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Editorial Panel Discussion


tripsis

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Editorial Panel Discussion

 

The Editorial Panel is a group of people composed of authors and editors who work together to publish the weekly Tip.It Times.

 

What to Post

 

  • This thread is for all discussions and suggestions related to the Editorial Panel. This includes the structure of the panel, the layout of the Times, the guest article submission process, or anything else related to the team and its inner workings. You may also post any questions about the application process.

 

What NOT to Post

 

  • This thread is NOT for commenting on specific articles. If you want to talk about and discuss Tip.It Times articles you should use the relevant Tip.It Times thread in the
General Discussion forum.
 
If you have any complaints about a specific member of the Editorial Panel (particularly his/her behaviour), do NOT post about it here. Instead, contact an Administrator via private message to make your case. Please provide as much detail as possible (such as background information, a link to the offending post(s) if applicable, and any other relevant information). Your complaint will be considered and the appropriate action will be taken.
 
Finally, do not use this thread to post your application or guest articles. Those should be sent to tripsis or another Editorial Panel member via private message.

 

Team Leader

 

  • If you would rather share your suggestions or concerns in private, you may send a private message to
tripsis, the Editor In Chief. Your suggestion or concern can then be considered and forwarded to the rest of the team anonymously.

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  • 1 month later...
Guest jrhairychest

Wow first post :thumbsup:. Ok, to get the ball rolling, I've noticed that over the last months the Times has been very quiet (discussion rarely goes over 2 pages). There's hardly any debate at all being generated. My personal viewpoint is that there's not enough guest articles and controversial subjects. The EP seems to be too intent on churning out it's own articles and the debate value of them is questionable. The proof is in the pudding so I'm not making this up.

 

You also seem to have stopped asking for guest articles after a short time of advertising them. How come?

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If there is one criticism I have about always had about the Times is that the a few members of Panel have never been receptive about any kind of criticism provided. I have attempted to make posts on the discussion topic and I have got the sense that most of the writers are simply looking for pats on the back for their articles rather than true honest criticism. I have found some articles completely garbage, the author having formed a completely baseless assumption backed by absolutely nothing but his/her ill informed opinion. When I post something as such, I am being asked to post something "constructive" and suggest "improvements" to the article. I am sorry but some articles cannot be improved, they cannot be salvaged because they are as I said, just garbage. I have also seen that whenever anyone attempts to post anything that questions the quality of the article, the entire wrath of the Panel seems to descend upon them. :rolleyes:

 

I have since stopped posting on the discussion threads, I have already received a warning and I would rather not make it 2. Besides I would rather not post in a place where I am viewed as a troll.

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Guest jrhairychest

As ALG said, we still take guest articles, but the quality of said articles is not always consistent.

The quality of the Editorial panels work, as mentioned by Fray, doesn't exactly set the world alight either. The guest articles tend to hit the spot more on topics that the community like to discuss but unfortunately the EP articles seem to go from the irrelevant to the incomrehensible.

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The quality of the Editorial panels work, as mentioned by Fray, doesn't exactly set the world alight either. The guest articles tend to hit the spot more on topics that the community like to discuss but unfortunately the EP articles seem to go from the irrelevant to the incomrehensible.

So what kind of topics would be good to cover? I'm guessing that a lot of the time we've been trying to cover topics that we haven't written about before, without considering that the topic might only appeal to a small number of readers.

Genuine question, by the way.

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Thanks for your comments guys :) I'll continue reading them all and we will take them into consideration. To respond to a few points:

 

Regarding accepting criticism, there are always improvements to be made here. It can be extremely difficult to take criticism well every week, especially if the author gets slaughtered by the entire community. But it is something that our team members are trying to do.

 

I have found some articles completely garbage, the author having formed a completely baseless assumption backed by absolutely nothing but his/her ill informed opinion. When I post something as such, I am being asked to post something "constructive" and suggest "improvements" to the article. I am sorry but some articles cannot be improved, they cannot be salvaged because they are as I said, just garbage.

Well just posting "this article was garbage" is against our rules because it's not constructive and serves no purpose other than to insult the author. But you can be constructive by politely outlining the flaws in the article. For example, you could say something like:

 

I did not enjoy the first article. I thought the argument was a little weak and one-sided. It lacked a lot of information and it would have helped if the author examined some opposing viewpoints.

