UPDATED: Something Has To Change at CBM

Truth. It's what many of our heroes fight for. It is unbiased, unwavering, it is honest. But sometimes the truth is ugly. A slippery fish slapped into the botox ridden face that is Sylvester Stallone. A foul smelling crack-whore from whore island in need of a punch to the ovaries.  But sometimes this truth needs to be told. What is this truth? Well, let me tell you...

I have been a member of this illustrious site for a few years now, I've been around the block. I've taken the good, which is plentiful, and I've taken the bad, which is scarce. We have had issues in the past with bullying, with over saturation of half-assed fan fic articles and with a lack of needless boob pictures. Or was that too many boob pictures? I can never remember. All the issues have been carefully handled and have done little to sway this site from it's path. But this problem now could be our downfall. I am sorry to say this but despite your valiant efforts and hard work, editors, it is you who are holding this site down.

There have been many times I have come close to writing this and now that I am doing so I hope I can find the right words to express my feelings and I hope it is taken the right way. I do not want to argue and cause ill feeling but this needs saying. 

I come onto this site everyday, I read excellent works in the forms of editorials and reviews that are simply ignored, passed over in favour of substandard and sometimes even pointless articles from our editors. I'm not on about the old argument of editor and non-editor finding the same scoop only for the editors article to be the one on the homepage. No, I agree with the "first come, first served" taken into account with quality of article principal. This is not the issue. Let me give a few quick examples of the problem at hand.

There is a certain editor who on numerous occasions, has posted a good quality in-depth interview with a cast member of a CBM. Nothing wrong with that. This editor puts together an excellent article. The problem is this same editor then takes each line of said interview to make further articles, covering what has already been covered in all the detail that was needed. And where do these extra, needless articles end up? The homepage.

Similar crimes are home page articles on high-res images that have already been seen in perfectly good quality. By all means report this but is it really worthy of the main screen? I think not.

And my final example, the article which forced my hand. On 2/13/2011 Anil Rickly posted what is quite simply an astonishingly brilliant review of the latest DC animation feature "All Star Superman". His article was one of the most complete a well thought out pieces of work I have seen on here for a long time. Now, forgive me if I am wrong but I didn't see this article on the main page. I came on this site today to find what is quite frankly one if the most rushed, ill-written, glossed over messes of a review of the same feature on the homepage! I didn't want to name and shame but it's obvious who I'm talking about. I'm sorry Rormachine, your work is usually oozing a standard of awesomeness most of us can only dream of but this particular article seems to have been written while sleep deprived. How you can justify putting it on the main page is beyond me. Add to that a far superior article on the same subject posted days before yours going unnoticed and it is baffling! If I am mistaken and Anil's review did in fact hit the dizzying heights of the homepage the question still stands. 

The issue is clear. Our editors use this site to further their own reputation and fail to promote the work of the little man. Don't get me wrong. Most of the work the editors do is outstanding. But they have grown complacent and appear to be throwing their articles automatically onto the homepage, regardless of quality or content. Editors please, part of your job is to search this site for articles worthy of attention. This site is bigger than you. It is a community of professionals, enthusiasts and amateurs alike. Don't forget it. Before you add your article to the home page please think, is this work worthy? Have I just rehashed what we've already seen? Is there another article on this site more deserving of my place? Let your article get onto the main page by it's own merits, not by the name attached to it.

This site is awesome, it is the platform for likeminded people from across the globe to voice their opinion, show off their talent and ogle pictures of ladies. Let's try to make sure everyone gets a fair hearing.

Stay classy!

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UPDATE: Galactus's Response - OK, it seems as though every few months I have to issue a response in defense of our site and its editors. Ron has given me this opportunity, and so here goes... Again.

First off, let me point out that the fact that we allow articles like this--AND FRONT THEM TO THE MAIN PAGE means that we do care, and always try and improve. We value our readers and ESPECIALLY value those who take the time to contribute and make our site even more brilliant.

Secondly, while Ron's points are valid, and there is always room for improvement, I would like to point out that "editing" isn't an exact science, and will NEVER be seen as "fair" on a site like this. We allow EVERYBODY to contribute, and that means hundreds of articles a day that need to be edited with a limited amount of volunteers. Depending on the news day, how busy we are, how drunk I am that day, etc., etc., etc., things can and DO get overlooked. All we can do is our best. If Ron, or anyone else would like to help out, contact me. It's easy to complain about something, but put your money where your mouth is.

Now, in defense of our volunteer editors...

1. Hopefully they will read this thoughful editorial and do better about helping good content make the main, but THEY ARE ONLY HUMAN AND DOING THIS FOR FREE. Well, most of them do make money through Google Adsense (something else we allow because we're so awesome), which may be one of the reasons some contributors chop up their articles, but now that Ron has called them out, maybe they will not do that so much.

2. We make SOME users editors because they have proven to produce good stuff, and want to help the site. They spend as much time as they can editing other users, deleting spam, monitoring for trolls and such. You have NO IDEA how much time that takes. For that effort we give them certain privileges. One of them is that they get their content posted automatically on the main page.

Anyone who would like those same privileges just needs to consistently produce good stuff for the site. Eventually we will see it and make "trusted users" out of you--which allows your content right on the main. The problem is that you have to be CONSISTENT for us to notice you. If you're consistently needing editing of your articles, you will get noticed, but not in a good way. My advice to those who what to get on the main. WRITE WELL. WRITE OFTEN. WRITE MORE THAN JUST FAN FIC (Fan fic rarely gets on the main because it is NOT news).

3. Give our loyal editors some credit. We are the #1 fansite in the genre and these guys helped make it that way. They DO care about our site and have been doing a pretty good job of it in my opinion. Sure we miss stuff, but overall CBM kicks ass and will continue to do so with your help.

Lastly, just an observation... There are some that are under the false impression that CBM should be held to the journalistic standards of the Wall Street Journal. We have NEVER had such lofty goals, and could never operate such an open and free site like this if we did. We feel that our approach has gotten us where we are--with 170,000 readers a day (REAL visitors not "hits"), and consistently growing. We are here to have fun and report about the stuff we love, NOT to cure cancer. So don't be hatin' CBM because we don't meet YOUR ideals of what we SHOULD be. Just enjoy what we have to offer, and add your content when you think YOU can offer something to improve the site. Mmm'kay?

Thanks for being loyal readers of our site. We truly appreciate you and your contributions. Keep them coming!

Galactus

NATE'S NOTE - Just a quick note that while editors articles have the *option* to be included on the homepage (via a checkbox when they're creating the article), it's NOT necessarily an automatic thing. I've had several articles that I've created, as one of the two owners of the site, that *I* haven't felt were homepage worthy for one reason or another (not necessarily CBM related, etc). If I'm questioning that as I post things to the site, everyone with that ability should be as well :o)