Open news batch suggestions

[bhusta]

Because November 2013 was the last news batch, I want to suggest something.

The idea behind my suggestion is to make it easier for moderators to post monthly news batches.
Orcnet did quite a good job on his previous news batches, but he seems to be too busy at the moment to continue and I think it is a shame that this kind of monthly piece of information is not coming anymore.

So how could this work?

Make a sticky thread for the upcoming month where users can post whatever they think could be interesting for the general community to know.
The rules of posting could be similar to the project spotlight rules and additionally would have to follow a certain format as seen in the Merit Badge thread.

One would have to address a certain section of a news batch as

• Maps
• Models
• Skins
• Icons
• Spells
• Tools
• Project development
• Community member
• Hosted projects
• Arena
• Events
• Project Recruitment
• Blizzard news
• (...)

and one is limited to share information only in one post.


My example:

Section	Content
Maps	Fimtings Conquest map had quite a huge update lately. The terrain changes are exquisit. Link to the map http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/maps-564/conquest-6-5-a-236693/
Project development	APproject the developper of iceborn started a new project, you should have a look at this http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/map-development-202/acherons-affliction-254019/
Community member	Talavaj does a lot for terrainers, look at his beautifull doodad packs http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/...rraining-mapping-resource-238310/index35.html
Project Recruitment	APprojects needs a female voice actor for his new project http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/project-recruitment-256/looking-female-voice-actor-254072/
Events	The next Wc3 Fun Mapmaking Challenge is coming soon. Help by voting the date for the next round http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/...ing-challenge-244869/index14.html#post2566078

The real posts would be a lot more detailed of course and I belive it will be obvious who posts seriously. The demanding part would be filtering the information at the beginning of each month.
But I think this could be devided by the moderators who are responsible for certain sections and in the end someone has to merge the sections and put it in a previous made template. So any moderator could post the news at the beginning of a new month instead of only one moderator being responsible for news batches.

Note that I have no idea what internal regulations already exist but it looks like Orcnet did the news batches all by himself and maybe this is the reason that there are no news batches anymore.

I'm really curious how this suggestion gets perceived and hopefully you give it a try.

 

[Chaosy]

Honestly I don't even get why it would take so much time in the first place.

You use the same template every time so that wont take time. All you need to do is edit the links. And the thing is you don't even need to write a lot yourself.

example

The Hearthstone curse of Naxxramas patch was released last week, read here for more info. SOME LINK HERE

took me what.. 3 mins? And there are many sites that list blizzard news you can even copy and paste from sites like MMO-champion.com which lists EVERYTHING within blizzard games.

For the top 5 X it's also fairly simple, take the 5 highest rated X and put them into the template, much hard. Takes max 10 min per section if you know what you are doing.

 

[Vengeancekael]

Should the news batches make a comeback, could someone please improve the layout and look. It kind of degraded horrendously after Orcy started posting them, lolol, no offense.

 

[PurgeandFire]

That sounds like a good idea. I definitely want the news page to be consistently updated, and I think your idea should help. In general, I am always for the ideas that involve community response. I'm sure the other mods will be for it as well.

It is pretty good timing too, since it is the start of the month.

@vengeancekael: Sure.

 

[bhusta]

Honestly I don't even get why it would take so much time in the first place.

You use the same template every time so that wont take time. All you need to do is edit the links. And the thing is you don't even need to write a lot yourself.

example

The Hearthstone curse of Naxxramas patch was released last week, read here for more info. SOME LINK HERE

took me what.. 3 mins? And there are many sites that list blizzard news you can even copy and paste from sites like MMO-champion.com which lists EVERYTHING within blizzard games.

For the top 5 X it's also fairly simple, take the 5 highest rated X and put them into the template, much hard. Takes max 10 min per section if you know what you are doing.

You are missing the point of this.

Of course the way you present it seems to be easy, but I see the difficulty in having so many different sections and you can't expect someone to be aware about what happens in each of them. Split up, it is indeed as easy as you say.

And I am pretty sure that it wouldn't be okay to just copy and past articles from other sites. You can do it with official Blizzard statements because they are meant to be spread around.