 

or:

 

I didn't like the first article. I feel like I've read similar articles/posts over and over again the last few weeks and it didn't present any new information.

 

If you say something like that, you can still get your point across but in a way that is constructive and not just insulting (like "this was complete garbage, how could you publish this?").

 

I have also seen that whenever anyone attempts to post anything that questions the quality of the article, the entire wrath of the Panel seems to descend upon them.

 

While I think this is a bit of an exaggeration (wrath :P), I do understand where you're coming from. Since they all work closely together on an ongoing basis, you can view the Editorial Panel as a group of friends. In most situation, if you criticize someone, their friends will back them up. I'm not saying it's an ideal situation because I can understand how it would be a little intimidating to have 5+ people disagreeing with you, but it's something to think about. But we always do ask the panel members to read criticism with an open mind and accept it.

 

My personal viewpoint is that there's not enough guest articles and controversial subjects. The EP seems to be too intent on churning out it's own articles and the debate value of them is questionable. The proof is in the pudding so I'm not making this up.

 

You also seem to have stopped asking for guest articles after a short time of advertising them. How come?

Regarding the point on guest articles, we still accept them and we love receiving them. We try to publish every one we get. The problem is that we honestly don't receive very many. Sometimes we may only get 1 a month, if that. The community just doesn't seem to be very interested in writing.

 

While controversial and debatable articles are good, they aren't the only things we focus on. Sometimes articles are there for entertainment, or just to provoke thought, or for nostalgia, etc. Most of the really controversial topics are already very hashed out in forum topics and creating an article about them just causes people to complain about how they've already read about that or it isn't new material, etc. It's quite difficult to come up with new, fresh, controversial ideas :(

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Thanks for your comments guys :) I'll continue reading them all and we will take them into consideration. To respond to a few points:

 

Regarding accepting criticism, there are always improvements to be made here. It can be extremely difficult to take criticism well every week, especially if the author gets slaughtered by the entire community. But it is something that our team members are trying to do.

 

I have found some articles completely garbage, the author having formed a completely baseless assumption backed by absolutely nothing but his/her ill informed opinion. When I post something as such, I am being asked to post something "constructive" and suggest "improvements" to the article. I am sorry but some articles cannot be improved, they cannot be salvaged because they are as I said, just garbage.

Well just posting "this article was garbage" is against our rules because it's not constructive and serves no purpose other than to insult the author. But you can be constructive by politely outlining the flaws in the article. For example, you could say something like:

 

I did not enjoy the first article. I thought the argument was a little weak and one-sided. It lacked a lot of information and it would have helped if the author examined some opposing viewpoints.

 

or:

 

I didn't like the first article. I feel like I've read similar articles/posts over and over again the last few weeks and it didn't present any new information.

 

If you say something like that, you can still get your point across but in a way that is constructive and not just insulting (like "this was complete garbage, how could you publish this?").

Of course which is why I have never said anything like that in the discussion thread. But the truth is you guys need to relax on a little bit of the rules concerning criticism. If someone were to insult my writing, I would certainly not take it personally because it is hardly personal. In fact my high school English teacher probably offered the best criticism to all our writing and that without sugar coating anything. That was probably the only English class where I actually learnt something. Point being, relax the rules. If I call an article a `snorefest` suddenly I am ``attacking`` the article. I never try to take things on a personal level with any author and if I do ``attack`` anything it is the piece of writing that is published not the person that wrote it.

 

Also while I understand the fact that you are trying to promote a positive atmosphere, those responses that you posted would be something I would never post. Just seems bland and lacking flavour. :P

 

Another thing that really annoys me is when the debates get slightly heated and this argument pops up every time ``If you are so good, why not show us what you can do``. I have been on this site for a long time if I had any inclination of joining the panel I would have already. Some of us have other commitments, others are simply out of touch with an ever changing game. Using that as a rebuttal serves only annoy.

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Of course which is why I have never said anything like that in the discussion thread. But the truth is you guys need to relax on a little bit of the rules concerning criticism. If someone were to insult my writing, I would certainly not take it personally because it is hardly personal. In fact my high school English teacher probably offered the best criticism to all our writing and that without sugar coating anything. That was probably the only English class where I actually learnt something. Point being, relax the rules. If I call an article a `snorefest` suddenly I am ``attacking`` the article. I never try to take things on a personal level with any author and if I do ``attack`` anything it is the piece of writing that is published not the person that wrote it.

