Weekly Poll: Tip.It Times? (Special Discussion)

[Kiara_Kat]

"Everyone" did not write representing "The Editor" in Times past. The account has been passed down to top select writers and will continue to do so. The Editor began with an un-named individual and then was passed to a few select writers. The Editorial Staff has done a fantastic job taking over as the Times it can no longer be done by 2 users. Having a diverse staff helps to get a broad view of topics. Looking at some of the discussion on this thread I am looking forward to the changes that are going to be taking place in the near future. The Times have been great in history, present and future!

 

 

 

I commend all those who have contributed to this thread thus far and promise some major changes in the near future!

 

 

 

The_Editor

 

 

 

I remember the "The Mysterious Editor" thread. I was so anxious to know who the Editor was at that moment, and when the torch was passed, who that one was. I never found out :wall:

 

 

 

OK here goes, time to set the record straight. When we started the Times back in August 2005, there was ONE Editor. And there was only ONE person writing as the Editor at any one time. For the next two years, anyway. I don't think it's a big secret that the Crew Leader at the time was the very first Editor, so I'll state it for the record here - it was Eeeediot. When Eeeediot left Tip.It and I took over as Crew Leader in September 2005, we needed a new Editor, and I found one. Don't ask me to name any other names, I won't. That editor was with us for a short while and, once again, had to be replaced when he/she left Tip.It. I then offered the Editor position in April 2006 to a new Editor, and THAT's the Editor that was in place when the whole "who's the mysterious Editor?????" discussion started. He/she was still in the job when I retired in June 2007, but obviously, he/she has since retired as well (and boy, can you ever tell). I think he/she stopped writing for the Times shortly after I left, based on the glut of "Letters to the Editor" that were published shortly afterwards. And NO, I was NOT the Editor, although I did help out on a couple of pieces with him/her. And I reviewed and proof-read every single article before I published it. Even the guest articles. No room for mediocrity in my house.

 

 

 

I'm sure not many of you know that almost everyone at Tip.It had a blast in keeing the "who is the editor?" mystery going for the loooongest time, until the furor died down. That third Editor was responsible for some of the best Times ever...well, in my opinion, anyway. Some of the most memorable pieces were fictional ones that added to the mystery of who the Editor REALLY was. These "Who is the Editor???"-type articles include An Important Meeting Takes Place and A Midnight Raid. Please take a minute to read them. They're extremely well thought out and well-written pieces, written with love by someone who obviously had a talent for writing that you don't see much in the Times anymore.

 

 

 

Which brings me to the state of the current Times. They're awful. I don't mean the content, necessarily, but they're not editorial enough - they're almost always about one specific aspect of game play or go on and on about some complaint the author has. That would be ok, I suppose, if they were at least well-written. Not all of the articles suffer from poor writing, but a heck of a lot do. Poor style, bad grammar, awful spelling, you get the picture. I stop reading after the first paragraph if it's obvious that nobody has even proof-read the article. Even when "the" Editor I so fondly remember was in the position, not one single article was published without it being proof-read at least ONCE. Now it appears that the articles are published as is, with no thought to the quality of writing and the resulting bad image these poorly written articles end up having on Tip.It. So PLEASE, Crew, take some time to read the articles before you publish them. Find someone on staff that has excellent writing skills and make sure he/she proof-reads every single line. You can't do an effective job of communicating without it. You may as well not even try.

 

 

 

I've said my piece. Bottom line - articles are OK, but they need to be checked for spelling, grammar and style BEFORE you publish them. Not after a ton of people start posting corrections on the discussion topic!

 

 

 

And here's the link to the famous "Mysterious Editor" topic, in case anyone's interested:

 

viewtopic.php?t=559242

 

 

 

And for the second time, NO, it wasn't me. And the person who WAS the Editor at the time is no longer part of the Tip.It staff. And YES, there was only ONE Editor. There wasn't more than one person writing under the Editor title - we only kept that suggestion going to throw everyone off the track.

 

 

 

Kiara

[9ablo]

Kiara left me speechless :geek: . I'd basically +1 with her.

[das]

My goal is not to dispute or argue on the past history, I could say I never really bought into the mysteriousness and "who is the editor".

