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Feedback re news story titles
exer
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Posted: Thursday, September 06, 2012 - 12:13 PM UTC
The titles for news stories have been on my mind lately and a couple of quotes from responses to the "All at Sea" news story caught my eye


Quoted Text

Hi, wondering if the news thread titles might be more descriptive. Ie, instead of just "all at sea" maybe "all at sea: Italeri 1/35 Torpedo Boats". Would help with searching etc. Just some constructive comments.



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Personally I find the new titles irritating and pointless. I find myself missing loads of the news items because the text doesn't grab my attention. What publisher has said to do this? It seems like complete nonsense, not mention the product or manufacturer!??


Rather than clog up the news thread and since this forum is for feedback about the site I thought I'd open the thread here.


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We have been instructed by the publisher to use titles that catch your attention and not to mention the manufacturer or product in the title, as such that is what we are doing and coming up with titles of this type is harder than it looks. I am sure we will get the hang of it given a little time.


Personally I find this tabloid style of news title very annoying and I'd rather know what the story is about before I open the thread.
I understand that it's useful for the site to try to get people to open a page with a catchy title and then find out they're not interested but it's it's not in the readers interest. I find myself skipping over most news stories precisely becasue the titles don't grab my attention.

Interestingly when I was on the News staff Jim S used to remind me that it was important to give people info in the title on what was in the news item and as I write this I see that the guidelines for posting new topics say
Quoted Text

And please give some thought to the name of the topic. Summarize with keywords, like 'Help with Sherman welds', or 'Need resin cockpit for F4U', Try to make the topic title short and to the point.
Dangeroo
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Posted: Thursday, September 06, 2012 - 12:41 PM UTC
I, too, have been annoyed by some of the news titles lately and completely agree!

Cheers!
Stefan
Kelley
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Posted: Thursday, September 06, 2012 - 12:55 PM UTC
I couldn't agree more with what Rob H. posted in the thread Pat referenced above. And also as Rob said, I'm not having a "go" at any staff members, I just think the "cute" little titles are silly.

Mike
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Posted: Thursday, September 06, 2012 - 01:40 PM UTC
I agree with the others above. A straight forward title that tells you what it is about is better as far as I am concerned. The cutsie, keep 'em guessing titles are detractive and lessens the value of the news featres, in my opinion.
CMOT
Staff MemberEditor-in-Chief
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Posted: Thursday, September 06, 2012 - 04:31 PM UTC
Guys Kevin and I are listening to what you are saying and we will try our best to provide the information you want within the confines of the publishers request. The titles of this type do require more lateral thought on our part and we are trying (Very trying at times) to get the right balance for all of you. As such the manufacturers name will be used in the title or more likely the shortened names. by this I mean such as "AK do it again" rather than AK Interactive Do it again".
Maki
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Posted: Thursday, September 06, 2012 - 06:54 PM UTC
Thinking up clever news titles is definitely not easy. I agree the titles need to spur interest but I also think they need to provide basic info on the product and/or the company behind the product. I really don't understand which publisher would request to omit his info from the title?

Anyway, since English is not my first language I usually opt for less word-play in the news titles I write.

Mario
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Posted: Friday, September 07, 2012 - 12:03 AM UTC
Just a thought... on the front page there's a bit of a blank space just to the right of the news titles (not sure if it is a section of the page or possibly just where the titles would extend into if they were longer) - but it might be nice if the links for the news items were in two columns, as it were:
1. the snappy headline, followed by 2. the abbreviated company name + product type (one word, like "etch" "kit" "decals").

Not sure if that would suit both points of view (or, more likely, dissatisfy both... )

Another suggestion - currently to read each news story you need to go back and forth between pages, which is labourious and discourages people to view all of them. Would be nice if once in a news story, you could click a button for "next news story / previous news story", much like you can with, e.g. web email, where you can just scroll through from one mail to the next without returning to the inbox each time.

Also notice that the heading "In News" doesn't have a link from it, while "In Forums" and "In Reviews" both do - I know you can use the "More" link, but again that takes you to a page where you have to click back and forth to see the items. Perhaps there could be a link from "In News" to something more like a table / list view where it is possible to see more info about each item in a grid.
Tojo72
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Posted: Friday, September 07, 2012 - 12:52 AM UTC
I just need to see lines like "New from AK" or "DML new releases" or "Trumpeter Announces" thats all thats need in my opinion.
exer
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Posted: Friday, September 07, 2012 - 02:34 AM UTC

Quoted Text


Also notice that the heading "In News" doesn't have a link from it, while "In Forums" and "In Reviews" both do - I know you can use the "More" link, but again that takes you to a page where you have to click back and forth to see the items. Perhaps there could be a link from "In News" to something more like a table / list view where it is possible to see more info about each item in a grid.


Sometimes to avoid the annoying enigmatic headlines I click through to the news page where the news and at least one pic is laid out in column form.
Because even when you do open the news threads in Armorama the info is often in the form of a riddle

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Now one of these sets is something that we need more of in injection moulded plastic and the other two item I never would have believed if they had not been sent to me direct from the manufacturer.

and there is no photograph of the item in the thread.

I note that the other kitmaker sites don't follow this policy -they just give the straight news.

