Why are articles posted in the news not allowed to be posted on BPN?


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Just wondering, but why are articles posted on the main Neowin page not allowed to be posted on BPN? It's allowed conversely, and it seems to make less sense that way... I mean, if I want to continue talking about a news article, I don't want to go to the main page and find the article. Plus the forum format is just so much more appealing.

Just wondering the reasoning behind it.

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I think it's because they don't want two different discussions to be going on about the same thing in two different places. So they want to keep it centralized.

I would rather have it that if you want to comment on a news post, you would be commenting on the forum topic of that news post. It's just easier.

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They have allowed and not allowed this in the past. There isn't too much of a cut and dried rule on this. Especially if the BPN is posted first. ;)

As for me, I have always thought it was good to have a BPN thread on a news item. Discussion on the Front page gets pushed out of relevance rather quickly, and no longer appears.

Discussion in BPN can go on for weeks, if the article merits it. And people can easily follow up on replies.

I think it is stupid to close BPN threads just because there is a FPN article (that will be pushed off the front page in a couple of days). But that's just me. It's a staff decision. It just isn't very consistent.

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They have allowed and not allowed this in the past. There isn't too much of a cut and dried rule on this. Especially if the BPN is posted first. ;)

As for me, I have always thought it was good to have a BPN thread on a news item. Discussion on the Front page gets pushed out of relevance rather quickly, and no longer appears.

Discussion in BPN can go on for weeks, if the article merits it. And people can easily follow up on replies.

I think it is stupid to close BPN threads just because there is a FPN article (that will be pushed off the front page in a couple of days). But that's just me. It's a staff decision. It just isn't very consistent.

Yeah, that's precisely why I was curious as to the reasoning behind it.

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They have allowed and not allowed this in the past. There isn't too much of a cut and dried rule on this. Especially if the BPN is posted first. ;)

As for me, I have always thought it was good to have a BPN thread on a news item. Discussion on the Front page gets pushed out of relevance rather quickly, and no longer appears.

Discussion in BPN can go on for weeks, if the article merits it. And people can easily follow up on replies.

I think it is stupid to close BPN threads just because there is a FPN article (that will be pushed off the front page in a couple of days). But that's just me. It's a staff decision. It just isn't very consistent.

I totally agree with you.I am not much of a fan of the front page format. I prefer the forum format. And I know several forums that have a front page news setup that actually take the time to post the articles on the forums for people to discuss.

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Simple answer: To try and get hits on the front page and have articles looked at/replied to on the front page.

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Simple answer: To try and get hits on the front page and have articles looked at/replied to on the front page.

I don't really know why they'd want the front page to get more hits and the forums to get less. The same advertisements are on the forums, and if people visit the forums to view the BPN clearly they're probably going to be frequent members. It's not going to increase unique visitors by not having stories in the BPN.

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Maybe it would be possible in the future to integrate the FPN into BPN? Each news item on the home page is posted as a topic (perhaps a different color like the Spy uses) and acts like a regular topic at the same time.

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I don't really know why they'd want the front page to get more hits and the forums to get less. The same advertisements are on the forums, and if people visit the forums to view the BPN clearly they're probably going to be frequent members. It's not going to increase unique visitors by not having stories in the BPN.

More unique visits per news articles = more money for news reporters. ;)

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More unique visits per news articles = more money for news reporters. ;)

If the articles were posted on both the front page and the forums, couldn't you count the unique visits from both places? Seems to me it would actually be more money for the reporters?

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If the articles were posted on both the front page and the forums, couldn't you count the unique visits from both places? Seems to me it would actually be more money for the reporters?

As far as I'm aware, news reporters are paid for front-page news articles, not forum articles. Therefore it would make sense for them to only get paid for unique visits on their FPN articles. I remember seeing some FPN articles with a "Discuss this on the forums" link though.

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Ok. So closing of BPN discussion is there purely to pay the news writers.

At least that is an honest reason. Thanks, Anaron.

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I don't really know why they'd want the front page to get more hits and the forums to get less.

A person may come here just to read a FP article and not be a member. I don't know how it is now with the new coding, but there used to be some restrictions on the information that an unregistered user can see in the forums.

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A person may come here just to read a FP article and not be a member. I don't know how it is now with the new coding, but there used to be some restrictions on the information that an unregistered user can see in the forums.

I am sure we all understand that. Conversely, people come here for the forums, and there is no reason (except to push revenue) to close a forum discussion.

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It's nothing to do with front page hits, not sure why Anaron suggested that. The front page always has double the amount of people viewing it than the forums. The reason we close BPN threads that are already posted main page is because we have covered the item and the discussion is already taking place main page. We are looking into merging previous BPN threads into front page comments once we have covered the news item.

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It's nothing to do with front page hits, not sure why Anaron suggested that. The front page always has double the amount of people viewing it than the forums.

That's a bit of a contradiction, imo, and would suggest the BPN articles ARE closed to get more FP hits.

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That's a bit of a contradiction, imo, and would suggest the BPN articles ARE closed to get more FP hits.

I read it as closed so there is no duplicate.

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... The reason we close BPN threads that are already posted main page is because we have covered the item and the discussion is already taking place main page. ...
Which is the very relevant point that closing BPN effectively puts a close date on discussion.
... We are looking into merging previous BPN threads into front page comments once we have covered the news item.
This is an item that has been in discussion for a while (since I was a staffer!). This could solve the problem if done right.

If done wrong, then this will also set an "end discussion date" if the thread is no longer visible in the forums.

Since this isn't a revenue thing, can not the BPN threads remain open for discussion?

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It's nothing to do with front page hits, not sure why Anaron suggested that. The front page always has double the amount of people viewing it than the forums. The reason we close BPN threads that are already posted main page is because we have covered the item and the discussion is already taking place main page. We are looking into merging previous BPN threads into front page comments once we have covered the news item.

This. ;) :laugh:

I still believe that the removal of those BPN threads helps the News reporters; which seems fair to me.

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It's nothing to do with front page hits, not sure why Anaron suggested that. The front page always has double the amount of people viewing it than the forums. The reason we close BPN threads that are already posted main page is because we have covered the item and the discussion is already taking place main page. We are looking into merging previous BPN threads into front page comments once we have covered the news item.

I was simply responding to Ayepecks' post about having more hits on FPN articles (as a member). :)

Ok. So closing of BPN discussion is there purely to pay the news writers.

At least that is an honest reason. Thanks, Anaron.

I didn't mean to speak on the behalf of the staff about that one. I was just simply stating what I thought about Ayepecks' post. But as Tom W said, it isn't about front-page hits.

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