 

 

 

If sacrificing content for a cult following of mystery that boil's down into a suspensful game of guess who is the suppose to be is a method of Times articles then yes, we perhaps have lost some of the luster hiding behind an unknown ID to make "An Important Meeting Takes Place"

 

While they may be thought out, I never really personally found interest in "guess who!".

 

 

 

We have published some excellent articles recently, Not to single out any authors but I certaily thought "Dont Forget Your Chores!" , "The Evolution of Ranged" . "Ranging to Make Ends Meet" , "More Steel than a ShipWright" , "A Time of War" and "The Plight of the Safe Spot were well constructed articles that had varying forums of style and were interesting reads.

 

 

 

Some articles - are better and worse than others, but I felt that way as a user when the times debuted long ago.

 

 

 

I personally thought articles back then, were hit or miss as well (Sorry, the happy birthday one to me was nothing more than filler space, clever or not). But as a personal friend of one of the interview candidates, I know he was upset that the editorial staff edited his words and responses sometimes using other words in place of others he used - correctly, so personally, I was not fond of quite a bit of the older pieces, especially considering I worked with a former editor or two at Runehead editorials, who were pretty much the managers of the whole affair and none had any nice things to say about the times or their past work experiences here. After all, rivaling it was the goal of us. Irony is now, years later, we are what desired to compete with.

 

 

 

 

 

The biggest problem is alot of the old articles were controversial - Biased banning raising brows, "Jagex interfering?" and a few others constantly pushed the line of controversy to a point that downright disgusted me, the articles were popular perhaps, but it seems more people would rather read an anti-jagex piece than a nice omega-wytch style fan fiction.

 

 

 

An Effective times could be this : "Does Jagex Care about its players? " You dont need fluff to make it big, but your fluff can greatly impact the discussion thread. It's easy to be negative, I have a reputation for being as such, it's much more challenging to find other avenues of articles - not that we dont wish to approach controversy - "QuickChat-Only Worlds" Hit the anti jagex trust issue, and no one really seemed to care, or "Functionality vs. Flash" a failed article of mine that is often a big debate in the gaming industry or was.

 

 

 

As one of the recently appointed people who is in charge of staffing the Tip.it Times, I find it a difficult challenge. Not because I cant find writers, but because I can't find writers who want to write to a crowd that most feel cannot be pleased because its too short, too long, too wordy, too plain, the style is bad, the style is not one they like, and as a result of that, most people have told me they wouldn't touch writing for the general tip.it population with a 50 foot pole.

 

 

 

I would like to think from the various posts in this topic that we will improve, as improving is always our goal, but personally I do not feel we are that much worse than some of articles of yesteryear.

 

 

 

~Das

[aerendil]

Ive ready every issue since i first found tip.it

 

I love them! =D> :D

 

 

 

Meamzed

[EragonShadeslayer]

I read it every sunday. I think that it has lost a little of its former glory but its still good. It's just that theres already an article about everything :P

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*TSA FTW (happy?)*

[End_of_RC_Pk]

I actually quite enjoy them. They may not always be on the top of the list as far as an "important" issue, but its still nice to see other peoples point of view on things

[Ts_Stormrage]

As one of the writers who was brought over from the (at the time) rival editorial spot, I started writing here shortly after the Times' revival, and with it I had also taken it upon myself and my clan to find a good little tip for at the bottom of the articles at least once a week... I'd like to think I did ok, and so did my fellow writers...

 

 

 

As the old saying goes: "You cannot please everyone all of the time, so you are left with pleasing everyone some of the time, or some of the people everytime." I know that some of the writers have actual fans out there, but as said, it is impossible to make everyone happy with what you've written...

 

 

 

But considering the position we're in where we have to come up with a new topic every week, and an angle to go with it, and both have to be interesting and if at all possible, not yet been discussed on the forums... That in itself is a difficult task at best...

 

 

 

In the past the topics that had gotten the best discussions afterwards were the ones about the economy, and how it affected your GP... These days with the Grand Exchange there is hardly any exiting thing to write about as all the quirks and oddities like frozen prices, limitations, and even the impossibility to buy something below alch value... It has all been done...

