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Oh that sucks :(Quote:
Originally Posted by lRhyss
I guess one of the good things about articles though is that articles can be pre-made ready to post on the site at any time etc, so things like this wont effect staff output/meeting their minimums etc as they can be posted in the staff forums ready for copying over when the site works. Rather as with news it was all live and relevant to current goings ons so would expire etc.
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I agree :) I have a badge guide pre-written for the World Cup badges, it's just playing the waiting game now :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Bolt660
Hi o/ triallist proofreader here lmao
I just did some work on the most recently posted article, and there were 10 (yes, 10) changes I made. I have a reason to be here, if we get more articles. And if you guys are so miffed about not having any articles, I welcome all of you to come write some and see how crushing my blows are when I proofread your work ;)
No-one said there wasn't a reason for you to be there
Congratulations to @lRhyss;, the only member of the Articles department capable of writing an article.
I can only assume that @-:Undertaker:-;, @Americanozz;, @bikini;, @Drewar;, and @iAbby,.; will be either dismissed or produce a flurry of articles within the next few days. In the meantime management seems very quiet on all this.
I believe Laura is back tomorrow. We will be looking into this and doing whatever necessary.
I believe Undertaker only does the rare values weekly thing, not sure where it is though.Quote:
Originally Posted by Chippiewill
Drew has been working really hard behind the scenes, changing a lot of... Well things (trying to to get Bolt660'd) :P
Not sure what's up with the others though
I wonder if it's possible to have an active feedback thread where "X is away" or "there are things happening behind the scenes" aren't used as excuses for absolute failure to perform
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Originally Posted by lRhyss
What on earth is 'getting Bolt660'd' LOL
So I guess if you don't know where everyone is, that means they aren't posted away :O
Behind the scenes things are all good and well and help for the longterm, but when the current stuff gets neglected is where there's a problem and there needs to be a balance between the two. It's no good putting everything on hold and having weeks/months of dismal output when lets be honest, it doesn't take that long to write a decent article, and if other departments are capable of spending hours and meeting their set minimums per week then I don't see why this should be any different. If staff aren't pulling their weight then the manager needs to step in and do something asap, and if needs be it then falls upon them to fill in the gaps where necessary and write some articles themself to keep things going!
I think when big changes are announced to a department, obviously more eyes than usual will be on it, and its a bit like a damp fish (idk if thats a term) when all we've seen so far is pretty much a couple of badge guides which existed under the news department.
I agree with Tom, those excuses are used far too much these days and its really letting things down. I think there's so much potential there, and its just being missed. If things are in the pipeline then thats all well and good, but I don't think realistically it should take a month to get a decent output going and at least some creative bits and bobs up, especially with the amount of staff that we currently have.
I believe there is a three week rule for posting away, so I'm guessing those that have failed to produce anything/do any work for three weeks will be dealt with accordingly.
Okay I hope there was no sassy comments in that, I tried my ultimate hardest!!! :'(
I totally agree with everything everyone I said. I do have to admit that there was a long time while I have been in the department that I failed to post an article (due to waiting for approval.. and still.. but still posted it anyways).
I do know that I should of just posted an article due to the fact, but I feel that in that way, It wouldn't of came from the heart, so I do take what everyone has said into consideration on how I act and post in the department, and I truly hope that I can fulfill what people say, and give feedback to.
I do take responsibility of my own actions, and I have never used the excuse of "I'm posted away", or "I'm too busy". If I know I'm too busy- or get myself too busy then it's not worth being in the department.
Thank you, everyone, for your feedback.
Damn what will they do now without all the major input Drewar was giving
I was hoping while I was away there would be a proper staff drive and some real progress, it was always gonna be hard at first forming this department but I'd hoped it would have been a bit further forwards!
I'm yet to catch up on everything that's been going on, but it's a real shame Drew decided to resign because he did have some good ideas, and obviously his application was the best or we wouldn't have picked him!
