Stillborn Articles

Something incredibly unfortunate has come to my attention. While perusing the pending articles section and approving/reporting/tracking articles, I noticed that many articles are being passed with 0-40 degrees. That doesn't seem horrible at first glance, until you realize something that does to them as they enter the front page.

As articles with less than 50 degrees enter the first page....they're invisible. If the user doesn't change the default settings so that articles under 50 show, it isn't visible to them. They go by unnoticed. They are almost certainly doomed to be stillborn.

Go to the front page. Change the slider that says "Above 50" (which is actually "50 AND above") to above "Above 0" (which is "0 AND Above", I believe). There are plenty of good articles lost because they didn't reach 50 degrees before approval. As I write, I see a Sessler video, a Far Cry review, an article about last year's controversies....

Why should these articles be buried by default? They're good articles....great even. Articles with information, entertainment, early views at upcoming games, and more are sprinkled around the sensational articles that swamp the front page.

The 50 degrees default needs to be changed. How can approved articles be less legit because not enough people clicked BEFORE it was approved? And don't tell me because not enough people viewed before approving....some users can approve articles all on their own, meaning as few as ONE person can view and approve an article! Video articles are buried because they are embedded and people just watch before approving, which doesn't increase the degree count.

It's a real shame to see all of these sensationalized articles get top billing as decent articles go completely unnoticed. With a few tweaks we could fix the issue.

[Valenka]

Normally, I'd have suggested to post this on the forums, but considering the significance of the issue (and how little traffic the forum receives), I'm glad someone brought this issue to light. I wasn't even aware of it, myself. Excellently put, SilentNegotiator.

[SilentNegotiator]

Trust me, I was on the edge between doing a blog and a forum post. But I think this is something that needs COMMUNITY attention more than just moderator attention (as would mostly be the case in the forums) because users can act immediately by checking out the main page with the settings changed.

It's a consideration, it's informational, and it's a call to action to all users. So I went blog.

[Valenka]

I agree entirely. Good on you for bringing this to the community's attention. *thumbs, and bubble up*

[Games4M - Rob]

I support this statement.

[InMyOpinion]

I have been thinking a lot about this myself. Great post!

[zerocrossing]

Thanks for bringing this issue to light, SilentNegotiator.

Im not the most active member of this community but even I thought it was quite odd that all articles that are less than 50 degrees are invisible by default.

I think something needs to be done about this and hopefully other members will switch settings to 0 degrees, that should definitely help reduce the amount of stillborn articles passing through.

[fossilfern]

Cheers for bringing this issue up. I have used this site for over 4 years now and never though to change that!

[AtomicGerbil]

Great info, this is something that had escaped my attention.

[Godmars290]

What about blog posts which get knocked off of the three front page spots for general N4G announcements? At the very least if those announcements can't be treated as separate they number of front page spots could be upped to five.

Past approval and off the front page, they're all but forgotten.