 

 

 

I make sure my articles are spell and fact checked before submitting it, so the most criticism I personally get is that my articles might get too opinionated. But with almost everything being covered by a pretty overzealous forum crowd its hard to stay in the middle, or even be completely unopinionated, so I tend write from my personal point of view rather then a general one...

 

 

 

Recently there have been more fine additions to the writer staff, but I have to disagree with Das on this... The hardest thing to come by is still a topic and an angle to write about... I'm very happy to see the plans for a suggestion thread coming soon :)

[Plugpoint]

I try and read them when I remember to.

 

I miss The Editor's articles, they were excellent - I don't remember him writing a bad one, and I used to look forward to them. The new ones are good but not as good (not that I could do much better myself :P )

[DragnFly]

Special Discussion: As of late there has been some who have thought that the Tip.It Times has lost its touch. In my opinion that is bluntly rude only to reply such feelings on a thread when a lot of work goes behind every issue. This has even gone to the point of author bashing! :evil: Everyone has an opinion however, that is why this weeks poll asks how often you read the Tip.It Times? If you feel the Times has lost its touch (or if you love it), I ask everyone what suggestions you have for improvement? Do you have an idea for a feature, similar to the Letter to The Editor? Would you like to see a times cover a special topic? What do you think can help? Constructive criticism if needed can be Pm'ed to me. ;)

 

 

 

The Editorial Staff works hard to release the Times. The past few article where designed and written to be controversial. As of late, some have had the most discussion then the Times have had for some time. We have many Guest articles in the near future that are to be published that will add a new view point to the Times. Overall, the Editorial staff has some great articles coming up for everyone to look forward to!

 

 

 

Also bear in mind, just because something is suggested, doesn't mean it is going to happen. Every suggestion will be considered however so feel free to post them. =D>

 

 

 

 

I agree that its certainly disheartening to the editors and guest authors who pour their time and energy into writing a article for the masses, only to be flamed and to be told their article is garbage. Remember, they are providing a service to you, for free, atleast show abit of courtesy and gratitude.

 

 

 

While its one thing to disagree with the point the article is making, or even the style the article is written in some cases, bashing the author personally is never acceptable.

 

 

 

If you are going to express disagreement with a point in the article, or the style it was written, its generally best to do so in a mature and intelligent matter. Also, try to provide some positive criticism so that the author may improve, rather than behaving like a heathen and discouraging them to ever write again.

 

 

 

That being said, however, I do understand some of the arguments that the quality of the times has declined in more recent times. To be honest, I stopped reading them as much myself around the time all the letters to the editor started occurring. While once in awhile is tolerable, they where occurring on average atleast once every three weeks, where we got around 18 of them in the span of a year.

 

 

 

Also, it seems many times, you would only hear of a controversial issue from one side of the coin. Take the changes to the trade and pking systems late last year, these changes where so big they divided the communitys opinion on the game. However, if you where to look at the times articles, it seemed what little discussion there was of it was all of the "pro change" side, not giving adequette coverage from the perspective of the other half who disagreed with it. It felt like their opinions where simply written off.

 

 

 

 

 

As for suggestions to improve the times articles, here are some things that could spice them up:

 

 

 

• 
   
  [*:cvfhkrxe] Provide a few more articles in the form of a story, whether a true occurrance in the game, or a fictional story revolving around RuneScape. For instance, someone who attended MSSW3 might cover the happenings from the view of a player who participated. Those who did not attend, or were not around at the time might enjoy reading about it.
   
  [*:cvfhkrxe] More interviews with well known players from the past, like the Gregechidna interview. Where older players can reminisce, and newer ones can learn abit more about the days of old.
   
  [*:cvfhkrxe] Articles providing facts of histoical and present. For example, do you know who the first player to ever obtain a level 99 is? (everdred, for woodcutting)
   
  [*:cvfhkrxe] Articles relevant to the tip.it site itself, discussing issues of the community or site. Such as providing some ideas of things in store for the future of the site or forums.
   
  [*:cvfhkrxe] A few controversial articles. I'm not saying every article needs to be a "Bias Banning Raises Brows" type, but something that not everyone agrees with. Like whether or not certain rules in the game are necessary, or are they excessive? That sort of thing.