How Do I Get that Sweet, Sweet Front Page Money?

[Vanimal46]

In the last couple of days, Nick Nelson wrote a very loosely based Twins article relating to the Astros scandal, which turned more into an Astros conversation.

 

Ted writes another article about the Astros buzzers.

 

I created a thread and have compiled more information over the last 2+ months than the 2 Front Page articles combined.

 

This isn’t the first time it’s happened... I thought the mission of this site before was it you post blogs, forums, etc. even YOU can get moved to the front page?

 

I don’t see any of our community members with promoted blog posts to the front page.

 

For the record, I don’t actually want the money. A simple acknowledgement of other posters who have compiled info and link to their thread would be a great first step.

 

Carole does a great job taking things into her own hands acknowledging community forum posts.

[Squirrel]

 

In the last couple of days, Nick Nelson wrote a very loosely based Twins article relating to the Astros scandal, which turned more into an Astros conversation.

Ted writes another article about the Astros buzzers.

I created a thread and have compiled more information over the last 2+ months than the 2 Front Page articles combined.

This isn’t the first time it’s happened... I thought the mission of this site before was it you post blogs, forums, etc. even YOU can get moved to the front page?

I don’t see any of our community members with promoted blog posts to the front page.

For the record, I don’t actually want the money. A simple acknowledgement of other posters who have compiled info and link to their thread would be a great first step.

Carole does a great job taking things into her own hands acknowledging community forum posts.

I try ... but with the duplicates we've had of many stories lately ... and I blame the 'slow news days' of the off-season ... it's difficult to cross-link everything.

 

But, just an fyi ... forum posts can't get promoted. Blog posts can. So, if you want to really write up a story in hopes of 'promotion', it starts with a blog. And my suggestion about that ... find a topic that isn't being covered. And then PM an owner or Tom asking for consideration.

 

Again, a lot of this duplication is due to the time of year, and I think this has now happened specifically to you twice, once with the Astros scandal, and again with the statcast defense report ... however, if you've taken the time to start a thread and update the information and keep it current and discussion is ongoing, and then an article on the same topic comes out, feel free to link your thread. Don't just say ''Hey, talk about this over here" ... comment on the article, give the author his/her due, and other posters, but feel free to point out the discussion and your work in another thread.

 

Breaking news is a different story, however. Posters are excited by news and want to get it out there right away, even be 'first' with the news  ... we will merge threads that start up within minutes of one another on news like that, and when articles do get published on the breaking news, we will put a link to that article in the initial thread. If there are only a very small number of posts, we might lock it, but if it's already generated a lot of conversation by the time a fully written article makes it way out, we'll just put the link up suggesting another route for discussion. (We used to always lock the initial threads in this instance, but we don't automatically do so, unless there are very few posts or none beyond the OP.)

 

We like to give posters their due, but we also need to balance that with having too many threads on the same topic. Not easy at times, especially times like this when, as I said, there are just too many slow news days. I mean ... how many Donaldson threads were there over the last few weeks?

[Vanimal46]

I try ... but with the duplicates we've had of many stories lately ... and I blame the 'slow news days' of the off-season ... it's difficult to cross-link everything.

 

But, just an fyi ... forum posts can't get promoted. Blog posts can. So, if you want to really write up a story in hopes of 'promotion', it starts with a blog. And my suggestion about that ... find a topic that isn't being covered. And then PM an owner or Tom asking for consideration.

 

Again, a lot of this duplication is due to the time of year, and I think this has now happened specifically to you twice, once with the Astros scandal, and again with the statcast defense report ... however, if you've taken the time to start a thread and update the information and keep it current and discussion is ongoing, and then an article on the same topic comes out, feel free to link your thread. Don't just say ''Hey, talk about this over here" ... comment on the article, give the author his/her due, and other posters, but feel free to point out the discussion and your work in another thread.

