Whats unique about Habbox?

[Alkaz]

I actually don't completely agree with that because Articles can be so much more. Room Reviews and Interviews are rare in News. And it's not just Habbo content that's needed. Like Bolt said, it's clear there is a need for teen-targeted articles so why not bring back the Articles department and have it ran under News?

I'm thinking small editorials, columns on Teen life, tv reviews, music reviews etc.

In the past, as I've said, Articles didn't work but that's because Habbox was over-saturated with content back then. Was too much of the same thing.

I didn't say that was all the articles department did, I just said two things they used to do. I know that they did a lot more and I also said that we've been discussing such things recently although changes probably wont be made in terms or news / articles yet. In the past, under the entertainment section of news we've had music reviews, I remember Faboosh did and excellent review of a Lady GaGa song and Nuxty has a weekly X Factor review report going on and there is also reports about what's going on in soap land in the next week or so. We already cover a few of the areas you mentioned but to make them a more prominent and a cemented part of the department would require approval by management and like I say we've been discussing it but nothing will happen right now.

Also you and others have mentioned 'teen life' or 'teen help'. Jin doesn't want us to do this and I agree with him. No one here is qualified in that field, it is totally unrelated to Habbo and I can't really see it working out in general so that is almost certainly not going to be implemented.

[Inseriousity.]

Also you and others have mentioned 'teen life' or 'teen help'. Jin doesn't want us to do this and I agree with him. No one here is qualified in that field, it is totally unrelated to Habbo and I can't really see it working out in general so that is almost certainly not going to be implemented.

Really? What a stupid excuse. You don't need a PhD in 'Youth Studies' to help people with teen issues cos... yes that's right, we're teens! Want to know how to apply for uni? Ask someone who's applied to uni recently, y'know... like teenagers... on Habbox Forum...

It's not totally unrelated to Habbo because it's a multiplayer online game, aimed at teens so it's only natural that fansites are also aimed at teens. It seemed like a good idea to keep things unique and it's a bit silly that it's being disregarded because none of the teenagers here are 'experts' at being a teenager.

[Nixt]

Really? What a stupid excuse. You don't need a PhD in 'Youth Studies' to help people with teen issues cos... yes that's right, we're teens! Want to know how to apply for uni? Ask someone who's applied to uni recently, y'know... like teenagers... on Habbox Forum...

It's not totally unrelated to Habbo because it's a multiplayer online game, aimed at teens so it's only natural that fansites are also aimed at teens. It seemed like a good idea to keep things unique and it's a bit silly that it's being disregarded because none of the teenagers here are 'experts' at being a teenager.

To back this up, even Habbo recently asked its members to provide "Top Ten School Survivial" tips, I don't think it's at all dissimilar. We're not talking about acting as Samaritans and preventing depressed or emo teens from committing suicide because very few of us, if any, are qualified to deal with situations such as those. As Mike said, the teen help section would be guides such as applying for uni, coming out to friends / family if you're gay, how to cope with exams. As Mike said a qualification isn't really needed unless you're heading in the direction of offering on the spot advice for people in quite dire real life situations, and all articles (which would hopefully be user submitted) would be vetted and edited so as to avoid anything like this.

Of course it's up to Jin in the long term, but I do think it would be interesting content that would give Habbox an extra arm to appeal to users prospective, new and old.

[Martin]

I really liked the teen help ideas, and I think that could have provided something which is actually more useful and unique than other fansites offer perhaps. We did have some quite nifty ideas regarding them, with perhaps it fitting nicely into the articles environment. This could also have enabled users to send content in and this would be published on the site, thus making them feel we are more of a community. I'm sure there could have been prizes or something to go along with this too.

I can't go into much detail now, but in my head I just have an image of what types of content we could have, and perhaps picking out interesting newspaper features such as "the dear deirdre" thingee out of the sun, or something similar (obviously not as risque as some of her stuff, but yeah. There are also other features we could perhaps attempt such as a more humerous section or something to get people laughing. I know a lot of what I read in newspapers makes me laugh, such as the crazy TV reviews where they pull stuff apart and ridicule it.

I'm not saying go all out and 'copy' a news paper and have naked women and stuff on the site, but I do think that we could be more inventive in terms of what content we offer, how we get it accross and how much it allows users to interact with the site- which shoudl hopefully make them want to come back for more.

I know quite a few interesting changes are being made to the site, and it will look completely different, however even in the short term, perhaps it would be nice to role some of these things out. I personally think teen style columns would be great, and more aimed at our wider audience. Whether we're qualified or not, anyone can give advice and at the end of the day it's something unique and our own take on what is some very popular content.

[Mrs.McCall]

I completely agree with Jin's worry about us not being qualified but I think if it comes with a disclaimer that it is just opinion. My "Teen Life" idea is more based on that of Ostinato's (can't spell it!) idea way back of having people send in their stories about issues. It could also be fun we could do an Education Special and have people write about their school/college/uni experience.

I think there are tons of fun stuff we could do that could really make Habbox stand out.

[Alkaz]

It has only really been in this thread that I've heard people wanting the teen help/life articles back on the site. We've dealt without it for a couple of years after the department was dissolved (because there was a lack of interest). I just think that offering this service again will almost certainly stretch and distract from the main focus area of news within this department. I feel it would be best kept to the forum where it seems pretty popular and other dedicated sites for all of the things listed above.

I really think if it is what people want then there should be some changes or competitions in the Health, Life and Relationships forum instead of on the site. A lot of the things are also covered in the Education & Employment forum. With all the things planned and being discussed already for the news department, we're not really that far from splitting the two and recreating the articles department. Which is something I can't see happening.

[Inseriousity.]

We never really mentioned the news department and it wasn't our idea, it was Jake's ages ago and it seemed to have a lot of support. Let me see if I can find it...

here it is: http://www.habboxforum.com/showthrea...=Teen+articles
keep them user-related. Maybe do it the same way Habbo did it, 'submit your top ten tips for...' and have that as a running theme throughout the project, it could work well

[Mrs.McCall]

The only reason I suggested having it under News is because it's less risk because there's management already in place so it could be less hard to implement (i.e. having to find a Manager first). On the flip side, Bolt already has a lot of jobs!

I think that it is popular on the forum so why not branch out and put that kind of content on the website too... cash in on its popularity. I'm not saying it will definitely work. I just don't see any reason to not give it a go. The content on the website is already great and the content team are excellent but I think reimplementing Articles could really push it up a notch.