News - 2014 to the future FEEDBACK

[Brad]

I totally agree with everything everyone I said. I do have to admit that there was a long time while I have been in the department that I failed to post an article (due to waiting for approval.. and still.. but still posted it anyways).

I do know that I should of just posted an article due to the fact, but I feel that in that way, It wouldn't of came from the heart, so I do take what everyone has said into consideration on how I act and post in the department, and I truly hope that I can fulfill what people say, and give feedback to.

I do take responsibility of my own actions, and I have never used the excuse of "I'm posted away", or "I'm too busy". If I know I'm too busy- or get myself too busy then it's not worth being in the department.

Thank you, everyone, for your feedback.

[FlyingJesus]

Damn what will they do now without all the major input Drewar was giving

[lawrawrrr]

I was hoping while I was away there would be a proper staff drive and some real progress, it was always gonna be hard at first forming this department but I'd hoped it would have been a bit further forwards!

I'm yet to catch up on everything that's been going on, but it's a real shame Drew decided to resign because he did have some good ideas, and obviously his application was the best or we wouldn't have picked him!

[Grig]

I totally agree with everything everyone I said. I do have to admit that there was a long time while I have been in the department that I failed to post an article (due to waiting for approval.. and still.. but still posted it anyways).

I do know that I should of just posted an article due to the fact, but I feel that in that way, It wouldn't of came from the heart, so I do take what everyone has said into consideration on how I act and post in the department, and I truly hope that I can fulfill what people say, and give feedback to.

I do take responsibility of my own actions, and I have never used the excuse of "I'm posted away", or "I'm too busy". If I know I'm too busy- or get myself too busy then it's not worth being in the department.

Thank you, everyone, for your feedback.

I swear that myself and Martin removed the approval system because it was simply too slow, particularly when a manager is inactive. Well... not only that, but if you want to compete and get news out fast and efficient and make the site look cool and updated. Although, if say a manager is always on Habbox, then that wouldn't be a problem; yet even that would eventually fail. You could argue that on the flip side of the coin it was crap quality, but then why not just do workshops and train your journalists (article writers or w.e. they're called) on how to lay out work/ write specifically for Habbox. I just went on the site, and it seems to me that things are rarely updated. But that's been a problem for a while before this re-vamp, so no visible improvements in terms of content to the public eye yet.

[Brad]

I swear that myself and Martin removed the approval system because it was simply too slow, particularly when a manager is inactive. Well... not only that, but if you want to compete and get news out fast and efficient and make the site look cool and updated. Although, if say a manager is always on Habbox, then that wouldn't be a problem; yet even that would eventually fail. You could argue that on the flip side of the coin it was crap quality, but then why not just do workshops and train your journalists (article writers or w.e. they're called) on how to lay out work/ write specifically for Habbox. I just went on the site, and it seems to me that things are rarely updated. But that's been a problem for a while before this re-vamp, so no visible improvements in terms of content to the public eye yet.

Yes, I know- I ended up just presenting what I was planning. (Weekly Room Pick) so I know i can't speak for others, but I do know that I take responsibility of my own stuff. I already have some pre writings ready to go out.

- - - Updated - - -

I was hoping while I was away there would be a proper staff drive and some real progress, it was always gonna be hard at first forming this department but I'd hoped it would have been a bit further forwards!

I'm yet to catch up on everything that's been going on, but it's a real shame Drew decided to resign because he did have some good ideas, and obviously his application was the best or we wouldn't have picked him!

Wow. I didn't see that until now. That's sad.

[Martin]

I was hoping while I was away there would be a proper staff drive and some real progress, it was always gonna be hard at first forming this department but I'd hoped it would have been a bit further forwards!

I'm yet to catch up on everything that's been going on, but it's a real shame Drew decided to resign because he did have some good ideas, and obviously his application was the best or we wouldn't have picked him!

Woooo do you have interwebs now Laura?

It is a shame Drew decided to resign so early on, and im sure he did have some good ideas too! I think there just needs to be a real passion for wanting to make something succeed and its all about putting plans into action as quickly as possible so that the damage isn't too great I guess. I think its hard to tell from an application just how motivated and determined someone will be to really turn a department around, especially in the middle of big changes etc. I think the main thing which has let this down has been the non existent output we've seen so far, lack of advertising and promotion and I would say so far that no changes have been visible to the public after the first month, which I just find it hard to understand as surely if you have quite a few staff members (including seniors/managers/trialists etc) who are all capable of writing stuff then I don't know how it could take so long?

