A Rant About 'Replaced Articles'

A Rant About 'Replaced Articles'

Giving my thoughts on this whole situation of articles being replaced by Power Users, and the constant moaning I see in the comments of every second post.

Editorial Opinion
By DatNerdyKid - Sep 08, 2014 08:09 AM EST
Filed Under: Other

I don't often write articles, so when I do, it's something important. I stand up on my sandbox, and say what I feel needs to be said. But before I do that, there are three things I want to establish:
 

  1. This article is not clickbait-it is the presentation of an opinion about a current situation.
  2. This article is intended neither to hate on or kiss up to either the 'accused' Power Users or the general populace of the site.
  3. This article is not intended to start a flame war, but due to its controversiality I acknowledge it's a high possibility.
So there appears to be an ever-frequent occurrence...occurring recently. Regular users are posting articles (that I never happen to catch) that are subsequently taken down, and then soon after an article about the exact same news, but written by a Power User, is up and running. Then, the original posters appear to have a hissy fit in the comment section and start attacking, accusing and getting in a huff-puff because "My article got taken down and that guy made the exact same one but better and it doesn't have my name on it WAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

No, seriously.

The common argument made by these 'oppressed' users is that the Power Users don't like seeing others getting scoops before them and as such scrutinise their posts, looking for a reason to take them down. This will often come down to poor spelling/grammar/punctuation, plagiarism from the original source site and/or very little effort overall being put into the article. Now I would be able to corroborate this further if I had actually seen one of these taken down articles, but unfortunately I haven't.

Now the supposed 'agenda' of the Power Users in question aside, let's be honest-there would need to be some legitimacy to their taking down of your article for it to be taken down. Whether they will do anything to get the scoop or not, they can write the better articles. Full stop. They've been on the site long enough to ascend to their current rank, obviously demonstrating writing expertise in doing so, and the editor/owner/whoever-in-charge obviously wants articles that look nice, neat, and professional on their site-as a real estate agent you'd rather take a prospective buyer to a 2-storey luxury home as opposed to a former crack den.

So you want to write news, and your articles get taken down. How do you fix that? By fighting 'THE MAN'? Nope. Go to one of the article-writing tutorials on the site and LEARN how to do it properly, or just use common sense. Don't rush, use paragraphs and proper sentences, have extra 'meat' around the 'bones'-further explanation/discussion in addition to "Okay so-and-so said this, here's a picture or video clip, ta da". And above all, never try to write an article on your phone. Just don't even try.

So you know how to write articles now, but you're still PO'd that your article about (example) Whirlwind appearing in 'Ant-Man' got taken down last week before your 'lesson'. You're positively fuming because you are just so angry about everything in your life and it all happens to converge at this one point. So what do you do? Instead of taking your frustration out on a punching bag or a football field like a regular person, you go and troll the article of the Power User you now despise. "I'm gonna spread a negative aura in his comment section so hopefully it affects his article and I get revenge. Cause I'm so mature like that." Yes, sure, further provoking the people who've already noticed you can't write is a wonderful idea.

Not.

In short, use common sense when writing and your article won't get taken down. I'm 98% sure the Power Users have legitimate reasons, so just deal with it and do better next time.
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DatNerdyKid
DatNerdyKid - 9/8/2014, 8:32 AM
@Doopie I had a funny feeling you'd be first :P
batz11
batz11 - 9/8/2014, 8:33 AM
Like saying the steak tasted great, without taking a bite, lol ;)
DatNerdyKid
DatNerdyKid - 9/8/2014, 8:39 AM
Gusto commented on one of my articles! I feel so privileged!

Also @batz11 steak ALWAYS tastes good. Especially if it's well done.
yossarian
yossarian - 9/8/2014, 8:43 AM
I like that someone stole Pasto's name.
Pasto
Pasto - 9/8/2014, 8:51 AM
Welcome to CBM.com.
EhMaybeSays
EhMaybeSays - 9/8/2014, 8:53 AM
Why are you bringing logic here?! It's obviously the tyrannical Power Users' fault.
DatNerdyKid
DatNerdyKid - 9/8/2014, 9:00 AM
@yossarian what? :P
DatNerdyKid
DatNerdyKid - 9/8/2014, 9:23 AM
Wow, I'd throw that guy out on his fat ass.
Pedrito
Pedrito - 9/8/2014, 9:32 AM
I'm all for power users taking down the common folk's articles.
It keeps the writing standards of the site higher, making it more accessible and valuable to new visitors.

Also, it creates comment sections full of furious rants and complaints, which is half the fun of the site anyway.
ThedamnBatman
ThedamnBatman - 9/8/2014, 9:35 AM
Modern britain isn't that fat, it's just that dude
ThedamnBatman
ThedamnBatman - 9/8/2014, 9:37 AM
There was an article by darknightsth., where it was well presented, well made, no grammar errors, nothing, yet it still got replaced



But I don't write articles so that's none of my business
DatNerdyKid
DatNerdyKid - 9/8/2014, 9:48 AM
@AlphaAndDecima you are officially the MAN right now
NovaCorpsFan
NovaCorpsFan - 9/8/2014, 11:47 AM
@Cerebro
Well, all the editorials, fan-fiction and a lot of the Features are posted by users, but when it comes down to those sorts of things going on main and staying there, that's when it gets bad.

It's the editors job to make sure the site looks good and most of the time, they'll repost something for a decent legitimate reason and for some reason, people still get in a huff about it. It's like, I've seen people complain about their articles getting deleted when the article has had maybe two or three sentences and looked like absolute shit. That's wherein the problem lies, y'see.
RextheKing
RextheKing - 9/8/2014, 11:48 AM
True, I notice a lot of poor written and formatted articles get deleted and replaced by a power user, then the first user go and troll the power user's article. With that being said, I've seen well written and formatted articles get deleted and replaced by a power user's articles.

