Hello and Bye Neowin

[Mando]

2 hours ago, Steven P. said:

Even guests can block sponsored content, the link to instructions is in each of those articles. Judging the whole site by its (user generated) forum content is stupid plus political sections are blocked from guest view (so we don't encourage signups just for that). Open to all feedback, but not stupidity.

Well said ste! 

 

if you dont want to read an article...guess what you have that power, dont click the link...it aint hard to comprehend.

 

why dont some get this, I cannot understand, this site isnt a charity or out there for the better good of humanity, its a business for some, so ads and page hits = income. Its their livelyhood. 

 

I dont get these posts, if your going to leave, leave, it aint hard, just dont return, you dont have to broadcast it!

[The Evil Overlord]

3 minutes ago, Mando said:

Well said ste! 

 

if you dont want to read an article...guess what you have that power, dont click the link...it aint hard to comprehend.

 

why dont some get this, I cannot understand, this site isnt a charity or out there for the better good of humanity, its a business for some, so ads and page hits = income. Its their livelyhood. 

 

I dont get these posts, if your going to leave, leave, it aint hard, just dont return, you dont have to broadcast it!

Or, like a complete idiot, think they're playing it safe by opening another account, rant on that one, and go back to their main account, and continue viewing/commenting.

[+John. Subscriber¹]

[DevTech]

Actually, I think the OP has it backwards.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/28/business/media/jimmy-fallon-tonight-show-ratings-colbert-kimmel-decline.html

 

Jimmy Fallon, in trying to avoid politics has seen his viewers depart in droves...

 

In times of turmoil and upheaval, people don't want a safe haven from politics, they want to make sense out of it somehow and actually object if the giant gorilla in the room is being ignored. It is impossible to please everyone, but Neowin provides a safe well moderated forum with intelligent members to engage in conversation or debate and try to make sense of it all. The tech world does not exist in a vacuum - it is part of an ever changing human civilization and is changed by culture and in turn it has a powerful effect on our culture.

 

To avoid discussing how subjects of interest to Neowin visitors fit in to the greater world is just plain sillyness.

 

 

 

[Nehemoth]

Weird. I can see a lot of discussion on the forums and been from outside united states sometimes I see a lot of Pro Trump (very weird to me) and a lot of people called liberals.

I can see a lot sponsored content but I support that pay the bill BUT at the end of the day I've been on Neowin for the Microsoft related news and I still enjoy it, so that been said, good luck broth'.

 

See ya.

[oldtimefighter]

2 hours ago, LimeMaster said:

I believe OP's issue is with articles like these. The filtering systems you currently have in place do not cover articles with political based content written by the news staff.

Huh? Donald Trump's Twitter account was deactivated and a guy who claimed did it gave an interview. Things involving Twitter will be covered on a tech site. Are we saying if it was Beyoncé's Twitter account the article would be OK? The news involved a politician but it wasn't really about politics. I hate living in the age of snowflakes...

Edited November 30, 2017 by oldtimefighter

[Eric Veteran]

3 hours ago, Jub Fequois said:

Has it really, though? On the front page?

Yes. Any front page story remotely connected to politics or social issues immediately draws drivel.

[xendrome]

58 minutes ago, techbeck said:

Ignore the RWN forums, then not much else to look at.  A lot of forums are just not to active.

I said this about 2-3 years ago. Honestly the Politics/RWN forums should be removed. At least that's what I would do if I wanted a successful tech site, followed with other changes to increase participation in the tech forums. However anything that draws page views generates ad-revenue, so nothing is going to change.

[LimeMaster]

14 minutes ago, oldtimefighter said:

Huh? Donald Trump's Twitter account was deactivated and a guy who claimed did it gave an interview. Things involving Twitter will be covered on a tech site. Are we saying if it was Beyoncé's Twitter account the article would be OK? The news involved a politician but it wasn't really about politics. I hate living in the age of snowflakes...