I swear that myself and Martin removed the approval system because it was simply too slow, particularly when a manager is inactive. Well... not only that, but if you want to compete and get news out fast and efficient and make the site look cool and updated. Although, if say a manager is always on Habbox, then that wouldn't be a problem; yet even that would eventually fail. You could argue that on the flip side of the coin it was crap quality, but then why not just do workshops and train your journalists (article writers or w.e. they're called) on how to lay out work/ write specifically for Habbox. I just went on the site, and it seems to me that things are rarely updated. But that's been a problem for a while before this re-vamp, so no visible improvements in terms of content to the public eye yet.Quote:
Originally Posted by bikini
Yes, I know- I ended up just presenting what I was planning. (Weekly Room Pick) so I know i can't speak for others, but I do know that I take responsibility of my own stuff. I already have some pre writings ready to go out. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Grig
- - - Updated - - -
Wow. I didn't see that until now. That's sad.Quote:
Originally Posted by lawrawrrr
Woooo do you have interwebs now Laura? :DQuote:
Originally Posted by lawrawrrr
It is a shame Drew decided to resign so early on, and im sure he did have some good ideas too! I think there just needs to be a real passion for wanting to make something succeed and its all about putting plans into action as quickly as possible so that the damage isn't too great I guess. I think its hard to tell from an application just how motivated and determined someone will be to really turn a department around, especially in the middle of big changes etc. I think the main thing which has let this down has been the non existent output we've seen so far, lack of advertising and promotion and I would say so far that no changes have been visible to the public after the first month, which I just find it hard to understand as surely if you have quite a few staff members (including seniors/managers/trialists etc) who are all capable of writing stuff then I don't know how it could take so long?
Surely when a department reaches the point where its failing on its most basic purpose, then the manager should step in and sort it as a matter of urgency, and also work on keeping the output going a bit themselves (in terms of writing some articles themselves). Personally I found getting stuck into the core purpose of departments was really important and thoroughly enjoyed both the managing aspect as well as getting stuck in and writing too.
I just think there have been a lot of wasted opportunities with News, and now we're seeing it with articles too, as there could be lots of themed world cup/fathers day stuff going on (users submitting fathers day stuff/poems/stories about their dads etc, world cup creative content, updates etc) literally ANYTHING to keep it going. I don't know if you are focussing mainly on Habbo related articles (badge guides, room views, interviews, all the stuff thats been done under news etc), or whether you are doing real life/creative stuff too?
What's the current minimum output required by an articles writer in the department in a week?
Pfft how do you get away with comments like that! I got slapped down for that!Quote:
Originally Posted by FlyingJesus
YEAH BOIQuote:
Originally Posted by Bolt660
It was always gonna be a massive task and I know he was capable so it is such a shame. Like I said, I was expecting/hoping something to be visible now so it is a bit of a beard-scratcher for me... I've been having a look today though :)Quote:
It is a shame Drew decided to resign so early on, and im sure he did have some good ideas too! I think there just needs to be a real passion for wanting to make something succeed and its all about putting plans into action as quickly as possible so that the damage isn't too great I guess. I think its hard to tell from an application just how motivated and determined someone will be to really turn a department around, especially in the middle of big changes etc. I think the main thing which has let this down has been the non existent output we've seen so far, lack of advertising and promotion and I would say so far that no changes have been visible to the public after the first month, which I just find it hard to understand as surely if you have quite a few staff members (including seniors/managers/trialists etc) who are all capable of writing stuff then I don't know how it could take so long?
Yeah I agree with you. Maybe it was because noone really knew wht was expected and it was a bit intimidating? idrk at all, I don't know why drew resigned either tbhQuote:
Surely when a department reaches the point where its failing on its most basic purpose, then the manager should step in and sort it as a matter of urgency, and also work on keeping the output going a bit themselves (in terms of writing some articles themselves). Personally I found getting stuck into the core purpose of departments was really important and thoroughly enjoyed both the managing aspect as well as getting stuck in and writing too.
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I just think there have been a lot of wasted opportunities with News, and now we're seeing it with articles too, as there could be lots of themed world cup/fathers day stuff going on (users submitting fathers day stuff/poems/stories about their dads etc, world cup creative content, updates etc) literally ANYTHING to keep it going. I don't know if you are focussing mainly on Habbo related articles (badge guides, room views, interviews, all the stuff thats been done under news etc), or whether you are doing real life/creative stuff too?
2 a month, on average. It's mainly because some of the articles I was hoping for have really indepth discussion and research so asking one a week would be a hell of a lot! I was really hoping with such a small minimum people might be interested in applying and might be less prone to leaving (as almost every resignee recently has said it's been too much work). Also, with the type of things the department (should be) producing, you don't really want a ton of articles, my sort of 'goal' is to have about 10 writers, that's on average about 30 articles a month.Quote:
What's the current minimum output required by an articles writer in the department in a week?
Smaller articles like room reviews and whatever else the manager deems 'insufficient' would only count as 0.5 though.
What do you mean by in depth discussion? and what kind of articles would these be? Research was always part of being a news reporter anyway, and we never had any problems producing 3 articles per week.Quote:
Originally Posted by lawrawrrr
I don't think 1 per week would be too much to ask really, especially considering some departments require you to physically put a lot of hours in etc as part of their minimums. 2 per month just seems extremely low, even writing
I don't get the 'too much' work excuse, as we haven't really seen a substantial amount of work from ANYONE within the department, be that trialists, seniors OR management.
