knorke wrote:it is mainly there for new people to get a sense of what is going on (even if they don't know wtf it is, they'll start clicking around and reading).
Yes.
And that is why the newsticker is fail. Very little is interessting for new people. You must ask yourself, "this random news post could potentially the first thing a new visitor clicks. Is it interessting for him?"
The statistics do not back your theory up.
To you, but interesting is a subjective term, and there are plenty of new people who will gain benefit from it, and plenty of people who aren't new at all who will garner something from that
For you, but there have been several map uploads which have caught my eye and lead to forum discussions, e.g. the AI proving grounds map, which I would not have been aware of if it weren't for that feed.
related to that:
People aren't bothering to announce their new stuff, the only evidence it happened at all is the springfiles feed
No.
Players can find new maps more easily by browsing
http://springfiles.com/spring/spring-maps
On zero-k.info new maps get commented and tagged within a few days. The maps get added to autohost rotation etc. There is no need to have them on frontpage.
So maybe a lot of people click those links and get redirected to download some map, but most will not know to do there.
Its a trap!
For which springfiles has directions on how to install, and I'd hope that the visitor has the most basic of common sense to think that the map might be for a free RTS engine, the very engine they were browsing the website of.
Even then, that box is not a primary or even a secondary call to action, they're far more likely to have also or only clicked on the barrage of buttons further up the page.
(even if they don't know wtf it is, they'll start clicking around and reading).
No, because on most post there is nothing to read. Which is what I am talking about the whole time.
others cba to make posts about anything
I tried, stuff was taken out of context droned out by automatic rss spam.
tl;dr
Most of the news are imo frontpage unworthy, you might as well add
http://commanderlookingatthings.tumblr.com/ to the feed.
Rather have few good posts that stay for 3 weeks than noise where the good stuff is lost.
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Indeed I would add that feed, but keep in mind your wish for 3 good posts rather than a lot of stuff, is an utterly flawed desire, because thats not the point of the community news feed, and it is a desire that is fundamentally incompatible with the format and UI of that section of the frontpage.
The feed is not intended to highlight the greatest accomplishments of the community with the most recent ones first, its intended to:
- Demonstrate that we are alive
- Show what is new
What you want is 'featured news items', which a simple feed doesn't support. You're also overlooking the benefits of these other things.
- Maps show what could be done with the engine, and spring files means we're more likely to follow the trend of what's the latest innovations, or popular. How many new users have arrived and started threads asking where they can find map XYZ, what the newest and latest maps they should download are? How many people do you think browsed TAMEC not because they hunted for a single map but because they were curious?
- Maps and games being shown demonstrate that we're still alive and active, and most of all prolific. There is always something new, and that is noteworthy to new people
- Things like that tumblr blog demonstrate we're not a Vulcan colony of procedural content creators, that we have players and an actual community to come to
- Not everything will be to your taste, this is guaranteed no matter how permissive and open you are. There are things that are 'relevant' in a broad scope there that I don't find relevant at all and would rather not read, but I know there are others who DO read them, and do find a use for it.
- Some of the feeds you object to post 'other' spring related news. For example a few of the items are posts by Licho to Zk that aren't about ZK itself, but the engine and lobby in general, and thus relevant to the community at large. Some of forbs posts show details that predate announcements of Koshis software, making the news newer than the original source!
So why not go back to how it used to be?
When I took control of springinfos direction, and added those feeds, and traffic started to change, me and forb looked at where it was coming from, and an overwhelming proportion of the rise in visits came from that single feed. People are using it more than ever, and it is more useful than ever.
Forboding, I'd like to resetup springinfo if possible, though probably best doing it on my own setup rather than your VPS. If you could make the arrangements via PM?
