negative news.

[Martin]

I don't think the odd negative article does any harm, and I would say there is often a lot of negativity about certain decisions Habbo make or things they change etc. We do want reporters to reflect the publics opinion and general concensus, however I do agree that they should balance it out a bit more and try to show the positive aspects of things too.

I have only been back a couple of days so I'm still getting used to current reporters writing styles, however I will certainly highlight this at the weekend and ensure that a balance is reached between positive and negative feelings towards things. I do agree that the homepage is looking very negative at the moment and it's something I've not really experienced as a manager before since the last time I was manager everyone was a bit 'too' happy and we were always way too nice to sulake.

I will work with the team in combatting this and I'm sure from this thread they will take your opinions and act upon them in future articles and things will be a bit more jolly! However, I think that negative points can be raised, but need to be toned down considerably.

[beth]

[@]@Nuxty[/@] no-one's talking about forcing reporters to be happy or portray positivity when they don't feel it, i am talking about perhaps looking at when you post articles. if someones just posted an article moaning about maintenance then is it appropriate to post an article straight after moaning about sulake and fansites and then is it appropriate to post an article being against vip.

like the vip article, you've presented it in a negative aspect, what about the positives of that FOR a vip member? the new clothes, the new effects, WOW look at those nice furry boots. there are positives.

ALSO cause my point got kinda hidden in the negative thing, did you scrap r/l reporters? i liked them.

[Martin]

[@]@Nuxty[/@] no-one's talking about forcing reporters to be happy or portray positivity when they don't feel it, i am talking about perhaps looking at when you post articles. if someones just posted an article moaning about maintenance then is it appropriate to post an article straight after moaning about sulake and fansites and then is it appropriate to post an article being against vip.

like the vip article, you've presented it in a negative aspect, what about the positives of that FOR a vip member? the new clothes, the new effects, WOW look at those nice furry boots. there are positives.

ALSO cause my point got kinda hidden in the negative thing, did you scrap r/l reporters? i liked them.

I believe general management/previous news management had plans to remove most of the r/l aspect however I have no plans to remove it and if anything will be working on getting more unique content up on the site that will spark debates etc and get more hits. Only things which apply to our generic target audience though and ye more on that soon.

As I said, I will work with the team to achieve a more balanced view on things and encourage a different style of writing for such articles where a negative aspect needs to be presented.

[Grig]

Yes and no. If we were neutral then we'd have to be 'Yes Sir, Yes Miss' to everything.

I'll basically say this. This year the department has changed teams more times than it ever has before. We've gone through 4 managers and things have been a little shaky since I departed in September (I'm not trying to say OMG it failed since I left or anything), Arthur and Chantelle took over and they did their absolute best sadly time was not on their side. They're both in crucial stages of education, Martin is back in control now and he has a great amount of experience and will get the department back onto the right track. I don't think it is fair to say 'Such biased would never have happened back when I was at news' - News has changed and if you ask me it has changed for the better. We used to basically praise Habbo completely by just rewriting what they had already published, that was something that I removed and God am I glad I did! You don't see tabloid reporters or journalists sitting on the fence do you? News and Journalism is all about giving your own views and opinions, writing freely. It's something I've always promoted and will continue to as a Senior in the department.

There should be no talk of having a "balance" between Good>Neutral>Bad because news doesn't work like that. You can't think oh my, let's write something positive before we write something negative. If a reporter finds something bad to report on then they should be able to do it! Habbo has gone through a lot of changes recently and a lot of people don't like that. The department reflects upon opinion, it speaks the truth.

As [@]@CrazyLemurs[/@] said, we're sorry if you feel we're negative. We will try and produce more positive articles but we can't help but write what we're feeling because then we'd just be producing a page full of lies in my opinion. The department is about opinions and as a senior I will try and push for more positive opinions to come out of articles but if a person isn't feeling it then they're just not feeling it!

Sorry if none of that made any sense, just doing an essay so I like kaboomed this out quickly!

