Let's finally fix articles woo

[FlyingJesus]

SO as everyone knows, other than general management trying to show support no-one reads Hx articles unless forced by a comp, and that is ridic because some of them probably aren't that awful. The problem isn't so much that people don't like to read but that they're hosted on a site that a large number of users have no general need to visit, and they don't offer anything that a thread on here couldn't. It's been suggested and accepted several times in the past that we need to get the activity all in one place, but now let's actually doooooo it.

This is what we currently have on the site:



And what I suggest *again* is that we get rid of on-site commenting (which divides discussion and makes activity look utterly awful even when there's an incentive to post there) and instead...

* The full article is made as a forum thread
* On the site a summary is written just as it currently is, so things would outwardly look the same on the site buuuut
* The read more link goes to the forum thread, where people who like to comment on stuff 1) already have accounts and 2) are more likely to see it anyway
* This also brings any casual homepage browsers into the community without taking any activity away from the main site

It wouldn't necessarily require an official articles forum which I know has been loudly opposed in the past, as staff could very simply post the threads in what would already be the correct subforum, perhaps with a tag thingy only available to articles staff if that could be made. Really a very simple change but long long long overdue.


Having articles work through the forum would also make it possible for articles staff to perhaps pick up on an already existing popular thread and make a "blurb" summary (as they usually would for their own articles) and link that on the main site as a *+*+featured thread*+*+* or whatnot, which I believe would be incentive for people to make decent discussion threads rather than just What's Your Favourite Cereal @Joe; @Elegance; haaa but yeah that's a little additional idea I had and would be nice but not as important as the main one

[David]

i asked for a script for v8 that auto posts articles on the forum but skynus said it's up to @Joe; to ask for it

*+*+featured thread*+*+*

featured articles are a thing on v8

[Joe]

First off, thanks a lot Tom for writing everything down for me - I really haven't had prior knowledge of plans to do this as I will admit to waving it away when I first started here as Manager simply because I wanted to do my own ideas first (as they were a lot easier). I totally agree that activity is low compared to what it used to/could be and anyway of rectifying this would be a great for the department.

I do like the idea. We do recommend a summary is written above the 'read more' tag which allows any possible readers to understand what the article is going to be about the before the actually go onto read it - like you said, a blurb, so this wouldn't be a change that would be difficult to make at all. I like the idea of the 'read more and comment' linking directly to the forum - normal forum members will feel more inclined to comment and some have said they don't even have a site account. I can also see it's just extra hassle having to log in twice.

It seems like the only hard bits about this would be to

• Automatically posting the article in the correct sub forum with the correct author information, as that's something I really don't want to lose.
• The panel actually being able to pick the required settings.
• Be able to port formatting settings over properly from HTML to BBCODE.

i asked for a script for v8 that auto posts articles on the forum but skynus said it's up to @Joe; to ask for it

Well this is something that can now be genuinely used and have a meaning for it. I guess we'll have to have a chat to see how this can be done!

Also, if anyone wouldn't mind, I've set up a survey anyone can enter by clicking here so you can give your opinions based on Tom's ideas!

[FlyingJesus]

Something that automatically posts them wouldn't be the worst thing ever but actually sounds like more hassle than just making the thread and then posting the intro and link to the site. Also I'm generally wary of waiting for big updates before anything gets changed as it seems to make things fall into obscurity and just get pushed back and back #rarevalues #v7

[Empired]

I was keen on making articles more forum-based when I was manager and I noticed it was something @Bikini; was interested in doing too but I do remember being told that it wasn't the job of the articles department to encourage posting on the forum and therefore I should just keep to habbox.com.
I'm sure this is what I was told because I was asking about why conversation starters (which were admittedly flawed but could easily have become more useful) had been halted after/just before Brad resigned.

I still don't understand why Habbo news like the example FJ posted above are still allowed to be articles. You can go onto the Habbo main site or a more reliable fansite and read all that information for yourself sometimes days before it reaches Habbox.com and I think it just makes Habbox look cheap and useless. I LOVED all the articles @lemons; and @Evanora; (can't remember which is habbo and which is hxf name sorry) were coming up with that were Habbo-related but still totally unique and I believe once those two left that style of article was dropped. They were hugely popular and always loads of comments so I have no idea why that isn't still happening.

