(I’m not sure why you would want to post on the front page anyway. Almost nothing constructive is ever said in the comments section.)
Ah, so this is the thread you were talking about, Pertho; thanks for the link.
I unfortunately have to agree with most of the grievances in the original post from what little I’ve paid attention to the front page–having given up on it a while ago–after the writers were “hired” or whatever. I, also, unfortunately have to agree to cursing so much in the original post isn’t really helping you get your valid points across any better, Pertho–I admittedly probably curse more than you (or a lot of people), but I know when not to do that as well (partly due to knowing that it’s a bad habit); this is one of those instances.
I’ll try to make this concise for once, which means I’ll fail because I’m the best at what I do and what I do is long-winded posts. I don’t think I need to read most of the articles that people have been speaking poorly of lately–that women’s one, for example–to get at the real problems with the front page as it is just from the content I see rapidly scrolling that feed-box at the top:
I think I’ll Use Spoilers
[details=Spoiler]
First and foremost, please leave your damn opinion out of the article as much as possible. We don’t need opinion pieces on most things–even things that have at least some valid points, like Renegade’s guest editorial*, as opposed to none–as it is, much less opinion pieces on things from people who obviously don’t know what in Hades’s name they’re about talking with regards to the issue at hand. It’s true that nothing’s ever going to be completely objective, but there’s no reason that a news article that consists of only a paragraph or two before yet another embedded video needs to be so egregiously biased one way or the other or have any opinion at all.
There is really no reason to have individual articles, especially repeatedly and in such rapid succession, that are essentially just videos of (the same damn) characters or teams doing random combos, however flashy they may be. If people are interested in those characters, then they will go the sub-forums for those characters if they haven’t already. It might get the character (slightly) more exposure perhaps, yes…at least if it sticks around long enough to be noticed, which it typically doesn’t nowadays. Still, I don’t exactly see people flocking to Thor even though he’s had videos since UMvC3 dropped for example and had quite a few videos mid-way through MvC3’s life span; we certainly don’t need videos on characters that are already hella overplayed like UMvC3’s “Trenchcoat Trio”.
At most, if any individual (character) video “articles” should be on the front page at all, it seems like they should be restricted to games that aren’t out yet or upcoming DLC characters for those games or games that already out. That’s it.
Related to the above, please stop just linking to the latest Youtube things put out by Desk or Maximilian or whomever that has channel that regularly updates with certain games as individual posts. While both of the examples do good work and are far from character-specific, at this point in time, I imagine that most people who are interested in their work are already subscribed to them on Youtube. Sure, there will always be some stragglers who miss out, but tough luck; it’s not like that stuff doesn’t get posted in the forums either given how popular it is.[/details]
With that said (and I’m sure my brain-addled arse is forgetting something), here’s what the front page should be for IMO:
Because This is Already Longer than I Intended Of Course
[details=Spoiler]
News on upcoming fighting games: This is one of only two things that the front page, as of late, seems to have been good about. Even not keeping up with the front page, it seems to be overall fair (from a headline standpoint–I can’t attest to content) to games besides just Capcom ones like MK9, KOFXIII, Blazblue, Tekken and even upcoming games like Skullgirls and whatever Daemon Bride is. That’s good. Actually, that’s great. More content needs to be as valid as this.
News on upcoming “big” tournaments: This includes giving visible, accurate results, which seems to all too often either be lacking entirely or spread apart unnecessarily; it’s understandable if the tournament is spread apart over a couple or more days like Evo, of course, even though games there seem to take only about two days max. Beyond that, I’m admittedly not sure what qualifies as “big” and what doesn’t, but I’d imagine regular tournament organizers would be willing to help clarify that if the need arises.
Articles to help newer players: It’s not exactly a huge or even necessary thing, especially since like the sub-character forums, Newbie Saikyo Dojo is right there–hell, it’s literally the first sub-forum you see when you come into SRK’s forums now, as it should be. Still, there’s nothing wrong with trying to help new(er) players out, whether they want to be competitive or not. We’d just need someone who knows what the hell they were talking about like Seth Killian’s old Domination 101 articles so as not to lead people further astray. I say this even if some articles might end up being about only individual games since obviously things in one game aren’t always applicable in another.
News on whatever legal-related issues arise in or are directed towards the fighting game community: This might be a rather uncommon thing, but I feel it’s still valid given it comes up from time to time. It certain helps that UltraDavid seems like he’s the only damn person who has been on the front page who can write an article without being conspicuously biased, even when he’s giving background on himself; it’s good to see that law school paid off for someone considering what a failure America’s educational system is. Anyway, I suppose anything arcade-related would technically go here too.
Interviews with (“big”) players: If you must. I personally couldn’t care much less myself, but that’s more because of personal views than it being utterly invalid. I don’t think they should take much precedence, but they certainly shouldn’t be verboten to talk about. Technically, I would put documentaries like Bang the Machine here too.
Video compilations: As said above, this certainly shouldn’t be a forbidden topic. Desk, Maximilian, combo videos and even character videos that further explore characters can all have their place on the front page, they just don’t need their own damn articles to do so. Preferably, this could be done in regular intervals–since even now, the compilation stuff seems extremely sporadic and rapid–like once, twice or even thrice a week. There is no reason to do this everyday. None. I mean, even though I expected the front page to be a lot more active than usual after UMvC3 came out, it’s been utterly absurd about posting UMvC3 videos of literally anything. That’s not needed. At all. Similarly, you don’t need to embed everything unless you literally can’t link on the front page. You can only embed so many videos at once before people’s browsers start rightly bitching at you.[/details]
That’s it baring a few possible exceptions that I’m likely forgetting right now in my haze of hatred or that would naturally arise over time.
The front page as it is right now is a bloated, self-righteously opinionated monstrosity. It repeatedly defecates all over itself due its own gluttony when it comes to trying to get “new & fresh” content that’s utterly impossible to ultimately follow because of how rapidly it fades from sight as it gets pushed further down in the muck pile. That monstrosity needs to be slain. Swiftly.
*With regards to the “Wesker: Not Overpowered” article, it is a rather excellent example to (“briefly”) talk about here. It is, first and foremost, an opinion piece that isn’t really needed. Even though Renegade has some valid points, they neither actually address the issue at hand ultimately–all it “proved” is that Wesker wasn’t broken/unbeatable, which isn’t nearly the same thing as overpowered–or have that much objectivity behind them; Renegade at least admits up front that he plays Wesker even if he doesn’t seem to think it colors his opinion as much as I’d argue it seems to.
Would it work as a good thread starter for a thread in forums even with those flaws? Absolutely yes. Is it front page material? I’d argue absolutely not, especially since it seems like that utterly dumb, knee-jerk “The Only Problem With MvC3 Is…You” “article” from nine months back. That was just an egregious opinion piece that only served to piss people off even more before Sentinel got knee-jerk nerfed; Renegade’s piece isn’t nearly as condescending, but it’s flawed all the same.
Yes, a lot of people are always going to be dissatisfied. Yes, a lot of people are idiots (which is why I never go the front page; if I wanted to stupid comments, I have literally every other part of the Internet). Yes, a lot of people bitch about things that shouldn’t be bitched even if they have no idea what they’re actually talking about.
waits to be accused of this
That still doesn’t mean that we need any opinion pieces at all on the front page.
Finally, Renegade’s guest editorial is already another fine example of a large part of what’s wrong with the current front page: Despite it apparently being a big enough deal to both be a “guest editorial” and to still be featured at the top of front page itself, if you were only aware of the front page from the forums ticker as many people, including myself, are, you wouldn’t even know it existed even though it’s less than 12 hours old as of this posting.
