How many members think Neowin is declining?


How many members think Neowin is declining?  

153 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you think Neowin's members, staff, site, news, forums and etc are declining?

    • Yes
      62
    • No
      91


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I've been here for a couple of years and haven't had a problem, nor have I been warned, and I'm sure there are many like me.

Follow the rules and there shouldn't really be a problem.

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I can't really comment on not getting a trial run for being on the News Team as I'm not sure on how the application process works. Maybe Marshalus can answer that for you.

I try and reply back to every job application that I get, and I get a lot. With the level of messages that I get on a daily basis, I may miss some. I'm a busy guy :p

However, if someone has a warning level that is bursting at the seams and somehow thinks that they're going to make it on to the staff... they're sadly mistaken.

Staffing for the news teams was dealt with by Marshalus, Tom W, and Shane Pitman. As such they need to comment on this, however they reviewed every submission that was sent to them. The "best of the best" was picked, and were offered trial runs. They wanted to reply to everyone who replied to let them know why they didn't "make the grade" so to speak, but there were that many applications they couldn't do it fairly and give everyone the amount of feedback they probably deserved. If you want to know what could've been done to improve your submission - try speaking to one of those guys who might be able to help in that department.

Like I said, I try and reply to everything. If you're interested in working for Neowin please e-mail me at marshalus@neowin.net and we'll talk about it.

You do realize you can apply to be a news writer if you despise the current news staff so much? Write your own original content, and let's see how people judge you on your articles.

Yep. marshalus@neowin.net -- we're always hiring. (Brining someone new on today actually.)

Also, if you have news you're interested in submitting to the site, we have a Submit to Newsdesk link on the front page. Feel free to contribute.

The overwhelming majority of members I talk to have a very positive opinion of the direction we've taken with the front page. Those who don't are welcome to their opinion and free to either offer their own contributions, offer constructive feedback, or go somewhere else. We're not going to stop doing what we're doing because of a handful of people who are really just troublemakers.

Traffic to the site since October when we made big changes in the news has been UP over 60% and user registrations were up last month - I don't think that people who dislike what they see are going to keep coming back.

Edited by Marshalus
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Hey

I have a feeling this will get closed as Neowin doesnt even accept constructive criticism but oh well...

Looks like it's still open to me, perhaps you're way off on your assumptions. :ermm:

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This thread in itself, serves no purpose to the greater good of Neowin. Telling the mods and admins, you "think the site is declining", is going to get you know where. It will only serve to create another thread that will ultimatly end in a load of flames and end up closed.

The only purpose of this thread is for the OP to vent his frustrations, which stem from disciplinary actions which have been taken against him as a direct result of his not being able to follow the rules here, not once, but repeatedly since his account was registered. That's all this is about, whether the OP wants to admit it or not, and historically that's what sparks the majority of these threads. The tools are in place for every member to contribute to Neowin, to make it a better community. Don't like what's on the front page? Use the Submit to Newsdesk link. See a problem in the forums or the news comments? Click the Report button. Think you'd make a good addition to the staff? Try making an example by being a good addition to the community first. Constantly violating the rules of any society is no way to gain respect and admiration among the peers of that society, and Neowin is no different.

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To what extent does running news on the Pirate Bay trial qualify as Neowin condoning piracy?

It's not the trial coverage that people have an issue with. It's stuff like this...

Giving out the names of the files so others can search with them is a violation of the site rules.
Anyone looking for a warez'd copy of the new build only has to look at the front page to see what to search for.

If it's not acceptable to post ISO names or anything of the like in the forums, it shouldn't be posted on the front page either.

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I don't think it's declining in the way that the OP said, I think it's declining in activity. It seems like it takes longer to get threads replied to than it used to, or maybe it's just me I dunno..

As for the mods and rules here, it's been like this forever, so if you're complaining then you're probably not used to posting here.

Personally, I love posting here at Neowin, it's a great community :D

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I don't think it's declining in the way that the OP said, I think it's declining in activity. It seems like it takes longer to get threads replied to than it used to, or maybe it's just me I dunno..