 

Breaking news is a different story, however. Posters are excited by news and want to get it out there right away, even be 'first' with the news ... we will merge threads that start up within minutes of one another on news like that, and when articles do get published on the breaking news, we will put a link to that article in the initial thread. If there are only a very small number of posts, we might lock it, but if it's already generated a lot of conversation by the time a fully written article makes it way out, we'll just put the link up suggesting another route for discussion. (We used to always lock the initial threads in this instance, but we don't automatically do so, unless there are very few posts or none beyond the OP.)

 

We like to give posters their due, but we also need to balance that with having too many threads on the same topic. Not easy at times, especially times like this when, as I said, there are just too many slow news days. I mean ... how many Donaldson threads were there over the last few weeks?

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I do appreciate you linking forum threads to the “Front Page” article...

 

A couple thoughts:

 

Re: Blog Posts to get ‘promoted’ Like I said before, I just don’t see community blogs being promoted to the front page. Perhaps that’s where some of the newbies came from, and if so, I am wrong. I also see people like mikelink and his 142 posts. How many have I seen on the front page? Zero. I see Stringer and his 60 posts. Zero promoted to the front page. It’s easy to say if you have a pet topic go write a blog post... What we’re really saying is go to the dark corner of TD very few know about so it’s out of sight, out of mind.

 

“Don't just say ''Hey, talk about this over here" ... comment on the article, give the author his/her due, and other posters, but feel free to point out the discussion and your work in another thread.” - Isn’t that exactly what we do as soon as a TD Writer posts an article about the same forum topic we have going? The forum topic is locked and we all have to take our comments to the Front Page... My Astros topic in the other baseball section was consistently top 3 updated stories for the last 2+ months in that section. Never slipped off the first page.

 

I just think there’s a better way to promote the talent we have in our community and give them their due...

[Squirrel]

 

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I do appreciate you linking forum threads to the “Front Page” article...

A couple thoughts:

Re: Blog Posts to get ‘promoted’ Like I said before, I just don’t see community blogs being promoted to the front page. Perhaps that’s where some of the newbies came from, and if so, I am wrong. I also see people like mikelink and his 142 posts. How many have I seen on the front page? Zero. I see Stringer and his 60 posts. Zero promoted to the front page. It’s easy to say if you have a pet topic go write a blog post... What we’re really saying is go to the dark corner of TD very few know about so it’s out of sight, out of mind.

“Don't just say ''Hey, talk about this over here" ... comment on the article, give the author his/her due, and other posters, but feel free to point out the discussion and your work in another thread.” - Isn’t that exactly what we do as soon as a TD Writer posts an article about the same forum topic we have going? The forum topic is locked and we all have to take our comments to the Front Page... My Astros topic in the other baseball section was consistently top 3 updated stories for the last 2+ months in that section. Never slipped off the first page.

I just think there’s a better way to promote the talent we have in our community and give them their due...

We do not lock forum threads any more ... we haven't for some time, not threads that have generated discussion like yours had. We do post links when the article comes out, because we are directed to do so, but that's it. And what I'm suggesting you do is to post a link in the article thread directing posters back to the discussion you already started. Unless, as I said, it's breaking news as that is a bit different situation as I described above. But your forum thread on the Astros wasn't locked ... was it? In the past it would have been, as that was our direction to do so, but many of you complained so we haven't done that in quite some time. So, I'm not sure why you think it was? I even put up a link of your thread in the first article thread that came out ... and the author of that article liked it ... in order to alert people that this discussion had been ongoing since November. But I don't have the time to do that for everyone. I just don't. And it isn't even my responsibility to do so, but I just thought that in this instance, that wasn't fair to pilfer discussion off your thread. But, I don't have time, in general, to do that for everyone, in every instance, but did do it in this instance because, hey ... this isn't fair, so I cross linked yours with the first article. I did no linking of either when the 2nd article came out, because I'm just too tired to keep track of that, and just can't, and it is well beyond my scope here.

