R3 News and Views -Feedback required from you all. Options

[kaz]

Every two weeks until recently we have produced the R3 News and Views.

This has been a general "whats going on in the forum" and " topics of interest"

Now bearing on mind that they take a while to compile and source - we need to know if you actually ever read them, or do you find them usefull?

We have noticed that the last few have attracted very little in the way of replies- so we have no idea if they are well received or not..

So the answer is simple - do we continue and if so what do you want to see included.

We always ask at the bottom of each new issue- see a link that you feel should be included - please let us know.

Number received so far - nil.

Any ideas appreciated, trolling not -

Thanks

Kaz

[Harryb412]

I do read the news and views whenever I see a new one, I just don't really know what to reply with.
I do think that the news and views should be continued and is a good idea which helps me find interesting topics to read.

I don't see really what else needs to be included in them though, maybe if there are recent additions to the gallery have a little bit about that?
Like you could have a section which is something like:
"Recent resource submissions for free use:
Blah de blah blah created by blah de blah"

Or maybe you could have a poll with every news post and then next news view have the results and a summary of what RRR thinks?
With a poll it could also encourage more people to respond in the topic thread.

I'll try and keep a look out for interesting topics for the news and views, I should PM them to you, right?


Also, if I recall correctly the RRR Art challenge's theme changes every two weeks, right?
Maybe have a little section that says something like "And this weeks RRR Art Challenge theme is <insert theme>"


I really hope that the News and Views stays alive, they other an interesting read and links to more interesting reads.

[Legacy]

I think that you should still continue producing them. I mean, just becuse there isnt that many replys, or any replys at doent mean that nobody reads them to find out whats been going on, i mean i for one read them but hardly reply to them, becuase i have nothing to say.

I think its nice having an update about whats been going on, and the be fair i think most RM communitys has this little update thing, it adds the whole community feel.

So yeah in my opinion keep it going, it doesnt matter if you get 100 replys or just 1, bcuase the updates brings that little touch to the community.

[kaz]

@harryb412

Yes pm links to us please- it is usually me, Holder or Hero of Hyla that does them.

Yes good idea about the poll- just a simple "Did you enjoy this issue" would provide feedback-

We also were thinking of having a "user article each time" any random thing that the community might like to hear about-

[Scriptless]

I think you should stop, there is no point in wasting you're time and effort. That is of course, if people don't comment.

[Hirei]

Psh. I look forward to reading them. Just because no one answers doesn't mean no one reads it.

When i was new on the board I looked for the articles cause it helped me get used to the community and led me to where all the people were congregating so I could interact/meet.

In addition it pointed to where good topics were!

[kaz]

I think you should stop, there is no point in wasting you're time and effort. That is of course, if people don't comment.

Sarcasm??????

We can see the number of views that they get - and that is good.

We just thought now they have been running for a while we could ask for ideas, then as long as we are heading in the right direction for everyone with content- there will be no need for comments to judge the popularity.

[Scriptless]

It would be nice to see that the community comments on what the staff has worked on. Only my opinion (even though I don't do it myself)

[kaz]

It would be nice to see that the community comments on what the staff has worked on. Only my opinion (even though I don't do it myself)

Nice point thank you-

This is the problem we had as the comments diminished we thought "hmm maybe they are not interested"

This thread is proving to be a good exercise - runs off to hunt for links for the next issue...

[kaz]

Any more feedback anyone-

[Sn@ke]

I vote for staff to continue producing news. That really helps to be up-to date with what happens on forum. Because sometimes people can miss some interesting topic because this community is so big that can confuse newly recruited members. And not only them. Keep a good work!

[Kread-EX]

Personally, I always read them and probably would be a little sad if you stopped (see ? I'm crying ;_;)
There aren't many answers but it's quite difficult to find any other comment other than 'Nice !' or 'Good work' - except if we feel there are mistakes or things forgotten.

But considering the large number of daily posts, it's really helpful.

[Shanghai]

I don't even bother with them at all other than a simple glance. To me, I don't see the effort put into that you guys say you put into it. And no, that statement is not to stir any fights either. Now, why do I say that? Let's take a look at March 20's.

[Show/Hide] Topics of Interest

Creative Commons

Charlie's Arena Online
Charlie Fleed's new online project
Graphics!, PSX or SNES?
What does R3 think is the best style for RM Games? A great topic for those researching what people would like to see and play.

RPG Survey
An old topic brought back for new answers.

Ideas for a few minigames!
Any clues on a dog related mini game? *Yeah okay I'm not including my horrible sentence filled with dog puns*

Boss Fight Ideas
Got any ideas? How about checking in to see if there's anything you could pick up and maybe even expand upon.

Creating a Storm
Get a more stormy feeling.

