G
Gizmo
Guest
1. I stand by my point. The articles of the CPA are, by and large, of a lower quality than most other Magic sites. I did not name any names, nor did I have anybody in particular in mind because who writes the articles goes in one ear and out the other unless I really like them.
2. Several of you have said it is wrong to compare the CPA to Starcity etc...why? We are both Magic sites, and we both carry articles. Starcity has the luxury of paying people to write articles, we get them written because people want to write. No big diff. Starcity pays for quality which we can`t do, but we can at least stop the stuff that is just plain terrible from hitting the front page. First impressions count.
3. I`m not bothered about language difficulties - if you`ve got something worth reading I`ll put up with poor punctuation and mispellings. if you`ve got nothing to say I don`t care if you even know how to use a semi-colon properly - I`m going to go somewhere else.
4. What should an editor do? He should 1) Decide if an article is actually of any interest AS AN ARTICLE. 2) Do some basic spell correction (just run a checker over it, it takes 5 mins tops to do). 3) Provide feedback to the writer of an article if it not going to be posted, most of these would be along the lines of 'I think this is best posted as a topic on the Forums as it is really just the beginning of a debate', and 'Can you just explain a little more about this and this, please'.
If editorial staff spent a little time coaching their prospective writers then pretty soon the standard of writing would increase tenfold as hey got the hang of what made a good article.
Basically I don`t take the fact that this is a non-commercial site to be an excuse for carrying poor material, especially when most of the understrength material is only a minor rewrite away from being perfectly good.
For instance I just read Ransac`s article (the X-Mas Shopping one that Baskil linked to), the main problem I have with it is that it is about 1,000 words too short. It says nothing, because there is nothing you can say in so little time - why was this article written? Dunno. What was it`s point? It had none. Was it funny then (if it ain`t relevent, make it funny)? Not really, lighthearted maybe, but not funny. So what did I get from reading it? Nothing.
I`m sorry, flame me as much as you want, but this isn`t personal, and this isn`t about Ransac being a crap writer because from the article it`s obvious that isn`t the case (although I`m not sure about the use of 'fumigate' in the opening paragraph). This is simply about the fact the article serves no purpose. If it was appearing in 'Off Topic' or 'General Issues' as a topic then fine, but as a front page article?
Sorry, no.
I`m currently in a position of having 6 websites actively asking me to write for them, 3 of those sites are willing to pay between $25 and $75 per article. I should be taking advantage of this and posting a dozen articles per week to get the money (which explains most of Starcity`s crummy content quality) but as I haven`t got anything to say worth listening to, at least not worth putting into an article, I keep quiet.
I think the people on CPA are perfectly capable of posting quality articles, it only takes a LITTLE more effort when they being written. It`s an obvious step to take.
2. Several of you have said it is wrong to compare the CPA to Starcity etc...why? We are both Magic sites, and we both carry articles. Starcity has the luxury of paying people to write articles, we get them written because people want to write. No big diff. Starcity pays for quality which we can`t do, but we can at least stop the stuff that is just plain terrible from hitting the front page. First impressions count.
3. I`m not bothered about language difficulties - if you`ve got something worth reading I`ll put up with poor punctuation and mispellings. if you`ve got nothing to say I don`t care if you even know how to use a semi-colon properly - I`m going to go somewhere else.
4. What should an editor do? He should 1) Decide if an article is actually of any interest AS AN ARTICLE. 2) Do some basic spell correction (just run a checker over it, it takes 5 mins tops to do). 3) Provide feedback to the writer of an article if it not going to be posted, most of these would be along the lines of 'I think this is best posted as a topic on the Forums as it is really just the beginning of a debate', and 'Can you just explain a little more about this and this, please'.
If editorial staff spent a little time coaching their prospective writers then pretty soon the standard of writing would increase tenfold as hey got the hang of what made a good article.
Basically I don`t take the fact that this is a non-commercial site to be an excuse for carrying poor material, especially when most of the understrength material is only a minor rewrite away from being perfectly good.
For instance I just read Ransac`s article (the X-Mas Shopping one that Baskil linked to), the main problem I have with it is that it is about 1,000 words too short. It says nothing, because there is nothing you can say in so little time - why was this article written? Dunno. What was it`s point? It had none. Was it funny then (if it ain`t relevent, make it funny)? Not really, lighthearted maybe, but not funny. So what did I get from reading it? Nothing.
I`m sorry, flame me as much as you want, but this isn`t personal, and this isn`t about Ransac being a crap writer because from the article it`s obvious that isn`t the case (although I`m not sure about the use of 'fumigate' in the opening paragraph). This is simply about the fact the article serves no purpose. If it was appearing in 'Off Topic' or 'General Issues' as a topic then fine, but as a front page article?
Sorry, no.
I`m currently in a position of having 6 websites actively asking me to write for them, 3 of those sites are willing to pay between $25 and $75 per article. I should be taking advantage of this and posting a dozen articles per week to get the money (which explains most of Starcity`s crummy content quality) but as I haven`t got anything to say worth listening to, at least not worth putting into an article, I keep quiet.
I think the people on CPA are perfectly capable of posting quality articles, it only takes a LITTLE more effort when they being written. It`s an obvious step to take.
If you want to criticize a thread, make it sound positive. Don't insult it. Not everyone is perfect, and you probably wouldn't like people criticizing your article.