News Department Feedback 2k13

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Originally Posted by Samanfa

Staff numbers too low

It seems the same with a few department now and not just the News Department, I've noticed recently that others such as Events perhaps have also struggled, but where they have gained more members News has not. When I returned a few months ago there were less members then there are now and that's saying something, applications do come in and if they're good enough for the trial they receive one, but usually as soon as you get an increase in members then others begin to resign. This can be pushed of course and I think whoever does take over needs to take example from @lawrawrrr; as she brought Content from just a couple of staff to more than a handful in about a week. It can be done, but I believe that it can be done by a manager - like I said above, when I was manager we gained members and the same will happen under another member.

I will go over about how @Bolt660; said ask members back - I believe you were witness to this as I sent a PM asking them to return or offering them trials t about 20 people, one of which was you and one of our current members @-:Undertaker:-;. Although it only got about 3 returning that's better than nothing and at least we still have one who brings that unique feel to Habbox again and brought back his own article!

Writing style

I don't fully agree with this, not the sloppy part, but saying we look like other Habbo fansites - we don't as I would be ashamed if I worked at their fansites as their SPAG is horrible, they don't write enough (I think some of their latest Habbo reports were in July, when Sulake says content should be up to date) etc. Now I have noticed that reports have gone down, and that can also be from various reasons - the staffing is an issue here too and it most likely will be for a lot of problems we're currently facing. Writing style can be different for everyone and we need to show that more as again you said bring back the featured articles (although this was before my time, I know where you're coming from).

SPAG

Like I said, I've currently been settling in and I know recently (not completely sure when), Emily has been enduring exams so I don't blame her if her focus isn't currently on Habbox. Rest assured this will be quicker in the future as now I have been made more aware of it. Luckily it wasn't the worst report I've ever seen and easily resolved. I have noticed this previously though that SPAG has been appalling - when I wasn't in the department it got to the point where I'd just go on the site just to see if X mistake had been changed.

Images

I agree with you, I've been a little lenient with some (such as sizing etc.) however, then again some just take the biscuit and need to be sorted out. We do have rules in place for images, although we need to clamp down on them further.

Motivation

Every time I send a PM I use CC, I inform them how it needed changing, why etc. and more often than not I'll tell them I enjoyed reading the report (which I do). However, if they're not writing reports for whatever reason then the only thing I can do is PM them and tell them they need to write which isn't the most positive thing to say although it's needed.

Comments

Comments are now more based, or trying to be based on the forum - I know on some reports (most actually) we write, about sharing your thoughts or just discussing it on the forum thread here and linking to it. This is a start, but more could be done - I know competitions worked this way and a lot got a good few entries, but a lot also can't access the site for whatever reason. Comments could be improved or driven more though if that's what people wanted.

Personalisation

See writing style.

Section of news

Articles don't get written much, but there's not that many who would want to write them currently. We don't really allow people just to write one type of news, unless it's Habbo based, but I would consider it under a new manager and they could drive the need of articles and such more.

Important news

This is a definite flaw at the moment and I fully agree with you! I used the urgent tag to get reports done and that didn't even happen (this was only used when I couldn't write the report immediately myself) and this could be linked to the motivation they have. I know I have asked Emily for one to write reports that were needed, the secret reports more, but I do agree with this. This can and will be improved I'm sure as there are many ways to improve motivation. I honestly don't think the editor helps, it's appalling to use and when it just decides to break that's the end of that.

Advertising

I've advertised a bit, there's always room for improvement, but advertising has got members to return. We have a Habbox Today banner, it still has Ryan on, but it still does its job. Forum wise advertising hasn't been that high, but like I said it can be improved.

Site or forum

Warming to the idea of having it on both, but this would help hits most probably and actually get members talking about the site.

Competitions

I do these, hence I had the News Competitions section made. It hasn't been used yet, but forum competitions have been done and they have been done previously. Prizes can be sorted and reporters can do them if they wish. I actually have rules/guidelines for competitions as well like making sure it's ok, how to set it out etc.

Interviews etc.

Not sure if you read the interview with Ediootti last month? I was rather happy with that! We also did get an interview from a semi famous player, which can be pushed again as that made News take a break from the sale old department manager interviews.

I think that will do for now!

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I'm glad you agree with a few of the points and can see where I'm coming from haha! :) Just a couple of things that I think need clearing up:

• News being on both the site and forum: Would this basically be the same as the old RSS feed thing which copied articles posted on the main site to a section on the forum?
• Was the 'Ediotti' interview heavily advertised? Was there a CNB made for it etc and a big of promotion? Getting a staff interview is quite a big thing and so driving people to that article should have been high priority. I don't believe that article asked for comments/opinions etc or had any other content than question/answer.
• The Competitions thing is good. Do you do them in News Articles themselves too via that way? In terms of using the comment feature etc, or at least making sure the actual instructions etc are in the article? If so how recently? :P
• Featured news articles and use of the CNB would be really beneficial in my view. We used to have like 'Hot News' articles which we would really make a fuss of.
• I think the overall look of articles is something which needs looking at as I've noticed a lot of differences in terms of structure. Like I kinda like the red bolded part at the bottom of articles, but if you do that I think you need to stick to it, and some don't have it at all, or have a different colour etc and it looks weird.

