You might have seen some new features on Qype if you’ve visited over the last couple of days. We’ve got a great new event section for you to get involved in and we’re really excited about it!

As well as Qype parties and meat-ups, we know that Qypers are a really sociable bunch. This is a great way for you to flag up events all over the country for people to get involved in. You can also see what other events Qypers in your area are planning and then tag along to one of those and makes lots of new Qype friends.

Have a scout around the new section and tell us what you think. We’ll be playing about with a lot more, so expect a lot more changes and more features.

And of course, we expect to be invited to all of your brilliant new events.

Our interview with Qype HQ newbie Urbanite flagged up some great points to remember when you’re writing reviews. Here’s a few of them in more detail as a handy reminder:

Include a justification for the rating.
Always handy if you love your local so give it lots of stars, but it’s still a bit of a dive. Make sure people know why you’re giving something your stars. They’re precious those Qype stars…

Add a bit of something that makes the review personal to you/your experience.
Tell us a story! Tell us about how you got so drunk in a bar that you ended up sleeping outside your front door (no, that didn’t happen to Siany), include the story about that celeb you spotted! Qypers love a good story and that’s how you make your reviews stand of from the rest.

Prices - just a ball park will do if you can’t remember.
Siany always forgets to include prices unless there’s something hugely memorable about them. Sure, flag it up if a place is cheap or charging waaaaaaay too much, but it’s always good to have a ballpark figure too.

Add a description of the surroundings and the staff.
Sometimes, you get so caught up in the food and drinks or something else in a place that you forget to describe it. This can really make a place come to life so it’s always good to include a bit of padding.

Add photos!
Not only do you get points for photos, but you also make Qype look pretty. Your reviews will be much more eye catching once the venue has got some great (or not so great) pictures will make people want to read all about it. Some of the venues on Qype don’t have any photos so we’d love to change that. Otherwise how will people really know how huge that pizza was, or just how pretty the venue is?

Tagging!
Tags are really important as they mean you’ll be found much more easily. Then you get points, then Ninjas and sweets and other happy things. Sounds great huh?

Qype is all about your experience. So tell people about this. Even if a place has had rave reviews, don’t be afraid to tell people about a bad experience if you’ve had one. We want to hear about you!

If you guys have any other tips for writing reviews, make sure you leave them in the comments.

Flickr image from studentofrhythm’s photostream.

To celebrate Qype’s first birthday, we thought we’d do something a little more interesting for the September Qype party. Instead of just plying you guys with free booze and food, we’re having a pub quiz! This means that you’ll get to show off just how clever you are, while getting drunk in a nice pub.

Sounds good doesn’t it?

Here’s the details:

What: Qype Quiz!
When: 11th September
What time: 7pm
Where: The Offside Bar, Old Street, London

Well there’s some more info on the Qype events pages, and you’ll have to sign up and make sure you’ve got yourself a team (maximum of six, more info on the rsvp page). But then you just have to go along, answer some questions and maybe even win some stuff. Or, come along, get all of the questions wrong and sulk in the corner. With free beer. See, that makes it all better, doesn’t it?

Places are limited, so RSVP quickly, and if you miss out on the quiz part, then join everyone around 10pm for drinks afterwards!

Flickr image from Krikit’s photostream.

There’s a new addition to the Qype team in the shape of Urbanite! Lots of you will have met her at Qype parties and meat ups and just about every event Qype hold! So we thought it was about time you got to know her a little bit better.

How did you get started with Qype?
A colleague had met one of the lads at a networking event and said I should have a look as it was right up my alley. How right she was. And when I found out about the monthly parties and goody boxes I was sold.

What were you doing before you started work at Qype?
I was the copywriter and creative manager for an online fashion company. Besides helping to establish their brand identity, I implemented weekly marketing campaigns and started up their corporate blog.

Can you tell us any gossip about the Qype boys?
I’m still in my three month probation so afraid not - yet. What I can say is that they’re as great to work with as you’d imagine from the parties and are both hard-workers with a vision. They also have a synchronicity about them that you’d expect to be reserved for a husband and wife, but that’s getting into dangerous territory :). [Siany is taking this to mean that they act like an old married couple.]

What do you like most about Qype?
That the scope of reviews (written by real life people) is so vast, Qype really does have the ability to touch every part of your life. That and the friendly Qypers I have met since I got involved.

How can people write better reviews?
To me each review has a little bit of a formula that should always include the following:
A justifiation for the rating.
A bit of something that makes the review personal to you/your experience.
Prices - just a ball park will do if you can’t remember.
And a description of the surroundings and the staff.
Similes/outlandish adjectives are always fun - get creative where you can.

Favourite place in London?
Hmm, that’s a toughie - there’s an inexhaustible amount to see and do. Probably somewhere along the river because I’m drawn to water - I like sitting in the Tate in front of Monet’s Water Lillies. Do you hear a violin? Throw me in any cocktail bar, new restaurant, theatres and place that has a pulse and I’m content.

Favourite sandwich filling?
Smoked chicken, ripe brie, sliced sun-blushed tomatoes and fresh basil leaves.

