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[AgnesIO]

DJ's don't necessarily need to plug events that much.

THe events staff need to plug Habbox - you need new users at events, not existing.

Obviously don't ban existing members - but the whole point in events is to get the Habbox name on habbo!

[Grig]

That is essentially a messier backwards version of having threads which are shown on the main site



There doesn't need to be a separate section, you could have some official news tag that only staff can use if it's that important to them but as you say there's no point having a thread in news and rumours (or Habbo news or whatever) and one elsewhere, so why do we do that with the site? It makes far far far more sense to host all discussion in one place (and clearly the forum would be the best venue for that) and then on the site it would simply be a case of copy&paste and instead of a comments box a link to the forum thread for discussion. That way as I said before people would actually read the articles and get involved, and it would give some validity to the role of news reporter which quite frankly there isn't at the moment



Previously we had a stupid bot which posted every single article it could find and clogged up the forum, I don't think anyone's advocating for that this time around. The part I've emboldened explains why in its current format the news team is utterly pointless, which could be solved with the above suggestion

Nah that bot if I can remember took things from the site and then glitched every time an edit was made to an article. It was a massive headache.

So, you propose to have an [Official News] tag for the news department to use. But that would be silly, mainly because normal users post news for discussion within minutes or hours at the worst, whilst the news department can take days and obviously they re-phrase and write more detail on the stories. So, if this is the case, the news department would be simply defunct.

But I was aware that @xxMATTGxx; did a survey and got positive results for people reading it on the site? Obviously I cannot know the statistics nowadays and the being day(s) late is a massive problem, but if people actually read it and want it, then that is another situation. In that case, everything and anything must be done to save Habbo news. Close down all real-life news sections and get people to solely focus on Habbo SPOT news stories, i.e. not featured reports on some piece of furniture, but rather rolling news of an unreleased rare or something else.

Oh I understand! The way I've been told by many users (not just yourself) it seemed that if we wanted to host such events we would need to book. It's also my understanding that before we had permissions to book events on the timetable as thats what one of the HxL department told me. I understood that it would be unfair to the events department because I'm sure compared to fallin furni and bingos people would much rather giveaways, win a rooms and events such as those. Thats why I assumed that the split in people was not recommended?

This has always been possible and I remember I did it and we had a full giveaway and a full event. More ways to promote Habbox! No one department should suffer because another one cannot work harder to get people into their rooms. I never booked and often would decide a few minutes beforehand, so I'd actually love to see stuff like that more regularly.

[FlyingJesus]

So, you propose to have an [Official News] tag for the news department to use. But that would be silly, mainly because normal users post news for discussion within minutes or hours at the worst, whilst the news department can take days and obviously they re-phrase and write more detail on the stories. So, if this is the case, the news department would be simply defunct.

The department is essentially defunct. If non-news people are constantly being able to bring up new issues and start discussions on them long before anyone on the staff manages to even hear of it then perhaps the news team's job ought to just be adding hot threads to the main site so that such topics are seen and discussed by a wide audience without us having to wait 3 days to see an article on something we already know all about

But I was aware that @xxMATTGxx; did a survey and got positive results for people reading it on the site? Obviously I cannot know the statistics nowadays and the being day(s) late is a massive problem, but if people actually read it and want it, then that is another situation. In that case, everything and anything must be done to save Habbo news. Close down all real-life news sections and get people to solely focus on Habbo SPOT news stories, i.e. not featured reports on some piece of furniture, but rather rolling news of an unreleased rare or something else.

I agree that news as a whole shouldn't disappear and that the main focus should be on Habbo, but the reality is that the current team aren't on top of it and aren't efficient even when they do get a whiff of a story, and frankly it wouldn't be fair or realistic to expect them to be at all times. Using the above suggestion would mean that Habbox is on trend with stories as they come out whilst involving the community - and the chance of being featured on the main site would also be incentive for regular users to be more pro-active in posting sourced findings to spark some interesting comments. News staff would have the opportunity to write a cover blurb when they add the thread to the main site so their apparent writing skills aren't neglected, but it would merely require a short summary and therefore be far easier and allow for more to be done

[Grig]

The department is essentially defunct. If non-news people are constantly being able to bring up new issues and start discussions on them long before anyone on the staff manages to even hear of it then perhaps the news team's job ought to just be adding hot threads to the main site so that such topics are seen and discussed by a wide audience without us having to wait 3 days to see an article on something we already know all about