As for the mods and rules here, it's been like this forever, so if you're complaining then you're probably not used to posting here.

Personally, I love posting here at Neowin, it's a great community :D

Then I guess you'll be pleasantly surprised by the monthly stats for January :)

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Complaining about the pirate bay trials being posted on the frontpage is stupid, it is relevant tech news and is not giving them free publicity. Thats like me saying that the bbc news are promoting the taliban by doing news stories on them :hmmm: I think Neowin is still a quality site and shows no sign of declining, although I do think some fanboys are getting out of control (On both sides of the companies).

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The only problem on Neowin right now is the over powering fanboys and people trying to use the forums to stroke their ego. There are some very intelligent and interesting members in this community, but they get over powered by the influx of a small few who insist on acting like morons and posting things that contribute nothing to the discussion. If you have nothing interesting to say that contributes to the topic on hand, it may be best to not say anything at all.

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My only personal issue with Neowin is that sometimes I feel that there are only a handful of members. In the sense of that you see a select group of people (to use an analogy, the "popular" people at school) who post to each other in a thread. Even if myself or others make valid points in between than need answering, they are ignored to usually talk about how hot some girl is in a TV show. How old are we again?

Then again, this would apply to all forums I guess, but this sort of thing does put me off posting sometimes, the why bother attitude.

Another issue I have is the Stardock issue. I remember once that a new premium theme was released for WB. A member said it wasnt up to scratch and to my surprise he was banned within 5 minutes. I messaged some Admins but got the generic reply and nothing else back. Again why bother?

I'm done.

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The only problem on Neowin right now is the over powering fanboys and people trying to use the forums to stroke their ego.

We must mark this as the time we both agreed the most (Y)

That is why my signature of the last couple of days.

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it's not just neowin that's slow as can be right now, it's everywhere. ive noticed a huge decline on all of the forums i belong too. it's weird because during the winter months everybody should be online because it's too damn cold to do anything outside.

but anyways, yes i have noticed a big decline on here lately.

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I'm just curious. Everybody keeps talking about everything declining, so.....

Can you guys point me to things that are happening now on this forum that haven't been happening before?

At least as long as I've been a part of this forum, I haven't really noticed any considerable change for the negative that hasn't been around already.

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I'm just curious. Everybody keeps talking about everything declining, so.....

Can you guys point me to things that are happening now on this forum that haven't already happened earlier?

At least as long as I've been a part of this forum, I haven't really noticed any considerable change.

ive noticed a lack of new threads and people replying. sometimes it's just dead around here.

jcxp and others i belong too are far worse though. :(

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The annual Neowin now sucks thread, these kind of threads have been around for years. :rolleyes:

Lol. Sadly, you are right.

I myself used to create these once or twice in my earlier days... after i was warned :rofl:

The only purpose of this thread is for the OP to vent his frustrations, which stem from disciplinary actions which have been taken against him as a direct result of his not being able to follow the rules here, not once, but repeatedly since his account was registered. That's all this is about, whether the OP wants to admit it or not, and historically that's what sparks the majority of these threads. The tools are in place for every member to contribute to Neowin, to make it a better community. Don't like what's on the front page? Use the Submit to Newsdesk link. See a problem in the forums or the news comments? Click the Report button. Think you'd make a good addition to the staff? Try making an example by being a good addition to the community first. Constantly violating the rules of any society is no way to gain respect and admiration among the peers of that society, and Neowin is no different.

Agree completely

My only personal issue with Neowin is that sometimes I feel that there are only a handful of members. In the sense of that you see a select group of people (to use an analogy, the "popular" people at school) who post to each other in a thread. Even if myself or others make valid points in between than need answering, they are ignored to usually talk about how hot some girl is in a TV show. How old are we again?

Then again, this would apply to all forums I guess, but this sort of thing does put me off posting sometimes, the why bother attitude.

Another issue I have is the Stardock issue. I remember once that a new premium theme was released for WB. A member said it wasnt up to scratch and to my surprise he was banned within 5 minutes. I messaged some Admins but got the generic reply and nothing else back. Again why bother?

I'm done.

Sadly, there is nothing that can be done on either issue. FIrstly, people will reply to who they feel posted something interesting. Unfortunatly, if they didnt reply to your post, they either found it less interesting as other material, or likely, skimmed the thread and didnt bother reading each post.

The issue on the banning. Well, this used to get to me also. However, after being warned an temp banned before myself, i returned knowing people had asked questions which i did not want them knowing the answer to about the banning. I was pleased the modderators and admins etc had kept it to themselves as they do.

The generic reply is because, quite frankly, its none of your business why someone got banned. You might think it was because of what they posted, but there may be other posts they made that caused the bannage, or it was an already banned member who signed up under another name.

Really, i dont understand why you would let things like that bother you?

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I still love this place.

The only thing that gripes me is no notification for my subscription running out (have PM'ed a mod, but no response!)

Either way, I'm renewing.

For fun, I will point out a lovely mistype from Fred earlier this evening: golden!

We do not and will not support privacy. However we cannot verify that the person asking a Windows 7 question is a beta tester, went to the PDC and got a build, or maybe work at Microsoft and one day they handed out a beta build for employee's to play with. If you go in there and claim you torrented your copy then you will get a warning and possibly a restriction.

Is your real name Mark Zuckerberg? :) :)

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Anybody can submit news, I've done it a few times. If you keep it up and it's a good standard you'll probably get noticed by the editors.

And you have been credited by the news staff? This happens alot (using the "Submit News" function).

@mclaren05:

I do not think Neowin is declining one bit. It has improved so much over the past year and it seems to be continuously getting better.

Even though I am new to the staff, I have been an active member on Neowin for some time; therefore, I would like to respond to some of the points you raised:

  • If you do not like the new theme, you may change it back. Neowin has always given the user this much freedom in customising their experience. I personally think this new theme, Finity, is refreshing and the best one yet.
  • If you could please tell me, when has any Neowin staff member closed a topic like this just because somebody criticises Neowin? The only way a person can improve a website is through suggestions and constructive criticism. As Redmak said, however, where is the constructive part in your criticism? Would you like to offer some suggestions in this Site and Forum Issues forum?
  • Perhaps you could please explain how you think the quality of news articles is getting worse? I personally think the quality of news articles is much better than it was a year ago as they all tend to be original now (apart from the useful 'Around the Web' section) and the News Staff are fantastic in their detail and accuracy within their articles. Also, we now have a member of staff dedicated to producing editorials and a member of staff dedicated to reviewing. I think the news division really is just getting better and better. I see now fault with it.
  • The only fault I ever see in any part of the news section is that sometimes there is the odd spelling or grammatical error in an article. Everybody can make mistakes and because of this Neowin's Developers have recently added a handy 'Report a Problem' feature in which you can report any error you see in any article. For a quick reminder, here is a screenshot of how to do this or for more information, please visit https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?show...734026&st=0

Thank you.

First, I would like to welcome you to the staff and hope you yourself can make these problems better.

Now onto your post.

- I do not like the theme as there are many things wrong with it. I do congrad the staff for their hard work but not backporting certain features from the new theme to the old theme seems wrong to me. This anyhow is minor personal issue

- :huh: I am posting in the Site & Forums issues....

Off the topic of my head, I cannot right now give you a example

- The stories are pretty nonfrontpage such as "iPhone gets MMS" (where it really does not) and "some guy names x says Windows is better than OS X and Linux" (no OS is better than another and even if it was what do I care what guy x says?)

- Ive seen that new feature and I hope it makes things alot better

We'll that made me feel a whole lot better!............

Just like that:

We will that made me feel a while lot better!........

And this is a thread post! IMO Unacceptable....News writers should be top notch (can't be compared to regular members)

To add to my post, mclaren05.

Staff members at Neowin do not "warn for the smallest thing", we warn members for breaching any of the rules they agreed to when signing up to the website and forums.

I think that is very fair :)

I cannot discuss the reasons Ive been warned but Im not the only one that says that staff members warn for the smallest thing.

