Thoughts on the Breaking News page

[Citizen Kane]

Morrus

1. Please let us know how the postings we're (the newshounds) putting up are helping you. Are we putting up enough info; too much, etc. Anything we could change to help more?

2. I usually try to put the minimum info in my posts, and provide links where the reader can find out more. I haven't been posting long quotations from d20 websites. Is this ok?

3. To find info, I've been surfing d20 sites and checking for updates. Also, I check for d20 updates at gamingreport.com; I try very strictly to ignore what is actually written at gamingreport and go directly to the d20 site in question. Is that an acceptable approach?

Cheers

John Semlak (Citizen Kane)

 

[Morrus]

Yep, that's a fine approach.

One thing I would caution you to be careful of, though, and that's posting old news. A lot of the news you've been posting has been a week or more old, which is why it hasn't been appearing on the main page (since it's already been there once).

That's no big deal - once you've been doing it for a short while, you'll know what has been posted before because you'll be the one who posted it!

What I plan to do, once you guys are settled in (although, admittedly, it just seems to be you and Peter Parker right now!) is actually giving you access to directly post on the site. Before I do that, though, there are one or two (very, very minor) things I want people to get into the habit of doing for the sake of consistency. That's not to say that it's a better way of doing it, but it does look better if all the news is posted in a uniform manner.

Here are a couple of things:

1) Always link company names to their websites the first time they are mentioned in the item; you don't need to after that.

2) Refer to companies in the plural: Green Ronin have posted... Mystic Eye Games have released. I know it sounds pedantic (it's perfectly acceptable to use the singular, but, as I mentioned before, it looks better if it's consistent).

3) On that note, refer to websites in the singular: Mortality.net has posted... Gamewryd has reviewed etc.

4) If you have a press release, don't post it; but do link to it somewhere in the article. Most people aren't inthe slightest bit interested in press releases - they just want the one-sentence info that that press release breaks down to. But this way, they at least have the choice.

That's about it, really. You've been doing just fine, and once everyone has a nice consistent format I'll be more than happy to let you post directly on the site (it's just like posting a messageboard post).

 

[Citizen Kane]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Citizen Kane]

Morrus

If you could check my most recent posts to see I've made the changes you're looking for, I'd appreciate it.

On the subject of dated news, I had been worried about that. My most recent posting on S&SS's Engel is something I'm not sure about. I couldn't find references to Engel on your site or at gamingreport.com, and it's the first time I've noticed it at S&SS's website. However, S&SS don't put dates on their news (errrr!). How do recommend I check these things out?

Sorry to be such a bother.

 

[Morrus]

Engel's new to me!

As for keeping track - I guess it'll just be a case of, in a few weeks, you'll know something's new otherwise you'd have reported it earlier. Right now you don't know what's been reported because it wasn't reported by you, but it'll be easier.