of a general writer’s community.
NAVIGATION The new dooyoo (it has recently be redesigned) is laid out with three main sections – opinions, search and community. The opinions section is divided up in a similar way to ciao, with a list of categories (such as food and drink, movies, campus) and subcategories that makes it fairly easy to find what it is you are looking for. If you can’t find anything, then the power search works well and I have found it to be quick and accurate. The community section plays host to speakers corner and member news. It is also possible to access lists of newly active members, the 75 most recently submitted opinions, and any new categories that have been added cross-site. I especially like the idea of being able to find out about newly appearing subject areas – perhaps this is something ciao could benefit from?
THE REWARDS Apart from the pleasure of writing and the kudos of penning a top rated opinion, there is inevitably a financial reward for participating in dooyoo. For every accepted opinion that you submit to the site, you get 100 dooyoo miles in return, and for each member read, 50 dooyoo miles – extra miles can also be earned on occasion from site partners (there is currently a promotion involving various betting sites, for example). In addition to this, there is 1000 miles available for each time one of your opinions gets crowned and becomes a premier opinion. Opinions can be nominated for crowns by other members, with the final say coming from the powers that be at dooyoo – crowned opinions then join the list of premier ops, and appear higher up the lists for each topic, so are more likely to generate further reads. Finally, miles may earned from referring friends to the site, with 100 miles being awarded for each for the first 10 opinions that they write.
Dooyoo miles can be exchanged for a variety of options: 1) Cash – 1000 miles is equal to £1 (min 50,000 miles). 2) Vouchers – available for 19 outlets, including Boots, M&S, Orange, Vodafone, Our Price, PC World and Amazon (min 10,000 miles for e-vouchers or 20,000 for high street vouchers). 3) Charity donation – min of 5,000 miles. 4) Dooyoo t-shirts – 10,000 miles each.
OVERALL I have to say that I do like dooyoo, and now spend nearly as much time there as I do at ciao, as I enjoy writing ops on subjects that we do not have at this site. It is a very welcoming community, and I have found the staff to be very helpful on the few occasions that I have needed to contact them. On the member pages, it is possible to submit any picture that you like to the site and not just a self-portrait – I quite like this idea, as I can now personalize my page without having to subject the world to an awful photo of me! Obviously, I also like the fact that more is paid per opinion read than at ciao….
However, there are a couple of things I don’t care for at dooyoo – the colour scheme (lime green!) is not very attractive, and the list of who has rated an opinion does not appear on the same page as the opinion itself, which can be quite annoying. There is also no list of the number of times an opinion has been read (you need to count the member names listed or go the member account page for this), which I do not like. I have heard many people complain that they do not like the dooyoo mile system, as this electronic currency does not seem as “real” as being paid in cash. I will agree that this does take some time to get used to, but the choice in rewards at the end of it does make up for this shortcoming.
At the end of the day though, I am still first and foremost a ciaoer!
--------------- UPDATE 11/09/01 There will be changes to dooyoo rewards as of 12pm, August 13th 2001. The changes are as folows, as announced in the newsletter:
"Dooyoo are committed to a premium service for its members and users. We aim to combine this attractive service with an efficient, cost-effective business. Unfortunately, due to the downturn in the economy, the running cost of this aspect of the service, means the level of incentives has got to be reduced.
Additionally, due to the overwhelming popularity of dooyoo, brought about by the increased support of our members, we are experiencing rising costs due to the higher volumes of opinions. dooyoo has to look at it's long-term sustainable strategy and make changes to ensure it's future.
In response, dooyoo are changing their payment structure to adapt to market conditions and respond to user needs. There will now be 6 options to cash out from dooyoo.
i) ipoints - From now on you can convert your miles into ipoints, who have a larger offering of vouchers, specials, and other offers. Your ipoints exchange options will include tickets for outings to the cinema and special events; for luxury food and drink items; and communications and computing gadgets, as well as the usual books, music and much, much more. For this option 10,000 miles will equal 100 ipoints, which can be redeemed at their site. You also get extra ipoints for joining when transferring your miles.
ii) £20 online vouchers - For those members who wish to buy vouchers we will be retaining the service for Amazon and Blackstar online vouchers at a redemption rate of £20. However, there will be a handling fee of £2.50 i.e. 22,500 miles to buy £20 Amazon or Blackstar vouchers.
iii) £50 cash - The cash out level remains the same at £50, but there will be a handling charge, of £5 i.e. 55,000 miles will equal a £50 cheque.
iv) £100 cash - For those users who wish to wait until they can earn £100, there will be no handling charge i.e. 100,000 dooyoo miles will equal a £100 cheque.
v) Charity - remains the same. Any amount can be donated over 5000 miles.
vi) Merchandise - remains the same. Check site for details.
As announced on the site last week, we will also be changing our payment structure. Payments for reads will be replaced by payments for ratings. 50 miles (which equates to 5p) will be awarded each time another user rates your opinion (regardless of how it is rated). We are not introducing the non-payment for "Not Useful" at this current time.
There has been a good deal of interest from users for these proposed changes. Many of you welcomed the changes. dooyoo will survive, flourish and prosper, but only if we take proactive and responsible steps now. We appreciate your support and encouragement and are aware that without you - the community - we are nothing. dooyoo owe you all a great debt, which we intend to honour by securing the future of dooyoo with this type of change. Please feel free to contact us should you have any questions."
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Security & Privacy Statement
Satisfactory
Customer Service Support
Excellent
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