WWOOF New Zealand is part of a world wide community that promotes awareness of ecological farming practices by providing volunteers with the opportunity to live and learn on organic properties. WWOOF is an enjoyable, educational and safe way to explore and get to know the people in the country.

Feedback and Comments System – Review


Background

In mid 2009 an upgrade for www.wwoof.co.nz was launched that included a number of additional features, such as allowing hosts to search for WWOOFers. Since the upgrade members have loaded a fantastic 13,000 photos! The upgrade also included a system that allowed members to add feedback and comments for other members. The push for this had come mainly from WWOOFers who were asking for independent comments. WWOOFers were really wanting to hear all about the exciting things other WWOOFers had done while WWOOFing. As of 11th Nov 2011 there have been 4,112 reviews written by members which is a great. Below are some members who have managed to collect many comments.

Some Examples

Member 40072 – 34 reviews
Member 42270 – 29 reviews
Member 996 – 27 reviews
Member 1022 – 23 reviews

Review

One current weakness of the system is of course that not everyone understands the concept of constructive comments and we have seen a few situations that have been quite unfair and inaccurate. The dilemma for us is the no-censorship policy. While we will remove comments that are not appropriate, we do not generally remove comments just because the other member does not like it.
So, we are proposing to improve the system a little. Currently the system works like this:
  • When another member writes you a comment, you receive an email. This email contains two things:
    1. 1. A link to the member’s profile.
    2. 2. A copy of what has been written.


The proposal is that the system works like this:
  • When another member writes you a comment, you will receive an email. This email will contain three things:
    1. 1. A link to the member’s profile.
    2. 2. A copy of what has been written.
    3. 3. A link so that you can confirm that you authorize this member to be your referee.


The reason for this 3rd part is because comments should only be written by people who you have had an exchange with. This allows you to confirm this. If you have any other suggestions for improvement please let us know.