Personally I also believe you don't want the articles to be TOO long, or people will get bored, see huge blocks of text and won't bother reading. Personally I would enjoy smaller light-hearted articles that are to the point, fun to read and are engaging.
OH AND YAYYYYY WELL DONE ON BEING AN INTERWEBS USER AGAIN :D
I did post the sort of articles in the original thread, I think the link is on the OP here. I think your view of news is very skewed on what you produced - which was very good - but a lot of reporters, especially over the last 2 years have increasingly been copying straight off Habbo articles, and that's what made News really bad, in the end. Like I said, recently I've spoken to almost everyone who left to find out why, and almost all of them have said "time constraints / the minimum was too much".Quote:
Originally Posted by Bolt660
2 a month is low, it's not like it's a maximum and people can write more if they wanted, but the lower the minimum, in my head anyway, it seems like more people might be tempted to join in the first place. If you think hour-wise from other department, its like 3 in events, 2 in hxl (I think) a week, and I'd like to think that the two articles would take a couple of hours each to write, to a good standard anyway. There is NO POINT in upping the minimum because, like you said, noones been doing anything anyway. I'd rather not just fire people.
I never said they'd be really long, just in-depth, good quality articles tackling some difficult topics, guides on how to do certain things like build rooms, wire events, things like that, as well as interviews, interesting Habbo stories and discussion on history, Habbox rumours. Pretty much everything would be relevant to the department.
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Originally Posted by lawrawrrr
Oh awesome! :P
Yeah, I noticed that with news too! I think one of the most important things was keeping the content unique and interesting and not just a copy of the news from Habbo, and unfortunately some people were extremely lazy and uncreative! :P News Reporting should be about being investigative and making sure you engage with the reader and make the article both interesting and unique to read, otherwise there just isn't any point really.
So people left saying that writing too articles a month was too much for them? I think that might have just been an excuse in some cases and the real reason was lack of motivation/guidance, and just the fact that they didn't really have that much passion for wanting to produce content for the site.
As you said, other departments require you to spend 3+ hours of your week doing stuff, and I don't think it would take that long to churn out some articles. As you say though, if people are unable to commit to 2 per month then upping it seems hard. I think we just need to establish what is making people not want the department to look good and improve.
There seems to be plenty of ideas being thrown about, just not much actual output from anyone, which is what the department is there for really. I'm sure things will pick up soon though and we'll get to see some new stuff. Just needs to be advertised well so that people engage with it and come back for more! :D
Habbox got to a stage where it was popular enough not to need to worry about recruitment. Applications open, there was always a sufficient supply and in some departments, could actually choose people on quality. Took me 3 tries to get in the articles department back when Professor-Alex was in charge. Nowadays, departments so desperate for staff they hire everyone who's good enough with the idea to just train them up from good enough. A writing department is difficult to recruit for as it is and I do think it's a wider issue here. It seems to only be HxL who seems to have avoided it and I imagine a large part of that is that it naturally attracts those younger members who are more willing to work for fansites (with a strong management team in place for a sustained period of time to back it up).
I say all that because managing news atm seems to be more about trying to build a stable team before any changes can be implemented. That was certainly the case when I was manager. I agree with Martin that it needs a manager that can lead by example and if they can't do that, they should resign (as drew and I did) or be fired. I believe general management can no longer just leave managers to deal with plugging their own individual recruitment gaps, which still seems to be case. It requires radical ideas to get people here (or staying here as the case may be) and these are not currently forthcoming.
I enjoy reading these feedback sand experiences from other past managers. It gives me an understanding what is needed, and yes- I know I'm finishing my trial- but always something to start.
That's what feedback is all about I guess xDQuote:
Originally Posted by bikini
Although really if you don't know what is needed you should be able to talk to your manager about it and they should be able to give you the guidance and reassurance needed to ensure you're feeling happy and knowledgeable within the department :P
Obviously things change a lot over the years, so chances are News *cough articles* isn't really the same as it was years ago, but the foundations and general idea are still similar :P
The most important thing is to just enjoy it! There's nothing worse than doing something and not putting your heart into it, and not enjoying the results! It's all about being proud of what you've written, knowing that others will read it and benefit from it, as well as Habbox getting something out of it too! :P You're always super good at engaging with the readers in your articles which is something I love! You really make them your own! :P
Obviously its really cool when the ideas and input come from staff members within the said department too, so definitely don't be afraid to give your ideas to management and stuff, however small as it could make a big difference!
