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cheap_charlie

hayley11 wrote: »

That statement I have to say cannot be based on fact at all. Do you have access to dooyoo's website stats? To see where people are coming from? And what false pretences?? I also personally haven't seen all this substandard work that you're referring to. Maybe your standards are too high?

I heard about dooyoo through MSE but i'm not a bad reviewer. I don't churn, my reviews are always more than 150 words, i've had over 100 rates and only two SU.

Basically all i'm saying is you shouldn't go around blaming MSE because there are people who aren't following the rules. No matter what site you go on, you're always going to find people who don't do things right.

It is no coincidence that the membership numbers at dooyoo shot up IMMEDIATELY after the MSE e-mail which linked to information about dooyoo was sent out on 13th May. It doesn't take proof from dooyoo, or Sherlock Holmes for that matter, to work out why.

The information given was very basic and outdated, and even the board guide of this forum stated it was disingenuous at best on this thread.

The MSE e-mail gets sent to millions of people, and even if only a small percentage signed up, the fact is they swamped dooyoo.

You may well not have encountered some of the substandard work that has been posted in the past couple of weeks, but as a member who reads a lot on the site, I can assure you I have seen a lot, much of which has clearly broken the T&Cs of the site and has had to be reported for abuse. Nothing to do with "high standards" and everything to do with people posting copied content, padding, and a fair amount of revenge rating too.

There have been some really good new members too however who have been willing to take advice and improve their work and it has been heartening for me to see some win crowns for their work.

Just because there have been a large number of people posting substandard work who were directed to dooyoo from MSE doesn't mean everyone who arrived in the great influx is doing the same - there's no need to be so touchy.

urban469

cheap_charlie wrote: »

Useful advice does not necessarily make a good review however - advice is not the same as consumer opinion, is it?

I also fail to see what "spirit" dooyoo have gone against - the T&Cs do state they reserve the right to refuse payment for work they consider doesn't meet their standards.

Without being able to see your work I cannot really comment further but suffice to say dooyoo have been inundated with substandard work, mostly from people directed there under false pretences from MSE.

Like I said, I received not a single not useful rating in all 110 that I received. Most were very useful. In fact, some of my ratings were from guides (although they didn't give any specific advice).

But you are right, that doesn't define whether or not it meets dooyoo's standards. Like I said, I am a professional journalist, and I know how to write a good review and stay within house style!

Like you said, Dooyoo have been inundated with new signups, and I fear they are worried about the amount of vouchers they will have to pay out, so they are closing accounts without warning.

If they actually cared about getting as many high quality reviews as possible, they would be warning substandard reviewers, or pointing them in the direction of guides. Closing accounts seems like they are running scared.

Also, have a look at their T&Cs - no where does it mention closing accounts for these reasons (except for fraud - and that is 'fraud' in the legal sense, not word count fraud).

That is why dooyoo are running against the spirit of their own scheme. They wouldn't be the first company to fall victim to their own success. Allowing unlimited numbers of reviews per day, with 50p per article, is foolhardy to say the least. It would be very easy to devote 5 hours on a lazy sunday to dooyoo - half an hour to research and write a review...and by the end of the day you are half way to getting a voucher.

Imagine if even 0.5% of MSE email subscribers did that. Dooyoo would be on the verge of financial collapse!

urban469

Have a look through my writing on here to tell me if my writing is "substandard"

cheap_charlie

urban469 wrote: »

Have a look through my writing on here to tell me if my writing is "substandard"

No, it isn't, which is why I am curious to read your reviews

urban469

cheap_charlie wrote: »

No, it isn't, which is why I am curious to read your reviews

They've taken my threat seriously, and removed all of my work. I might have a couple saved in Word on another computer. I'll try to dig them out and re-post here.

hayley11

cheap_charlie - I wasn't being touchy because you weren't having a go at me and I wasn't defending myself. Purely saying to blame it all on that MSE article is a bit extreme. But we'll just have to agree to disagree on that one

urban469

Hayley, I agree, it's not fair to blame it all on MSE. But surely there is a point that a new influx of hundreds/thousands of new sign-ups in search of a quick buck, is going to make it more likely that there will be quite a few reviews that break the rules.

And even if most of the reviews were of an "acceptable" standard, it would put dooyoo under so much pressure to pay out, that they would start closing down accounts.

Either way, reviewers (either from MSE or pre-MSE) who put in a lot of time are going to be left without the rewards they were expecting.

Camp_Freddy

urban469 wrote: »

Have a look through my writing on here to tell me if my writing is "substandard"

Well, you can certainly string a sentence together, but your childish attitude and logic skills are, in my opinion, lacking. If that carries over to your reviews, then it's entirely possible Dooyoo have a legitimate claim that your work is not up to scratch.

There was once a high profile member on Dooyoo who claimed to be a professional writer but who couldn't write a consumer review to save her life, in my opinion, and racked up huge read rates because she 'gamed' the site and its members. Just because you write for a living (assuming that's true) doesn't mean you are automatically good at wnything related to the written word... writing novels or short stories or marketing blurb or any number of other things that can be described as "writing". It's entirely possible that someone who has trouble with written English is actually very good at providing the opinion and feedback that a consumer wants.

Camp_Freddy

hayley11 wrote: »

cheap_charlie - I wasn't being touchy because you weren't having a go at me and I wasn't defending myself. Purely saying to blame it all on that MSE article is a bit extreme. But we'll just have to agree to disagree on that one

Three times, I think, in the last two years, membership rates on Dooyoo have shot through the roof, coinciding with an MSE article. IMO, these huge influxes have been bad for the site from a members point of view because the vast majority of new members can only see pound signs and this has really diluted the quality content and members I used to see around the site. So, blaiming this new influx on the MSE newsletter is entirely justifiable with a decent amount of evidence to support the accusation.

One of the reasons there are so many guides and long-standing members active on the Dooyoo-realted threads is because of these influxes and, at one point, the co-ordinated gaming of Dooyoo that was being attempted/arranged on this site.

Since the last big influx though, MSE members, on threads like this, have been very pro-active in encouraging members to take part fully, not just dump sub-standard work on the site and run off with Amazon vouchers. I still find it sad that people are, in the DFW and MFW boards, having three reviews per day on their "to do" lists to scrape the cash out.

hayley11

OK I am going to take back my statement about the influx of new members not being anything to do with MSE. Obviously you guys know a lot more than me about this. (that sounds quite snooty but it isn't meant that way )

I think for people to have it on their to do lists like that is a bit bad, that is when shoddy reviews will come about, when you're forcing yourself to write them.

But I think MSE including it in the email was a good thing. Because for however many bad members that join, you will get some really decent ones. And it's good to get new members, it would go stale really quickly if it was just the same people reviewing all the time.

Also some people that are bad might not even realise how bad they are, so hopefully with time and support they will get better.

And the people that are just abusing it will get kicked off soon enough hopefully.