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Feedback on 'Ambrosia Releases Wiretap Studio 1.0' News Story

TheSlush

TheSlush

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 28, 2007
658
22
New York, NY
Re: https://www.macrumors.com/2007/10/11/ambrosia-releases-wiretap-studio-1-0/

I know this has come up before in other threads. And I guess that I respect the general concept of Mac Rumors' right to explore various types of content, to an extent. It just seems to me that miscellaneous announcements and reviews of various 3rd-party hardware and software do not belong as front-page items on a site called "Mac Rumors." Such items are out of place -- especially on page one -- as they are clearly not newsy/rumor-y, and inherently carry only niche interest.
 
Look, the people who get it into their heads to object loudly about this sort of thing do not reflect the vast majority of readers.

Those of us who are not interested in this software or Macheist or whatever are fully capable of reading the headline and not reading the article; those of us who are interested, however, are alerted to something we want to know, which is why we subscribe to the Macrumors feed.

Arn, please don't let the self-righteous frigtards deter you from keeping us informed.
 
I find nothing wrong with this being on the front page of MacRumors. Not only does it sound like a cool product, but the company that distributes it has been in many threads over the past few weeks concerning iToner. It is acceptable if for no other reason because a large number of members use and enjoy iToner. From time to time it is nice to be alerted about new products.
 
Doctor Q said:
You can find comments about MacRumors' coverage of 3rd party products in this feedback thread. It's probably time to start up that discussion again.

[Relevant posts have been moved to that thread]
Click to expand...

Just for the record, I wrote one of the posts that was moved from this thread and I feel somewhat manipulated because it now appears to be supporting posts written a month ago that I wasn't even aware of.

Context is important and this sort of high-handed maneuver shows a great disrespect for your readers and the time we put into writing our contributions. It was wrong.
 
Donnacha said:
Just for the record, I wrote one of the posts that was moved from this thread and I feel somewhat manipulated because it now appears to be supporting posts written a month ago that I wasn't even aware of.
Click to expand...

All posts have been moved into a new thread that should be contextually relevant.

arn
 
arn said:
All posts have been moved into a new thread.

arn
Click to expand...
I believe the comments were valid on both sides and were, anyway, 3-to-1 supportive of your decision to explore this type of coverage; I'm surprised you consider valid, on-topic discussion to be such a danger and am disappointed you felt the need to sweep it under the carpet like this.

I will be less eager to post in the future.
 
Donnacha said:
I believe the comments were valid on both sides and were, anyway, 3-to-1 supportive of your decision to explore this type of coverage; I'm surprised you consider valid, on-topic discussion to be such a danger and am disappointed you felt the need to sweep it under the carpet like this.

I will be less eager to post in the future.
Click to expand...

It's not a sweep-under the carpet situation. It's keeping story threads on-topic. Site policy discussions about whether or not a story should be on page 1 or page 2 or not at all should not take over the news story threads.

The news article was about WireTap Studio. It is not about whether or not MacRumors.com should post stories about 3rd party applications. That's what this thread is for.

arn
 
arn said:
It's not a sweep-under the carpet situation. It's keeping story threads on-topic. Site policy discussions about whether or not a story should be on page 1 or page 2 or not at all should not take over the news story threads.

arn
Click to expand...
Okay, fair enough, it is annoying when threads get badly off-track although I'm not sure if that was really shaping up to happen in this case. Still, I guess after all these years you probably have a sixth sense telling you when something needs to be nipped in the bud.
 
Donnacha said:
Okay, fair enough, it is annoying when threads get badly off-track although I'm not sure if that was really shaping up to happen in this case. Still, I guess after all these years you probably have a sixth sense telling you when something needs to be nipped in the bud.
Click to expand...

I would have let a few posts go, but phil83's post was a bit more heated a response, so I figured that was going to tip it way off topic. phil's since edited out the post, making my actions seem more arbitrary.

arn
 
Donnacha said:
I believe the comments were valid on both sides and were, anyway, 3-to-1 supportive of your decision to explore this type of coverage; I'm surprised you consider valid, on-topic discussion to be such a danger and am disappointed you felt the need to sweep it under the carpet like this.