Then you seem to be having the stance of tabloid papers that are rubbish such as the Daily Mail. We didn't always have articles praising Habbo. I remember there were quite a few articles that had the negative view, then had Habbo's perspective on it. Then in the read more section one could ask what do you think... and let the reader decide themselves, at the moment it seems like a sway towards way too one-sided reporting. You shall not be producing pages full of lies if for example, you find out why Sulake does something at at least post their stance. These articles seem way too much as editorials, where the opinion of a single person is mimicked rather than an actual news report, where the reporter goes into a broader perspective- beyond boarders if you will.

Fact it these articles are going to one extreme. There is no need to do so, you can easily write a critical article without bias if all the elements of good journalism are followed. But then again, this is a Habbo fansite and obviously no one here is trained as a news reporter, hence no one would know the elements of good fair journalism- I wouldn't blame you for it. Giving your opinion is more of an editorial, not a news piece. Then you may feel free to re-name the whole department to the 'Editorial News Department'.

[Nuxty]

[@]@Nuxty[/@] no-one's talking about forcing reporters to be happy or portray positivity when they don't feel it, i am talking about perhaps looking at when you post articles. if someones just posted an article moaning about maintenance then is it appropriate to post an article straight after moaning about sulake and fansites and then is it appropriate to post an article being against vip.

like the vip article, you've presented it in a negative aspect, what about the positives of that FOR a vip member? the new clothes, the new effects, WOW look at those nice furry boots. there are positives.

ALSO cause my point got kinda hidden in the negative thing, did you scrap r/l reporters? i liked them.

If r/l news had gone, I would've cried and never have returned. When I was a News Reporter that's all I ever used to do was r/l! Tis amazing ain't it!

I understand what you mean Bethie. What I get from this is that you'd like to see more of like a pros and cons type of thing, showing the good as well as the bad? x

[beth]

If r/l news had gone, I would've cried and never have returned. When I was a News Reporter that's all I ever used to do was r/l! Tis amazing ain't it!

I understand what you mean Bethie. What I get from this is that you'd like to see more of like a pros and cons type of thing, showing the good as well as the bad? x

definitely. for instance they say something like for paying 25c you get almost 2.5x more colours/clothes, could be sold as a perk rather than a negative for none-vip. x

[Grig]

definitely. for instance they say something like for paying 25c you get almost 2.5x more colours/clothes, could be sold as a perk rather than a negative for none-vip. x

That's more balanced and neutral reporting here, but that is what is missing from many of the recent articles that I can see on the homepage.

[Martin]

I've made a discussion between the team and we will work on methods of introducing both positive and negative opinions on things to provide a fair stance on things from both points of view. We will also ensure that from now on there is a balance of styles on the front page to prevent us looking like the dooms department rather than the news department.

Not much else I can do at this point other than promise that it is being looked at and will improve from here on. Thanks for the feedback, it really helps!

and bethie you are gonna love some of the real life ideas we are coming up with and will introduce to the site soon. Something unique to Habbox and something which should hopefully get a few people interested and coming back for more etc.

[Inseriousity.]

The fact that you didn't read news before this thread is proof of why the 'neutral' reporting style is completely bogus. Neutrality is boring. It's as simple as that. With the neutral reports, you dont even need to read it, you can just go directly to Habbo.

News reporters have recently been asked to be more investigative and they're new to the whole thing and haven't quite learned yet that 'investigation' does not necessarily mean a negative outcome. I'm sure this thread will have alerted their attention to that.

[-:Undertaker:-]

The fact that you didn't read news before this thread is proof of why the 'neutral' reporting style is completely bogus. Neutrality is boring. It's as simple as that. With the neutral reports, you dont even need to read it, you can just go directly to Habbo.

News reporters have recently been asked to be more investigative and they're new to the whole thing and haven't quite learned yet that 'investigation' does not necessarily mean a negative outcome. I'm sure this thread will have alerted their attention to that.

This, otherwise what would be the point in writing Habbo articles when we could all just read them ourselves on the Habbo website?