I don't think that the top 5 worked that way.

Also the idea is to have a chance for the community to participate even if there is no guarantee that their posts will make it to the news batch.

 

[Chaosy]

Bhusta, I didn't exactly argue against your idea I am more concerned about why this would be 'needed' in the first place as I said I have problems seeing it being that much of an effort.

Your suggestion should be able to do the work just fine.

 

[bhusta]

Another point I completely forgot to mention in my suggestion, is to change the way Orcnet implemented the spotlights.
A spotlight is simply a way to highlight a specific thing which will get additional attention afterwards.

He made it overcomplicated with the nominations and polls. It should be alone the decision of moderators to highlight something.
One can still nominate projects that could be spotlighted in the suggestion thread. But the way it is now, only projects that have a bigger fan base have a chance to be highlighted and this is the opposite of how a spotlight should work.

 

[Ralle]

I have had the "Create a news submission forum" on my list of ideas for a while. Do you like this idea?

 

[Vinz]

I think it is cool and should be implemented.

 

[bhusta]

I have had the "Create a news submission forum" on my list of ideas for a while. Do you like this idea?

You mean like one has to post a new thread for a news to get submitted?
That sounds horrible

Or do you mean like different section specific threads made by moderators where users can post their news?

Either way I believe this would only bring a total loss of overview.

 

[Rui]

I have had the "Create a news submission forum" on my list of ideas for a while. Do you like this idea?

More or less, yes.

One of the reason news batches stopped working is not only the large amount of BBcode and monthly work, but sometimes nothing significant has happened. I tried to cover that up with the Top+. It's much more flexible to just let users post news as they appear, so I started moving threads to Latest News and Updates or post my own. It's more flexible to let users post news. Including those unrelated to both WC3 and SC2, to the dismay of «DIS IZ WC3 SAIT!11» fanatics.

The second reason is that the news batches were my creation and I don't quite remember giving away permission <.<' (if someone would dig into the Lobby).

 

[bhusta]

I had a second thought about Ralles suggestion. It isn't bad for bigger news. I was stuck thinking about the news batches, but as a seperate thing it could work. It still does not compensate for news batches.

The second reason is that the news batches were my creation and I don't quite remember giving away permission <.<' (if someone would dig into the Lobby).

You are no moderator any more and it is not like this is some kind of unique thing that could need a permission.
Also you just did not continue it and the point of nothing significant has happened is an excuse for 1-2 skipped batches, but it's already 9 months. I am sure something happend in the meantime.

 

[Rui]

You are no moderator any more

That is unrelated.

it is not like this is some kind of unique thing

Depends on what level of uniqueness we're talking about. It is not unique in the sense that there are other means of divulging news. It is unique in that there is no other concept alike in a warcraft III community.

that could need a permission

That's where we're in disagreement.

 

[bhusta]

You are no moderator in case that you are not in the position to continue making news batches officially and so there is no place where you can use your creation.
Man, writing something in a rush gets always perceived as harsh ...

okay then. I agree, if there is a certain level of uniqueness in your initial design, then one should have asked you first what could have prevented your reaction.
But I did not know that you were the first one to make it and it is silly that this could be one of the points hindering the revival of a strong medium for news after it worked so many times without your permission.

Before ther is a chance of this getting out of hand I'll ask you now.


Rui, would you give us your permission to use your design of the monthly news batches? So that we can revive it and get a medium for monthly information about the community again?

 

[Ralle]

Sorry Rui but you cannot patent an idea, you can only patent a creation. You created a news batch each month and later Vengeancekael and Orcnet did. We didn't steal anything from you, we created our own each month. Posting an old copy of yours every month would be silly ^^.

Anyway, I don't really like news batches. If we need something recurring, I think we can have a resource batch. News should be posted as they come and not at the end or beginning of a month.

The submission forum would be for all sorts of news articles. People can post an article about their project, Blizzard news, modding news or whatever. I think it would be pretty cool.

We can then have a group of editors who moderate this forum and perhaps add graphics to the articles.