So yeah, even if you don't pick up that style again PLEASE stop posting Habbo news. It's boring, we're just repeating what someone else has already said, and it doesn't generate comments. Don't do it

[Samantha]

I was keen on making articles more forum-based when I was manager and I noticed it was something @Bikini; was interested in doing too but I do remember being told that it wasn't the job of the articles department to encourage posting on the forum and therefore I should just keep to habbox.com.
I'm sure this is what I was told because I was asking about why conversation starters (which were admittedly flawed but could easily have become more useful) had been halted after/just before Brad resigned.

I still don't understand why Habbo news like the example FJ posted above are still allowed to be articles. You can go onto the Habbo main site or a more reliable fansite and read all that information for yourself sometimes days before it reaches Habbox.com and I think it just makes Habbox look cheap and useless. I LOVED all the articles @lemons; and @Evanora; (can't remember which is habbo and which is hxf name sorry) were coming up with that were Habbo-related but still totally unique and I believe once those two left that style of article was dropped. They were hugely popular and always loads of comments so I have no idea why that isn't still happening.

So yeah, even if you don't pick up that style again PLEASE stop posting Habbo news. It's boring, we're just repeating what someone else has already said, and it doesn't generate comments. Don't do it

As far as I'm aware they have to post Habbo news on the site - not sure of the reason, but it might be because without the articles there's nothing really Habbo related on the site.

Sent from my C5303 using Tapatalk

[Empired]

As far as I'm aware they have to post Habbo news on the site - not sure of the reason, but it might be because without the articles there's nothing really Habbo related on the site.

Sent from my C5303 using Tapatalk

But you can still post habbo-related articles without talking about new stuff? Surely that's the whole reason the department's name was switched from news to articles

[lemons]

articles should have some nice buzzfeed style articles

[David]

articles should have some nice buzzfeed style articles

spoof articles

10 Things About Matt Garner That Will Shock You To The Core!

[Lex]

I still don't understand why Habbo news like the example FJ posted above are still allowed to be articles. You can go onto the Habbo main site or a more reliable fansite and read all that information for yourself sometimes days before it reaches Habbox.com and I think it just makes Habbox look cheap and useless.

I agree with you, but therein lies the vicious circle. I join you in thinking that writing articles about Habbo itself can be incredibly redundant - especially when Habbo as a company is incredibly lacking in actually doing anything of late - they bring a few somewhat newsworthy changes every couple of months and then palm the rest of the activity and events over to the Habbo fansites (which is both a weak and terrible structure of doing things, but that's a whole different kettle of fish). That being the case, there isn't really a lot you can write an article on to do with Habbo. The articles worth writing are along the lines of 'there's a few new changes, so um, yeah, enjoy that.' They hardly break our target of at least 300 words, and those that do, all look lacklustre and pathetic on the Habbox site itself (often being outstretched by the sidebar widgets to the right).

As you say, going on to Habbo's main site to read about it is usually sufficient information, even if it is the same recycled bullshit that Sulake keep slapping on. It hardly seems enough to write an article on - especially by the time an article writer has come online, learned about it, and then logged on to chalk up their article, there's already a thread about it in the chat section of HabboxForum - or even then, encompassed by Habbox's Twitter perhaps. Though, I would eschew the comment of 'a more reliable fansite'. ;] Try as they might, I reckon Habbox would still want to angle for being the most reliable fansite as their mantra, Habbo news articles or not.

I also agree with you on the timing issue. I can find out things about upcoming content days before anyone here has insomuch as mentioned it. I don't think that boils down to anyone's fault in particular though (I personally wouldn't even know where to look for shit like that? Where does that information even get mined?), but it does raise the question 'why bother?' when folks like Puhekupla or HabboGuides have that exact information weeks in advance, and by then, no one cares anymore. Things like in-client events fall under that timing issue as well. I think the last people to find out about Habbox's own Halloween event was the Habbox community. I'd imagine it's mandated by Habbo to actually keep things like that under wraps, but there might also be an aspect of poor communication involved too (though to be fair, I think that was nipped in the bud by Christmas).