Perhaps Jim will tell us why he changed the policy on armorama and is it working- are there more page views per news story than there used to be ?

retiredyank
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Posted: Sunday, September 09, 2012 - 12:43 AM UTC
Some writers/reporters enjoy the liberty of creating their own headlines. Now, I understand if they are misleading; however it is a break from the norm. I agree with Matt, that we should have a "single click" option. I find it tedious to go back and forth reading articles. I believe this is for ease of maintaining the site. I would be far easier to simply dump the articles in a cache for future use. This system would also allowed the articles to be compressed, allowing for development of the rest of the site.
vonHengest
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Posted: Sunday, September 09, 2012 - 03:20 PM UTC
I think it would be helpful if there was more space for additional characters in the title so we could add everything that we needed to satisfy most needs for direct information and creativity.
staff_Jim
Staff MemberPublisher
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Posted: Sunday, September 09, 2012 - 07:03 PM UTC
Wow... sorry I had missed some of the new 'creative' titles that our valiant news staff were making. I claim all responsibility for this snafu and perhaps I was unclear to them exactly what I was asking.

Here are the example titles I wrote them about to illustrate what I was looking for:


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Hobby Fan to Release New Figures for AFV Club Duster
Dull, a bit long and convoluted.

Duster Gets a Crew from Hobby Fan
Okay, but includes vendor as if being Hobby Fan will excite readers.

New Duster Crew in the Works
Better. This lets people know it' is pre-release info and might get them curious as to who is making it.


As most of our news stories have the vendor associated to them in that database I am trying to avoid scenarios where the vendor is double listed. For example if we want to add vendors to news bullet lists as we do for reviews (when it says "maker: dragon models" etc.) then we would essentially end up with...

Dragon Models: Dragon Models kits for September

There are two issues with this title. One it could be any September. Of course "this month" would be a worse title. As the publisher I really want to see:

New MB Figures Feature Boxing, Football, & Skirts

Sorry guys... thanks for the effort though.

Cheers,
Jim
exer
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Posted: Sunday, September 09, 2012 - 09:01 PM UTC
Thanks for the explanation Jim- glad to know it was just a breakdown in communications and we can expect a return to sensible news titles
Matt182
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Posted: Thursday, September 20, 2012 - 01:20 AM UTC
I can see why some people find it anoying but it is quite effective at getting people to take a look. Using the 'all at sea' article as an example. If it said it was an Italeri 1/35 torpedo boat I most likely would of ignored it but because the title was slightly mysterious, I clicked on it. I have no interest in boats but I still found the article interesting. I would of missed out if it had a descriptive name. But then again it can be anoying to click on an article to find you have absolutly no interest in it. I can see both points of view.

As far as the article titles go, rather you than me! I would of ended up with something like 'it floats and it's the same scale as our tanks!'


Quoted Text


Another suggestion - currently to read each news story you need to go back and forth between pages, which is labourious and discourages people to view all of them. Would be nice if once in a news story, you could click a button for "next news story / previous news story", much like you can with, e.g. web email, where you can just scroll through from one mail to the next without returning to the inbox each time.


Matt, I think that is a great idea if possible.
sgtsauer
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Posted: Thursday, September 20, 2012 - 02:41 AM UTC
My hobby time is limited. As a result, I steer clear of anything titled in such a way that I can't identify what the article is about. I had noticed the change in story titles and, as a result of the vague titles, have been reading fewer news items. I'm a straight, to the point person. Don't play word games with me and my limited time.
staff_Jim
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Posted: Thursday, September 20, 2012 - 03:43 AM UTC

Quoted Text


Another suggestion - currently to read each news story you need to go back and forth between pages, which is labourious and discourages people to view all of them. Would be nice if once in a news story, you could click a button for "next news story / previous news story", much like you can with, e.g. web email, where you can just scroll through from one mail to the next without returning to the inbox each time.


Wow I must have missed this suggestion the first time I read this topic. Ironically enough I was just thinking yesterday when flipping through some of our oldest news stories when the site first started, that, wouldn't it be neat to have a next/back feature for that exact thing.

I will add that to my list of updates for content pages.

GMTA

Cheers,
Jim
staff_Jim
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Posted: Thursday, September 20, 2012 - 03:51 AM UTC

Quoted Text

My hobby time is limited. As a result, I steer clear of anything titled in such a way that I can't identify what the article is about. I had noticed the change in story titles and, as a result of the vague titles, have been reading fewer news items. I'm a straight, to the point person. Don't play word games with me and my limited time.


Hmm... point taken. What this really boils down to is this. If you are clicking from say the homepage for news you are going to get shorter abbreviated titles with little info (pictures, brand logos, etc). Versus clicking news stories from the main news page, where you are going to get a LOT of additional info, etc. My angle with this is simple. If you are looking at the news page then you don't need to see the Dragon logo and read "Dragon to Release New X". And if you are on the homepage and expect to get a long detailed headline... well you won't. If saving time is your angle and you want to read the news. Go to the news homepage.

Cheers,
Jim
sgtsauer
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Posted: Monday, September 24, 2012 - 07:58 AM UTC
I just re-read my post and think I sound negative spirited toward the end. I'm embarrassed to say the least. I apologize for that. I've been here a long time and consider this place my second home and would never intentionally post in such a rude manner. My closing sentence reads way wrong and was not intended to be as negative spirited as I read it.

Thanks for showing restraint in your reply Jim. :-)
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