Revised Tech News Posting Guidelines

[AlTech]

Due to the increased amount of posts in the past few days alone that have not followed the tech news posting guidelines, I think some changes are in order.

 

I'd like to propose some changes to improve the overall quality of the tech news posts on LTT forums.

 

The proposed changes are highlighted the in red.

 

Proposed new Tech News posting Guidelines:

We've been receiving numerous complaints about duplicate threads in this subforum with some topics and articles being posted up to five times. Please check before posting to see if another thread already exists. Using Google search can help - put in your key words in Google and end the string with site:linustechtips.com - this will bring up all the results on this forum.

 

We've also received a number of complaints about posts not adhering to the guidelines below. Please read through them and if in doubt, message a moderator and ask for clarification.

If you post a duplicate thread, it will be deleted and/or locked without warning.

Tech News means news regarding technology or gaming. Please don't post topics in this forum that don't have a strong relation to technology/games.

Posting Guidelines:

When creating a thread in the News subforum, please make sure your post meets the following criteria:

• Your thread must include some original input to tell the reader why it is relevant to them, and what your personal opinion on the topic is. This needs to be MORE than just a quick, single comment to meet the posting guidelines.
• Your thread must include a link to at least one reputable source. Most of the time, this should be a respected news site although a video in some cases may be allowed. If you use or look at multiple sources during your research, please include them as it may help the reader if they choose to follow up on the topic and want to learn more.
• Your thread should also include one or more quotes from the cited source(s). Your quote(s) should give the reader a summary/overview of the article in a way that gives the key details, but also leaves room for them to read the full article on the linked website. Please use quote tags 

  Quote

  like this

  to show that you have copied this content from another site. Using quotation characters like "this" does not count. You should also avoid quoting the entire article or plagarizing it.

• The title of your thread must be relevant to the topic and should give a reader a good idea of the contents of the thread. Copying the title of the source is permitted but absolutely not required. It should be to the point and not be done in such a way as to mislead a reader, such as clickbait, etc. If there are multiple threads about similar topics, try to phrase your title in a way which helps a potential reader clearly differentiate your thread from others.
• If your article is about a product or some form of media, images are always appreciated, although they are not required. If you do include images, please cite them appropriately and only use images in your post that you have permissions to use.
• Your thread should not be about news that happened 3 weeks ago or more. It should be about news that is current and/or trending.

 

In addition, you must have a minimum of 100 posts on the forum before posting a Tech News thread.

 

Failure to comply may result in your thread being locked or removed without warning.

End of Proposed Guidelines

 

Thanks for reading . If you disagree with any part of this or have any questions please don't hesitate to reply and quote this so I get a notification.

[dizmo]

The problem with most of those posts is likely that the people don't read the Read Before Posting section..so..this won't really fix that.

Disallowing news that happened weeks ago might not be a smart move, as it could have simply been missed by the forum.

[jakep0802]

37 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

In addition, you must have a minimum of 100 posts on the forum before posting a Tech News thread.

 

Personally, I don't think this should be a rule. If I am right, I don't even have 100 posts, yet I could find something extremely important and not be able to post it because I don't meet the quota. That being said, I am a fairly good writer and could actually make a great news post, but not have it read because of the minimum posts requirement. Although, maybe have Tech News posts read over by mods before it goes public to make sure it does meet the requirements and is relevant?

[ARikozuM]

The only issue I'm having is about the "100 posts" to create a TN&R thread. I would also add that personal thoughts should be substantial, not just a "they shouldn't have done it" statement. 

 

I would suggest that a question be posited; however it may lead to bias in the direction of a thread if used. 

[kelvinhall05]

6 minutes ago, jakep0802 said:

Personally, I don't think this should be a rule. If I am right, I don't even have 100 posts, yet I could find something extremely important and not be able to post it because I don't meet the quota. That being said, I am a fairly good writer and could actually make a great news post, but not have it read because of the minimum posts requirement. Although, maybe have Tech News posts read over by mods before it goes public to make sure it does meet the requirements and is relevant?

I think it should, because otherwise you have people creating accounts to post a link to a news forum and just type "what do you guys think"?

[lewdicrous]

10 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

I would also add that personal thoughts should be substantial, not just a "they shouldn't have done it" statement.

Quote

Your thread must include some original input to tell the reader why it is relevant to them, and what your personal opinion on the topic is. This needs to be MORE than just a quick, single comment to meet the posting guidelines.

