Habboxlive / Events / Forum / HxHD

[Samantha]

[@]@Goldenmerc[/@] [@]@RemelKiid[/@] is a great dj too! IMO. He does loads for HxL tbh.

[GoldenMerc]

Haven't heard him [@]@Samanfa[/@]

[Martin]

We have had 'Real Life' Reporters in the past and whilst its been good, there has never really been a good way of showcasing it and getting people interested in reading it. I think a different form of media could be something good to try though. We have to remember that we are providing for quite a varied age range and its important that the content isn't too confusing for the younger ones whilst keeping it interesting enough for the older ones.

Previous management changed quite a few things in news, and at one point had planned to completely scrap the real life side of things altogether but I am against this however. I think that providing its interesting topics that are covered and that the style of writing is unique and we are offering something different to every other media site out there than thats ok.

People do still read the News, however I agree that the number is constantly decreasing and something needs to be done to make it stand out more perhaps. The comments are up and down, last week we had quite a few comments on articles but sometimes there are hardly any. The commenting system itself means users have to be logged in to comment, and I prefer the old system where you can just comment freely.

I would only be willing to have reporters soley reporting on 'Real Life' news if we find a certain way of making the content available more easily and a solid way of those articles getting hits without having to be on the front page of Habbox.com. I think the magazine is a good idea and something we could have a go at, providing it doesn't become as defunct as the Newsletter was a couple of years back.

I think we have a good team of reporters generally at the moment and it will be nice for people to be able to showcase their writing skills and creative skills in this way. Advertising articles has always been an issue, since you can't really force people to read. The key thing is just keeping them interesting, of a unique style and appealing to the eye. Perhaps the community notice board could be used as a way of showcasing the days important news articles or something, or some link could be created with the forum to help get news articles advertised more. Definitely not the old Habbox News bot though, since that annoyed a lot of people a couple of years ago!



In regards to other departments, I think generally Habbox is going through a very quiet period at the moment. Whilst we are retaining a lot of current members, we don't seem to be getting new ones to check out our services and stick around as perhaps we have in the past. Listener figures are the lowest for a very long time, and there just needs to be a bit more interest in general. The helpdesk doesn't seem to have been as badly affected. I've noticed the radio offline quite a bit at night which is a shame because we were doing quite well at one point getting the international side of things on the up. Evening keeping it on by streaming is more beneficial and gives out a better message than it being offline altogether. Giveaways generally do work, providing they are done on a regular basis and not with huge gaps between them. DJ party rooms are also quite fun too and when they get popular the advertising in the room can really have a good effect on listener numbers.

The amount of events generally links to this and hasn't been as high as perhaps in the past. I do quite often see unique ideas for events and thats really important when getting things popular. The weekly events have always been great too. I think as with Habboxlive, its become harder and harder to find good applications and staff that will put in heaps of effort to get things back on track.


I think if funds are low for doing community events etc, that donations really need to be pushed again. The donations thread needs updating (since it still tells people to donate to me), and I've probably got a few things to donate too. The question of the week always used to get a lot of entries on the main site so thats another good way of getting people to come back to the site and perhaps check out the content whilst they are there. (That thread also needs updating from december).


In regards to official rooms, they do need to be checked to ensure they are meeting their half of the bargain and advertising Habbox enough. I agree with whoever said they need to be popular and used too, and whereas at the time they might have been popular, this can change in a matter of weeks and so it needs to be kept fresh and ingoing with whats popular. I think there are lots of popular rooms that could be included now, things like armys, airports, hospitals etc which are constantly popular may be good ones to approach. I think the whole scheme needs looking at and more advertising done on both parts. I know I included one of the trade city rooms in the trading forum at one point, as well as cool rooms forum and community notice board etc, however I think the links have since failed!



In the meantime, I will speak with Charlie and General Management about the Magazine idea and we will see what we can come up with. The main priorities at the moment I feel are really looking into what types of news can be popular, and how it can be displayed and produced to entertain and engage the audience. Advertising needs to be hugely stepped up on the hotel client, since thats where a large proportion of our userbase comes from. I will consider real life reporters as a job role, providing their is enough interest in it and that we come up with a solution to ensure it gets used!

