Too *much* news?


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While I like updated Front Page News, is it possible that we are getting too much of a good thing here?

Currently, the front page has mini-descriptions for only posts from the past 7 hours. Some news posts marked as only 7 hours old have already been pushed down into the 1-liner area. What I saw briefly this morning before heading to work is now in the area that I guess is pretty much avoided by most people - and I haven't even left work yet. :ermm:

And 30 hours is the limit for anything even being seen on the front page.

I know that a Front Page revamp has been discussed on staff for a while, and I assume that news display longevity will likely be addressed in any future changes.

But, until that time, is Neowin doing itself a bit of disservice in pushing news out so quickly? It is hard (nearly impossible) to have any sort of discussion in the time period to make a post in the AM before work, and have the thread nearly buried by the time I get back home.

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I have to agree with you but I suppose the problem is the big "race" to have the most current news on the front page! If you are behind other sites and they are already talking about a news item then the posters at Neowin will be bombarded by the old favourite, "This is old news."

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Well, hm... I'm not sure how many others think similarly, but I feel that a lot of what goes onto the news page isn't really news. Taking a look at it currently, we see, for example, AMD Radeon HD 3870 X2 Review!

Perhaps pretty much everything should be within a category of its own, e.g. a tab/section for 'Hardware' and one that holds all news about an actual business, i.e. the ones on the main page now: Dell Opens Second European Plant in Poland , Apple senior execs get bonuses, Jobs still at $1 and CPU giants locked in stalemate.

Hm, but then I guess that's taking away some of the convenience of accessing the news with only one click... having a simple front page with one-liners that are stored within precise sections might be a better idea? I'm not particularly well up on my organisational website capabilities, but I think this would make it easier to see what's been going on in a day rather than having to check the site every hour in case you missed anything big!

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I enjoy having a ton of news to read, although like you said, when I first logged on today, about 5 new stories for me were already compressed, which isn't so cool.

We need less compression :p

-Spenser

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Hm, but then I guess that's taking away some of the convenience of accessing the news with only one click... having a simple front page with one-liners that are stored within precise sections might be a better idea? I'm not particularly well up on my organisational website capabilities, but I think this would make it easier to see what's been going on in a day rather than having to check the site every hour in case you missed anything big!

Like this? https://www.neowin.net/index.php?view=headlines

I suggested breaking off a hardware section but it was decided that then there would be not enough content in the main tab. Actually I've made tons of suggestions, as have other members of staff, but we never seem to end up agreeing on which course to take. I believe the devs are working on something to fix the problem, as it has been a problem for quite a while, but what that is I have no clue.

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Like this? https://www.neowin.net/index.php?view=headlines

I suggested breaking off a hardware section but it was decided that then there would be not enough content in the main tab. Actually I've made tons of suggestions, as have other members of staff, but we never seem to end up agreeing on which course to take. I believe the devs are working on something to fix the problem, as it has been a problem for quite a while, but what that is I have no clue.

That headlines view is a lot better, compact-wise! However, I just don't think it seems... valuable enough, if that makes any sense. There should be some way, with that Headlines view, to access some kind of 'snippet' or some-such very easily. Perhaps either through a tooltip when you hover over a specific headline, or perhaps a collapsible method?

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I just read the headlines so I don't mind the amount of news reported on neowin. I guess the default view of the full neowin short minus the comments may be excessive with so many things happening in a day.

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I thought about the exact same thing this morning, but if the most recent news gets posted 1 or 2 days later there will be a genious which will have to say "Welcome to yesterday".

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Yeah, too many too close together to have any sort of discussion. Plus some of them lately are hardly front page worthy in my opinion.

I second that, especially the "too close" part. Some logos are almost bigger than the snippet posted. The proportions aren't right anymore and the amount of information is, as MarkJensen stated, enormous. I only tend to check the page up to three times in a day, now I'll almost have to check it hourly in order to be able to read everything.

Sorry Neowin, this is a change I don't like.

Edit: Huleboeren, each to its own but this doesn't change the current news display. Neowin's main priority is news, a lot of news, but it has to remain readable.

Edited by Couch Potato
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Perhaps either through a tooltip when you hover over a specific headline, or perhaps a collapsible method?

Both have been suggested and rejected. I personally would love a collapsible option, a kind of merge of category and headline, meaning a story you have read won't take up much place any more when you collapse it, but I'm sure the devs will think of something better when they have the time :)

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I agree that there is too much news being posted. Not only that but the current trend of hiding sources until you click "...Read More" is irritating and masks on quick glance where the news is coming from - I think that's worrying for Neowin (it's harder to see if most stories come from the same place) and for the other sites (it looks more like Neowin is claiming their news). I think the frontpage is in need of some reform, though quite what should be I don't know.

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People moan if there's not enough news and moan if there's too much. It's a no win situation that has been discussed 1000s of times before
I like the amount of news. I never said it was bad - just the way it is currently displayed is counterproductive. As an example, EL1TE posted a news item that was posted 2 days earlier, because it didn't show up on the first page, it wasn't easy to see it was already posted. My first post clearly stated that the extra news was good, but the way the FPN was set up, it was almost too much of a good thing.

Just because it has been discussed 1000 times before, doesn't mean that there cannot be a solution.

Sorry for posting and offending with my bitching and moaning.

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We are in the process of implementing a different, 2 column, layout. This means more but smaller news items on the main page

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I like the amount of news. I never said it was bad - just the way it is currently displayed is counterproductive. As an example, EL1TE posted a news item that was posted 2 days earlier, because it didn't show up on the first page, it wasn't easy to see it was already posted. My first post clearly stated that the extra news was good, but the way the FPN was set up, it was almost too much of a good thing.

Just because it has been discussed 1000 times before, doesn't mean that there cannot be a solution.

Sorry for posting and offending with my bitching and moaning.

When I said it's been discussed a 1000 times before I didn't mention there is a solution coming as well like Marcel has just confirmed.

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I agree that there is too much news being posted. Not only that but the current trend of hiding sources until you click "...Read More" is irritating and masks on quick glance where the news is coming from - I think that's worrying for Neowin (it's harder to see if most stories come from the same place) and for the other sites (it looks more like Neowin is claiming their news). I think the frontpage is in need of some reform, though quite what should be I don't know.

'Read More' seems to be a recent change and I agree that it's deceiving (but I'm sure it's unintentional).

If people want to 'read more', then surely they would just click the link to the source in the first place?

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If people want to 'read more', then surely they would just click the link to the source in the first place?

Yeah, but we've also recently been moving more towards in-house generated content, instead of 100% copy and paste.

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Yeah, but we've also recently been moving more towards in-house generated content, instead of 100% copy and paste.

Now that's great to hear. *moves to fpn*

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I agree that there is too much news being posted. Not only that but the current trend of hiding sources until you click "...Read More" is irritating and masks on quick glance where the news is coming from - I think that's worrying for Neowin (it's harder to see if most stories come from the same place) and for the other sites (it looks more like Neowin is claiming their news). I think the frontpage is in need of some reform, though quite what should be I don't know.

Not just "hiding" the sources, when I posted the news about the Tomato Firmware; they edited my source out completely and my comment on the news stating the source was edited out got deleted. Nice huh?

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Not just "hiding" the sources, when I posted the news about the Tomato Firmware; they edited my source out completely and my comment on the news stating the source was edited out got deleted. Nice huh?

Did you put your own site as the source, instead of the real source?

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