Gone way overboard with news postings (SDW please read)

[OuTpaTienT]

This is not so much of a suggestion as it is a request for an explanation, because I just don't get it.

36 news "articles" posted in one day?!? Personally I think that's ridiculous, and way overkill. Don't you guys ever wonder why there's zero comments to most of those things? And only 1 comment to most of the others?

I just don't understand the point. Seriously. What good is this feature? IMO all it does is lead people away from our site. And it certainly doesn't draw any visitors to TechIMO because there's no original content what-so-ever. Is it TechIMO's destiny to just become a tech news link portal? Doesn't the web have enough portals already?

Shouldn't TechIMO be known for it's own content? Not as just a middle man that points to where the real content is?

Ok, I DO have a suggestion here:

Instead of eagerly leading people away from TechIMO by showcasing OTHER PEOPLE'S news, why don't we create a new feature that can share the spotlight with the news? A feature that showcases informative, helpful, and/or valuable content from right here at TechIMO. I'm thinking something along the lines of "TechIMO's Thread of the Week".

Have the mods choose what they think was the most informative, helpful, or valuable discussion they encounter each week. Then showcase the thread(s) on the TechIMO front page. Keep a history of all the threads that were chosen in the past.

Now, isn't that a good idea Scott? I understand setting something like this up may be a lot of work…but I dare you to tell me it's not a good idea. Do you have any idea how many wonderful messages just go to waste here? They maybe have a day or two of glory then just fade into the database never to be seen again. I'm talking about the type of messages that are stuffed with great knowledge, the type of messages that are helpful to almost everyone, at any time. The type of messages that deserve better than to just fade away into oblivion.

All the members here are what make up TechIMO (& ResellerRatings). And it's our discussions, our interactivity, the sharing of our collective knowledge that is TechIMO's life blood. And scores of us do put lots of work into many of our messages. Sometimes we may as well be writing news articles because just as much research, time, and thought goes into those messages. And what happens? They help the handful of people that were reading the thread, then they fade away. That's so sad. And such a waste of an invaluable resource you have here Scott.

When people first come to the TechIMO front page, I say we should welcome them and immediately offer them some of our accumulated gems of knowledge….some of OUR content. And not shuffle them off to other web pages for other people's content.

Outpatient
TechIMO message author, and proud of it.

36 news "articles" posted in one day?!? Personally I think that's ridiculous, and way overkill. Don't you guys ever wonder why there's zero comments to most of those things? And only 1 comment to most of the others?

Well, does this mean you are volunteering to write news content each day for TechIMO? Perhaps you have 6-8 hours free time each day to write in-house news. If so, then please drop me a line, as I would certainly be interested in discussing this possibility with you.

Now to the reality of the situation. I set the news agenda for TechIMO, and I doubt it will be changing anytime in the near future. Front-page activity and overall hit rates have improved dramatically over the past months. The key to sustaining these hit rates is daily updated content. Believe me on this, as I have tried your proposed news method when I took over the news position for TechIMO.

Your proposed method does work, assuming we had a dedicated news team of five to six people to develop in-house news. That is simply not feasible at this time, unless you would like to pay their salaries.

Have the mods choose what they think was the most informative, helpful, or valuable discussion they encounter each week. Then showcase the thread(s) on the TechIMO front page. Keep a history of all the threads that were chosen in the past.

This proposal is more inline with our current capabilities. We tried similar techniques to spotlight forum discussions at SysOpt, though the response was only marginally better than having no front-page forum interaction at all.

Similar ideas regarding the spotlighting of forum content within the front-page have been passed around by the administrative staff. I believe such a system is a distinct possibility in the near future, though I will have to let Scott fill you in on these types of content changes, as I generally only deal with static content creation at TechIMO.

Robert Richmond
Editor, TechIMO.com

[OuTpaTienT]

Originally posted by RobRich

Front-page activity and overall hit rates have improved dramatically over the past months.

So we have more people visiting (for a plethora of reasons I'm sure) and soon as they get here, we give them 36 other web sites to go visit.

