WHO are DECK ARTICLES written for?

[vanderbilt_grad]

Bullados, I was just about to edit my post a bit, but it's probably better to just say it separately.

I’m sorry if it sounded like I was criticizing your work as the moderator of that section at the time. It was not my intent to do so. Bullados, I will never ever say that you did a bad job as the moderator of the front page articles.

Even at the time I fully understood WHAT you wanted to do and WHY. I thought then, and still think, that it was a laudable aim. It's just that my article was huge and thus editing it was a lot of work ... simply writing the thing took a lot more time and effort than I expected when I started. I had expected that some edits would be needed, it's just that I hadn't anticipated having to do so much re-writing. I think, that had I better understood ahead of time what I was in for, it wouldn't have been so stressful for me ... my mental preparation would have been different. I don’t blame you or the gym for that either.

I like the way things are done now, but I’ll be the first to admit that there have been tradeoffs in making it that way. With the FP having less in the way of enforcement of standards regarding readability for new players and parents it’s lost some of the distinction it once had from the deck help area, and it’s lead to the issue that prompted RA’s creation of this thread.

 

[Yoshi-]

I honestly think the problem is the format itself, good rogues are hardly doable, look at sixwewritearticlesaboutluxchompprizes, there is no content to do anything, so we get either bad decks or non at all :/

 

[Benzo]

I really do not think that the question is "who" the articles are written for.
Nor do I think that what the intentions of the person who submitted the article is the issue.
I also do not think that the problem is the quality of the article from the readers who complain about the article.
I see mods who work hard at having SOMETHING to provide for the members on here to do.

I think that what the main factor on this discussion is this question: "What am I supposed to benefit from reading this article as a Pokemon Player?"

A person who submits an article who expects compensation as a motive to give a better performance will continuosly submit article after article. Over time, that can become a negative thing on here. (IMO)

A person who writes an article that wants to pass down knowelage and teach others will take the time to submit a thorough submission and ask for no recognition/compensation as seeing there hard work is passed on in order to bring in better players to the game, which keeps the game around.

I will cut to the chase with an idea on all of this.

Save articles for the front page that are written in the highest of quality/standereds from players/members who have been around, have a good rep for writting past articles, and contribute more in the "teaching" aspect of the game.

ON THE FLIP SIDE: Have a second thread that is NOT on the front page for article submitions that do not really meat the above standereds/expectations. Poeple can still have their article posted, but those articles will not be what the public sees FIRST when they log on to this site.

When a person who has upped their writting skills and contributes more then xxx number of articles in the non-FP thread, they can be "up-graded" to write for the FP article submission.

I can see one problem with my idea, and that is "there may not be enough articles submitted for the FP, so it will not always be new....."-

Are there any past articles from 2 years ago that can be re-posted? There are options out there, it is a matter of getting resources to fix/resolve issues.

Anyone can type up an article- and anyone may/may not gain any benefit from reading that article. At least this site allows for stuff to be submitted, and that is better then having no publc interaction at all, even if some of the stuff that is submitted does NOT MEET the MEMBERS standereds. Can't please everyone.

People have a choice to read what they want, if you do not like what your reading- stop- but if you read the whole thing and still do not like it, remember you had the choice to stop. So do not complain that you read something not up to what your standereds are.

 

[MrMeches]

Just want to throw this in there as well... sometimes the Article's reception is dependent on the writer's online persona.

Some articles are well received, even if par at best, just because who wrote it and their standing in the community.

Also, I feel that people have come to think that FPA had to be based off of a solid Deck List that has been proven. During my stint, I felt FPA should be more information entertainment. Honestly, I tired of seeing Deck Article after Deck Article and that is why I solicited requests for VGC Articles.. never received any.... State of the Game Articles.. those got posted... Trading Forum Articles... posted.... General goings on... posted.

The FP should NOT be all about TCG in my honest opinion. It should be about POKEMON! If you go back through and look at the views, you will see that many people read non Deck Articles, just no one provide much discussion.

Also, it is an opinion that FPA should promote discussion. Isn't that what Front Pages do?? Magazines give snippits to promote discussion and entice the readers to look inside. That is what I thought should happen... maybe I was wrong.. but there were several discussions that lasted for a good while.. even on the '"Bad" FPA.

 

[Rogue Archetype]

You know, if you had said something offended me and then you said this back to me ... well I would just be more offended RA.

Dang it. Yeah, you're absolutely right
(sorry Fish)

March madness is nearly over (my work schedule, not the sports stuff :tongue: ) , so i'm back to my old laid back and non-bitter self.

I should avoid the internet each year from Feb - March and log on again in April :/

Anyway, I'm glad that I AT LEAST didn't come across like I'm flaming the entire Front Page article section.

To be clear, I still like the FP articles. I still feel like they are useful.
I just really wanted the entire general membership of this site to have a discussion about specific purposes of front page articles.

I hope fish didn't read that as an attack. :frown:

 

[jjkkl]

jjkkl, nice comments.. however let me give some insight:

Any business has to keep something 'up front' to keep discussion going. If something sits stagnant over a long period of time.. people become disinterested and then it provides a possible 'insight' to the negligence of what could be inside....

You're misunderstanding me. I'm not saying that only competitive decks or competitive players or any of that nonsense be the sole submissions to the Front Page stuff. What I am saying is that format-wise, stylistically, you have it consistent throughout all the guides. You define, enforce, and base its admission partly on whether they follow more stringent rules of submission, because it brings all subsequent articles in line.

While people may bleat all they want about 'content over style', the fact is that the argument is just a poor excuse to not have content AND style, something that should be given precedence as an idea when submitting articles. And frankly, if you're going to aim at people like newer players, they're going to want to gravitate towards more professional looking articles anyways, because they're attracted to that thing. People, ultimately, regardless of their claims, are subconsciously affected by the stylistic devices employed in the articles. The worse it looks, the more negative of an opinion it'll garner.

I'm talking about formatting and style, not the content.

Actually, every article that is submitted is reviewed by at least one Staff member, if not 2 or 3.

Articles that are submitted do not just get tossed to the FP without any review. Even if there are cases that seems to be what happened.

Bullados, Da' Fish, Lucario EX, Pokepop, myself, and others from long ago have always worked with the writer to get the best possible articles out on the FP.

While, at times, we have missed the mark, for the most part the articles have been well written and a good example of the wirters desire to put their deck out there for all to see.

Would we (the Gym) love to see more articles written by the World Champs, National Champs and other Top Tier players? Heck yes, we would, but as it was pointed out - there is nothing in it for them. We don't pay for articles, we also don't charge for the site. The income that comes in from the ads pay for the server and software. Nothing more.

I know this will ruffle some feathers, but if members aren't willing to contribute, they really don't have much right to complain about the end result.

Sorry if I sound ungrateful or needlessly contrarian, but the help I received for my articles were really nebulous in terms of precisely what it was meant to accomplish, and the major faults that neither myself nor the editors noted ended up going into the 'publication' and others ended up pointing it out. As such, I question as to whether people are devoting as much time as they should be to it if there's a problem, and whether you should get more people editing it.

2 to 3 people editing a single article? Sure, no problem, but can we really aggregate how much time is spent on proofreading those articles?

 

[ace_201]

Deck Articles are obviously written for NetDeckers. AKA new players or bad players.

Obviously, the PURPOSE of the articles are to inform people about the current state of the game pretty much.