That's already in the guidelines (if that's what you meant), but obviously those who don't read it won't adhere to it what it says

[jakep0802]

1 hour ago, kelvinhall05 said:

I think it should, because otherwise you have people creating accounts to post a link to a news forum and just type "what do you guys think"?

That makes much more sense than what I said, glad to see your point of view, but what if the moderators did look over a post before it went public to be sure they were following the guidelines. If the post doesn't get approved, they'd get a message of some sort saying it didn't meet forum requirements or something similar.

[kelvinhall05]

1 minute ago, jakep0802 said:

That makes much more sense than what I said, glad to see your point of view, but what if the moderators did look over a post before it went public to be sure they were following the guidelines. If the post doesn't get approved, they'd get a message of some sort saying it didn't meet forum requirements or something similar.

That would be too much work on the mods' part. I think if that was feasible it would already be happening.

[LogicalDrm]

5 hours ago, kelvinhall05 said:

I think it should, because otherwise you have people creating accounts to post a link to a news forum and just type "what do you guys think"?

That's greater issue across whole forum. And base issue are other services where people are coming from. Like FB, Twitter, Reddit. Those encourage to post shorter things to get quick replies. Forums are the place where you need to have more effort. But I doubt there will be any change to this. Internet discussions would need to change back towards argumented posts first.

[givingtnt]

7 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

Due to the increased amount of posts in the past few days alone that have not followed the tech news posting guidelines, I think some changes are in order.

 

I'd like to propose some changes to improve the overall quality of the tech news posts on LTT forums.

 

The proposed changes are highlighted the in red. Mine are blue.

 

Proposed new Tech News posting Guidelines:

We've been receiving numerous complaints about duplicate threads in this subforum with some topics and articles being posted up to five times. Please check before posting to see if another thread already exists. Using Google search can help - put in your key words in Google and end the string with site:linustechtips.com - this will bring up all the results on this forum.

 

We've also received a number of complaints about posts not adhering to the guidelines below. Please read through them and if in doubt, message a moderator and ask for clarification. Guidelines should be clear enough so that anyone can easely understand them.

If you post a duplicate thread, it will be deleted and/or locked no point whatsoever without warning.

Tech News means news regarding technology or gaming. Please don't post topics in this forum that don't have a strong relation to technology/games.

Posting Guidelines:

When creating a thread in the News subforum, please make sure your post meets the following criteria:

• Your thread must include some original input to tell the reader why it is relevant to them, and what your personal opinion on the topic is. This needs to be MORE than just a quick, single comment to meet the posting guidelines.
• Your thread must include a link to at least one reputable source. Most of the time, this should be a respected news site although a video in some cases may be allowed. If you use or look at multiple sources during your research, please include them as it may help the reader if they choose to follow up on the topic and want to learn more. Videos are not news per say. link to article is to be included.
• Your thread should also include one or more  < already implied I mean. just keep reading... quotes from the cited source(s).<--- here Your quote(s) should give the reader a summary/overview Reffer to first comment. of the article in a way that gives the key details, but also leaves room for them to read the full article on the linked website. Please use quote tags 

• to show that you have copied this content from another site. Using quotation characters like "this" does not count. You should also avoid quoting the entire article or plagarizing it. Since when are quotation marks not for quotes ? 

• The title of your thread must be relevant to the topic and should give a reader a good idea of the contents of the thread. Copying the title of the source is permitted but absolutely not required. It should be to the point and not be done in such a way as to mislead a reader, such as clickbait, etc. If there are multiple threads about similar topics, try to phrase your title in a way which helps a potential reader clearly differentiate your thread from others. This should not happen. that's a duplicate post. refer to comment #2
• If your article is about a product or some form of media, images are always appreciated, although they are not required. If you do include images, please cite them appropriately and only use images in your post that you have permissions to use. 1. You still owe me, 2. Unimaginally hard to moderate. and FAIR USE. (literally, giving the link to the original post and commenting on it . Refer to comment #3
• Your thread should not be about news that happened 3 weeks ago or more. It should be about news that is current and/or trending.
  If they are missed and worthy of being here. I don't see why not. 

 

In addition, you must have a minimum of 100 posts on the forum before posting a Tech News thread. 
Completely useless.

 

Failure to comply may result in your thread being locked or removed without warning.

End of Proposed Guidelines

 

Thanks for reading . If you disagree with any part of this or have any questions please don't hesitate to reply and quote this so I get a notification.

