The lovely Ciao community

Advantages: new friends, support, learning, acceptance, sharing, interacting with others
Disadvantages: occasional bad apple

...PLEASE NOTE: Last night when I wrote this Ciao was telling me i had written 299 reviews. It said this same this morning so I posted this as my 300th review. Halfway through today it changed at told me that infact this is not my 300th review after all! Haha the joys of the ciao gremlins! Anyway this is my 300th review in advance!!!: As it is my 300th review I have decided to do something Ciao related! The fact that I am still here after 5 years and 300 reviews means that there must be something I like about the site and it has come to my attention that the thing I like may well be all of you lovely members and the community that we have on here. My previous review was quite a negative one and I wanted to emphasise the point that despite all the annoyances, I so actually like it here! So here are the 10 things that I feel make Ciao...

ilusvm 07.03.2009 (08.03.2009) · Read review
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Review of 10 Things That Make Ciao a Community

Care in the community.

Advantages: See text.
Disadvantages: See text.

...I would just like to write a review on working as a carer out in the community, although this can also apply to actual registered nurses (such as district nurses, but for the purpose of this review I shall stick to carers.). So what is it? As the name would suggest, it is people who work out in the community giving care to people - whether it be in their own homes, or perhaps in sheltered housing. It may even take place at a centre, if there are a small number of people who wish to meet together. However, this may cause a few issues re health and safety etc so this is not advisable. So it happens it a person's home, and the person giving the care can do anything from assisting the person in or out of bed; cooking for them, or simply doing some light housework and/ or shopping for them. How can I find out some more...

dynamicnurse 10.05.2009 · Read review
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Review of Community Care Assistants

CIAO + COMMUNITY = CHUMMUNITY

Advantages: You can meet people...
Disadvantages: ...who will eventually stab you in the back, rob you and leave you for dead.

...What is it that makes people think Ciao is a community? Perhaps, more importantly, the question should be "what kind of community is Ciao?" Ciao, as you are probably aware, markets itself as a 'consumer community'. What is a 'consumer community'? From dictionary.com: com•mu•ni•ty: 1. a. A group of people living in the same locality and under the same government. b. The district or locality in which such a group lives. 2. a. A group of people having common interests: the scientific community; the international business community. b. A group viewed as forming a distinct segment of society: the gay community; the community of colour. 3. a. Similarity or identity: a community of interests. b. Sharing, participation, and fellowship. 4. Society as a whole; the public. 5. Ecology. a. A group...

TheDuke 19.09.2005 · Read review
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Review of 10 Things That Make Ciao a Community

Community or competition

Advantages: Great for list freaks, could if handled well encourage us to participate fully in Ciao
Disadvantages: Encourages us to read more the same authors over and over again, rather than discovering worthy new authors

...So Ciao has added a new section to the site to promote the feeling of a community. Does it live up to its promise? I certainly had a look at the section fairly soon after it was started, and read with interest the opinions that people have written about it, at the request of the Community Centre itself, which encourages us to add our opinions. However, I was sadly disappointed to see that Community Centre seems to be merely another vehicle which encourages us to read the opinions of those who have already made a name for themselves through the Most Wanted lists, allowing those individuals who have a vast amount of reads already, to gain even more reads. I don't need to summarize what features the Community Centre contains, as we are all users of Ciao and can thus see this for ourselves. Perhaps the most useful aspect...

peppermint 13.02.2001 · Read review
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Review of Community Page & Cafe

The Ciao Community Spirit

Advantages: Very easy to use, helpful to see what's going on
Disadvantages: Could expand more, with daily votes etc

...The Community Centre is a fairly new section on Ciao. Its intention is to keep up the community spirit on Ciao and to keep everyone happy. It also gives you information about what is going on at Ciao at the moment and lots of other things you may want to know about. Finding the Community Centre... The ComC, as I will call it here, can be found by, from any page on Ciao, clicking on the Ciao.com logo at the top of the page. Then, on the homepage, you will see a link just under the logo which will take you directly to the ComC. After a few moments, the page will load. The first thing that you will learn from it, is that it's your Ciao. So, have a look round at all the various features and get familiar with what you can do there. You have new active members, lists, ratings and news. New Active Members list... Here, you will...

