Advantages: Increases reads
Disadvantages: Cronic abuse

...Your friends, my friends and their friends. The COT the community of your account. I have only just realised a really quick method of keeping track of your COT, so I thought I would write my next opinion on it, and share it with others. Of course most of you will be well ahead of me and already doing this but still. -~’Introduction’~- The COT, Also known as the Circle of Trust, is a very important aspect to building your “profile” on the site. You will find, the COT can increase your reads dramatically. The COT, is a list of people that you have decided to trust, or people that have decided to trust you. -~’ Trust ‘~- What is meant by trust is, either you have read many of their opinions and you like their writing style as it might amuse you, or you find it interesting. So you trust them... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Instant access to people whom you respect, a nice, warm glow
Disadvantages: It is an easy system to abuse, not everyone gets it...in both senses of gets

...? You could start with the default sort – ‘helpfulness’. But maybe the top few are by people you’ve never heard of…hmmm…you could date sort – but maybe the most recent ops aren’t up to par. Here’s what you do – you sort by the Circle of Trust. This puts people whom you trust right at the top. After that, it gives you people that the people you trust, trust (didya get that?). Then the great unwashed (in your eyes, perhaps, anyway) follow. Trust is also a form of kudos (or respect, depending on how you look at it). A respected writer might have nearly 1000 folks trusting them (I’m in awe) – so their opinions are likely to have been tried and tested. They are truly the Ciao deities. There’s even a list of the most trusted members in the Community Centre... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Trust comes with knowing people.
Disadvantages: Trust is not to be played with.

...with me through thick and thin, and I try to merit their trust by being a good ciaoer, and by considering them as friends. Now here we have a little bit of conflict, because does that necessarily mean that you are going to read every review they ever wrote ? Of course not. It just means that you will support them and they you, and that is what makes this community work. I have people in my trust that have been with me since the very beginning of my ciaoing, people whose names I know and respect, people who I have come to know as characters rather than just anonymous writers on a website. They have stuck with me through all my problems and dramas because they know these are genuine ones, and every morning when I come into Ciao, I go and see how they are doing because after a while you begin to care about these people. It seems a shame... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: when buying products, a limit
Disadvantages: absusing it

...from the Ciao community. You can look for people in your circle of trust and read their opinions on the product in question. I am not sure if every member reads as many opinions as they proportionally should be obliged to in relation to how many reads they have personally have, but I have had over 400 reads, and I am confident that I have read this amount in other members’ opinions also. You may think that reading other peoples’ opinions may encourage them to read yours etc. and I think that if someone has taken time to read your opinion, you should perhaps have a look at their account and see if there are any opinions on products that interest you. You may then find that you agree with a lot of things this person has said, and may wish to add them to your circle of trust. S/he in turn may then think, if they agree with what... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Badgers are best eaten with mango chutney...
Disadvantages: Some badgers are getting distressed

...– you’ve be working a 16 hour double shift, and there is a great comment or quip which puts a smile on your face. You can go to bed happy (another way is to bag a supermodel... :o) ). 7) Circle of trust: Whilst the Circle of Trust (CoT) is very much open for abuse, with some people adding and removing others on a whim, the circle of trust does help to reinforce the idea of community. Of course it does not however oblige you to read every single op that an author writes, or to have to give them a VH rating for every op. At the end of the day though it does help reinforce the community value of ciao by dint of the fact that it is a visible way of demonstrating which writers you feel contribute to the site in a commendable way. 8) Category assistants: Whilst the degree of active participation varies from one category assistant to the next... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: -
Disadvantages: -

...a wider scope to talk about things from current affairs, jokes, poems and a category that gives you total freedom. I also like the football World Cup section as you may have noticed from my last few ops, but this is a great place for people to shout themselves off on anything and has produced some good works Community Points **************** Some people don’t like them for attitudes they can cause and egos to affect. I am impartial, they mean nothing of value and add a bit more colour to the site. Nothing wrong with that, and they do add a target for people to aim at. On the bad side they do encourage a worse side of people, obsessive, greed and personalities. This is not the nicest part of the community and some people could say that they are a bad side. I don’t care either way, they don’t hurt anyone. Trust... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: N/A
Disadvantages: N/A

...When I first joined Ciao pay rates were incredibly generous – 50p per opinion and 10p per rating. However back in those days Ciao had hardly any community spirit. It was long before the days of guest books and rating other people’s work was almost unheard of. People just churned out 90 word opinions that were of very little use to a “consumer”. Not long since I first joined Ciao though the site had a huge facelift. People who rated opinions were no longer anonymous, a comment feature was introduced and the Circle of Trust was born. And then Ciao brought out the excellent Premium Fund which saw the end of many 90 word wonders and led to people writing good quality useful opinions. Now Ciao is a superb site buzzing with community spirit and many Ciao members have became good friends. So what 10 things do make Ciao a Community? Well here... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

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

...boxes which contain information. In this one, you will find information about what is happening on Ciao, changes to the site and new features that are being added. This is great, because then you can go and check them out! The newsflash is updated about once a week - about as often something interesting happens. But, for example, at the moment it is telling us that the Circle of Trust limit has been increased. This is another factor helping make Ciao more of a forum and community area. Ciao Advice... This gives answers to questions that we are always asking but we never get an answer. It tells us that the premium fund is not explained in full is because they want to 'focus on the community' and 'not focus on making money through the premium fund.' Hotline... The Hotline presents you with a question and answer, which is often... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: an interesting place to be
Disadvantages: can take over your life

...- mums at home with kids, people with physical limitations and the like, people who live miles from anywhere. Ciao offers the chance to feel a bit more connected with the rest of the world. Contributions - we own this site, we form it, shape it, influence it. If we didn't, there would be no considering it as a community. We can make suggestions about content, about how the site is run and actually get listened to - maybe not always, but enough of the time. Yes, somewhere there are a load of people doing the technical stuff, sorting out the money etc, but it's the users who give the whole thing life, and because we do that, it ahs far more of a sense of community than many more static places you can visit online. Attitude - this is the big one. The technical possibilities would mean nothing if people did not use them - the circle of trust... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: good support before leaving the country
Disadvantages: dismal support once abroad

..., and the ferry ticket were paid for by Project Trust. On arrival on Coll, with about 30 other prospective volunteers we were taken to where we would be staying for the week. We were split into groups of two and three and were put up by members of the Coll community. The idea behind this was to monitor how well we could adapt to new people and surroundings, and to see how well we would interact with our hosts. This was a large part of the selection process. During the days we were taken to the Project Trust center, on the other end of the island, and put through our paces on activities of all kinds. These included group work, 'teaching' a short lesson to a small group, digging and learning Ceilidh (Scottish) dances. Every move we made was watched. Near the end of the week we were given a short individual interview to find out a little more about... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful