Quality of News Writers?


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I don't know who locked this initially but I'm definitely thankful that it was unlocked. I fear that open discussion and members attempts at helping improving the site should be embraced and not quelled at every opportunity.

Open discussion about issues like this makes for a stronger community and are welcomed. That being said, helpful suggestions and critiques that guide us to good solutions are good for everyone concerned. Bashing members and staff does nothing but create resentment and ill feelings, and to be quite honest, does not help solve the issue at hand.

If you'd like to help work towards better news reporting or can volunteer your time, I'm sure Tom will be happy to listen. (Y)

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I don't know who locked this initially but I'm definitely thankful that it was unlocked. I fear that open discussion and members attempts at helping improving the site should be embraced and not quelled at every opportunity.

Yeah I clicked close instead of quote...my bad! lol

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For those that complain. Why don't you have a new's tag next to your name? Become a news poster your self.

There has been a lot of complaining latley. "There are no Mac articles, the writing is bad, the title needs to be fixed, this is biased..etc etc." I personally think the news is fine.

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Open discussion about issues like this makes for a stronger community and are welcomed. That being said, helpful suggestions and critiques that guide us to good solutions are good for everyone concerned. Bashing members and staff does nothing but create resentment and ill feelings.

As far as I have seen (I apologise if this is out of tone, I've accustomed to lurking far more than posting) - bashing and deconstructive feedback is removed or locked without question. Which is fair enough, although anything raised that is constructive or helpful has been counter argued and dismissed in often a rude or ignorant tone.

My only concern is that the protective bubble the staff are forming around themselves may seem to them as nothing more than a right to stick up for themselves and prove the members wrong - but that is entirely the wrong attitude to take. If people raise concerns about lack of research or a bias tone in articles - bite your tongue, take the feedback and find ways to improve the current system, even if it is deemed by everyone using it as fine and dandy.

For those that complain. Why don't you have a new's tag next to your name? Become a news poster your self.

I did, and was denied. Obviously I have no reason to moan as my writing skills must have been really crap! Heh

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For those that complain. Why don't you have a new's tag next to your name? Become a news poster your self.

There has been a lot of complaining latley. "There are no Mac articles, the writing is bad, the title needs to be fixed, this is biased..etc etc." I personally think the news is fine.

Thank you Pixel Eyes. We don't get enough positive comments sent to us, we only hear of the negatives.

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For those that complain. Why don't you have a new's tag next to your name? Become a news poster your self.

There has been a lot of complaining latley. "There are no Mac articles, the writing is bad, the title needs to be fixed, this is biased..etc etc." I personally think the news is fine.

Feedback from the readers is essential for news article writers, we are the people they write for. Hundreds if not thousands of us read these articles, think of it like a survey - You need to get feedback from a whole range of audiences, not just your own thoughts or beliefs on how awesome you thought your article was/is.

Not everyone can be a writer, some may have the skills but just not want to put their time and effort into it, others just don't have a way with words. Doesn't mean either party can't give feedback.

When someone becomes a writer they need to be able to take up the responsibilities and things that are part of the job. One of those is feedback, which they should listen to if constructive if they want to meet their potential as a writer.

So I never really understand the "if you're going to complain do it yourself" argument. Not everyone is "complaining", some of us are just trying to help people further their journalistic career, and in my case as well try to protect people from getting into unfavourable positions by suggesting to Neowin to ramp up it's screening processes on articles.

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Thank you Pixel Eyes. We don't get enough positive comments sent to us, we only hear of the negatives.

That's life, though - surely. Your payment and the discussion created through your articles are your positive comments - disguised as they may be.

And I think it's unfair to call them negative comments, they're merely issues raised to help you improve yourselves - is that necessarily a bad thing?

Feedback from the readers is essential for news article writers, we are the people they write for. Hundreds if not thousands of us read these articles, think of it like a survey - You need to get feedback from a whole range of audiences, not just your own thoughts.

Not everyone can be a writer, some may have the skills but just not want to put their time and effort into it, others just don't have a way with words. Doesn't mean either party can't give feedback.

When someone becomes a writer they need to be able to take up the responsibilities and things that are part of the job. One of those is feedback, which they should listen to if constructive if they want to meet their potential as a writer.

So I never really understand the "if you're going to complain do it yourself" argument. Not everyone is "complaining", some of us are just trying to help people further their journalistic career, and in my case as well try to protect people from getting into unfavourable positions by suggesting to Neowin to ramp up it's screening processes on articles.

I heard a fantastic analogy for the people that come out with that argument

'I'm not a plumber, but I know a tool when I see one' haha!

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What I also like in a article is imperfection. It give's the article a better feel to me like it was written by a human.

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There's a certain front page article on Neowin regarding a new OS that was blatently wrong and poorly researched. It was never removed, it was edited to some degree but still even after the edit the article was wrong.

The author then had the gall to claim that the developer of the OS had changed their mind (another front page article) - they haven't, they haven't changed a thing, but still, this author now has two front page articles that read as if they've had no research put into them, and that the articles simply were not screened.

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If people raise concerns about lack of research or a bias tone in articles - bite your tongue, take the feedback and find ways to improve the current system, even if it is deemed by everyone using it as fine and dandy.

We do take feedback, pretty well as well. We've had the member survey and 86% of people preferred the news to what it was before. We have a few vocal members in the minority that have issues with certain aspects of the news (like yourself) but they are most definitely the minority. The issue we have with people providing feedback is we don't want the comments littered with people questioning the writers ability or saying "why is this news". There is a "report an issue" link on every news article for issues and if you feel you want to contact the author you can do that using the contact form on every news article too.

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What I also like in a article is imperfection. It give's the article a better feel to me like it was written by a human.

You want inconsistency and grammatical errors?

You're nuts!

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What I also like in a article is imperfection. It give's the article a better feel to me like it was written by a human.

There can be a certain "charm" if someone has a warm atmosphere in their articles, maybe uses a few slang words in context, has a laid back posting style or something of that nature.

But many spelling mistakes or sentences that don't make sense doesn't make for great reading. How long is a typical article? Couple of hundred words? There's lots of tools at hand to help you quickly correct and fix mistakes (we are all human, even I make spelling mistakes now and then :p ).

People shouldn't be hung and quartered over a few spelling mistakes if the article clearly reads okay and makes sense, that's a bit harsh and/or mean, but it's still something the most prestigious writers wouldn't want in their own articles.

Heck FireFox has a dictionary addon that corrects your spelling/typing in real time in the browser. It underlines incorrectly spelt words in red and you can right click them and correct automatically - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browse/type:3

With the tool sets available nowadays it does look sloppy if an article has an abundance of mistakes with spelling/grammar.

Edited by Audioboxer
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So a news writer makes a post about a new iPod and people call bias towards Apple? Someone writes about the Zune and thinks bias about Microsoft? Really? Do you know how hard it is to write an article and _NOT_ be bias? People need to learn.

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Feedback from the readers is essential for news article writers, we are the people they write for. Hundreds if not thousands of us read these articles, think of it like a survey - You need to get feedback from a whole range of audiences, not just your own thoughts or beliefs on how awesome you thought your article was/is.

Not everyone can be a writer, some may have the skills but just not want to put their time and effort into it, others just don't have a way with words. Doesn't mean either party can't give feedback.

When someone becomes a writer they need to be able to take up the responsibilities and things that are part of the job. One of those is feedback, which they should listen to if constructive if they want to meet their potential as a writer.

So I never really understand the "if you're going to complain do it yourself" argument. Not everyone is "complaining", some of us are just trying to help people further their journalistic career, and in my case as well try to protect people from getting into unfavourable positions by suggesting to Neowin to ramp up it's screening processes on articles.

Perhaps the staff can construct a poll or a brief survey of what Neowin's wanted to read about.

Edit. N/M just saw Tom. W's post.

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We do take feedback, pretty well as well. We've had the member survey and 86% of people preferred the news to what it was before. We have a few vocal members in the minority that have issues with certain aspects of the news (like yourself) but they are most definitely the minority. The issue we have with people providing feedback is we don't want the comments littered with people questioning the writers ability or saying "why is this news". There is a "report an issue" link on every news article for issues and if you feel you want to contact the author you can do that using the contact form on every news article too.

To be fair, the news now is far and away better than the copy and pasting of the past. But you must remember that just because a few people are vocal in their concerns about the news doesn't mean that the rest who aren't forwarding an opinion necessarily hold good ones.

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You want inconsistency and grammatical errors?

You're nuts!

Not spelling mistakes but grammatical errors are fine to a point. If I can read it once and understand what the person is saying it is O.K. to me.

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Not spelling mistakes but grammatical errors are fine to a point. If I can read it once and understand what the person is saying it is O.K. to me.

Grammatical errors are completely understandable and should have no bearing on the quality of the article as a whole. But acceptable? Surely not. They should be screened and edited when found or pointed out, right?

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Not spelling mistakes but grammatical errors are fine to a point. If I can read it once and understand what the person is saying it is O.K. to me.

I think what your trying to say is we don't need to be the New York Times writing shakespeare for you to understand

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I think on the topic of bias, it is less a case of actively seeking to favour one company over an other - and more about the inability to consciously write in a tone that balances the argument so as to avoid the illusion of favouritism.

It's an extremely tough nut to crack, but once you / your writers start to consciously screen your articles for an appearance of bias (which I think you currently don't do) - then your respectability will raise and the finger pointing will drop.

I'd like to know how exactly Neowin isn't bias compared to some of the other and more biased websites? There are plenty of Apple, Microsoft, Linux, Sony, Nintendo fanboy websites that post crap all day long with little to no information to back up their claims unless they have taken a source and taken it out of context (which most websites do). Neowin is very diverse when it comes to tackle this problem and I feel it being very well balanced. Maybe if you wanted more Apple news you should sign up yourself or Neowin should get more Apple based writers (I'm saying Apple as an example btw).

