Many changes needed

[Zelda]

Ye that'll be good having lawrawrrrrrrrrrr back to writing again this week, but as you said we really are suffering from a small department. Also I do definitely agree more editorials would be useful, as that actually offers a unique service from both websites and from hxf.

[FlyingJesus]

It's difficult to get articles written before someone posts them on the forum, as it takes time to actually write, not counting getting the source and actually writing the article.

Which is another reason that having articles based on smaller and more specialised stories would be better than attempting to cover big news stories, especially since they are constantly changing and you're not a real news team with your own sourcing abilities, so as you say it's simply not possible to properly cover them

I have to say tho that real life is a nice idea imo. I personally prefer like stories picked out from obscure sources or well hidden in news sites etc

Absolutely, or if you have your own special interests (technology, medicine, social issues, etc) you might come across a story about that which can be put into an article and Hx will be one of maybe 5 sites to talk about it rather than one of 5,000, which is far better for the readership as they won't just be tempted to go elsewhere

[lawrawrrr]

Which is another reason that having articles based on smaller and more specialised stories would be better than attempting to cover big news stories, especially since they are constantly changing and you're not a real news team with your own sourcing abilities, so as you say it's simply not possible to properly cover them

We (generally) don't report on big news stories though... besides when it comes to sourcing, we have a long list, and I personally go through the news stories finding out correct facts and stuff to make sure they're good. Hardly any news team (college newspapers etc) have their own sourcing team, doesn't make the stories less authentic.....

[FlyingJesus]

Just as authentic storywise perhaps, but as you said most of the time someone will have picked up a source and flung it in Current Affairs long before you've had time to write a decent article about whatever's happened, and with big breaking news the whole story could have changed by the time it's published on Hx regardless, I still feel it'd be far more fun to focus on smaller stories that have more of a personal touch, especially considering the size of the department and readership

[lawrawrrr]

Just as authentic storywise perhaps, but as you said most of the time someone will have picked up a source and flung it in Current Affairs long before you've had time to write a decent article about whatever's happened, and with big breaking news the whole story could have changed by the time it's published on Hx regardless, I still feel it'd be far more fun to focus on smaller stories that have more of a personal touch, especially considering the size of the department and readership

No, I said that about Habbo News. The bigger news stories are discussed in current affairs, yes, but a lot of the real life articles we (I say we I mean @Janice writes are things that aren't even mentioned on here. Could do with a lot more promotion and stuff, and I have plans, but I'd like to wait until V7 is released, if it isn't much longer, as it makes the whole system so much easier.

[Zelda]

Yea I do try to write stuff that people are unlikely to have seen on forum and hopefully even on websites much. A lot of this comes to articles on broader topics, particular interest in science ones for me but I try to keep it spread over a range of many topics. Would be nice if we got more reports of this sort wrtten, but the fact of the matter is our depart is so small atm, and therefore we really do need to focus on habbo a lot. Problem solved if we get more applying basically.

[LiquidLuck.]

Just touching upon news. Your suggestion was a bit silly because why should they? News reporters are expected to go out there, research and come back with the topic. There were feeds of unreleased rares even done for this, but no-one seems to keep track anymore. There was a possibility to build reputation like Pukehsldbdjshf (however you spell it), but it simply wasn't done. Unless it broke, then I'm mistaken.

Real life news returned, which I was against and also a lot of the time the articles are written in a more dreary way. There were some great reporters writing, I'm not sure if any are left (Alex for example). There were possibilities of integration with the forum, but that's very complicated. Sure, news has tons of things it can do differently, but at the end of the day it's up to whoever manages it and everyone has different visions.

Why should they what? Which part are you talking about? Wait to post something? It's not the fact that it's silly or not. Even when reporters do their researches on other fansites, it takes a few minutes to write the article and then get the images, when on the forum, you can simply say for example ''oh new badges out'' and post a poor picture of them. I'm in News and I think it's awful when someone is wondering about new badges/furniture, I tell them to check the news in habbox.com and they answer me ''Oh I just don't read the news'', when we put our time into those reports.
I think that the best that News could have is all the other staff from other departments should help out and read some reports, comment some articles. I think it's the department in worse state, but people don't care as much since it isn't the department that brings more people to join the forum.
I know it's up to the managers, and I think they are trying to make it better, but when there aren't suggestions, it's difficult to do anything, even more with the community doesn't care.

[Abrood]

(Y)

Edited by Matts (Forum Super Moderator): Please don't post pointlessly!

[Zelda]

Touhing on zahz point, I wouldn't say we the worst off depart (hxl and rv seem in worse state tbh), remember that we have people who aren't on the forum who will regularly come and read the news on the site. What we really need to focus on is attracting those on the forum from the point that's been establishes before - it is simply easier to check forum.

Methods such as edtorials, quirky real life, and extra research into info that ain't on the forum, as well as expressing opinions and evaluating things, should help with this, and it might be a nice idea for like moderators of the news forum section to edit in news report links to the first post once their done, to promote further awareness.

[Grig]

Why should they what? Which part are you talking about? Wait to post something? It's not the fact that it's silly or not. Even when reporters do their researches on other fansites, it takes a few minutes to write the article and then get the images, when on the forum, you can simply say for example ''oh new badges out'' and post a poor picture of them. I'm in News and I think it's awful when someone is wondering about new badges/furniture, I tell them to check the news in habbox.com and they answer me ''Oh I just don't read the news'', when we put our time into those reports.
I think that the best that News could have is all the other staff from other departments should help out and read some reports, comment some articles. I think it's the department in worse state, but people don't care as much since it isn't the department that brings more people to join the forum.
I know it's up to the managers, and I think they are trying to make it better, but when there aren't suggestions, it's difficult to do anything, even more with the community doesn't care.

Wait, you spend minutes on news articles?! It is a process much longer than that. Probably I don't get your post, so you need to be more concise than that. I would rather read news on the forum as it's posted quicker than HX is atm. Didn't get any of your questions and I'd reevaluate if you spend "minutes". Besides, news used to be respected, now you can get in with SPAG errors, I'm sure people like Adzeh would be turning in their Habbox corpse per say if they see it.

It's not in the worst state. However, it could be much better and it's ignored because not everyone understands the ins and outs of news.

Plus, I agree on specialized articles, don't cover crap that is on mainstream media etc. This is why myself and Martin were successful when we just had entertainment and tech news because people could make them unique etc. Only unique weekly articles with analysis should be allowed as real life news stories, not paraphrasing some news website that does the story more justice than a bunch of teenagers ever could.