I will be less eager to post in the future.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I'm a bit confused, the thread feedback for the prior Ambrosia announcement on front pages news, had 100% agreement from posters that the did *not* want to see this coverage in the Front page section. And I will agree, so what if I am intelligent enough (lol) to bypass it...same can be said of all OT threads, duplicative threads that get closed, etc.

Donnacha said:
Just for the record, I wrote one of the posts that was moved from this thread and I feel somewhat manipulated because it now appears to be supporting posts written a month ago that I wasn't even aware of.

Context is important and this sort of high-handed maneuver shows a great disrespect for your readers and the time we put into writing our contributions. It was wrong.
Click to expand...

I did not see that post, it's in this thread then?

arn said:
I would have let a few posts go, but phil83's post was a bit more heated a response, so I figured that was going to tip it way off topic. phil's since edited out the post, making my actions seem more arbitrary.

arn
Click to expand...

So what about putting these types of stories on MacBytes or another forum other than front page news, which seems to be the main objections of most??? I see no response from arn on that question in this thread or the prior feedback thread. What objection does arn have to putting these 3rd party product stories, which many feel to be out of place in the front page news, into another forum?
 
My opinion:

I still think the front page is not the right place. We don't need another Mac website reporting Mac software updates. I especially feel that Wiretap Studio is nothing special, and that it is a niche product. Same could go for Acorn, although that was page 2. But why not all the other software updates coming out? Why pick and choose?

I think MR should innovate in reporting the news in other ways. We have seen that community-based content is the "hot" thing now (digg, reddit, etc.), and since one of MR's strengths is its community, maybe something could be done in that area.
 
kainjow said:
My opinion:

I still think the front page is not the right place. We don't need another Mac website reporting Mac software updates. I especially feel that Wiretap Studio is nothing special, and that it is a niche product. Same could go for Acorn, although that was page 2. But why not all the other software updates coming out? Why pick and choose?

I think MR should innovate in reporting the news in other ways. We have seen that community-based content is the "hot" thing now (digg, reddit, etc.), and since one of MR's strengths is its community, maybe something could be done in that area.
Click to expand...

Absolutely agreed.

I thought the general consensus the last time this issue came up was that the content of such announcements/articles is fine, it's just not well suited to a main page article. Add a new section on software releases, reviews, etc.

Stuffit Expander recently went to version 12, but I don't want to see it on the main page.
 
virus1 said:
Cool, but WHY AND SINCE WHEN DO WE CARE?

Wonder how much this article cost.
Click to expand...

Ambrosia's the same company that puts out iToner... so if you were one of the thousands who visit this site who were relieved that Ambrosia put out a ringtone software, then you (like me) might be interested in a software that records audio directly from iTunes, Quicktime, or through your inputs.
 
why shouldn't this get a little attention ? heck, every time some tiny bit of news comes out for that overpriced phone we have front page news for it. i guarantee once apps start being sold for it that will be front page news too, probably what apps they are will be included also.
 
virus1 said:
Cool, but WHY AND SINCE WHEN DO WE CARE?

Wonder how much this article cost.
Click to expand...
Well, for those who dont care, suppose there is no obligation to read the article.
On the other hand, I have downloaded the trial and am watching the tutorials - it seems to be pretty cool.

Understandably there are those who say this is a mac 'rumors' site, and should be limited to as such in terms of what articles are dipslayed - but it seems the trend of recent times is to give more substance, and personally Im fine with that. I quite like having one place to go to that has my mac rumors as well as what I can possibly do with the mac I already have...this includes reviews (which was done not long ago on this site for this same software.)

True, they may eventually want to rebrand if they continue this direction.
Kind of like apple dropping the term 'computer' from "apple computer".
This may help them get into some of these conferences, which would be nice ...as I totally dig how they have the auto-news-update feature without refreshing my web-browser.

Peace

dAlen
 
I applaud MR for trying new things and putting something DIFFERENT on the front page! I come to this site every day to read up and see what's new in the mac world... and a lot of the time the answer is "oh nothing.. that same story has been there for two days."

Nice job guys... keep us informed.