 

Also while I understand the fact that you are trying to promote a positive atmosphere, those responses that you posted would be something I would never post. Just seems bland and lacking flavour. :P

 

Another thing that really annoys me is when the debates get slightly heated and this argument pops up every time ``If you are so good, why not show us what you can do``. I have been on this site for a long time if I had any inclination of joining the panel I would have already. Some of us have other commitments, others are simply out of touch with an ever changing game. Using that as a rebuttal serves only annoy.

Posting comments that only serve the purpose of insulting someone (or unconstructive comments) are against our forum rules in general. They're not something that we only apply to the Tip.It Times discussions. As you said, we do try to promote a positive atmosphere. All users deserve to be treated with respect, which means being constructive in replies rather than just saying "this sucks." We want to avoid rudeness and unhelpful comments.

 

I honestly say "Why not show us what you can do" because people downplay how difficult it is to be on the Editorial Panel. People don't seem to understand how difficult it is to write every week and come up with an idea that has not been discussed before, come up with something that will interest people, all the while paying attention to writing a high quality article. It's a lot harder than people let on. It saddens me when people talk as if this should be the easiest job in the world, but it's not. That's why I think that if people are so quick to criticize, they should give it a try and see how difficult it really is. It might lead to more understanding and respect for the team.

 

Nobody is perfect. And it's even harder to be perfect consistently (week to week) than it is to be perfect once. We are always striving to improve and do the very best we can but sometimes we do have off weeks and we're not perfect. I just wish people would realize and understand that.

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Of course which is why I have never said anything like that in the discussion thread. But the truth is you guys need to relax on a little bit of the rules concerning criticism. If someone were to insult my writing, I would certainly not take it personally because it is hardly personal. In fact my high school English teacher probably offered the best criticism to all our writing and that without sugar coating anything. That was probably the only English class where I actually learnt something. Point being, relax the rules. If I call an article a `snorefest` suddenly I am ``attacking`` the article. I never try to take things on a personal level with any author and if I do ``attack`` anything it is the piece of writing that is published not the person that wrote it.

 

Also while I understand the fact that you are trying to promote a positive atmosphere, those responses that you posted would be something I would never post. Just seems bland and lacking flavour. :P

 

Another thing that really annoys me is when the debates get slightly heated and this argument pops up every time ``If you are so good, why not show us what you can do``. I have been on this site for a long time if I had any inclination of joining the panel I would have already. Some of us have other commitments, others are simply out of touch with an ever changing game. Using that as a rebuttal serves only annoy.

Posting comments that only serve the purpose of insulting someone (or unconstructive comments) are against our forum rules in general. They're not something that we only apply to the Tip.It Times discussions. As you said, we do try to promote a positive atmosphere. All users deserve to be treated with respect, which means being constructive in replies rather than just saying "this sucks." We want to avoid rudeness and unhelpful comments.

 

I honestly say "Why not show us what you can do" because people downplay how difficult it is to be on the Editorial Panel. People don't seem to understand how difficult it is to write every week and come up with an idea that has not been discussed before, come up with something that will interest people, all the while paying attention to writing a high quality article. It's a lot harder than people let on. It saddens me when people talk as if this should be the easiest job in the world, but it's not. That's why I think that if people are so quick to criticize, they should give it a try and see how difficult it really is. It might lead to more understanding and respect for the team.

 

Nobody is perfect. And it's even harder to be perfect consistently (week to week) than it is to be perfect once. We are always striving to improve and do the very best we can but sometimes we do have off weeks and we're not perfect. I just wish people would realize and understand that.

Why would it be insulting? Maybe I just have a thicker skin than most people but attacking someone`s writing should not be taken as an insult.

 

What is the point of a discussion though then, if you are going to take every criticism personally then there is no point to opening the threads at all. While yes it would be nice for everyone to understand how much effort the writers put into this, I just don`t see the place for the ``show us what you can do``reply. I also wish the authors would not take every little bit of criticism personally.

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Why would it be insulting? Maybe I just have a thicker skin than most people but attacking someone`s writing should not be taken as an insult.