The problem here is that the article is about a major political figure. It's clear from the OP that Mark is fed up with politics. It's tech related, sure. But it covers controversial content that not everyone is clearly fond of. The comment section probably doesn't help its case either.

[DevTech]

9 minutes ago, xendrome said:

I said this about 2-3 years ago. Honestly the Politics/RWN forums should be removed. At least that's what I would do if I wanted a successful tech site, followed with other changes to increase participation in the tech forums. However anything that draws page views generates ad-revenue, so nothing is going to change.

I don't think the path to improving Neowin involves removing anything. Figuring that out would just be a distraction.

 

Quite the opposite. It needs more stuff! The tech content needs to be "techier" and not just an endless stream of product announcements. More reviews of real equipment used by real tech people instead of metal eye candy. Investigative analysis. Trends. More editorials and opinion pieces. Get some tech excitement happening!

 

[fusi0n]

The forums have a lot of active politics.  However, there isn't a lot of that in the news sections. If you go to the verge or ars, the front pages are plagues with propaganda political BS

2 minutes ago, DevTech said:

 It needs more stuff! The tech content needs to be "techier" and not just an endless Stream of product announcements. More reviews of real equipment used by real tech people instead of metal eye candy. Investigative analysis. Trends. More editorials and opinion pieces. Get some tech excitement happening!

 

This is pretty much spot on for neowin.

[+Warwagon MVC]

I wonder how often he looked at the "People bitching about Trump" forum

[Jim K Global Moderator]

^ Considering he registered today ... probably never.  The Domestic Politics subforum doesn't appear unless you're registered. 

 

[DConnell Member]

1 hour ago, techbeck said:

Ignore the RWN forums, then not much else to look at.  A lot of forums are just not to active.

The best way to fix that is to post more non-political content. More fun stuff in Member's Metropolis, for instance. Or a review of your latest toy.

 

Maybe I should take my pwn advice and pay more attention to my Transformers collection thread in the Hobby Room.

[techbeck]

14 minutes ago, DConnell said:

The best way to fix that is to post more non-political content. More fun stuff in Member's Metropolis, for instance. Or a review of your latest toy.

 

Maybe I should take my pwn advice and pay more attention to my Transformers collection thread in the Hobby Room.

Well, a lot of the people who posted tech a lot are no longer here.   Some also stated they are leaving because of what the forums  are like now.  There are also a few members here who make a lot of noise and put off people posting or commenting as well.  But as long as the trouble brings clicks, it seems to be ignored.

[Nick H. Supervisor]

I don't mind reading and discussing politics and real world news and issues most of the time. When there are times that I don't want to read such things I just ignore the necessary areas.

 

Although as has been pointed out, this person in particular wouldn't have even seen those forums if they only registered today, which suggests they are talking about front page articles. In those situations I find it very easy to not click on a link if the article doesn't interest me. I also don't find the articles to be political though, the above example of Trump's Twitter account has absolutely nothing to do with politics. It is to do with a man coming forward saying that he deactivated the account by accident. There was no political agenda on his part, the only link to politics is that the account belongs to Donald Trump. Is this article political? How about this one? Or this one? They all mention areas of government (well the one with the Queen is a bit grey, she's the head of state not the head of government).

 

I can't say I've noticed anything politically charged in the articles themselves. Our community might bring political discussion in to the comments section of said articles, but then you can just ignore the comments section.

[techbeck]

5 minutes ago, Nick H. said:

Although as has been pointed out, this person in particular wouldn't have even seen those forums if they only registered today,

You don't need to be logged in to the site to view the RWN forums.  There is political posts just in RWN and RWI.  He probably would have been fed up a couple years earlier if he saw the Domestic forums...or just by reading all the troll posts.

[Jim K Global Moderator]

7 minutes ago, techbeck said:

You don't need to be logged in to the site to view the RWN forums.  There is political posts just in RWN and RWI.  He probably would have been fed up a couple years earlier if he saw the Domestic forums.