:)
 
I believe Circus' Ponies Notebook program just got a small update. Should that get a news post on the front page? Probably not.

I understand that MacRumors is receieving no compensation for this. But I was first attracted to MR due to its fairly straightforward reporting of Apple News without much editorialization. If I needed some commentary, I could just click on the forms and read all the trolling :p.

But placing specific news of certain 3rd Party programs releases adds quite a large amount of editorializing to the front page. I believe arn went on record on the previos "Feedback" thread, that the news was posted due to the fact that Wiretap had some very neat and innovative features (not quoted exactly). But any program that does not make the front page of MR can officially be categorized as not being innovative, or worse, not endorsed by the MR staff.

There's also the issue that it clearly looks like the MR readers aren't caring. Take a look at the front page now. Everything directly related to a mac product has at least 100 comments, including recaps on Leopard features we already knew about. The wiretap story and the Sharp LCD story have less than 25 (at the time of this posting).

My opinion? How about a page 3 (for 3rd Party Apps)? There's at least a small market for that, and any 3rd party program news that MR feels like posting could go here (that includes MS Office and Virtualization programs, just to be fair).

On a last note, while I understand the point of segregating the feedback forum, it does seem like Big Brother's just hiding the criticism of itself. At least post a link to this forum on the front page.
 
I haven't been commenting on MacRumors for a while now, but it has a top spot in my bookmarks bar and I immediately check if the RSS feed has a new item; this is because MacRumors (for me) means high-quality, low-frequency news. This Ambrosia thing is not such content. Wasn't there a story about this before? It looks like advertising to me. Sure, I am smart enough to skip "news" like this; but if this comes up regularly, I will be smart enough to just stop reading MacRumors.
It's not like I think I am the one to decide what direction MacRumors should take; but I think I represent one of many readers of MacRumors who don't participate in the forums that much but do read your news (and view and click your ads). How about a poll on page one about this?
 
I just wanted to mention that I too see this as cheapening the site and also it is odd that only this software has had the spotlight put so brightly on it. You have posted twice now about it, as if it were a revolutionary piece of software, which is most certainly is not. It may be cool, but every month there is some cool new software. What makes this so special?

If you were every week spotlighting some new cool software it would seem a little more fair, but as you have done it here, it doesn't seem impartial.

Also I agree this is somewhat hidden. I only knew to look for it remembering that there was a link last time. There should be a link within text on front page.

TheSlush said:
Re: https://www.macrumors.com/2007/10/11/ambrosia-releases-wiretap-studio-1-0/

I know this has come up before in other threads. And I guess that I respect the general concept of Mac Rumors' right to explore various types of content, to an extent. It just seems to me that miscellaneous announcements and reviews of various 3rd-party hardware and software do not belong as front-page items on a site called "Mac Rumors." Such items are out of place -- especially on page one -- as they are clearly not newsy/rumor-y, and inherently carry only niche interest.
Click to expand...
 
fregedegpo said:
I just wanted to mention that I too see this as cheapening the site and also it is odd that only this software has had the spotlight put so brightly on it. You have posted twice now about it, as if it were a revolutionary piece of software, which is most certainly is not. It may be cool, but every month there is some cool new software. What makes this so special?
Click to expand...

Agreed, this is blatant paid advertising being wrapped up in poor excuses.
 
fregedegpo said:
I just wanted to mention that I too see this as cheapening the site and also it is odd that only this software has had the spotlight put so brightly on it.

If you were every week spotlighting some new cool software it would seem a little more fair, but as you have done it here, it doesn't seem impartial.
Click to expand...

this might seem off topic, but you want to talk about cheapening? it started once we had this forum.

actually i don't mind having such page 1 topics. if macrumors gets ad money for this, i won't even mind. as long as it is nicely done.

id really rather have this type of "ads" (which some users call) than those flashing, blinking ads. besides, this is a good way to keep the site "fresh", during the slow apple news days (especially regardings macs ;))
 
since this is not a rumor, i support creating a new section (tab?) of macrumors that contains product announcements, i think it's a great idea, because the MacBytes section is too chock full of opinion crap and analyst poo. but i don't believe it should be on the main articles section of the home page.

my $0.02.
 
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