Writing Well
Is you? Wel if your not their might b a gud topic abuv you wud like.

LegacyX's Ruby/RGSS Tutorial Series
Great tutorial on ruby with some nice personal learning advice.

RMXP / RMVX Template
LegACy got bored and made a character set template. A nice looking alternative to the RTP style.

Holders Template Pack
Version 2 of the Holder Template is now released.

Entertainment

Death Note RP
Getting to be one of R3s largest and most active RP we've ever seen.

RRR Art Challenge
Make a piece of art based on a theme. Themes are picked every two weeks and everyone is free to join. It is purely for fun; there is no competition here whatsoever.

Taken directly from http://www.rpgrevolution.com/forums/index....showtopic=39988

Every single one of those topics of "interest" is a one liner. A one liner that doesn't generate interest at all. How is "Charlie Fleed's new online project" supposed to excite me at all? What if I don't know Charlie? And just what is the new online project? Perhaps being a little bit more descriptive will be more meaningful in attracting attention to the thread.

The choice of selection for topics is also rather poor. Sure, everybody has different tastes, but saying that is a poor excuse to allow yourself some leeway when selecting topics at random. I can't imagine why for the life of me why any non-regular would view an RRR RP topic or what "Get a more stormy feeling" is supposed to mean. Having clicked on the thread itself, I couldn't help but to feel like it was just chosen randomly to have something from the tutorial forum in.

My stance on this whole thing is, if you truly do care about this whole thing, drop what you're doing now and start all over with a new approach to it. Make it something exciting and actually attractive. If you're not in the mood to care, don't bother to fix up anything or even just forget about the whole thing at all. Making something catch anyone's attention requires work, and while it's not my place to say anything, it sure as hell doesn't look like much work's been put in to gather a couple of links from each forum and place a one line sentence to "describe" the topic at hand.

[kaz]

The majority feel that they are worth doing - so we will continue.

@Shanghai

You seemed to have missed the whole point of them. They are not a magazine, they are just pointers to topics that people might find interesting, no need for a huge description- People check them out. either like and continue reading or move on,

If we put more of a description in the whole thing would be unwieldy it is meant to be a "bite size" list of topics worth a look at (in our opinion).

They are also used to announce forum activity, and up coming events.

We would like to include member submissions, so if you would like to write an interesting article for inclusion, we would happily use it. The same applies to all members.

We had hoped the magazine would take off and we would use that instead, the advantage being it was PDF format so graphics wise better to look at. however this was not to be.

[Shanghai]

I did not miss the point of them. You missed the whole point of my post. Here, I'll even spell it out for you.

Why should we care about something that doesn't show any effort put into it?

Whether or not you did put effort into it is only for you to know. However, in my eyes and I'm sure the eyes of many others, it sure as hell doesn't look that way with those one-liner descriptions. And if we don't think you bothered to put effort into it, why should we bother to reply? That's just conceited on your part. And that's why I said it just wasn't working. Now, go back and re-read my post. Maybe you'll learn something new rather than seeing what think want to see.

[SantaBla]

Keep them coming. But the problem is that I don't see a lot of staff replies either, and we do have plenty of staff.

[Pal88]

I said yes to keep them coming but in all fairness, I only read some of them, i dont read them all.

[Amy Pond]

The only one I have ever seen had five links in it, all one liners, until someone else edited it.

Also, what Santa said.

It's nice having a little news feature, but I dunno, it just seems very impersonal and quickly done, like it's been rushed off at the end of the week because it has to be done. Rather, it should be reporting on important events which have happened or something like that, which unfortunately don't occur on a dead set 2 weekly schedule.

I dunno, just in my opinion they could be done differently. I don't read them personally because all they are is a list of recent topics - which is what the forum index is for.


Edit: Ah, I guess I should have read the latest before commenting - a lot better than the one I saw. Keep them.

[Dark Gaia]

Yeah, I say keep creating them. Whenever I've been away I always check the latest News and Views to be linked to all the latest threads that have a bit of discussion going. It's a great way of knowing what's going on without having to trawl through a backlog of discussion threads.

[Marian_Frae]

Alright, I haven't actually read any of these... didn't realize they existed. But things like this are always a good idea to have for a forum/website as large as this one.
I understand where Shanghai is coming from--though they didn't approach it in a very decent manner. I also understand where you, the writing staff are coming from... so, having run a website newsletter for a couple years, let me make a suggestion--instead of just one line, take two or three. Just a brief little paragraph. Taglines are only going to help people brand new to the site--possibly even only brand new to large forums. And long paragraphs are going to help maybe 1% of your readers, but taking the extra 5 minutes to write three sentences instead of one will mean that more than just new members are going to REALLY get something out of your work. You might also get more replies.
Hope I helped.