I just don't understand that.

[yclyde]

Well, personally I greatly enjoy the news section and try to make a daily stop there. Always seems better to have a more informed opinion.

My thanks to RobRich for his hard work in bringing some worthy news to the forum. Greatly appreciated.

Beats the he?? out of the local paper.

GB

So we have more people visiting (for a plethora of reasons I'm sure) and soon as they get here, we give them 36 other web sites to go visit. I just don't understand that.

Then you have failed to realize the process of online news. Freshly updated content has won out in my previous testing here at TechIMO, even if the news is linked to other sites. Would you please trust me on this one issue? I do have have over five years of online publication experience in these matters.

Still, you have avoided the main issue altogether: cost. When you figure out how to budget a full in-house content development team for an active news page, then please get back to me.

My thanks to RobRich for his hard work in bringing some worthy news to the forum.

Thank you, and I appreciate the positive feedback regarding my efforts.

Robert Richmond
Editor, TechIMO.com

[OuTpaTienT]

Originally posted by RobRich


Would you please trust me on this one issue?

I do. If you say that is true, then it's true.

Originally posted by RobRich

Still, you have avoided the main issue altogether: cost. When you figure out how to budget a full in-house content development team for an active news page, then please get back to me.

I don't understand at all where you're getting this from. I didn't suggest an in house news team and didn't even have that in mind when composing this message.

I think you are missing my point entirely.

I'm not saying we should do away the news. Unfortunately the news is other people's content, but that's fine up to a point.

[b]What I trying to get across is the FACT that there is routinely superb messages in this forum that are equal in caliber if not greater than any news article on someone else's site.

I'm saying there are a lot of very knowledgeable members here. Many more knowledgeable than 3 or 4 tech news authors combined.

Our knowledgeable members are constantly sharing valuable information with a handful of people involved in that particular thread. Over the years I've seen SO MANY of thread that could be just as helpful to 100's, 1,000's of people if they were only lucky enough to have run across that thread. We would be doing so many people a great service if we would start rounding up these awesome threads and allowing more people to see them..

Not only would it benefit those that learned something from the thread, but it would FINALLY be some sort of acknowledgement and show of respect for all the knowledge that is so abundant here.

[nishark]

IMO, the news section gives members (myself at least) a quick glance at the hotshot headlines. the ones that interest me i follow and read up.

when i'm reading news at other sites and find stuff that i didnt see in TechIMO news, i submit the news to TechIMO.

works pretty well within the limitations i'd think.
thanks robrich for actively updating the news everyday...

I am not missing your point Out, as I essentially agreed with the second part of your original message regarding the interaction of the best forum posts with the front-page. Please re-read the second portion of my first reply.

Otherwise, I am simply replying to the earlier portion regarding the posting of daily tech news and offering an explanation of the current news methodology at TechIMO. In response to this single concern, I would love if we could post a large number of in-house news articles per day, but it just isn't practical at this time. Perhaps later, as we are now steadily growing.

Robert Richmond
Editor, TechIMO.com

[OuTpaTienT]

Initially my thinking was exactly as I stated in my first post. That so many links leading away from the site couldn't be a good thing. But you're saying otherwise. I know you know what you're doing, so I believe you. Issue settled.

It's really the 2nd issue that bothers me. I mean, all the way back from the Sysopt days there has been a wealth of incredible knowledge in the member base. Yet I've never seen this knowledge successfully tapped.

There are SO MANY great threads that deserve a long life and to be read by as many people as possible, yet those threads get shuffled away with all the average threads most likely never to be seen again. I think that's an injustice. I thought my suggestion might be one small way to finally start paying homage to some of those threads. Obviously not a total solution, but at least a step in the right direction.

[OuTpaTienT]

Originally posted by OuTpaTienT

Now, isn't that a good idea Scott? I understand setting something like this up may be a lot of work…but I dare you to tell me it's not a good idea.

Or just ignore me completely. I guess that's par for the course.