News - 2014 to the future FEEDBACK

[lawrawrrr]

Yeah that's fair enough - I think it's fine having them published before being proof read anyway. Is there only one proof reader at the moment?

Yes - mainly because I thought there weren't enough staff for more, but it is a trial and error process when it comes to the new dept but after reading what you guys have been saying I am putting these together in my monthly review for Rhyss


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[Grig]

And (sorry for double post) I've tried to keep up with the backlog I had after going on holiday, which I have now managed to do. All of the articles on the front page (and the last 5 or so before that) have all definitely been done!

There are still quite a few errors though...

Firstly, the use of wrong font on IRhyss' article, that I pointed out a few posts ago. Look at one paragraph from that particular article for example. I will use red to point out the most blatant mistakes that I would have expected to have been dealt with right now.

Here at the Articles Department we don't only publish articles that have been written by our staff... Oh no! we also allow you (the community) to submit your articles as a one off for us to read! If we enjoy them enough, we'll post them on the website and you'll receive a nice little Forum Bade and some VIP... How nice are we? To submit a guest article, all you have to do is PM lRhyss on HabboxForum with your piece. If we enjoy reading your work, we'll make necessary changes and then hit you up with a spot of Habbox.com article posted goodness (really doesn't sense here, but minor)! So simple!

Also, seriously, do we really need to ellipses that often? Obviously, I can go more into grammar, but I'm not harsh and simply want to demonstrate that simple errors like this are actually pretty bad and reflects poorly, particularly when both members of the team who can edit don't seem to think it's a problem. The whole paragraph could actually be cut big time, at the moment it is way too wordy.

This is just one paragraph of one article to demonstrate what I mean, I'm sure I can find way more. Generally, in my view it was edited to an extremely poor standard, and I keep hitting on this because no one is ever going to move forward in this news/articles department if you don't get the most simple elements of your own house in order. How is anyone meant to move forward if the manager makes copious amounts of mistakes in an article and then the editor says it's OK :S?

[CrazyLemurs]

I maintain that things like ellipses keep the character of the article, and I'm very much against stripping away too much of that character like I used to when I was news staff before. The errors in Rhyss' writing also make me sad, because he should be able to write too


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[Samantha]

I maintain that things like ellipses keep the character of the article, and I'm very much against stripping away too much of that character like I used to when I was news staff before. The errors in Rhyss' writing also make me sad, because he should be able to write too


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Even if Rhyss makes an error here or there, then surely you should be able to pick up on it when you're proof reading. However, I'm sure he can spell and grammar check his introduction on articles to make you happy.

[Kardan]

There are still quite a few errors though...

Firstly, the use of wrong font on IRhyss' article, that I pointed out a few posts ago. Look at one paragraph from that particular article for example. I will use red to point out the most blatant mistakes that I would have expected to have been dealt with right now.



Also, seriously, do we really need to ellipses that often? Obviously, I can go more into grammar, but I'm not harsh and simply want to demonstrate that simple errors like this are actually pretty bad and reflects poorly, particularly when both members of the team who can edit don't seem to think it's a problem. The whole paragraph could actually be cut big time, at the moment it is way too wordy.

This is just one paragraph of one article to demonstrate what I mean, I'm sure I can find way more. Generally, in my view it was edited to an extremely poor standard, and I keep hitting on this because no one is ever going to move forward in this news/articles department if you don't get the most simple elements of your own house in order. How is anyone meant to move forward if the manager makes copious amounts of mistakes in an article and then the editor says it's OK :S?

What's funny is that I even posted some of those errors in this thread 3 days ago, and still nobody has sorted them

[Kyle]

The articles department is so small and there are people sat here proofing every post. Lol. The thing about articles (as opposed to news) is that each individual has their own writing style and everybody uses different syntax, different grammar, and different words.

Generally everybody writing articles should be proofing them themselves first to iron out small mistakes and then forwarding them to somebody whose job it is to edit the articles to a good standard and THEN post them on the main site. It can be an efficient method if there are the staff for it but currently there's one proof reader who also has commitments elsewhere.

I know this is said a lot but it's unbelievably harsh on these people - regardless of their age - who are sacrificing their time and trying to provide content for everybody to enjoy, for a few people to then comb through their articles and pick out every flaw as though marking a school paper. Not everything has to be of national newspaper standard, some things should be allowed to slide as these people hone their skill through experience. 2 ellipses in 1 paragraph is too many... Really grig? Come man, I know that you can write articles to a high standard because I've seen it from you in the past but... Really? Are you nitpicking THAT MUCH?



~~from phone

[Kardan]

The articles department is so small and there are people sat here proofing every post. Lol. The thing about articles (as opposed to news) is that each individual has their own writing style and everybody uses different syntax, different grammar, and different words.

Generally everybody writing articles should be proofing them themselves first to iron out small mistakes and then forwarding them to somebody whose job it is to edit the articles to a good standard and THEN post them on the main site. It can be an efficient method if there are the staff for it but currently there's one proof reader who also has commitments elsewhere.

I know this is said a lot but it's unbelievably harsh on these people - regardless of their age - who are sacrificing their time and trying to provide content for everybody to enjoy, for a few people to then comb through their articles and pick out every flaw as though marking a school paper. Not everything has to be of national newspaper standard, some things should be allowed to slide as these people hone their skill through experience. 2 ellipses in 1 paragraph is too many... Really grig? Come man, I know that you can write articles to a high standard because I've seen it from you in the past but... Really? Are you nitpicking THAT MUCH?



~~from phone

I think there's a difference between typos/grammar and style of writing. Whilst we can't expect the style of writing to be newspaper standard, you do expect typos and other errors to be picked up on.

[Kyle]

I think there's a difference between typos/grammar and style of writing. Whilst we can't expect the style of writing to be newspaper standard, you do expect typos and other errors to be picked up on.

yeah which is why the writers themselves should be prepared to read over their posts at least a couple times before posting. I don't have a personal proofreader for posts n habbox, so I take the time to read over (long) posts before submitting them so they at least make sense. Articles staff should do the same and not rely so heavily on proofreading. AT THE VERY LEAST they should be writing it in a program that offers autocorrection software...

The problem though is not the pointing out of typos, it's that people are picking apart articles and discouraging people from posting more because of such a horrendous reception.

[MKR&*42]

Tbf I know people are saying not to be harsh, but when you can't even spell the name of someone who has spoken to you several times before correctly, nor can you learn to capitalise the start of a sentence... then there is an issue with 'proofreading'.

[Inseriousity.]

I agree with Kyle, I think when you accept a manager position, you get certain advantages and disadvantages. One of the disadvantages is that you will be under much closer scrutiny and a lot of it will be public. Ideally, these things will be discussed in a general context but there'll still be an expectation that the manager will deliver. Regular staff members have not accepted that responsibility so shouldn't have to have their work publically dissected.

Not sure that applies here though, it's largely focused on Rhys' article/introduction and talking more generally about the flaws in the system. I don't believe that staff should write a certain style unless we want to take a concept that already doesn't attract a lot of people's attention and make it even more boring. Part of this discussion seems to stem from a snobbish attitude to writing as if those peasants beneath you could ever expect to match your stylistic creations.