 

What is the point of a discussion though then, if you are going to take every criticism personally then there is no point to opening the threads at all. While yes it would be nice for everyone to understand how much effort the writers go into, I just don`t see the place for the ``show us what you can do``reply. I wish the authors would not take every little bit of criticism personally.

The problem is that just saying "this is rubbish" or "this bored me to tears" isn't constructive criticism. All we ask for is that people be constructive to actually help the writers understand where they went wrong and how they can do it better next time. You're still perfectly able to express dislike for an article or discuss why you think it's bad, it just has to be done in a constructive way. That honestly isn't too much to ask. What would be the point in opening threads if people weren't constructive? Non-constructive posts do not fuel discussion or help the writers. They're just saying it sucks and that's it. That doesn't help anybody.

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Why would it be insulting? Maybe I just have a thicker skin than most people but attacking someone`s writing should not be taken as an insult.

 

What is the point of a discussion though then, if you are going to take every criticism personally then there is no point to opening the threads at all. While yes it would be nice for everyone to understand how much effort the writers go into, I just don`t see the place for the ``show us what you can do``reply. I wish the authors would not take every little bit of criticism personally.

The problem is that just saying "this is rubbish" or "this bored me to tears" isn't constructive criticism. All we ask for is that people be constructive to actually help the writers understand where they went wrong and how they can do it better next time. You're still perfectly able to express dislike for an article or discuss why you think it's bad, it just has to be done in a constructive way. That honestly isn't too much to ask. What would be the point in opening threads if people weren't constructive? Non-constructive posts do not fuel discussion or help the writers. They're just saying it sucks and that's it. That doesn't help anybody.

In an ideal world the readers would provide constructive criticism and the writers would take it into consideration. Unfortunately neither happens.

 

Instead I am told if I dont like things the way they are, I should step up and write my own article. Sorry but I am not going to do that.

 

This above is not directed at you tripsis, just generally speaking.

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Guest jrhairychest

So what kind of topics would be good to cover? I'm guessing that a lot of the time we've been trying to cover topics that we haven't written about before, without considering that the topic might only appeal to a small number of readers.

Genuine question, by the way.

So what if it's been written before? Write from a different perspective. Change the flow. The populatrity of some topics e.g. efficiency often keep people coming back for more so give it to them. Here's some suggestions:

 

  • Team play All its cracked up to be?
  • Paired gaming Too many teams and not enough pairs?
  • Jagex Hating Trying to be cool or genuine grievance?
  • Grinding Too hard a slog or do you need to man up?
  • F2P and P2P - Sharing worlds. Whats the pros and cons?
  • Daily Tasks Benefits or burdens?
  • Money sinks The solution to the economy or we need something different?
  • Updates Their effect on game mechanics.
  • Skillers Love em or hate em?
  • None tradeables Any benefits to a cashless economy?
  • Rares Keep or ditch to level the playing field?
  • Pmods Is there a point any more? (that ones for you matey ;))
  • Forgotten items Poor Iban wants his staff back as you dont use it.

 

And please stay away from daft topics such as "where fire came from" :rolleyes:

 

It can be extremely difficult to take criticism well every week, especially if the author gets slaughtered by the entire community

Trip, does this not tell you something about the authors subjects and writing style, especially if a number of posters aren't happy? If that happened to me week after week I'd reconsider my position as the constant criticism suggests I'm doing something wrong. If the EP had have taken that on board then the situations would have been diffused. Instead we got the exact opposite - Same authors, same kind of content.

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The authors do try to spice things up and come up with new ideas. But they're not mind readers. Sometimes they may think they have written an interesting and unique article, only to have it poorly received. It's not like they're not trying.

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Guest jrhairychest

Do you have to be a mind reader to notice your articles aren't getting positive feedback week after week? Is it the community's fault that the articles are poorly recieved? On more than one occasion it has been inferred the community is thick as pigshit for 'not getting it'.

 

Is it intersting or unique for the author instead of the audience they're supposed writing for?

 

Is it really *that difficult* to come up with things that are new or from a different perspective than what we usually see?

 

Is there a certain clique amongst the EP that decide which articles to publish i.e. each others?

 

If the EP is as good as what it claims it is why don't they take guest articles and edit them to the format you want?

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Do you have to be a mind reader to notice your articles aren't getting positive feedback week after week? Is it the community's fault that the articles are poorly recieved? On more than one occasion it has been inferred the community is thick as pigshit for 'not getting it'.

 

It's not the community's fault but if people say "I don't like this article," all it tells the authors is not to write about that particular topic again.

 

Is it really *that difficult* to come up with things that are new or from a different perspective than what we usually see?

 

Honestly it kind of is. We write more articles than there are game updates. It is quite difficult to come up with two interesting and unique topics every single week :/

 

Is there a certain clique amongst the EP that decide which articles to publish i.e. each others?

 

People join the EP to write articles so obviously we do publish articles written by the EP. And as I said before, we usually only receive MAYBE 1 guest article per month, which we almost always publish. I'm honestly not sure what the problem is here D: Why is it bad that we publish the EP's articles when they're the ones who volunteer to write? We're not leaving anyone out.

 

If the EP is as good as what it claims it is why don't they take guest articles and edit them to the format you want?

We do D:

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Guest jrhairychest

Pmods Is there a point any more? (that ones for you matey ;))

I was working on this one before learning that most of what I was going to cover was confidential :cry:

Surely you can get around it if you generalise a little and sort of skirt over some of the confidentiality stuff? Come on, it'll be just like old times :lol:

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  • 4 weeks later...

So firstly I apologise if this is the wrong forum. Please move it to the relevant forum as required - I really couldn't work out where it should go!

 

To the crux of my point. What is with all the negative articles constantly posted on the tip it times etc?

 

It seems that every week there's at least one of the featured articles is just some opinionated troll complaining about the latest Runescape feature, skill, quest, blah blah blah.

Yes, folks - Runescape has it's flaws. Yes, it is impossible to please everyone. But ultimately if you don't like it, you don't have to play it. You most certainly don't have to PAY for it.

 

The amount of negative articles getting posted on here is astounding. It is true that the squeaky wheel gets the oil, but really - is this the sort of discussion you want occurring on a site that is meant to be PRO-Runescape? Criticism is fine, so long as it's constructive and relevant - but let's face it, in all my years playing - I've never seen Jagex take the opinion of someone's article on this site. All it does is make people like myself less inclined to visit this site.

 

Please don't see this as an assault on your freedom of opinion, as everyone is entitled to one. I just don't want it rammed down my throat week after week after week by armchair trolls who feel they need to take their anger out on something that is beyond their control.

 

Maybe it's a moot point, as I certainly won't be bothering to read the articles on this site anymore - but surely it's a thought worth conveying.

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Tbh this is why I stopped caring for the tip.it times, the articles have just lost their diversity and become well written versions of the typical RSOF drivel about rs is dying or how some random update has destroyed the game for everybody for ever.

 

I mean sure some articles are gonna be negative, but it just seems to have become the norm and often the logic and reason behind the articles is exclusionary, heavily bias or just plain odd in order to justify it and often seem to not even consider the other side of things.

 

Thankfully the fiction pieces are still passable though as a literature student and a writer myself I generally don't read them because I find them too amateurish and thus jsut end up wanting to give an essay of constructive criticisms opposed to enjoying the piece.

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Hello there, Lmac. Thank you for your feedback.

 

We actually have a thread dedicated to feedback on the direction of the Times here.

 

Just as recently as 2 months ago, we were being criticized as "Jagex fanboys" and "wanna-be-mods" because of the content of our articles. I think you just happened to catch us on a bad week. Normally we try to have a balance of articles, but there was a bit of a messy situation this week, so we were forced to publish an article we were planning on publishing at a later date. As a result, the week may have seemed particularly negative. I have an article due to be published this week and I can assure you it's positive.

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Tbh this is why I stopped caring for the tip.it times, the articles have just lost their diversity and become well written versions of the typical RSOF drivel about rs is dying or how some random update has destroyed the game for everybody for ever.

I take offense to this. I've been trying to write well-written versions of RSOF suggestions that will destroy the game for everybody forever :mrgreen:

 

In all seriousness, I'll have a neutral/positive one on Pmods in the near future if/when Jagex gets back to me about it. Normally I wouldn't deal with the confidential stuff, but right now it's quite a bit more interesting than the things everyone knows about.

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