danieletheridge 19.05.2001 · Read review
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Review of Community Page & Cafe

Care In The Community

Advantages: An excellent feature that enhances the site by informing the community
Disadvantages: Needs a few tweaks

...I am the first to admit that I’m not a very observant person and considering that I only discovered the Ciao Community Centre today just goes to show. I have, however, had a long look around this new feature and on first impressions I have to say it’s a wonderful addition to the site, the best of the recent tweaks. To be straight with the good members of Ciao (and you stingy people who haven’t registered but read these articles anyway), part of the reason for my support of this new feature is because of the large number of times I seem to appear in the pages of the community. This is a huge ego boost to me as I am sixth in the Premium Fund and in the top fifty for trusted members and reads of my reviews. The major downside of this is of course that my bloody photo appears everywhere. In fact, the ‘Tip...

kfingleton 03.02.2001 · Read review
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Review of Community Page & Cafe

Community Points

Advantages: Encourages members to do more in the community.
Disadvantages: Also encourages a few members to break the rules in order to get more points!

... INTRODUCTION Community points are all over Ciao. That little coloured dot next to every single username indicated how many community points a member has! Also, members at the blue level or higher could get their profile displayed on the front page and therefore get more reads. Community points are both good and bad, and you'll find outh why below! LEVELS Up until February 2007 there were 9 different community levels but Ciao then released a new BLACK level (making 10 altogether). Here are the different levels and the ammount of community points required: ▪ LEVEL 0: No dot - If you have a negative amount of community points you will have no dot next to your username! ▪ LEVEL 1: White - 0 to 999 points (all new members will be white!) ▪ LEVEL 2: Green - 1,000 to 4,999 points ▪ LEVEL 3: Blue...

TerryfaeScotland2 26.04.2007 (07.11.2007) · Read review
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Review of Member feedback on Ciao Community Points

♥ Community Care Needed♥

Advantages: A virtual family
Disadvantages: There is a dark side of ciao

...Even in a virtual community everyone likes the human touch that is involved. A social community is how I would personally like to describe Ciao. This site could not exist without the loyalty shown to each other although as in every community it does go through difficult patches and you can't like everyone or always share the same views as others. I have put my ten choices in no particular order, as each of us would list them differently in order of importance. ♥New Members New members are really important to keep the community alive and growing. As people in the real world have babies to increase the population, we have newbies. Even if the content of their review is not that good they still deserve a read. You sit there as a newbie waiting for those all important reads to come and it can be very demoralising to them to...

COOOEEE 12.05.2002 (17.03.2007) · Read review
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Review of 10 Things That Make Ciao a Community

Commentary or Community

Advantages: Too many to list, though it's very self explanetory.
Disadvantages: None yet. Still none yet!

...Which ever way you look at it, it's always going to be the most useful place at ciao. In fact since it's launch i have been a frequent flyer or is that visitor. Ciao community is a great place to start if you are new, and will prove invaluable. If you are new to ciao you will instantly be able to see others that have just joined, and see what they are writing, and the kind of response they get. It will encourage you no end through all the various pointers about writing, reading, commenting and the likes in a non critical way. It also makes for a good pass time with loads of other interesting things a you will see. One of the most interesting things i found was the most wanted area, where all the best writers are shown off. You actually see from this table just what people are reading the most, and by reading a few of the top...

Trev1000 16.04.2001 (11.05.2001) · Read review
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Review of Community Page & Cafe

The Community Centre, Encouraging Or Divisive

Advantages: encouraging, informative, something to aim for, increases reads of featured writers
Disadvantages: could be discouraging not to make any of the lists

...I have read lots of opinions on the Community Centre and decided it was time to have my say! It seems the majority of the opinions I have seen have been fairly critical of Ciao's latest facility, condemning it as divisive, suggesting the "league tables" will discourage new members and split more established ones into major competitive rivalries. I disagree. I think the list of the new writers is very good, so they get more exposure and hopefully a few more reads. I haven't seen many criticisms of this feature, but a few suggestions some of the new members could be featured in other ways too, which I agree with. But even without this feature, all new writers get their chance to shine through the 20 most recent opinions feature. I often read opinions of people through this, if I see a subject I am interested in or the first lines...

KarenUK 14.02.2001 · Read review
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Review of Community Page & Cafe