Surely when a department reaches the point where its failing on its most basic purpose, then the manager should step in and sort it as a matter of urgency, and also work on keeping the output going a bit themselves (in terms of writing some articles themselves). Personally I found getting stuck into the core purpose of departments was really important and thoroughly enjoyed both the managing aspect as well as getting stuck in and writing too.

I just think there have been a lot of wasted opportunities with News, and now we're seeing it with articles too, as there could be lots of themed world cup/fathers day stuff going on (users submitting fathers day stuff/poems/stories about their dads etc, world cup creative content, updates etc) literally ANYTHING to keep it going. I don't know if you are focussing mainly on Habbo related articles (badge guides, room views, interviews, all the stuff thats been done under news etc), or whether you are doing real life/creative stuff too?


What's the current minimum output required by an articles writer in the department in a week?

Damn what will they do now without all the major input Drewar was giving

Pfft how do you get away with comments like that! I got slapped down for that!

[lawrawrrr]

Woooo do you have interwebs now Laura?

YEAH BOI

It is a shame Drew decided to resign so early on, and im sure he did have some good ideas too! I think there just needs to be a real passion for wanting to make something succeed and its all about putting plans into action as quickly as possible so that the damage isn't too great I guess. I think its hard to tell from an application just how motivated and determined someone will be to really turn a department around, especially in the middle of big changes etc. I think the main thing which has let this down has been the non existent output we've seen so far, lack of advertising and promotion and I would say so far that no changes have been visible to the public after the first month, which I just find it hard to understand as surely if you have quite a few staff members (including seniors/managers/trialists etc) who are all capable of writing stuff then I don't know how it could take so long?

It was always gonna be a massive task and I know he was capable so it is such a shame. Like I said, I was expecting/hoping something to be visible now so it is a bit of a beard-scratcher for me... I've been having a look today though

Surely when a department reaches the point where its failing on its most basic purpose, then the manager should step in and sort it as a matter of urgency, and also work on keeping the output going a bit themselves (in terms of writing some articles themselves). Personally I found getting stuck into the core purpose of departments was really important and thoroughly enjoyed both the managing aspect as well as getting stuck in and writing too.

Yeah I agree with you. Maybe it was because noone really knew wht was expected and it was a bit intimidating? idrk at all, I don't know why drew resigned either tbh

I just think there have been a lot of wasted opportunities with News, and now we're seeing it with articles too, as there could be lots of themed world cup/fathers day stuff going on (users submitting fathers day stuff/poems/stories about their dads etc, world cup creative content, updates etc) literally ANYTHING to keep it going. I don't know if you are focussing mainly on Habbo related articles (badge guides, room views, interviews, all the stuff thats been done under news etc), or whether you are doing real life/creative stuff too?

What's the current minimum output required by an articles writer in the department in a week?

2 a month, on average. It's mainly because some of the articles I was hoping for have really indepth discussion and research so asking one a week would be a hell of a lot! I was really hoping with such a small minimum people might be interested in applying and might be less prone to leaving (as almost every resignee recently has said it's been too much work). Also, with the type of things the department (should be) producing, you don't really want a ton of articles, my sort of 'goal' is to have about 10 writers, that's on average about 30 articles a month.

Smaller articles like room reviews and whatever else the manager deems 'insufficient' would only count as 0.5 though.

[Martin]

YEAH BOI



It was always gonna be a massive task and I know he was capable so it is such a shame. Like I said, I was expecting/hoping something to be visible now so it is a bit of a beard-scratcher for me... I've been having a look today though



Yeah I agree with you. Maybe it was because noone really knew wht was expected and it was a bit intimidating? idrk at all, I don't know why drew resigned either tbh




2 a month, on average. It's mainly because some of the articles I was hoping for have really indepth discussion and research so asking one a week would be a hell of a lot! I was really hoping with such a small minimum people might be interested in applying and might be less prone to leaving (as almost every resignee recently has said it's been too much work). Also, with the type of things the department (should be) producing, you don't really want a ton of articles, my sort of 'goal' is to have about 10 writers, that's on average about 30 articles a month.

Smaller articles like room reviews and whatever else the manager deems 'insufficient' would only count as 0.5 though.

What do you mean by in depth discussion? and what kind of articles would these be? Research was always part of being a news reporter anyway, and we never had any problems producing 3 articles per week.