[GoldenMerc]

Personally, Martins a brilliant manager, but news should be scrapped and in return just use a RSS bot from habbo to post, exactly the same. Sorry Martin but its true!

[HotelUser]

Personally, Martins a brilliant manager, but news should be scrapped and in return just use a RSS bot from habbo to post, exactly the same. Sorry Martin but its true!

This would demote news into the ground I'm afraid to say. The RSS bot from Habbo is 99.99% crap about events which do nothing other than promote ongoing Habbo events. Habbox News should be following a very similar model to that of HabboTimes and Puhekupla (apologies on spelling). They are unable to do this because Sulake has demanded Habbox not post on unreleased items when they allow HabboTimes and Puhekupla to do so. In my own opinion I feel this is something which should be rigorously appealed by Habbox, and possibly even made into a public issue advertised on the Habbox website because the decision by Sulake is absolutely outrageous and unfair to say the least.

[Samantha]

[@]@Goldenmerc[/@] get rid of news? Are you absolutely crazy? I love news, it's helped me in my english language course at college and I love reading it. Lots of news reporters give unique views coming from both sides and if you just have the RSS feed on then you are missing everything!

[Grig]

Personally, Martins a brilliant manager, but news should be scrapped and in return just use a RSS bot from habbo to post, exactly the same. Sorry Martin but its true!

The reason it isn't read just isn't good enough to say, articles still do get hits you know. Also, some Habbo news we post isn't on Habbo itself, like the recent two stories that I've posted on an interview with the Sulake CEO and phishing etc. We can't start posting rumours or funi releases because Habbo will probably be very angry by that as they have stated in the past. We can however try to get reporters to add a little twist in their writing style, though, that may be harder and many reporters do already offer some unique views and what not to try and stimulate debates on articles.

[beth]

[@]@Samanfa[/@] [@]@Grig[/@] at anyone who else suggested the assistant radio manager job. i think habboxlive doesn't actually need the assistant manager role anyway which is why you don't really see much regarding hxl from scott, everyone has it covered. head djs send show issues/warnings/do DJ feedback and jess is doing the hiring/firing/managing big things/organisation. every base is pretty much covered. unless you took away things from the head dj role i don't think an assistant manager is needed.

[Richie]

[@]@Goldenmerc[/@] [@]@RemelKiid[/@] is a great dj too! IMO. He does loads for HxL tbh.

I think i said this about 100 times already, how come any feedback thread regarding habboxlive always has something like this or a dj says I DID X AMOUNT OF HOURS so it's not my fault, it's annoying the thread is about hxl improving not who is good and who is ****.

[Martin]

I think News is always meant to be a version of Habbo news but from a players point of view, moreso than some official facts about whats happening on habbo etcetc. I always encourage reporters to use their own style, interact with the readers, express their opinions, gather other peoples opinions and stick them in and basically make it almost like a reflection and discussion of what the News is, whilst still giving the essential information. I for one find it both interesting and entertaining reading some of the styles of writing and sometimes its just kinda nice to read it from a Habbo users point of view.


I also agree with you David that its a shame we cannot report on unreleased stuff etc before Habbo does. This was a good way of getting hits to news simply because some people are genuinely interested in finding stuff out and I think thats why puhekupla does so well in terms of visitors etc. I'm not sure how much of a good idea it would be to protest on the site etc though, since I'm not sure getting on their nerves is the best way to go if they are starting to take more of an interest in "some" fansites again and I know Mike is eagerly awaiting for them to include us in one of their Fansite events articles rather than some other sites that a lot of people haven't heard of! We have to tread carefully in some respects but then we also have to work out where the line is and whether we take action to improve the hits etc.

A lot of people have a passion for writing, and for them expressing their views, portraying the news in their own way and getting readers comments/feedback can be a very rewarding and beneficial experience. I think the department has been around long enough to have established itself here and see no reason to remove it. Most departments are going through a quiet period, however its just a matter of working out methods to increase user numbers again and making sure content is enjoyable and attracts people to come back. Uniqueness is another point since we need to offer things that other fansites do not.