Big changes coming for ATSNN...

Originally posted by HowardRoark
Good idea, although I think that ultimately the news service will benifit most from a dedicated editor staff/ policy. In other words, I wouldn't want to see this become another Rense type site.

The improvement will be a dynamic whitepage. So, better an alive sometimes errant storyboard, than a dead sometimes errant storyboard. We had suffered through up to 8 day old Top Stories since the first of the year. (For instance, we currently have a 3 day old Top Story.) That's comatose to any visitor that clicks to the white page. There is a high percent of visitors who if they see the top portion of the page unchanged...click on to another news site. This will eliminate that specific problem. It will also add a wider variety of viewpoints.

I love the idea, allthough its not exactly unique. I believe Slashdot uses a similiar system for the story comments(but not the actual story which is still upgraded by a moderator). I also think that you should have 50 points to be considered an ATSNN reporter(and I believe the Red Title should stay in place and be giving automatically to people who get above 50 ATSNN points)

But i guess everything will be ironed out. I am glad ATSNN is getting an overhaul as I thought it was the part of ATS that needed it the most IMHO. Glad to see it getting done!

Very clever

I understood the general direction you wanted to go in but I had no idea how you'd get there.

Ingenious and original.

Seekers right about abuse but I'm sure we can track negative trends. They made themselves obvious very quickly with the rating system and if different groups have different valued "votes" then those that abuse it could make up another group with a vote value of zero.

I like it very much.

As always some will not like change... but how can you not like change when its this good ?

Excellent Idea !!

I guess I'm the only one who sees a potential problem with the vote system.

The site has very partisan members and news stories that are negative to the Bush admin may get voted down by the necon members...

EDIT: .....and of course the same type of thing can happen on the other side.


[edit on 11-2-2005 by AceOfBase]

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord
2) Vote: Any member can vote once a story for "GO" or "NO GO".

I agree with AceofBase but for the opposite reason. There are many
radical liberals who don't want to hear the truth about good things
that America is doing and they might vote against .... (whereas
AceofBase thinks the conservatives will vote against the radical
left stories)

I hope this doesn't get abused. People see stories that go against
their thought process so they vote 'NO' .. even if the story is true.
I guess we will see ...



[edit on 2/11/2005 by FlyersFan]

Keep in mind that our esteemed somewhat neutral senior management of ATS has absolute veto power to move worthy stories to publication regardless of any issues with partisan voting.

OK, thanks SO.

Will there be a third option for the vote like the 'fix' tag that the ATSNN editors place on stories that may be good articles but still need work before being upgraded?

Vote For:
1) Upgrade article as is
2) Upgrade but needs work
3) Kill submission

??

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord
somewhat neutral senior management of ATS has absolute veto power..

Ahhhhhhhhhh ... okay. Phew. That's good.
I kinda felt like the kids were being left to play
without the babysitters.

Originally posted by AceOfBase
I gues I'm the only one who sees a potential problem with the vote system.

The site has very partisan members and news stories that are negative to the Bush amin may get voted down by the necon members.

No Ace you are not alone on this one. I too see the same potential problems.

Lets suppose the editors are offline for one or two hours; the story gets posted and the first viewers can kill the story moving it to the forums rather then the news were it belongs.

Originally posted by shots Lets suppose the editors are offline for one or two hours; the story gets posted and the first viewers can kill the story moving it to the forums rather then the news were it belongs.

There are no editors under the new system. The goal of ATSNN has always been for the very first post of a news story to contain the facts of the breaking news, not the spin or opinion. If it is indeed a properly composed story covering the facts, then there should be little trouble getting the votes needed to upgrade. Then, follow-up discussion can focus on opinion and spin-factors.

Well it seems like a good idea but I'm not sure all issues should be treated like a "popularity contest" which, lets face it, it is going to become especiallly when a number of people don't like the subject matter.

Sometimes we need to address topics that we don't like to hear. When we surround ourselves only with others who want to talk about issues that are congruent with their own beliefs and ideas, we miss out on valuable information.


Also...
People need to see the post so they can vote on it, right? So it's going to be out there anyway for people to read. It sounds like this is more of a way of keeping ATSNN lean and mean and taking stuff off after a short period of time if it's not popular. It'll definately be a good way of reducing the number of posts saved in the archives!

[edit on 11-2-2005 by jupiter869]

Wow, very exciting!

This really could push ATSNN to the next level, and i cannot wait to see it in action!

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord

Originally posted by shots
Lets suppose the editors are offline for one or two hours; the story gets posted and the first viewers can kill the story moving it to the forums rather then the news were it belongs.

There are no editors under the new system.

Sorry I meant to say MODs as in Banshee or others that have the athority to approve a story.

So cool and so exciting.

...Is there a "marketing plan" to make sure members know about this? Maybe an email campaign? ...I've noticed that some darned good stories go straight to the boards, and aren't even submitted as "news" - can we catch these somehow?


.

Who am I to poo poo on the will of the people...

I dont see the problem that some fear about initial posts being voted out
or basically moved to the "non news" section....the post wont disapear, they just wont be a newsworthy topic...

This will FORCE OBJECTIVITY on issues posted as the obviously biased ones dont deserve to be news to begin with.
the readers will determine if they think its bias one way or the other and the thread will become a normal pit of debate,
or
it will rise to he level of news based on NO SPIN and then everyone else will get to dive in from there...

an interesting idea.

ill certantly be testing this system out by trying to abuse it...others will, and ive already got my own strategy in mind. Ill give a report after it comes online and let you know if my abuse plan works or not.

I can hear it now...CAZ why are you gonna do this?
so that kinks can be discovered, disclosed, and worked out for everyones bennifit. Im just one guy, ill only get one vote per title, so obviously thats NOT my plan. Lets say im going to test a theory, and not use the term abuse...feel better? (S.O. , Seeker, Banshee, if you really must know my sceme, u2u me)

WHEN is this comming?

So basically democracy with a hint of a dictatorship...I'm in favour

Its a brilliant idea in my opinion

Great idea...as long as the news items are posted in a timely and unbiased fashion.

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord
Fast Track: ATS SuperMods and Admin will have the ability to immediately upgrade important submissions in the event a critical breaking story has been submitted and we'd rather not wait for votes. Authors will still get 250 ATS points and one point toward their ATSNN total.

Just want to clarify...
This is only for critical breaking stories right?

I see behind your ruse... This is just a plan to keep FredT and Valhall below 1,000,000 and 500,000 ATS Points, respectively. I knew it... I'm sure someone will be at my door shortly for "questioning."

Just kidding! I think this is a really great idea. Keeping the author anonymous is a plus, so hopefully it won't go down the same road as the thread rating system.