 

And I agree with your last sentence. But the way the site functions, the only way for a story to be promoted to an article is from a blog, not a forum post. And I agree, and have said that for years, there isn't enough of it. It's a question for ownership. I can't answer it because it's not my doing at all. I have on one occasion suggested a blog post be promoted to an article, and it was. And if you want to write, while it may not be fair, and I agree, it's frustrating, but for now ... make yourself known to the owners and Tom until which time a better system can be implemented. I doubt many of them even read this forum, so I'd PM them directly, all at once. I do think it's too bad that everyone writing blogs don't get more attention, even if occasionally. And while some of the blogs may not be getting a lot of comments, I do see that many get a lot of views. And since I have nothing to do with the creative content at the site, I can't even answer why this or why that. I'm just trying to give you suggestions in hopes that you can take them, run with them, and hopefully affect some change for yourself or others.

[Squirrel]

One other thing ... as long as your thread is getting posts and discussions, it's staying current. If you look on the front page of the site, it's at the top of the list on the column on the right-hand side, under the heading 'The Forums.' As long as people continue to post in your thread, it will continue to be listed on the front page. And that goes for any of the threads started in the forums. As long as they remain current, you will see them in that column on the front page of the site.

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

Re: Blog Posts to get ‘promoted’ Like I said before, I just don’t see community blogs being promoted to the front page. Perhaps that’s where some of the newbies came from, and if so, I am wrong. I also see people like mikelink and his 142 posts. How many have I seen on the front page? Zero. I see Stringer and his 60 posts. Zero promoted to the front page. It’s easy to say if you have a pet topic go write a blog post... What we’re really saying is go to the dark corner of TD very few know about so it’s out of sight, out of mind.

We're not great at promoting blogs and we fully admit it because we're a limited operation with limited resources.

 

But view this a slightly different way: Why should we promote a blog post?

 

Should we promote it because it's a singularly good blog post?

 

Should we promote someone simply because they write a lot?

 

There is no good or easy answer to that. One requires someone to fine-tooth comb the blogs constantly (again, limited resources), the other just promotes quantity.

 

If someone wants to write for the front page of Twins Daily, the best way to get there is to write often and then contact Tom. Tell him you're dedicated to writing more, want to be on the front page, and then we can go from there.

[Vanimal46]

We're not great at promoting blogs and we fully admit it because we're a limited operation with limited resources.

 

But view this a slightly different way: Why should we promote a blog post?

 

Should we promote it because it's a singularly good blog post?

 

Should we promote someone simply because they write a lot?

 

There is no good or easy answer to that. One requires someone to fine-tooth comb the blogs constantly (again, limited resources), the other just promotes quantity.

 

If someone wants to write for the front page of Twins Daily, the best way to get there is to write often and then contact Tom. Tell him you're dedicated to writing more, want to be on the front page, and then we can go from there.

There are more writers and mods on board than any time in TD history. Where are short on resources? Someone reading the blogs?

 

Much like the Twins and spending big money on free agents, let’s start with promoting 1 blog before discussing a strategy for getting a blog promoted. The count is still at 0.

 

If resources are very limited here’s an idea... Forum Friday. The writers get a much needed day off each week and the community gets their day to get their work its time in the sunshine of the front page. Instead of the dark, isolated corner of the blog section...

[ashbury]

 

There are more writers and mods on board than any time in TD history. Where are short on resources? Someone reading the blogs?

Much like the Twins and spending big money on free agents, let’s start with promoting 1 blog before discussing a strategy for getting a blog promoted. The count is still at 0.

If resources are very limited here’s an idea... Forum Friday. The writers get a much needed day off each week and the community gets their day to get their work its time in the sunshine of the front page. Instead of the dark, isolated corner of the blog section...

If recognition on the front page matters to someone, Brock has laid out a strategy. It requires taking a little initiative.

 

If recognition doesn't matter, what are we discussing?

[Brock Beauchamp]

Okay, so we've made a few changes to address some of the concerns in this thread.

 

We will no longer be moving front page article threads to specific forums. All of them will remain in the "Twins Daily Front Page" forum, which has been renamed and moved to the top of the forum list.

 

This should give community contributions more visibility to those who wish to pursue individually-driven conversation in their respective forums.

 

Now let's see if it works.