Just looking at November very quickly (not reading these in detail):

http://prntscr.com/2bef8o - spacing issues (needs a space after the first line) and encourages people to comment on the forum which is good but not on the actual article.
http://prntscr.com/2befmk - the layout of the image looks extremely messy, its way too large and takes up the whole page- there should be a restriction on this. No bolding at all in the article.
http://prntscr.com/2befw0 - small spacing issue on the bottom article (probs due to site messing up but should be able to edit it.
http://prntscr.com/2beg8v - a little short and plain. I have to say though that the other rare value ones are lovely in terms of layout so thats already improved.
http://prntscr.com/2begld - this is a better layout although perhaps the image could be somewhere else
http://prntscr.com/2begsu - top article- no bolding, no red bolded section, links do not work within the article (even when u click them) image a bit boring
http://prntscr.com/2beh57 - general structure
http://prntscr.com/2beh7w - image should be in a better place, no bolding, no red, no opening paragraph in bold- inconsistent with other articles on the page.
http://prntscr.com/2behf7 - image looks like it was created on a toaster rather than a computer, no red
http://prntscr.com/2behoz - no image at all, little basic
http://prntscr.com/2behwr - spacing/images
http://prntscr.com/2bei3s - red or blue bolded base line
http://prntscr.com/2bekai - couple of little mistakes, 'subsribe' etc


Didn't really read much into them but they are just things which stand out in general.


and I know what you mean Sam, and I thought your idea of PMing previous staff to return was a good one and did work! Whilst I'm here I want to say well done and thankyou to @-:Undertaker:-; as your Weekly Rare Values articles are always a super interesting read and it's clear you put a lot of time and effort into writing them! :) Something unique which other fansites don't do which is fab!

Some stuff:

The interview was meant to be heavily advertised, but I don't know why it wasn't.
Competitions I do/did on both forum and site, but not both together at the same time.
The list of edits, some of those were sorted or supposedly sorted and the one without an image was notified and was meant to add one - she did it on 2 articles so Charlie told her to add the other one to get her used to it.

Sorry it's a quick reply currently.

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Writing Style: The style of writing has become very sloppy and the majority of articles look very similar to those on Habbo/other fansites. Simply stating facts is not enough and is extremely boring to read- articles need opinions, creative structures and a more debated view on things. Reporters should be actively seeking opinions on the matter to gain public interest and a sense of personalisation within their articles.

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A massive part of achieving this needs to be a distinction between news and editorial. In a news article you should be stating the facts and presenting a non-biased form of the news. In editorial a news reporter would be much free-er to present their own opinion and use anecdotal stuff. Importantly, like a newspaper, this would not be on the front page unlike this article: https://habbox.com/#!/News/article/2033

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Quality Control: Ensure that articles are checked properly. The News Manager is ultimately responsible for this and when there are such basic spelling errors, and quality errors on the main site it does give an incredibly bad impression overall. Send out regular feedback PMs highlighting both negative issues that can be worked on, but also positive things too which other reporters could take note of. Praise is always good for motivation and sharing ideas works wonders.

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I personally believe that all articles (Even those written by the manager) should be reviewed before being published by senior staff, it would help quality control severely. I understand in special cases news needs publishing instantly however if it's not urgent then let it be reviewed first.

You said good ideas, but the problems about public to read are:

News are added here later if you compare to other fan sites.

Habbox main page, in my opinion need to be changed, that disgn doesnt help the news space.

News don't have images of new furnis, these images are there: https://habbox.com/#!/Newrares2, these images could be in news too. Furni images bring people to the site and make them comment about the furni.

I think Sam, with the limited resources she has had, has done a pretty good job. You have to remember previous management left the department in a slight mess, it's fair to say management in news wasn't that great earlier this year. Sam was on the road to sorting it but she has now moved on to bigger things at Habbox. There are three simple things that need to happen within the news department in order to get things back on track.

1) Sorting a department manager
2) Recruiting a decent team, getting some of the old reporters back
3) Ensuring staff are well trained and are aware of what is expected in terms of writing and presentation

The other problems indentified should begin to ease after those key things happen. I know because I've done it twice! Good luck to the news department.

I just think the news should be based in the forum. More people will see it that way! Habbox is so #2011.

To be honest I didn't read all of this I skipped he last three points; I do feel some valid points have been made! The department isn't really strong and isn't going anywhere! Something needs to happen with the department in the new year!!

Can we not just call it quits with News and Rare Values and keep it all forum based? In my opinion what undertaker does by just c+p the news article with source is sufficient and only a small minority actually use the habbox values.

