7 replies to this topic

[MARKUKCOUK]

Modaco used to be the best source of WM news, despite being fairly new compared with other sites, and having no proper 'news team'.

Recently I've noticed the news side of the site is now very poor indeed.

Take the Lobster 700 - a new device, a well known new device, and no coverage of the launch whatsoever.

News only seems to appear if a) a member of the site is at a trade fair or Paul has a new device and asks for questions.

I know you can only post when there is valid news, but I believe there has been, and most have been completely missed by Modaco.

I wonder if this happened when the submit news forum was replaced by the tipOff thing.  Are the mods too lazy/busy to convert these tips to newsposts, whereas before they just had to move the topic.

Most importantly, does anyone else agree?

[PaulOBrien]

I'd be the first to agree that we could be better at news, and it's something i'm trying to improve on, but it's actually not easy to build a team to help post news you know

I try to post the news myself whenever I can, unfortunately sometimes it's just not feasible to post everything myself, and attempts to recruit a news team in the past haven't been very successful.

With regards to the Lobster launch, what coverage were you looking for? I'm 80% done on a review that will be online tomorrow, of the phone that I bought with my own money in order to get the review up.

The TIPoff concept is just the same as the submit news forum behind the scenes, but with the aim of making it more accessible to people who want to submit news.

So are you volunteering to help with the News Mark?



P

[Alex (nedge2k)]

i agree and it's mainly my fault. we got rid of the news team when i came on board and due to unforseen circumstances, i haven't had as much time as i'd have hoped to keep the news side of things going by myself...i've let things slide a bit. we are working to improve the situation. keeping news coverage fresh and exciting isn't as easy as you'd think

[Pete]

Maybe it's connected, but I wonder if the tipoff thing's not working as it should?

I submitted a tip/news a while back and heard nothing at all by way of reply.  It wasn't earth shattering, but even a reply to say "sorry your tip was pants" would have been better than nothing at all.  Makes me wonder if it was received at all, or if the system lost it.

[PaulOBrien]

We've had some issues with TIPoff, but they are definitely resolved now.

P

[Alex (nedge2k)]

yep...i wrote a super duper script for it

[MARKUKCOUK]

Hi all,

Cheers for the replies.  Didn't mean to come across as bitchy.  To answer some of the questions directed back at me..

Paul, just a simple note to say its been launched would be nice.  Even if the news is done in a bit of a Neowin way of just snippits with links to other sites.

Modaco is a first port of call for me, and the RSS feed sits proudly in my Firefox toolbars.

Also Paul (here's the love-in part), I realise how much effort you put to Modaco, time and money, and it really wasn't a dig at anyone in particular, least of all yourself.

I've had quite a few 'tips' that have made it to the frontpage... the world cup 1 gig Orange thing was one of the most recent though.  Maybe I should get posting some more! Although I'd probably end up with some numpty having a go at me for not posting enough

[PaulOBrien]

Well, if you want to join the currently-being-formed news team (and this applies to everyone), PM nedge2k...

P