Should DW get some new news people or something

[Linguica]

It would be nice if it were a, you know, news site again

[Lizardcommando]

What kind of news would these new news people be reporting? Would they just roam around the forums looking for something newsworthy or have people submit stuff in?

[Scuba Steve]

What kind of news are we talking aboot here? I think DW should remain a Classic Doom news site and, aside from some major development in the new franchise material, the news should remain about the classic games. It would be nice to see more news about community projects and development (cross newdoom information as well). It would also be nice to see Newstuff updated with some degree of regularity.

[Naked Snake]

Recruit on the front page then?

Ask people to submit writing samples and the like.

Also, Doomworld should focus on Doom 3 as well, which it seems to totally ignore. I'm not saying announce every mod or something, but geez, some Doom 3 related items would be nice.

[sirjuddington]

Yeah, it has been quite dead lately. I'd agree with NS too, post some doom3 news, but keep it mostly classic.

[insertwackynamehere]

I will accept your journalistic offer, kind sir, and begin work tomorrow!

To the presses! Tally ho!

[AndrewB]

Naked Snake said:

Recruit on the front page then?

Ask people to submit writing samples and the like.

Also, Doomworld should focus on Doom 3 as well, which it seems to totally ignore. I'm not saying announce every mod or something, but geez, some Doom 3 related items would be nice.

I heard that Doom 3 sucked. If true, maybe ignoring it isn't so bad.

[Johnatone]

I'd volunteer, but I'd be useless for anything but /Newstuff, and that seems to be just as slow as anything lately. Is it from lack of reviewers or the procrastination of the reviewers [here's hoping, I volunteer!], or is there just a slow influx of new stuff?

I hate that this is putting out the 'community is dying' vibe. I do agree though, there probably should be more Doom 3 news if it's available. Anything to keep Doomworld alive; I still consider it to be the best.

[Hobbs]

heh

I always guessed the problem was with the lack of news coming in, not apathy in the staff. But if its news people you need and not news itself I'm sure you could find a few people (including myself I suppose) to step up. Get some writing samples or something if you're picky.

At the very least, t/nc would be great if it became, you know, a regular feature again, not just whenever it happened.

[deathz0r]

If you want me to do news, I'll do it.

[Linguica]

Writing samples are not very relevant unless a person is a total friggin retard, really what we need is some who still cares enough about Doom to find news and report whatever news comes their way.

[Naked Snake]

Linguica said:

Writing samples are not very relevant unless a person is a total friggin retard, really what we need is some who still cares enough about Doom to find news and report whatever news comes their way.

Grazza should be a news bitch.

That guy eats, breaths, drinks and shits Classic Doom.

Also, writing samples would show how clever the person is with making headlines and stuff. When it's reported as "Just the facts, ma'am" it's boring as Hell, unless applicable. Not everyone can make a news post amusing AND informative :P

[sirjuddington]

I'd rather un-amusing than nothing at all :P

[Bloodshedder]

Naked Snake said:

When it's reported as "Just the facts, ma'am" it's boring as Hell, unless applicable.

That's pretty much how Doomworld used to be. At least before Cyb and mewse came along, but they're not really here now. I wouldn't mind it going back to that style either.

Hobbs said:

At the very least, t/nc would be great if it became, you know, a regular feature again, not just whenever it happened.

Have ADD much? /newstuff has been pretty much on time every week for the past month.

One of the biggest problems is that almost NO ONE SENDS US NEWS ANYMORE! I'm sure there's some out there somewhere, but I'm too apathetic to go hunt for it.

[Chain Mail]

Hobbs said:

I always guessed the problem was with the lack of news coming in, not apathy in the staff.

That's like saying news journalists should just sit there waiting for someone to give them news to report.

Bloodshedder said:
I wouldn't mind it going back to that style either.

You could always let each news guy use his own style (as long as it's acceptable), much like you do with the newstuff chronicles.

[Hobbs]

Bloodshedder said:

Have ADD much? /newstuff has been pretty much on time every week for the past month.

I am diagnosed with ADD, though I think thats was made so that pills could be pushed more than anything. Neways, yeah it has been relatively on time since the whole AlexMax delayed t/nc. I doubt it will last though.

Chain Mail said:

That's like saying news journalists should just sit there waiting for someone to give them news to report.

True. Not getting sent news is a BS excuse not to post it. After all Doom Dude manages to find loads of shit to post about (loads which isn't that newsworthy I might add).

[Jonathan]

Chain Mail said:

That's like saying news journalists should just sit there waiting for someone to give them news to report.

News journalists get paid full time or commission for gathering news. Newsies on this kind of website do it in their spare time in-between school and real jobs. I doubt many have the inclination to endlessly check every project, blog and forum for updates, especially if the authors themselves can't be bothered firing off an email to news@doomworld when they have something to announce.