There is something I would like to point out:

In this thread a staff member has thrown a subminal at me. He did not talk about himself nor did he talk about me but he refered to us as staff and member and insulted me but of course since it is a subminal noone knows who he is talking about and of course this staff member isnt talking about himself but just a "staff member".

I believe if this happened the other way around (I thru a subminal at a staff member and he saw it) I would get warned, especially the insult he has made towards me. Completely uncalled for and the one of the reasons I think cleanup should be done in the staff area.

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And you have been credited by the news staff? This happens alot (using the "Submit News" function).

Yes, I'm attributed just as the newsies are (albeit with my forum name, not my real name :p).

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The only purpose of this thread is for the OP to vent his frustrations, which stem from disciplinary actions which have been taken against him as a direct result of his not being able to follow the rules here, not once, but repeatedly since his account was registered. That's all this is about, whether the OP wants to admit it or not, and historically that's what sparks the majority of these threads. The tools are in place for every member to contribute to Neowin, to make it a better community. Don't like what's on the front page? Use the Submit to Newsdesk link. See a problem in the forums or the news comments? Click the Report button. Think you'd make a good addition to the staff? Try making an example by being a good addition to the community first. Constantly violating the rules of any society is no way to gain respect and admiration among the peers of that society, and Neowin is no different.

Vent my frustrations would be to give a finger to the staff members, cursing all over this thread, etc. AFAIK, this has been a normal thread. You are just stiring up the pot by saying "The only purpose of this thread is for the OP to vent his frustrations, which stem from disciplinary actions which have been taken against him as a direct result of his not being able to follow the rules here, not once, but repeatedly since his account was registered.". Is this comment really neccesary? And on that note, this seems to be (I feel) like this is a personal attack since I have been singled out in this post. But is Shane going to be warned/his post removed? Nope.

This thread is because certain actions that have been against me I find incorrect and about the frontpage article on Apple. I find that story and posting it on the frontpage to be screaming, "Come here and flame about your favorite OS!"

"My frustrations" dont compare to the anger I got from reading your post Shane and both dont compare at all to the subminal I recieved without being able to do nothing about it from that staff member. But life goes on and for the record it seems this is not a one sided poll and there are much others that think like me :)

Yes, I'm attributed just as the newsies are (albeit with my forum name, not my real name :p).

So Subscribers do get credit? Because Ive seens a bunch of times (granted it has gotten alot better lately, one point where Neowin is getting better) people complain about them submiting the news use the function and a couple of days laters a staff member "Added." then adds the members name to the article.

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Here (IMO) is a example of how Neowin declines:

https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?show...737316&st=0

This member is asking for a keylogger so he can record what his niece is doing to protect her/find out if she is doing anything wrong. That is the topic and (AFAIK) it is legal to talk about this type of stuff on Neowin. The thread has derailed into a 3 page parenting lesson on why he shouldnt do it. Like someone said, it is a tech forum.

This a couple of years ago would not have happened. People would have posted keyloggers, maybe 0-2 people post about how he shouldnt, and end of thread in about 7 posts (less than a page).

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Here (IMO) is a example of how Neowin declines:

https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?show...737316&st=0

This member is asking for a keylogger so he can record what his niece is doing to protect her/find out if she is doing anything wrong. That is the topic and (AFAIK) it is legal to talk about this type of stuff on Neowin. The thread has derailed into a 3 page parenting lesson on why he shouldnt do it. Like someone said, it is a tech forum.

This a couple of years ago would not have happened. People would have posted keyloggers, maybe 0-2 people post about how he shouldnt, and end of thread in about 7 posts (less than a page).

I'm thinking there isn't much you can do about that....

Except kill the ones who replied giving parenting lessons.

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Definitely agree with neowin declining as a community. The moderators are very unfair, they hand out warnings out of line. It's not really that I'm worried about, it's sorta nice to see mods do their job, although unfairly. I find the community very disappointing. At a tech site, I expected better out of members. I'm making my transition onto a different tech forum.

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