 

[Spotty]

1 hour ago, givingtnt said:

Videos are not news per say. link to article is to be included.

I disagree. There are plenty of tech presenters that provide their news in video format. There's also situations like product launches and live streams where video of the event is the primary source of information. While a link to a written article would always be nice, I don't think it's completely necessary.

 

1 hour ago, givingtnt said:

If there are multiple threads about similar topics, try to phrase your title in a way which helps a potential reader clearly differentiate your thread from others. This should not happen. that's a duplicate post. refer to comment #2

I think that was just poorly written. I believe it was intended to mean if there's new news regarding a similar topic, then you should word your title in a way that users could clearly identify that it is different to the original news.
For example things like "Nvidia launches new cards" and then a week later a new thread on "Benchmarks of new Nvidia cards released".
This rule, while poorly worded, I believe is to encourage posters to make it clear in the title that the post is concerning new information and new news regarding the topic, that perhaps may warrant its own individual thread as opposed to continuing in the original. If both posts were titled something generic, such as "Nvidias new cards", then it would make it difficult for people to instantly recognise it being a new topic/advancement.

 

8 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

• Your thread should not be about news that happened 3 weeks ago or more. It should be about news that is current and/or trending.

 

In addition, you must have a minimum of 100 posts on the forum before posting a Tech News thread.

The 3 week thing shouldn't be required. While I have seen a few posts of news from a year or more ago, they're fairly uncommon. If it's not interesting or out-dated, people just won't care and the thread will die naturally.

 

The 100 post minimum is pointless. Assuming the poster is able to follow the rest of the guidelines, there shouldn't be any issue with their post. I think a lot of the issue with new users who don't have much experience on this forum is with posts that are of poor quality and don't meet the guidelines, implying that they haven't read the guidelines or disregarded them - so putting a guideline in that they must have 100 posts is pointless as if their post doesn't comply, then they probably won't read it anyway and post regardless of how many posts they have.

While it is possible to hide the forum based on post count, such as the classifieds board, I don't think it's necessary. There's probably also a few new users who sign up to this forum after finding a search result for a news topic that directs to these forums.

[AlTech]

1 hour ago, Spotty said:

I disagree. There are plenty of tech presenters that provide their news in video format. There's also situations like product launches and live streams where video of the event is the primary source of information. While a link to a written article would always be nice, I don't think it's completely necessary.

^^^

1 hour ago, Spotty said:

I think that was just poorly written. I believe it was intended to mean if there's new news regarding a similar topic, then you should word your title in a way that users could clearly identify that it is different to the original news.
For example things like "Nvidia launches new cards" and then a week later a new thread on "Benchmarks of new Nvidia cards released".
This rule, while poorly worded, I believe is to encourage posters to make it clear in the title that the post is concerning new information and new news regarding the topic, that perhaps may warrant its own individual thread as opposed to continuing in the original. If both posts were titled something generic, such as "Nvidias new cards", then it would make it difficult for people to instantly recognise it being a new topic/advancement.

Yeah sorry, I realize that was badly written but yeah that was what I was trying to achieve.

1 hour ago, Spotty said:

The 100 post minimum is pointless. Assuming the poster is able to follow the rest of the guidelines, there shouldn't be any issue with their post. I think a lot of the issue with new users who don't have much experience on this forum is with posts that are of poor quality and don't meet the guidelines, implying that they haven't read the guidelines or disregarded them - so putting a guideline in that they must have 100 posts is pointless as if their post doesn't comply, then they probably won't read it anyway and post regardless of how many posts they have.

Well, the subforum could be limited so that only people with 100 posts or more could create posts,

 

[AlTech]

1 minute ago, VegetableStu said:

eh, not entirely fair IMO, since there's the occasional 1-postcount user that managed to follow the format o_o (but if the majority decide on the postcount requirement then there's not much I can say against that ,_,)

Idk if Mortis would be able to implement a thing where the first time you post in the subforum you need to manually read the posting guidelines and check a checkbox to show you've read it.

 

Cos that might be a solution.

[Guest]

Excellent point about the multiple sources. It is often in the WAN show there the individual who compiles the document chooses simply the LTT Forum link and the source article posted as two seperate sources. Using the forum link as a seperate source is not very valid as we use the information from our source - essentially a summary of the information in the original article. It is only one source, there is no new information between the two and is really a redirect. Its not difficult to have a quick search for another source. 