But you can still post habbo-related articles without talking about new stuff? Surely that's the whole reason the department's name was switched from news to articles.

articles should have some nice buzzfeed style articles

Haha, it's true that finding the right thing to actually write an article about is an arduous task in and of itself. People flat-out no longer read articles about Habbo updates or changes, and if they do, they aren't commenting (which is generally how I'd gauge how popular an article is/has been). Nor do people read Real World Happening articles - people have got BBC News or whatever open by default nowadays anyway - I personally get breaking news sent directly to my iPhone. Like, we could be posting every day on the site with updates about the flooding in the north of England, but who gives a monkeys when they know everything that's happened in the last three hours by BBC Breaking? It's not Habbox worthy, and no one would read it. So that narrows us down to things like celebrity gossip (??? rly), room/music/tv/game reviews (never really been popular, but they're there), or personal opinion and experience.

I don't think @welshcake; will mind me singling her out by saying that she's had some successful personal experience/opinion articles that generated discussion - and those seem to work best. I cast my mind back to the most popular article of September which was about head lice mutations. In a sentence, that sounds ridiculous. Head lice, really? - and yet it received something like 13 comments, a thread on the forum, and even a discussion on the radio. Pinpointing what people want to read on Habbox and what they read elsewhere is a mission in itself that needs concrete foundation - otherwise we're just repeating ourselves and wasting voluntary time we could be using for something else. If the end product is then not productive, what's the point?

That being said, I've heard it mentioned in the past that we're not BuzzFeed, and we shouldn't be aspiring to ridiculous clickbait articles, and I agree. So, as Empired said, it's about finding that bridge between it relating to Habbo/x, but with a fresh take. I'm not pointing the finger in any way because I'm undoubtedly guilty of it too, but we also can't keep writing about the same shite either. Every couple of months there's a 'Habbo secrets guide' or something along those lines. We definitely need a comprehensive list of articles that have already been done, though I appreciate that would be winding and probably endless - but it would be a similar method that Competitions Staff use to avoid repeating their competitions - in the same breath that we don't repeat articles, or Events don't host Fridge Races four times in one night. :]

* The full article is made as a forum thread
* On the site a summary is written just as it currently is, so things would outwardly look the same on the site buuuut
* The read more link goes to the forum thread, where people who like to comment on stuff 1) already have accounts and 2) are more likely to see it anyway
* This also brings any casual homepage browsers into the community without taking any activity away from the main site

I am loathe to oppose you, darling Tom, but I fear I must. ;] The way that I look at it, HxF is a by-product of Habbox.com, and not the other way around. If we take Articles away from the main site and on to the forum, that's another reason people aren't visiting the main site - and I'm under the impression we want it to receive as much traffic as possible? Isn't that why HabboxLive was abolished and instead the radio was integrated into the main site? If people aren't going to the main site to read some articles, then the only thing it's being used for is the Radio, the links at the top, and as a portal for Rare Values/the forum/twitter/etc - and aside from the radio, those are all things that people who frequent Habbox are likely to have bookmarked or remembered in their browser anyway.

I see how you might think it wouldn't deter traffic through a Read More Tag to the forum, but I reckon that might be a naive assumption - truth be told, I'd probably just carry on reading and close the tab that's on the main site? Needing an account to post a comment can be burdensome, I admit. You don't have to have one to make a request or shoutout on the radio, so it seems puzzling to me that you'd need one to simply comment on an article - though I don't think that's anything that can be rectified - just the way the current software system works.

The other issue I have with Articles being forum-based is that the tool used to currently write articles is a GOOD one. The current WordPress system is elaborate, expensive and does almost everything an avid blogger or journalist would need. It makes everything pristine and with the right formatting, syntax, GPV, and pretty images, an article can look very nice on the site, indeed. Much more so than any thread would look - and sorry, but when it comes to writing and reading, appearance can be everything. That's why it can take us a while to smash articles out - because we spend (or I do, at any rate) time making sure that they look proper and presentable. It does make a difference, imo. The issue we have at the moment, though, is that you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear - it doesn't matter how good it looks if it's the same withered husk of an article that comes around every few months.

I'm not entirely opposed to the notion of it being forum-based though, I understand your logic as to how and why that might be a sensible idea, but if we're doing everything we can to keep the main site alive and active and not just a portal for everywhere else (which is in no way a downfall, don't get me wrong), it doesn't make much sense to me to take something else away from it.