[Manc]

Hobbs said:

True. Not getting sent news is a BS excuse not to post it. After all Doom Dude manages to find loads of shit to post about (loads which isn't that newsworthy I might add).

So we should be posting any old garbage we can find, or should we be more discretionary? Who decides what's newsworthy?

[Quasar]

Maybe there should be an easier, faster, modern, more reliable way to send in news? Just an idea.

[Bloodshedder]

What, is e-mail too "1997" for you?

[Hobbs]

Mancubus II said:

So we should be posting any old garbage we can find, or should we be more discretionary? Who decides what's newsworthy?

No, but being more active in discovering whats newsworthy wouldn't hurt. A lot of the time a source port comes out and by the time its made news here the news is timeline (I can already see a post saying "why didn't you email news@doomworld.com about its release then").

[GGG]

Perhaps part of the problem lies in what can be defined as Doom news. Some of what I've seen doesn't pertain to id or even the game itself, but merely to likenesses of parts of the game used in unrelated circumstances. (Doom face on building or Dhoomworld anyone?) At this rate, how is every Doom-related video posted on YouTube not news?

[fraggle]

Interestingly, foreign language Doom sites like this czech one seem to be more active than Doomworld.

[Murdoch]

Newdoom posts more classic Doom news than Doomworld.

[Naked Snake]

Bloodshedder said:

What, is e-mail too "1997" for you?

Why not use a submission form on the site instead of having them open gmail or whatever. Of course, to submit they'd need to supply their e-mail addy.

EDIT : BTW, whatever happened to Arioch? He should still post news :-P

[Chain Mail]

Jonathan said:

News journalists get paid full time or commission for gathering news. Newsies on this kind of website do it in their spare time in-between school and real jobs. I doubt many have the inclination to endlessly check every project, blog and forum for updates, especially if the authors themselves can't be bothered firing off an email to news@doomworld when they have something to announce.

That's pretty much a moot point because the other site users don't get paid either. The point is that if those in charge of the news want more news than what Doomworld gets now, they have to either go get it, or at least have to get (probably specific) people to look it up for them.

If not there's the eternal "we want more news" versus the "well, go fetch it, then", with not one doing much.

Ah, and as for Doom 3, it can go fuck itself.

[Jonathan]

Chain Mail said:

That's pretty much a moot point because the other site users don't get paid either. The point is that if those in charge of the news want more news than what Doomworld gets now, they have to either go get it, or at least have to get (probably specific) people to look it up for them.

The other site users don't get paid but they know when something newsworthy's happened with their mod, port, etc. Don't you understand? If the DW news staff have to check every site all the time then it requires a significant amount of time and effort, and even then there'll always be sites they miss. Conversely, if some port author or mapper updates their site, it's trivial effort for them to drop a line to DW letting them know.

News sites like this are a service run for the benefit of the community, not for the benefit of their staff. If mappers and modders want the benefit of more visitors to their site, and people want the benefit a place to easily discover the latest community happenings, then why is it so much to ask for them to keep the news site informed when they have some news of their own to report?

[Chain Mail]

Jonathan said:
Don't you understand?

What I understand is that the thread is about possibly making Doomworld more news oriented, as it's been in the past. If people aren't independently submitting much news to the people currently in charge of the news, something must be done to add the news that seems to be missing. We can't assume that users will, now, at this point, suddenly start submitting more news, so having active news people will be much more productive. Not to say that Bloodshedder, or whoever, who already has tasks on the site should start news hunting, but a couple or so of people looking forward to doing such a thing could be appointed to do this, under the administration's guidance and supervision.

[Jonathan]

Sure, but they could do that right now. Anybody who has news to submit can submit it to news@doomworld.com. They don't have to be the originators of the news, or staff members. The problem with dedicated newsies going to every site every day is that they get burnt out, or they run out of time, or they just lose interest, and then you're back to square one.

The power of the internet, in comparison to traditional news media, is that the audience themselves can feedback into the process. Take Slashdot, the stories are all user-submitted, the editors simply act as a filter to select the most important or interesting content. Digg takes the idea even further, with the users being responsible for filtering the stories as well, by either digging them up or down.

This is the kind of model DW should be adopting, not just recruiting more newsies and staggering on a bit further. I'm not saying a full-blown Digg style system is required, but something needs to be done to make the news more user driven. At the very least there should be a highly visible method of submission on the front page. Even if it's just a mailto link, it'd be a start. Or, like someone said, a form for news submission. Just make it obvious on the front page.

[Murdoch]

Bloodshedder said:

What, is e-mail too "1997" for you?

I think what James meant was some kind of submission system. Wouldn't take much effort. Authenticate it against the forum members DB so you have to sign up before you can submit, and so you guys can easily ban anybody spamming the system. Someone who's logged into the forum fills in the news form, submits it, then it goes into a database but with an active flag set to no. One of the "proper" news guys is sent an e-mail, they check the article, tweak it as needed, fixing any mistakes if any, then OK it so it appears on the front page.