Staff will obviously not stick around if they don't a) have a passion for doing the job at hand, and b) don't feel motivated to do so, and its down to management to ensure that the core support, advice and help is there, and that there is a team bond. A very important thing of working at Habbox is feeling part of a team, and I don't think I would have stuck around so long had it not been for some of the amazing people I got to talk to within the departments I worked in! Helping each other, discussing ideas, making new friends and having fun is what its all about, and the rest will follow naturally! :D
Have you offered the role of Articles manager to Martin yet? He clearly wants it.
Ew no! :P Rhyss will get it obviously!Quote:
Originally Posted by Chippiewill
(well okay maybe a bit :P but that's just because I care!)
I'm not allowed to be a manager anyway :P (conditions of my parole haha)
martin for manager!
Lmaooo it didnt come true =[Quote:
Originally Posted by Inseriousity.
Does seem that stubbornness over a bizarre DNHL decision means they've overlooked the best person for the job!
Well at least it's someone who's posted an article.
It's not that bizarre he was embezzling for his underage bf but yeah overlooking people is a Habbox institution :P
gosh I can tell you aren't going to be a news reporter, well unless it's for The Sun when you can make stuff up. ;)
I'm pretty sure he admitted to it
No one can ever be sure on who the best person for the job is, their application may be outstanding amongst the others, but they're just words - if then they can't deliver then are they really the best for the job? I'm not denying Martin would probably be great, I loved him as my manager, but perhaps a fresh face with the fresher department is what Habbox needs. That outside person to come in and make the department better, or bring it back up to where it once was - it worked with Lewis when he managed the events department. For this decision, I think the General Management team (or those who have a decision in it) will choose wisely, and I'm sure if it doesn't pay off at least they tried!Quote:
Originally Posted by Inseriousity.
Was it you Mike who said it feels like you need to build a staff team and everything before actually running the department? I agree with you there - the second time around where I was manager it just didn't feel right, it's really disheartening knowing that a department you ran in part of its prime has vanished and you can't be too sure how you can revive it. It did feel that before I could enjoy it I had the task of actually getting staff, even chipping in myself wasn't enough and I love writing news!
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Originally Posted by FlyingJesus
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Originally Posted by FlyingJesus
I don't know what you mean by embezzling? I never had any events funds, so if you mean that then no. Also I was fired and put on the do not hire list for leaking information.
Anyway, I think we need to give Rhyss a chance to show us what he can do with the department guys! He seems really nice and his badge guide articles on the site have been really good to read. I wish him the best of luck and im sure he will do fab!
This is really nit picky, but you need to cut down on the conversational language. It doesn't need to be wiki levels of neutral - but you're doing your content a disservice by writing it as if you're talking to the reader.
The style of writing really needs to be closer to that of blogs, for instance you may want to take a look at Ars Technica, it gets away with a lot of colloquialisms but breaks them up with facts.
Also I know you have a proof reader, but that does not excuse not reading through an article before publishing it. @bikini;'s latest article seems to have commas thrown in all over the place.
I only saw one spot where I did use an excessive amount of commas, which I just updated it. I really don't see where I "threw" commas in.Quote:
Originally Posted by Chippiewill
And cut down on the conversational language? Isn't that what we are trying to accomplish? If there is an article that it feels like it is directed to me, there's a higher chance of me reading it.
Things like this is probably why we'd need a sub forum for these if we're posting them on the forum. Your report needs editing, but if Rhyss edits the one on Habbox.com then it'll require a member of GM or forum to edit the other. It's not a case of just copying and pasting as moderators don't have access to the editor to get the codes used (bolding etc.)Quote:
Originally Posted by bikini
It's great you're putting it on the forum, but I'd make sure it's been edited to perfection first. To get this you might need Rhyss going through it then a higher member (someone with access) too.
To a degree yes, but if your article is nothing but conversational then you reduce the content to mere opinion. Most articles are a little conversational, but they don't go full out as it's inefficient to convey information and tedious to read.Quote:
Originally Posted by bikini
Honestly, so far the veil of Articles has been used to get away with really sloppy writing.
I agree with you on this one, but are you referring to all types of articles? The way I see it is that most article entries, like room reviews, are meant to be opinion based.Quote:
Originally Posted by Chippiewill
If your articles are meant to have facts, and information from research (articles like current affairs in the real world, or an informative article on a recent study) then I understand that, yes- it should be there to convey the information given, and then supplying only about 5-10% of the article with your opinion.
Ultimately yes, room reviews do have a lot of opinion, but there are a lot of objective comments you can about the room. You may want to read things like Music or Art reviews to get a better idea of the style that would be more appropriate.