What standards should a CPA article meet?

[Landkiller]

It has been mentioned that the CPA does not produce the high-quality articles like the StarCity or other Magic sites. This could be a limiting factor in the growth of the CPA, when people find the articles disinteresting, and click away.

I don't personally have a strong opinion, and I believe that the articles are fine, but, I have heard more than a few mention it, so I think it's a valid discussion.

Should higher standards be required of CPA articles?

Should the forums be more emphasized on the front page so that people go there before leaving?

 

[Ransac]

1.No. You shouldn't. If so, it will limit several people(like me) from getting their articles posted. It could also start rivalies in this site, where a number people could compete to see whose articles were better.

2.I think that the way the forums are set up are fine. I can't stand change.


Ransac, hasn't said many funny things today

 

[Gizmo]

1. Yes. The CPA has a great product - it feeds a totally different player base from the tournament site (and a much larger one at that) - promoting better article quality makes it more likely that other sites such as Starcity and Meridian will link to us, making us more high profile and attracting more members (and more respect for casual players). Surely that is a good thing.

2. Yes. 99% of the stuff that happens on the CPA happens here. For most other sites the opposite is true - how does a newcomer know the forums are so lively, because we don`t give any indication of such. The CPA should be promoted as an informal get together of likeminded people, with the forums as the primary reason for coming here.

 

[Mundungu]

A simple design change could make everybody happy.

Have a section :
"Selected articles"
where the high quality (up to you de define what quality in terms of content or form is)
The good articles could stay more than 1 day.

and a selection :
"Free writing"
where all other articles get listed as they arrive.

There is room for all of us here, and just a little more work for the editor/admin.

 

[Ura]

Its kinda funny, I brought this exact thing up with the last article that I wrote, the one that got the big spam on the boards controversy going. ^^;

1) Depends on what you call higher standards I suppose, if there are guide lines for submission then in theory you could have a set standard for everyone to go by. But everyones opinion on standards are a bit different it seems. I have nothing wrong with the article written by Ransac, it was sparatic and short, but I understood the basic idea behind it, where as some of the other members of our community strongly...disliked it.
Personally I think theres nothing wrong with our current policies, which are basically no harsh language or questionable subject matter. Otherwise its up to writer discrestion to decide if what they have to say is article worthy, or more of something for the boards.
I know I would be choked if I got told that the attempts I've made at writing articles were no longer, "up to standard" simply because someone had a different idea on standards then myself, and I don't think my writing is that horrible.

2) Sure, maybe a little banner or something that advertises the forums could be a good idea since that is where alot of action happens around here.
But it will have to be clear and simple.

 

[Hawaiian mage]

I only read the humor articles any way, and if we set guide lines then there might be less of that...

I like Mundungu's idea, that would be really... keen. What would be really coll however would be to have it set a cookie as to whether you want all the articles or high quality. I don't know if Ed can do quite THAT much with his programing skills, but it would be cool.

 

[arhar]

Maybe adding a Dojo-like feature of "user rating" of articles would be a good idea? And a current rating of an article could be displayed next to a link to it on a front page....

 

[Gerode]

1) I do like the idea of having the "Featured Articles" added. It would help to eliminate any bad first impressions. Of course, this has already been said by 10 other people.

2) It took me a while to find the message boards. There needs to be a big, obvious link or button on the home page where someone will actually see it, not tucked away in the left menu in 9 pt font.

 

[Duel]

Ha! I mentioned this thing. Those exact questions.

What did I receive? I resounding "No"

Why do you object to not posting all articles? From what I heard (and how I feel) I think it's mostly because this IS a casual site. Not just casual magic. Casual PLAYERS. If we start a list of professional (I use the term loosely) writers, how about the people who get cut? How would Houts feel if he was cut? I know I'd feel really upset. How would you feel?

Starcity and The Dojo don't have a "Submit article" button clearly visible. I think we need to make the message boards more noticable (Like a BIG button) but we can't start cutting articles indiscriminantly.

 

[superguy]

Well, whenever I submit something I try to make it quality stuff, I spellcheck and profread my articles before submitting them. Now about the content, I don't really think that we get enough articles submitted to us in the first place, for us to take some of them out. The Featured Writers and articles staying on for longer is a good idea, and I think that should be done. Even though you guys don't see me on message boards a lot I ussually read some topics and always read all of the aticles. Hell- there aren't that many submitted. And yes, I think the message boards should b put up on the front page somewhere where everyone can see them, and perhaps we should have something like a "register now, for free!" sign somewhere in the middle. Anyway, I hope I was helpful.

[Edited by superguy on 12-19-00 at 09:32 PM]

 

[Apollo]

I won't voice an opinion on the article issue, but I think there should be a bigger link on the main page to the forums (as many others have said).

 

[Thallid Ice Cream Man]

In case you haven't noticed, places like The Dojo (not that we want to be compared with them much) and, I'm guessing, Starcity, have several sections that differentiate what types of articles are found in each one. We could do the same and please everyone, by sorting the articles in about the same way we sort forums. "Professional" people like Gizmo, Baskil, and the other players who probably come here to laugh at us (which is what Baskil and Gizmo seem to be implying) would be a lot more impressed because they could go to the tournament type articles without having to sort through humor articles or articles that could have been posted in the forums (which is not to say that they shouldn't have been posted at all). This way, everyone will be happy.

And by all means, yes to the second question. Make a huge link to the forums on the main page and point out the fact that this site doesn't get lots of people for its articles (it's true).

 

[Killer Joe]

What are the cuurent standards now? I mean, if we want to consider raising them, we have to have a starting point.

I have always thought that the Forums should be highlighted more, I think this site is more Forums oriented than Article oriented.

 

[Duel]

Actually, I think that's our biggest attraction.

We are a chat site, or a message board site. We have a flux of ideas, not just 7 a week, which we post and get no input to.

We are the only major site that has a mechanism which allows replies to articles to be posted.

We are about communitcating. don't take down the articles, simply highlight the boards.