One thing I will say is that power users also post poor written articles, but just to get theirs up first, then they go back and spice it up. If a basic user goes up against a power user using the same method, even if they initially beat the power user, they do not get the same chance to spice theirs up to make it main page worthy.
Wolf38
Wolf38 - 9/8/2014, 12:57 PM
I literally had no idea that this was a thing that happened.
Abary
Abary - 9/8/2014, 1:48 PM
Truth is, a lot of basic users don't have a [frick]ing clue how to write a good article, but that doesn't mean they are all clueless. A lot of basic users on this site are great at what they do and deserve a bit of recognition around here.

However, I do think users that don't know how to write a good article should be given a chance. I know a lot of 101s are posted, but an editor should at least contact the user and have them review the guides, and maybe (this is what I'd do) have the user re-write the article they posted and send it to the editors. It wouldn't get posted because the awful article would have been replaced by this time, but it would at least prove that they know what to do.

I've seen editors delete articles a couple of minutes after they are posted for being "plagiarized" and I personally find that ridiculous. Many users (editors especially) plagiarize the original source so that they can quickly get the article out to call "dibs" and they go back and work on it. Basic Users should get that privilege too, especially ones that have proven themselves, and should be given at least 15 minutes to edit their article.
JoshWilding
JoshWilding - 9/8/2014, 1:48 PM
Fantastic article @DatNerdyKid.
Dingbat
Dingbat - 9/8/2014, 2:17 PM
Not my call but I think an attempt to edit articles that aren't up to par should always be made. For all I know that actually is the case.
DatNerdyKid
DatNerdyKid - 9/8/2014, 3:03 PM
Thanks @JoshWilding. I was waiting for the time when either you or Ror showed up and read this. You've been one of the most accused haven't you?
MarkCassidy
MarkCassidy - 9/8/2014, 6:45 PM
Users ARE given time to fix up their articles. They'll only be replaced or deleted if a significant amount of time has passed and there's no way it's gonna be improved upon.

Oh, and "Ive seen articles taken down that were the exact same as the one a power user/editor reposts"

More lies.
BawbScharf
BawbScharf - 9/8/2014, 6:46 PM
Can editors begin deleting editorials that are not up to snuff as well? I like this idea of badly written material gets deleted in favor of well written pieces and it needs to be expanded to other portions of the site. Yes, people like the idea of a user powered site ...but that is because their content is not up to snuff for other sites. The more doors you close to bad writers, the more you help them to either improve or realize that they need to take a critical thinking course before tainting this site with their half-wit opinions thus making others who lack the skill to believe that they too can write an article. We all want to live in a world where everyone is entitled to an opinion or entitled to post whatever they want to post without knowing the rules but that is not the way things should work. There needs to be a quality control or sites like this will seem sub-par compared to others out there that seem professional. Yes, part of that comes down to news ...but what really stands out to me are the stupid editorials that are allowed to be posted every day. How many times do we need to hear someone explaining away Man of Steel as a masterpiece or what just any old person believes the line up for Marvel phase 3 should be. While I want to hear opinions about these things, I want it to be by writers that the editors trust and not over and over again in on week.

A poster mentioned just doing away with letting the users being able to post content and make the power users staff. Please do this. Again, we as a society should be challenging those who cannot write to get better or find another, NOT encouraging them to continue posting the same rubbish while making the site look bad in the process. The best way to do this would be to have a staff and then have an application for those who want to provide content to the site.

Unless it has not been made clear, I agree one hundred percent with said editorial and would like to see it expanded from news to other areas of the site. If people want their opinions to be heard, there is always the comments section for every article where crackpot musings, idiotic ramblings, and gifs belong ...though I do feel that anyone who uses the word 'ain't' should be banned from using that function as well.

OptionFour
OptionFour - 9/8/2014, 9:12 PM
Firstly, I don't have any really strong opinions on this one way or the other. But @DatNerdyKid - writing an article seeming so sure that you know the root cause of something, and then repeatedly pointing out that you've never actually seen these articles? It kind of makes it feel like you should reference those article writing tutorials yourself. You wrote an article about what you suspect is going on, claimed it as an absolute truth, hurled insults and ill-feelings around, and you want a pat on the back for it. This is not good behaviour.

This leads into the one strong feeling I do have about a good number of the Power Users, and even the community in general. Admittedly, you do not get to be a Power User for no reason - these people have absolutely, undeniably contributed to the website.
Most of them also make money by doing so.
As such, they should try to act a little more like professionals. Please, help to increase the general quality of the site by showing some dignity. Do not respond in a childish or churlish manner to people's attacks on you - it makes all of us look like fools when our own 'press' (such as we have) can't be bothered to act like grown adults. If you're old enough and responsible enough to help curate the website, and to decide which articles are 'good enough' and which you feel you need to replace with your own, then you're old enough to have a little professionalism and pride.

Further, if this were something that's going on? I would gently remind any Power Users in question that part of their responsibility is to grow and foster the community here. That is done by helping new writers, giving them exposure, and not by driving potentially talented (if inexperienced) writers away from the website with asinine, insulting behaviour. If anyone were doing this. And if those some people cared about the website, that is.
I can speak to the veracity of neither item.
DatNerdyKid
DatNerdyKid - 9/8/2014, 10:32 PM
@OptionFour I never hurled insults. I wrote sarcastically, but did not insult those making mistakes.

I am presenting my opinion based on what I have seen-attacks on Power Users in the comment sections of their articles-and if you can prove my opinion wrong, I'll happily admit my mistake.
Darktower
Darktower - 9/9/2014, 12:06 AM
if your article is poor or late.. its is sure to be taken down... simple.
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