I don't think 1 per week would be too much to ask really, especially considering some departments require you to physically put a lot of hours in etc as part of their minimums. 2 per month just seems extremely low, even writing

I don't get the 'too much' work excuse, as we haven't really seen a substantial amount of work from ANYONE within the department, be that trialists, seniors OR management.



Personally I also believe you don't want the articles to be TOO long, or people will get bored, see huge blocks of text and won't bother reading. Personally I would enjoy smaller light-hearted articles that are to the point, fun to read and are engaging.



OH AND YAYYYYY WELL DONE ON BEING AN INTERWEBS USER AGAIN

[lawrawrrr]

What do you mean by in depth discussion? and what kind of articles would these be? Research was always part of being a news reporter anyway, and we never had any problems producing 3 articles per week.

I don't think 1 per week would be too much to ask really, especially considering some departments require you to physically put a lot of hours in etc as part of their minimums. 2 per month just seems extremely low, even writing

I don't get the 'too much' work excuse, as we haven't really seen a substantial amount of work from ANYONE within the department, be that trialists, seniors OR management.

Personally I also believe you don't want the articles to be TOO long, or people will get bored, see huge blocks of text and won't bother reading. Personally I would enjoy smaller light-hearted articles that are to the point, fun to read and are engaging.

I did post the sort of articles in the original thread, I think the link is on the OP here. I think your view of news is very skewed on what you produced - which was very good - but a lot of reporters, especially over the last 2 years have increasingly been copying straight off Habbo articles, and that's what made News really bad, in the end. Like I said, recently I've spoken to almost everyone who left to find out why, and almost all of them have said "time constraints / the minimum was too much".

2 a month is low, it's not like it's a maximum and people can write more if they wanted, but the lower the minimum, in my head anyway, it seems like more people might be tempted to join in the first place. If you think hour-wise from other department, its like 3 in events, 2 in hxl (I think) a week, and I'd like to think that the two articles would take a couple of hours each to write, to a good standard anyway. There is NO POINT in upping the minimum because, like you said, noones been doing anything anyway. I'd rather not just fire people.

I never said they'd be really long, just in-depth, good quality articles tackling some difficult topics, guides on how to do certain things like build rooms, wire events, things like that, as well as interviews, interesting Habbo stories and discussion on history, Habbox rumours. Pretty much everything would be relevant to the department.

[Martin]

I did post the sort of articles in the original thread, I think the link is on the OP here. I think your view of news is very skewed on what you produced - which was very good - but a lot of reporters, especially over the last 2 years have increasingly been copying straight off Habbo articles, and that's what made News really bad, in the end. Like I said, recently I've spoken to almost everyone who left to find out why, and almost all of them have said "time constraints / the minimum was too much".

2 a month is low, it's not like it's a maximum and people can write more if they wanted, but the lower the minimum, in my head anyway, it seems like more people might be tempted to join in the first place. If you think hour-wise from other department, its like 3 in events, 2 in hxl (I think) a week, and I'd like to think that the two articles would take a couple of hours each to write, to a good standard anyway. There is NO POINT in upping the minimum because, like you said, noones been doing anything anyway. I'd rather not just fire people.

I never said they'd be really long, just in-depth, good quality articles tackling some difficult topics, guides on how to do certain things like build rooms, wire events, things like that, as well as interviews, interesting Habbo stories and discussion on history, Habbox rumours. Pretty much everything would be relevant to the department.

Oh awesome!

Yeah, I noticed that with news too! I think one of the most important things was keeping the content unique and interesting and not just a copy of the news from Habbo, and unfortunately some people were extremely lazy and uncreative! News Reporting should be about being investigative and making sure you engage with the reader and make the article both interesting and unique to read, otherwise there just isn't any point really.

So people left saying that writing too articles a month was too much for them? I think that might have just been an excuse in some cases and the real reason was lack of motivation/guidance, and just the fact that they didn't really have that much passion for wanting to produce content for the site.

As you said, other departments require you to spend 3+ hours of your week doing stuff, and I don't think it would take that long to churn out some articles. As you say though, if people are unable to commit to 2 per month then upping it seems hard. I think we just need to establish what is making people not want the department to look good and improve.

There seems to be plenty of ideas being thrown about, just not much actual output from anyone, which is what the department is there for really. I'm sure things will pick up soon though and we'll get to see some new stuff. Just needs to be advertised well so that people engage with it and come back for more!