ATTENTION: iNet

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We need a real news section with real staff writers, Every other major Apple dedicated site has one. Why can't M-F ???

What's the hold up?




Just curious
 
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Agreed.

The Glacial Entity that is iNet has acknowledged in the past that they are lacking. The fact that nothing has been done to date is the reason I refer to them as the "Glacial Entity".

Change on this site is monumentally slow.
 
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We need a real news section with real staff writers, Every other major Apple dedicated site has one. Why can't M-F ???

What's the hold up?




Just curious

So, if we added one, what would make it better or different than all the other Mac news sites that are out there right now?
 
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So, if we added one, what would make it better or different than all the other Mac news sites that are out there right now?

Agreed. I think we need to do this and do it with some dedicated people on hand to write the news. But it'd have to be done different and better then all the rest out there. Think like Apple. What do the people want/need when they are looking on a site for Apple news that is not already out there. And try to forfill that need.
 

chscag

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I have to disagree. As our Admin stated, there are plenty of other Mac news sites out there. And it seems that a majority of the news that is reported is likewise echoed in our "Rumors and Reports" forum. As a matter of fact, the busiest "reporter" we have is none other than you. ;D What then would make a dedicated news forum different?

Regards.
 
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I don't see why the news section has to be different, It would be nice to have a dedicated news section with relevant Apple news, No I'm not talking about iPhone rumors either.
 
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What then would make a dedicated news forum different?

That is a hard question. So I was thinking what to I want to see from an Apple news page? And here are a few points that could be incorprated in.

1. Organised archiving of the news.
All news articles would be organised into destinct categories.
The latest so many news articles would be on the front news page. And the rest (all the stuff that is older than the front page) would be archived into the relevant categories. So say you want to read about some OS X news. You don't have to search through 1000+ news articles. You can just click OS X articles and boom. There they all are.

2. An image search. As in news articles could be entered into more than one category. And one of these caregories could be "news articles with an image attached". So then you could do a search for say hypothetically all news articles with an image and about OS X and you'd get it.

3. A search of the articles by title keyword or author or date posted. I think points 1-3 can be rolled into one big news search feature and it'd work fine.

4. Active moderation of comments of any after each news article. On too many news article comments I've just seen spam. I know it'd take a lot to moderate these comments. But it'd make the news page more respectable.

But if the news articles on the news page are also posted in the forums, then I'd like a link to the relevant forum topic. So it's easy to read people's comments and post comments yourself. And of cause the forum would be moderated to remove all the spam.

5. A blog. I know it's not news per sé. But people like to read a light hearted take on the weeks news. I know the Macworld website has the Macalope. But I would prefer a blog where each time a different member of the forum community posts up a blog. It does not have to be super professionally written. Just the members thoughts and I'm sure a little fix up by a news article writer and it'll be ready to go. I think my point here is a blog where the whole forum community has a chance to partake and not just one person always.

6. A timer countdown clock to the next big Apple event. And if there is more then one event scheduled then more then one clock. Like 2 days 5 hours 45 mins left till the SJ keynote at WWDC for example. But any confirmed keynore or interview or TV show etc involving Apple staff could be there. Then you would know I can prepare my life so I can be online during the live updates of the Apple events that matter to me.

7. A news page designed without flash and to look good on Apple mobile devices as well as the average desktop and notebook computer. We can't assume all readers will be Apple users. A lot of potential switchers could read the news here too.

8. Maybe a poll on the side so we could get some reader feedback and keep the news page always right intune with what the readers needs are. THis would help but it's purely optional.

9. Here is an idea. Totally wacky one. The entire news page works with the above points but it is totally blog based. I'll have to explain this one.

The first part of each news article is the hardcore news. The facts. What we all want to hear about. And the 2nd half is a blog by the author of the article. Saying his felings and thoughts on the article. And different people can contribute to the news or blogs or both. I do like the idea of getting as many people involved as possible. But moderated of cause so a professional standard is kept.

10. A contact email address on the news page. So if "Joe Public" has information on a new breaking Apple story, we could try to validate the source then post it. In short allowing the public to share their Apple news with us.

That is all I can think of now. Just a few ideas I had to make our proposed news page different to all the rest. If I can think of any more ideas I'll post them.
 

chscag

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That's a lot. What you've suggested could almost mean an entire new site, let alone adding another forum, something Admin may balk at. I guess we'll see, but I have a feeling this one may be on the back burner for awhile.

Regards.
 
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That's a lot. What you've suggested could almost mean an entire new site, let alone adding another forum, something Admin may balk at. I guess we'll see, but I have a feeling this one may be on the back burner for awhile.

Regards.

Why the negativity? Every other forum in the world has a news section, Why is it such a big deal to do it here? hmmm maybe laziness ?? you have several members here that are offering to do the news for free ( I assume) and the Mods or iNet don't seem the least bit motivated or interested with the exception of CWA.
 

vansmith

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There's a difference between laziness and usefulness my good man. It is very possible that the owners/admins feel that the idea of a user driven news section is of little benefit to the forums and it's users amidst the myriad of other Apple-centric news sites. Honestly, if those of you who feel that this is a good idea want to prove it's usefulness, demonstrate how you would go about doing it so as to show how it might be different and unique.
 
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The only real reason I could see this idea baing is bandwidth. As internet sites bandwith is not free. And if this new news area generates more bandwidth from more people clicking on it (ie more cost for someone) with little real results other then looking pretty, it just might not be cost effective.

I think the real question we need to ask is:

What is the purpose of Mac-Forums? Why does this place exist?
I think when we know that then we can really work out if the news page is just a really good idea or if it's something we need.
 

iWhat

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Most of the Apple sites that are listed in this thread are news oriented sites before anything else. We are more forum focused more than any of those sites. We did have an aggregated Apple News section on the homepage, and when it was removed, there was not really a concern or backlash among members for the removal.
 

cwa107


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Since we're having a pretty candid conversation about the direction of the forums, and what could make it better, I'll throw in my $0.02 here...

I'd really like to see a "front page" like a lot of forums have. And on that page, I'd like to see a news section, where certain members of distinction can contribute news stories or opinion. We've asked members in the past to volunteer to contribute to the blog, and clearly there is no lack of interest.

I know that iNet is cooking up some changes as we've had some dialog about the future direction of the forums and how we can improve it. So, to those of you concerned that we're not doing our part to try to kick it up a notch, please don't be - we are all interested in seeing this forum improve and flourish.
 
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Thanks for the dialogue everyone. As cwa107 stated, we are working on a redesign of the site including a new home page and a rebirth of our blog with newer and relevant content and opinion pieces of which we'll be asking members to help participate.

However, there are limited resources available to do everything we'd want to be able to do so we need to pick and choose where we deploy those resources whether they're developers from iNet or the volunteer staff that work these forums on a daily basis.

So when we prioritize features or decide on direction, we need to do so strategically, and I'll be honest that moving into creating Apple news just doesn't make alot of sense at the moment. There are so many really great resources already out there, and I mean great, that it would be hard to do it much better than it's already being done.

Of course, we hear what you're saying, and if we ever get more resources or there is a glaring hole in the Apple news world that we could fill, then it's something we can consider, but for the time being, it's definitely not a priority.

I think you'll like some of the changes that will be coming though and especially the blog may add some of what you're looking for in original content from this site.
 

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