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Originally Posted by Bolt660

Writing Style: The style of writing has become very sloppy and the majority of articles look very similar to those on Habbo/other fansites. Simply stating facts is not enough and is extremely boring to read- articles need opinions, creative structures and a more debated view on things. Reporters should be actively seeking opinions on the matter to gain public interest and a sense of personalisation within their articles.

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I personally disagree with staff writing their opinions in news as their job is literally to just give the basic facts. Opinions can/should be added later in discussions about the article, hence the need for forum-based news threads as has been said for many months now :P Totally agree that the writing style has been pretty sloppy in recent times, especially with regards to overusing bold in the middle of sentences

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Originally Posted by Bolt660

Images: The images lately haven't been all that great. I've seen blury, resized, messy images that really look bad and give out a crappy example. As mentioned before, these are on the front page of Habbox which means they need to look smart, professional, relevant and bold. They need to be the perfect compliment to the article and right now I'm seeing such poor quality images which then gives me the impression that Habbox is a poor quality fansite with poor quality staff.

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Absolutely agree, and they ought also to be in some sort of defined positioning rather than strewn all over the page

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Originally Posted by Bolt660

Motivation: Are staff really being pushed enough to improve? How many PM's with guidelines for improvement are being offered? Something which I've always found special about the News Department is the ability for someone to grow and bloom into a great writer, and in the past one of the main comments I've received from staff within the department is how much they enjoy that chance to improve, get better and of course all of the compliments they then receive etc.

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Are there any staff to motivate at the moment? :P But yeah these are supposedly people who like to write, but as you say there's no push for them to improve on that

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Originally Posted by Bolt660

Comments: Lack of comments seems to have been an issue for ages. Are people actually reading the news anymore? and if so, why is nobody commenting? I have some ideas to improve this within the 'suggestions for improvement' section, however more really needs to be done to expand the COMMUNITY side of news again. If you watch News programmes on the TV you will notice reporters going out to local events, interacting with the community and making it a more united feel, rather than solid reporting of events. This is particularly important at Habbox as we really are a community driven fansite.

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Getting the wider community involved is essential is all of the departments tbh. Not sure why the "READ MORE AND COMMENT" link is even still there, it's just a distraction from any potential for actual discussion and the lack of comments done through it makes the site look barren and unused

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Originally Posted by Bolt660

Advertising and promotion: I never see news mentioned/advertised around Habbox anymore. I don't see many News related signatures- we used to have lovely ones linking to the latest article etc which was nice. Big articles relating to big events on Habbo should be publicised like crazy, get people reading again and they'll come back for more. More competitions linking to news needs to be done- competitions within articles themselves on the front page too- this used to happen but I haven't seen it in absolutely ages.

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Absolutely right. It's as though News is now its own separate little island with nothing to do with the rest of Habbox, and clearly that isn't working

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Originally Posted by Bolt660

Whether news should remain on site or be forum based: This depends on how V7 (LOL) has been set up really and whether space has been included for News etc, so I guess a member of the wonderful limey brigade could comment on this. There seems to be a debate about where news should be and it's entire purpose etc so perhaps that could be discussed in this thread at greater detail?

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Don't worry V7 is coming soon

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Originally Posted by Bolt660

Staff Involvement: Get staff doing other things other than just writing News Articles about Habbo News. Get them being interative with the community, get them talking to people about the news and gathering opinions. Get staff running little News Based competitions and weekly promotions for news. Do a weekly '___ of the week' etc, or a roundup of that weeks important Habbo events in like a summarised, easy to read article.

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YES PLEASE

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Originally Posted by Bolt660

Competitions: As mentioned before, do competitions on the main site, put them in an article and get people to answer via the comments. Once people START using the comments feature on the main site they may be more intended to use it in the future too, and once people see a high number of comments it gives a good impression that the community is still alive. These can be both creative and quiz type competitions, get people doing creative writing, christmas poems- all sorts!

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Again yes please, I think nearly all of the current departments could use comps more to get people interested and involved

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Originally Posted by Bolt660

Interviews with Staff: Linking on from that, perhaps secure some little interesting interviews with staff and 'famous' Habbo people. People will love to read these and find out gossip etc. Make news less fact based and more a community thing where people can come for gossip, and to see what the general opinion on something is.

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This would be nice to see, even if it's just managers talking about their current projects or whatever

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Originally Posted by Bolt660

I hate how these days everything is left until the last minute and the community arent given a chance to prepare, get excited and motivated for stuff etc, it turns out to be a real damp squid! (idk if thats a saying or not LOL), but yeah shout out about the good stuff that Habbox does I guess!!

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Damp squib :P as in an explosive that won't set off. But yeah there's a lot that gets rushed at the moment with minimal advertising and no care taken in getting the community riled up

I'm not entirely sure what's wrong with bolding random words in the middle of sentences. It certainly adds some depth to the articles, and makes it a brilliant read!!!11
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