A final payout from a much loved site
By Boingboing
@boiboing (13147)
Northampton, England
October 30, 2015 3:44am CST
A site which used to be one of my favourites announced last week that it was going to stop paying for reviews. Yesterday I received my final payout from them - an Amazon voucher for £25 and I can look back on the site with a certain degree of both sadness and fondness.
The site was Dooyoo.co.uk and it was one that was much loved by British review writers (plus a few overseas members who didn't mind being paid in UK Amazon voucher). It used to be a wonderful site - very lively, sometimes quite controversial, and in the early days it paid very well via a scheme of weekly 'crowns'. Crowns were bonus payments for the allegedly better reviews.
Dooyoo's days were numbered when their parent company 'Le Guide' bought the better, sexier, much more fun site, Ciao. Dooyoo made a disastrous attempt to reposition themselves with a lot of changes to the site. For months people couldn't log on and when they finally could, they hated what they found. Site traffic shrank. Members fled. People who'd got used to writing several thousand words about a tea bag couldn't adjust to maximum 500 words. Getting anything new added to the site was a nightmare and members hated the change.
About 10 days ago Le Guide threw in the towel with dooyoo.co.uk and announced that they wouldn't pay for reviews any more but we'd all be welcome over at Ciao.co.uk. Most of us had been there for years.
Sadly every year seems to see the demise of much loved sites. I'll survive without dooyoo but I'm happy to say that in the 8 or so years of my membership they kept my amazon account topped up to the tune of nearly £2000. I'll not miss it the way I mourned the passing of Igougo.com, my favourite travel writing site which died a few years back.
Bubblews can't last much longer and when it goes, I won't mourn it at all. You can have a great relationship with a website and get that shattered overnight when the management make a few bad decisions and lose the trust of members.
So for today, I'd just like to say Rest in Peace Dooyoo.co.uk. The good times were great but the changes cut to deep.
14 people like this
14 responses
@arthurchappell (44941)
• Preston, England
30 Oct 15
I never knew of Dooyoo - sad that it is going but good that they have let users know the situation - Bubblews keep their troubles to themselves
1 person likes this
@Freelanzer (10782)
• Canada
30 Oct 15
@boiboing Nice of them. When Helium was shutting down they gave us about 6 months notice I think and a tool to download and delete all our posts.
2 people like this
@arthurchappell (44941)
• Preston, England
30 Oct 15
@Freelanzer great that they had time to do that. Many sites don't warn anyone and just vanish overnight
2 people like this
@Rollo1 (16676)
• Boston, Massachusetts
30 Oct 15
I have seen many sites come and go, some I liked better than others. But as the internet changes, the way people can use it to earn money changes. I have already mourned for Bubblews, both the older version and the one we've had since January. But there's nothing can save it, I fear.
1 person likes this
@Rollo1 (16676)
• Boston, Massachusetts
30 Oct 15
@boiboing I think what they did was their actual business strategy. They paid out too much to attract a huge membership. Then they finally got the press and publicity they wanted but they ran out of money. But the site didn't take off once they had adjusted and corrected. And they didn't learn from their mistakes, they just repeated them.
2 people like this
@boiboing (13147)
• Northampton, England
30 Oct 15
Never say never! Who knows what's round the corner?
@softbabe44 (5815)
• Vancouver, Washington
31 Oct 15
It may have been a reason that it wasn't gaing anything to do that thats bad news for alot i bet.
@xFiacre (14785)
• Ireland
30 Oct 15
It is sad when a reliable site bites the dust. No doubt this one will in time too. I just play around on Bubblews now to keep in touch with a few people who haven't migrated here - I've no mission of ever redeeming what's rightfully mine there.
@Freelanzer (10782)
• Canada
30 Oct 15
@boiboing I am, I am, I can see them now. I guess the bus thing works just as well.
@TheHorse (238313)
• Walnut Creek, California
31 Oct 15
I don't know that one, but I was sad when American review Epinions went down. It had been bought by some sales site or another which in turn was gobbled up by Ebay, and together they drove it into the ground. It lasted for something like thirteen years.