Right ... just the Domestics Politics subforum isn't visible until you've registered. 

 

RWI/RWN is visible to non-members ... and political discussions can spill over (due to the nature of the original topic).

[Steven P. Administrators]

5 minutes ago, techbeck said:

You don't need to be logged in to the site to view the RWN forums.

RWN isn't allowed to have political discussions though? Although I admit, since the start of 2016 everything is now political, be it SJW, snowflakes/ultra left or right or someone being offended for their beliefs  

[Nick H. Supervisor]

2 minutes ago, techbeck said:

You don't need to be logged in to the site to view the RWN forums.  There is political posts just in RWN and RWI.  He probably would have been fed up a couple years earlier if he saw the Domestic forums.

Huh, you're right. It's been a while since I've been logged out.

 

The point still stands though. If you don't want to read something from those forums then no one is forcing you to do so. Likewise for front page articles. I don't understand the need to leave a site (and do so publicly) when there is plenty of other great content to read.

[techbeck]

4 minutes ago, Jim K said:

Right ... just the Domestics Politics subforum isn't visible until you've registered. 

 

RWI/RWN is visible to non-members ... and I guess political discussion can spill over (due to the nature of the original topic).

A lot of the forums are trolled and turned in to politcal issues/attacks in those forums and some people do post political topics there.

4 minutes ago, Steven P. said:

RWN isn't allowed to have political discussions though? Although I admit, since the start of 2016 everything is now political, be it SJW, snowflakes or someone being offended for their beliefs  

Not sure I understand the question.  But things have been more non tech related on this site starting before 2016.  I used to come to this site years ago and ask questions on issues and get several replies back soon after.  Now, I am lucky to get one reply so I stopped posting those topics.  Then there are members that ruin any change of having an actual adult/good conversation about a topic.  I miss the Neowin of old and I know a lot of members agree.

[techbeck]

6 minutes ago, Nick H. said:

 I don't understand the need to leave a site (and do so publicly) when there is plenty of other great content to read.

The content in other forums besides RWN is becoming more and more lacking.  Looking at the last post time now, most of the forums are hours or days since the last reply.  It is like that a lot while RWN seems to always have some action.  So really, ignore all RWN posts and not a lot left to read.   And no forum activity or lack of replies puts people off on posting new content.  Site needs to go back to being tech focused and issues need to be addressed as well.

[The Evil Overlord]

Maybe we should create a discussion thread about this and lock this one, as it seems to be generating a lot of conversation and it's clear, the opening statement was just a rant

[Steven P. Administrators]

12 minutes ago, techbeck said:

A lot of the forums are trolled and turned in to politcal issues/attacks in those forums and some people do post political topics there.

Not sure I understand the question.  But things have been more non tech related on this site starting before 2016.  I used to come to this site years ago and ask questions on issues and get several replies back soon after.  Now, I am lucky to get one reply so I stopped posting those topics.  Then there are members that ruin any change of having an actual adult/good conversation about a topic.  I miss the Neowin of old and I know a lot of members agree.

I think that's isolated, I have seen tech related questions get answered within minutes,. or at least within the day/short amount of time.

 

You stopping asking your questions has actually contributed to the decrease of activity, with fewer active topics and replies, of course it's going to get worse, so why contribute to that?

 

The OPs statement isn't all that intelligent to me, and even lacks actual examples yet here we are at the end of page two of replies.

[DevTech]

29 minutes ago, Steven P. said:

The OPs statement isn't all that intelligent to me, and even lacks actual examples yet here we are at the end of page two of replies.

It's the old "There are no stupid questions.."

 

Lots of points and discussion has been sparked by whatever the original post was. It can all be worthless of course or a point that is useless can spark a reply that leads to a discussion that sparks a great idea for you.

 

Too many people get annoyed by threads that go off-topic, yet if anyone in the universe can recognize that crazy process as a wellspring of human creativity, it should be the tech people at Neowin!