[Bouzoo]

On 8/30/2018 at 10:44 AM, AluminiumTech said:

Idk if Mortis would be able to implement a thing where the first time you post in the subforum you need to manually read the posting guidelines and check a checkbox to show you've read it.

 

Cos that might be a solution.

You mean like EULAs that we just scroll through? I don't believe that will solve anything. 

[vanished]

The only logical reason for people not following the rules is that they haven't read them, so what we need to do is think what changes could make people more likely to read them, rather than mandating more rules.  I think the best way is to make them shorter.  To that end, I'd propose something like this:

Quote

Your thread must:

• use an appropriate title (not "clickbait")
• be tech-focused
• not be a duplicate of an existing thread or repost of the same topic
• include your opinion on the news, a summary, or some other personal addition
• a link to at least one reputable source
• a quote from the article, formatted correctly.
  • If the source is a video, that may stand in for the quote and link combined

Your thread should:

• Be concise and descriptive.  Someone should be able to more or less fully understand the story with less than a paragraph of reading at worst, or skimming and/or reading a single line at best.  If your source is a video, this still applies.
• Include an image, if relevant
• Be of recent news (no older than a week)

Failure to meet these terms may result in your thread being locked, hidden, or moved to a different subforum

That's like half the words of the existing list and covers everything I think we care about.

[AlTech]

1 hour ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

The only logical reason for people not following the rules is that they haven't read them, so what we need to do is think what changes could make people more likely to read them, rather than mandating more rules.  I think the best way is to make them shorter.  To that end, I'd propose something like this:

That's like half the words of the existing list and covers everything I think we care about.

Looking at what you just posted, this probably seems like a better idea. It's clear that most people aren't reading what's in the Tech News guidelines. Although some kind of system where you have to acknowledge you've read the guidelines before you post might be a good idea to add on top of the condensed and revised guidelines you mentioned.

[LogicalDrm]

8 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

Looking at what you just posted, this probably seems like a better idea. It's clear that most people aren't reading what's in the Tech News guidelines. Although some kind of system where you have to acknowledge you've read the guidelines before you post might be a good idea to add on top of the condensed and revised guidelines you mentioned.

If you mean checkbox, just forget it. It would be for everyone posting and would become annoyance really quick. Plus effect is same as with CS during account registration. It's clicked without reading, and when user is confronted about breaking CS, they say they haven't read it.

 

[AlTech]

1 hour ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

If you mean checkbox, just forget it. It would be for everyone posting and would become annoyance really quick. Plus effect is same as with CS during account registration. It's clicked without reading, and when user is confronted about breaking CS, they say they haven't read it.

 

Maybe require new users to complete a mini quiz which quizes them on their understanding of the posting guidelines?

And then don't let them post in Tech News until they get the majority of the questions right.

[lewdicrous]

Maybe there could be a wait period when a new user enters the forum (if possible), during which they can't post anything, but are required to read the rules (or a shortened version of it)

I've seen this being done in some discord servers, so I'm not entirely sure if it's at all possible in the forum.

[LogicalDrm]

3 hours ago, lewdicrous said:

Maybe there could be a wait period when a new user enters the forum (if possible), during which they can't post anything, but are required to read the rules (or a shortened version of it)

I've seen this being done in some discord servers, so I'm not entirely sure if it's at all possible in the forum.

 

That could work. But not for whole site. Just for some forums, maybe GD and TN&R. Most users still come here for build advice, troubleshooting and stuff like that. Those are time sensitive things and having 24h wait would definitely make this very unwelcoming forum. The part about reading CS and other rules is still irrelevant. CS is being shown on registration. And its pinned on those subforums where it matters.

[lewdicrous]

6 minutes ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

Those are time sensitive things and having 24h wait would definitely make this very unwelcoming forum.

I was thinking more like a few minutes, not a whole day.

I agree about having it forum specific, it just didn't come to mind when I wrote it

[LogicalDrm]

3 hours ago, lewdicrous said:

I was thinking more like a few minutes, not a whole day.

I agree about having it forum specific, it just didn't come to mind when I wrote it

I don't think anything under few hours would bring wanted result. It might reduce flash posting, but having email confirmation is kinda already doing that.

[Bouzoo]

Am I the only one who is not annoyed with posting guidelines, but most often by formatting?

 

Quote

Why the hell wouldn't

Quote

you put the whole quote

Quote

into one box with only

Quote

one freaking text size

Quote

and one freaking font. And remove the freaking formatting.