I agree that news as a whole shouldn't disappear and that the main focus should be on Habbo, but the reality is that the current team aren't on top of it and aren't efficient even when they do get a whiff of a story, and frankly it wouldn't be fair or realistic to expect them to be at all times. Using the above suggestion would mean that Habbox is on trend with stories as they come out whilst involving the community - and the chance of being featured on the main site would also be incentive for regular users to be more pro-active in posting sourced findings to spark some interesting comments. News staff would have the opportunity to write a cover blurb when they add the thread to the main site so their apparent writing skills aren't neglected, but it would merely require a short summary and therefore be far easier and allow for more to be done

Absolutely, and that is the most sensible thing to do. Otherwise the department is useless. All these silly ideas such as let's do an article on an credits and talk all about credits. How can one propose to do such featured stories when your main focus of spot news is getting limited/ late coverage.

The most utterly ridiculous thing, is news reporters and managers simply pasting a link to the HxF news forum and telling them to do an article. They don't bother to do any research and simply post an article from it. It's stupid and if people are that lazy, they should be reprimanded for being so.

Although, this is what you and I wish should happen, but the reality is, there probably would be some silly plan to post more featured articles and do nothing to tackle the fundamental problem here. What managers need more of on Habbox is the sense of risk-taking. Clearly from this whole thread, we don't get more users, probably because we still are still living in 2008 and need more innovation.

[Grig]

@Janice; I am also aware that loads of people who do read news don't go on HxF, but it is not an excuse when say other sites can post it faster. That and the fact that it would still be easier to do what Tom said, rather than using an inefficient system.

[Zelda]

@Janice; I am also aware that loads of people who do read news don't go on HxF, but it is not an excuse when say other sites can post it faster. That and the fact that it would still be easier to do what Tom said, rather than using an inefficient system.

It's a pretty good reason not to bash us down with the news & rumours forum arguement though.

People might not notice it massively, but our posting time HAS improved recently quite a bit, and we are actually working on making us hopefully as quick as possible. Tbh it is a pity we don't have the feeds anymore but since we don't we can't just keep using that as a reason, but what we have started to get going now a few different techniques that can hopefully get our news out quickly, including going on the spanish hotel to get news as it is posted there earlier then on .com .

In terms of Tom's idea it is definitely a good suggestion but the worry is that the feedback shows that the people who read the news are actually very fond of the current format and it's not something we should just be scrapping like that really.

[AgnesIO]

It's a pretty good reason not to bash us down with the news & rumours forum arguement though.

People might not notice it massively, but our posting time HAS improved recently quite a bit, and we are actually working on making us hopefully as quick as possible. Tbh it is a pity we don't have the feeds anymore but since we don't we can't just keep using that as a reason, but what we have started to get going now a few different techniques that can hopefully get our news out quickly, including going on the spanish hotel to get news as it is posted there earlier then on .com .

In terms of Tom's idea it is definitely a good suggestion but the worry is that the feedback shows that the people who read the news are actually very fond of the current format and it's not something we should just be scrapping like that really.

If they don't already, get the news team to subscribe to the Habbo News and Rumours forum. Then they'll be able to check their suer cp and always see anything new quickly.

[Kardan]

One of the fansites had an official habbo event (maybe ThisHabbo?) and you had to get codes to win a badge, and they had to visit the website to get some of the codes. Perhaps if Habbox gets another oppourtunity to do this, perhaps put the codes on the forum and make it to get the higher leveled codes they have to have so many posts on the forum, 10 for example. Then hope that some people like what they see and stick around? The issue isn't about getting new features to keep users around, it's getting new users to join.

[sexpot]

One of the fansites had an official habbo event (maybe ThisHabbo?) and you had to get codes to win a badge, and they had to visit the website to get some of the codes. Perhaps if Habbox gets another oppourtunity to do this, perhaps put the codes on the forum and make it to get the higher leveled codes they have to have so many posts on the forum, 10 for example. Then hope that some people like what they see and stick around? The issue isn't about getting new features to keep users around, it's getting new users to join.

People would spam post, get the codes, and then leave. or they'd just get them from friends previously registered otf.

[AgnesIO]

People would spam post, get the codes, and then leave. or they'd just get them from friends previously registered otf.

But if ten in 500 didn't do that, and stayed to post it would be worthwhile.