What have you got planned for Qype?
If I told you I’d have to kill you. Na, I think if Qype could be nestled between Coca cola and Microsoft in a list of the world’s favourite brands I would die a happy woman.
I think our team is going to accomplish some amazing things over the next year including getting the Qype name further out there and teaching people how useful Qype can be to their every day lives. Move over TimeOut!

Anything else you wanna say?
So long and thanks for all the fish.

Review of the day is great for lots of reasons. More people read your stuff, you get more points (which mean Ninjas!), and well, you get to feel a bit smug about writing a clearly brilliant review. Neat, huh?

Here’s a few tips to help you along.

1. Add a great profile pic! Pictures paint 1000 words and all that. We like photos here at Qype. They make our pages look much prettier. You’ve got to have a profile picture to be included on review of the day, so you might as well pick a great one.

2. Pick an obscure place. Of course, not all of your reviews will be of strange new places. But if you know of a great place no one has heard of, you’ve got much more chance of making review of the day if you write about that. We’re nosy like that.

3. A great opening sentence always helps. How many times have you read a review that starts ‘yeah, it was alright’? (Siany is actually guilty of that, whoops). Doesn’t really make you want to read the rest does it? So start off with something fab. The sillier the better.

4. Add photos to the review! If you write something brilliant, it’d be great or Qypers can see some pictures too!

Oh, and Siany has noted that sometimes tiger facepaint helps, but that’s not a prerequisite by any means. See, you’ll be review of the day in no time.

The beady eyed amongst you might have noticed the new activity feeds on your profiles. These are handy for your friends spotting what you’ve been up to (friendly stalking, if you will). They’ll be able to join in the same discussions as you and see what you’ve been commenting on and you can all be friends together and have lovely little Qype chats. Isn’t that nice? Look at Qype Captain Rob’s activities here! Nosy nosy fun.

Now, some of you may be just wanting to have a quick glance at some reviews without all the other stuff and don’t worry, there’s a tab on the feed that will take you straight to your contacts reviews. That way you can get to the stuff you want.

We know some of you like your privacy on Qype and that’s fine by us. Just amend your settings here. That way, the only way your friends will know what you’re up to, is if you decide to tell them. Clever huh?

Got some other stuff you want to see on Qype? Well have a chat in this forum and we’ll see what we can do. (By ‘we’, this means people more techy than Siany.)

Sad news Qypers. Our latest batch of Ninjas have been detained in customs. They may look cute and lovely to us, but to customs officials, they’re sneaky and stealth little toys just waiting to make trouble across the border.

A few managed to escape and showed us this photo. We’re very worried about them but they’re tough little toys and will be able to look after themselves. After all, whoever heard of a Qype ninja who couldn’t kick ass?

Once they do get to Qype HQ, we’ll make sure they’re fed and watered and get them out to you as soon as possible. They’ll need lots of TLC to get over their ordeal. Hopefully they won’t have ninja nightmares.

Yesterday was the wonderfully named ‘2nd ever Qype meat-up’ and oooh it was a good’un.

So many people joined us at The Big Easy on the Kings Road that we needed two tables! (D’you think they thought we might have been trouble all sat together? Qypers? Surely not! So we got to split into the cool table (Siany, The Duck and AHunter were on that table) and the Riff Raff table included Timinator, Urbanite and our soon to be gone CaribQueen. :-(

Let the eating commence! Everything from steak to burgers to steak to oysters to steak was consumed. All washed down by frozen margs and Tiger beers. We were so full up and looked after we couldn’t move and there was no way we could eat dessert! (Siany was suffering from brain freeze as well.) There was a board next to us for the famous BBQ rib eating competition and the mind boggles when you see that some people have eaten 9 whole racks of the stuff. AHunter has said he might just enter the next one so we’ll keep you posted about his cholesterol level afterwards.

The meat-up is proving to be great fun (unless you’re vegetarian, sorry) and you can join the group here and tell us where we should go for the imaginatively titled 3rd ever Qype Meat-up.

You might have noticed all sorts of little symbols popping up on your Qype page. What are they for? Well these are your very own personal compliments.

Sharing the love on Qype is very important and if you’ve done something wonderful, we think people should be able to tell you. They can compliment you on your reviews, your photos and even coax you into writing a bit more if you’ve been a bit quiet. You can even get flirty with a few Qypers you think are sexy. We secretly hope you’ll then hit it off at the Qype party and then there will be a Qype wedding,

All you need to do is either click on the compliment tab on a review, or the one on someone’s profile. Then tell them how lovely and brilliant you think they are.

Then sit back and wait for that cute Qyper to return the compliment. And by the way, we like your shoes.

It’s very very very nearly July. Which means lots more sunshine, lots more ice cream for Siany and lots more Qype partying! Hooray!

Not content with the London party on July 3rd (on a boat! with an accidental pirate theme!), in case you didn’t know already, we’re also whizzing up to Edinburgh for a bit of a shin-dig there too!

No details have really been finalised yet, we’re a spontaneous bunch you see. And to be honest, we aren’t really familiar with Edinburgh. So if you know the city well, please pop onto the discussion and tell us where we should have our little gathering that would be really helpful. Siany thinks it should be at the elephant and bagel cafe. Everyone likes bagels and elephants don’t they?

If you have any better suggestions, let us know. Otherwise you might find yourself there.