Of course writers will have their own opinions, but it doesn't make them the right ones. I take what writers say, even from multiple different sources and come to my own conclusion, and Neowin is very well balanced with maybe only one or two articles that I think are against my opinions.

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For those that complain. Why don't you have a new's tag next to your name? Become a news poster your self.

Er, no...that's a silly suggestion. You're implying that if you don't like a builder's bricklaying, you should become a bricklayer yourself.

I'm not trying to be a news reporter. If I was trying, then there should be a minimum quality expected of me.

@Tom W: I will be sure to report the problem articles from now on. I may go back to some old ones too. I know about the language issue, but that wasn't the area of my concern.

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I'd like to know how exactly Neowin isn't bias compared to some of the other and more biased websites? There are plenty of Apple, Microsoft, Linux, Sony, Nintendo fanboy websites that post crap all day long with little to no information to back up their claims unless they have taken a source and taken it out of context (which most websites do). Neowin is very diverse when it comes to tackle this problem and I feel it being very well balanced. Maybe if you wanted more Apple news you should sign up yourself or Neowin should get more Apple based writers (I'm saying Apple as an example btw).

Of course writers will have their own opinions, but it doesn't make them the right ones. I take what writers say, even from multiple different sources and come to my own conclusion, and Neowin is very well balanced with maybe only one or two articles that I think are against my opinions.

I don't visit those sites, though - do I? And their content or bias has absolutely no bearing on this website at all, so why bother even comparing?

Neowin is diverse - the community is strong and the variety is unmatched. That doesn't mean to say that some articles hold a bias towards one company or another - whether it's through blatant opinionated writing or simply a lack of research. I don't think my opinion will be taken so seriously due to my username but I assure you and anyone else that might have an opinion - that when it comes to writing news or having an opinion - it isn't persuaded through fanboyism or an unconditional love for one company or another.

I again, think that to silence peoples views as nonsense and throw any feedback aside as pure BS is counter productive and a little, if not extremely naive.

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Grammatical errors are completely understandable and should have no bearing on the quality of the article as a whole. But acceptable? Surely not. They should be screened and edited when found or pointed out, right?

I think that's a little bit unfair to be honest. Like myself, I have dyslexia and I have trouble with: You're, Your, You are and There, Their, They're etc. I find that the mistakes are fine if I fully understand what the writer is trying to say. Maybe if I was reading something and it was more misleading then I might read it a couple more times before I know what the writer is writing then I think that's okay too. Sure it can be annoying, but there are writers who may not be fully native to the English language for them to understand sentence structures and some spelling mistakes etc, but at least I can understand it.

In the past there was maybe one article I was a little confused about, but 5 minutes later it was corrected and I was happy with that.

Grammatical errors are fine, I deal with it myself with my own writing or other peoples writing and I've developed a sense where I can understand 99%+ of what people are trying to say, even people who I speak to who have little understanding of English and so on.

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I think what your trying to say is we don't need to be the New York Times writing shakespeare for you to understand

Neowin won't make you be from what it seems, but it's a case of do YOU as an individual want to be that accurate with your writing?

It's your legacy as a writer you're leaving behind with Neowin. Your style/way of writing and everything is a representation of you as a writer. You represent Neowin in the big picture, but your individual articles represent yourself also.

That's why these topics/posts are just feedback, no one here is telling you how to write, at the very most Neowin tells you your grounding (with whatever rules/screening is in place for news-posters).

Everything else is up to yourself, we're just giving you some food for thought for your career. When I linked to those FireFox dictionaries earlier it wasn't a joke it's genuinely a potentially useful tool for some writers depending on how they write. Do you do it all in browser (higher chance of mistakes) or in a word processing application first?

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I think that's a little bit unfair to be honest. Like myself, I have dyslexia and I have trouble with: You're, Your, You are and There, Their, They're etc. I find that the mistakes are fine if I fully understand what the writer is trying to say. Maybe if I was reading something and it was more misleading then I might read it a couple more times before I know what the writer is writing then I think that's okay too. Sure it can be annoying, but there are writers who may not be fully native to the English language for them to understand sentence structures and some spelling mistakes etc, but at least I can understand it.

In the past there was maybe one article I was a little confused about, but 5 minutes later it was corrected and I was happy with that.

Grammatical errors are fine, I deal with it myself with my own writing or other peoples writing and I've developed a sense where I can understand 99%+ of what people are trying to say, even people who I speak to who have little understanding of English and so on.

Then why be paid to write?

I'm sorry, but if you can't get the basics right, through lack of education or through an illness or disorder - then you shouldn't be paid to write - or you should have an editor in place to ensure those mistakes are dealt with before going live.

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Er, no...that's a silly suggestion. You're implying that if you don't like a builder's bricklaying, you should become a bricklayer yourself.

I'm not trying to be a news reporter. If I was trying, then there should be a minimum quality expected of me.

@Tom W: I will be sure to report the problem articles from now on. I may go back to some old ones too. I know about the language issue, but that wasn't the area of my concern.

I didn't like my bosses quality at my job so I proved I could do a better job and took his job. :) Four year's later I'm still here.

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