 

[Chaosy]

The news batch also worked as a thread to sum up information. But yeah I agree that 'news' should be posted as they appear, but then again it doesn't hurt to hear it twice.

 

[bhusta]

Anyway, I don't really like news batches. If we need something recurring, I think we can have a resource batch. News should be posted as they come and not at the end or beginning of a month.

The submission forum would be for all sorts of news articles. People can post an article about their project, Blizzard news, modding news or whatever. I think it would be pretty cool.

We can then have a group of editors who moderate this forum and perhaps add graphics to the articles.

The way you present it sounds cool.
But the news batches had some information which can't be really posted as a single news. Besides resources there were hints for events or some minor news as for example the release of the "The Lab" section.
Also I don't believe that a spotlight will be posted as a single news, because it is not something you write yourself and therefore won't be posted in the news submission section.
Unless if there will be news moderators / editors etc. this could become a thing.

 

[Rui]

Sorry Rui but you cannot patent an idea, you can only patent a creation. You created a news batch each month and later Vengeancekael and Orcnet did. We didn't steal anything from you, we created our own each month. (...)

The structure, design and layout (including the general topics of the content in them) of the news batches is a product resultant of intellectual effort, which is what you called a creation (I believe ideas can be copyrighted, though). You don't patent individual editions. Patents and copyrights are only part of the question, though. Where are the morals? The bottom line is you cannot pick up a newspaper or magazine and make your own edition just because the content will be different.


Since no one bothered, I went to find the very first, which dates back from 2008: http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/latest-updates-news-101/november-news-106145/, but there's not much info regarding anything else.

I still agree the alternative is better. You can see in some of the news batches people saying the information came too late.

 

[bhusta]

You can see in some of the news batches people saying the information came too late.

I agree on that. But it really depends on the kind of information and its' content.

For example the release of Iceborn is an information people should get the day it's released, because there were many followers and the presentation of it is big enough to fill one news site.
The resources on the other site are just a list of the most popular skins, models, etc. which could be too few if you see it as a single post.
Spotlights on THW are also really short so they wouldn't make it in a single news. But I believe, if Ralles idea works, something like this could be implemented. Assuming there will be people willing to do it.

 

[Ralle]

The forum is up. Still looking for an icon for it:

http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/news-submission-722/

 

[Chaosy]

I suggest that you create guidelines thread for it. Like, should one post something like "This spell got 6/5 today it should be spotted in the next news batch!" or should one create the entire months news batch and post it there and see if it gets 'approved'.

If my first guess was correct, who is the person who'll put it all together?

 

[Ralle]

This forum is more for posting separate news, not batches.

 

[Vinz]

So qualified news will be showcased somehow?

 

[Ralle]

They will be moved to the News forum.

 

[WaterKnight]

but sometimes nothing significant has happened. I tried to cover that up with the Top+. It's much more flexible to just let users post news as they appear, so I started moving threads to Latest News and Updates or post my own. It's more flexible to let users post news.

Anyway, I don't really like news batches. If we need something recurring, I think we can have a resource batch. News should be posted as they come and not at the end or beginning of a month.

#

The problem with batches is that you have to batch them up first. This means you can only refer to events in the past/events that are known in the moment the batch is finished. And with only a monthly cut that would be like no real-time.

On the other hand, making all the news single has some overhead regarding the required screen space and the news display on the front page is not suited for several news incoming at once. When this happened in the past, I found it rather easy to miss the slightly older one because news on Hive are rare and you have to scroll a chunk.

inwarcraft.de has it the way that you have tabs at the top to pick the category and it lists the last headlines (with link) of the selected category, which offers more overview. Below you can see the news in detail of the section you are currently in. While sections/news categorization on Hive would be arguable, I think the headline overview would be positive, also to remember old ones. How do you currently inspect old news that were pushed from the front page?

 

[Aeroblyctos]

No matter what you guys say or think I always loved Rui's news.

 

[bhusta]

How do you currently inspect old news that were pushed from the front page?

http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/latest-updates-news-101/
Just searching, or what do you mean?