New Feature: Report a problem (with news)

[Marshalus Veteran]

Despite having one of the best writing teams, and having the most outstanding editors :whistle: ... from time to time here on Neowin we make mistakes in our news articles. Typos, broken links, grammatical errors, images that won't load, etc... because our members are so helpful and observant they sometimes read these errors and attempt to alert us to it within the news comments. Unfortunately this isn't exactly the best place to do so, because it can either go unseen by an editorial staff member or can sometimes derail a discussion about the topic into a discussion about how we goofed up.

To help combat these types of situations, we've added a new "Report a problem" feature to the news viewing area. You'll find it located right next to the rating starts inside a news post.

When you click the link, you'll be taken to a page that will display the article again and then at the bottom will ask you to quote the section that is incorrect and then make a suggestion to fix the error.

We then have a special section within the News Operations control panel that allows us to quickly see the errors and take action. Not only is this faster for us, it also keeps the comments about the topic of the story and not about how we as writers/editors are human beings who make mistakes.

We are making constant strides in our news process and have come a long way in a short period in terms of content and frequency of updates in the main page. We hope that you'll make use of this new feature and help us to improve the quality of our news postings. Thanks!

Michael Stanclift (Marshalus)

Managing Editor

Edited February 11, 2009 by Marshalus

[spd21]

Will be very useful :)

[Simon Veteran]

We can't forget how fantastic the developers are, either >.>

[Marshalus Veteran]

We can't forget how fantastic the developers are, either >.>

Ah yes, I apologize. Thanks to Simon for coding this for us, all within a few hours. :yes:

[Phantom Limb]

I hate to call something like this a very useful addition because I fairly rarely see an editing error of any kind, but;

This is a very useful addition :D

And a good job to Simon, lol.

[Andrew Lyle Global Moderator]

Unfortunately this isn't exactly the best place to do so, because it can either go unseen my an editorial staff member or can sometimes derail a discussion about the topic into a discussion about how we goofed up.

Just like that ;)

Great example putting a mistake in the thread about mistakes, I never would of thought of that ;)

[Shane Pitman]

It should be added that we didn't implement this tool for people to submit "This isn't news" or "why is this on the front page" remarks in regards to the subject matter being presented. It's safe to say that if it's there, we want it to be there. Those who abuse this tool will be dealt with in the same manner as those who abuse the thread reporting tools in the forums.

[Sam Symons Veteran]

It's safe to say that if it's there, we want it to be there.

:yes:

[Andrew Lyle Global Moderator]

It should be added that we didn't implement this tool for people to submit "This isn't news" or "why is this on the front page" remarks in regards to the subject matter being presented. It's safe to say that if it's there, we want it to be there.

Thanks shane :yes:

[Chaks]

It should be added that we didn't implement this tool for people to submit "This isn't news" or "why is this on the front page" remarks in regards to the subject matter being presented. It's safe to say that if it's there, we want it to be there. Those who abuse this tool will be dealt with in the same manner as those who abuse the thread reporting tools in the forums.

Great! Thanks :)

[That Guy Veteran]

This will be great, thanks!

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Good move. This can and probably will further improve the quality of the news items.

[Calum Veteran]

Agreed. This will be very useful as we are all human, anyone can make a mistake.

I just hope people don't abuse this feature.

[Rappy Veteran]

Great feature (Y)

I know I suffered from people commenting about my grammar and it drove me crazy!

[Marshalus Veteran]

Just like that ;)

Great example putting a mistake in the thread about mistakes, I never would of thought of that ;)

I know, I'm a genius :D

[jelli]

Good idea, news comments were really getting out of hand with people complaining about the smallest of things.

[Crazysah]

Nice idea and nice feature. Good addition and I am sure lots of people will use it.

[Marshalus Veteran]

Actually, in a perfect world we'd not make these mistakes and hopefully not see any reports ;) It's one feature we encourage people to use but hope they don't have to. Sort of like reported posts.

[Chris-Gonzales]

Great feature (Y)

I know I suffered from people commenting about my grammar and it drove me crazy!

I think such comments should be deleted, as they are no where related to the topic it self.

[ViZioN]

Cool feature. Hopefully it won't be needed much!

I think such comments should be deleted, as they are no where related to the topic it self.

I can see it from both sides. The poster obviously wants people to comment on the news article and its quality but if I'm reading an article I also want it to make sense and use correct grammar.

[Rappy Veteran]

Cool feature. Hopefully it won't be needed much!

I can see it from both sides. The poster obviously wants people to comment on the news article and its quality but if I'm reading an article I also want it to make sense and use correct grammar.

I can see it from your view but the people who used to comment on mine used to scrutinise on one word being spelt wrong.

[ViZioN]

I can see it from your view but the people who used to comment on mine used to scrutinise on one word being spelt wrong.

Well that's a bit over the top! Proof read + spell checker should eliminate that though :)

[Rappy Veteran]

Well that's a bit over the top! Proof read + spell checker should eliminate that though :)

Yeah but even spell checkers can be wrong sometimes.

[tiagosilva29]

It would also be interesting to have a pong on our own submissions: when they were accepted and if they were not accepted, the reason why.

[Marshalus Veteran]

The biggest reasons submissions are not accepted is:

- Formatting is so far out of our style that we can't spend time to fixing it.

- Story is going to be covered or is already covered by our team.

I can have the devs look into adding something in a future update to our code though. It is something that I'd like to have.