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Is it just me, or is MR not posting stories as timely as they used to?

Z

ziggyonice

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Mar 12, 2006
2,385
1
Seriously.

I know this sounds like a ridiculous argument, but it's true. Like many, I've followed the Apple rumor-mill for years. MacRumors had always been my first choice for finding out the latest info. They were at the top of their game, THE place to go for anything Apple-related. But in the past year or so, I've noticed that MR isn't publishing stories as quickly as they used to. I know that MR is less of a rumor site nowadays and now more of a summary of news from multiple sources — and that'd be fine with me — if they just didn't take so long to spread the word.

Lately, when I want to hear the latest news, I've been going over to 9to5Mac. Just a few years ago, 9to5Mac was the 'new kid' of rumor sites, but they're always on the ball. They always have the latest info, and several hours later MR picks it up. I'm not trying to bash MR, I just am a little disappointed in the timing of their delivery of information.

Examples:

Apple Negotiating for Unlimited Music Redownloads
9to5Mac — Story published March 3 at 10:35 pm EST
MacRumors — Story published March 04 at 09:21 am EST
(difference of almost 12 hours)

Apple Online Store Down Ahead of iPad Media Event
9to5Mac — Story published March 2 at at 6:58 am EST
MacRumors — Story published March 02 at 10:34 am EST
(difference of almost 4 hours)

Steve Jobs to attend iPad 2 launch?
9to5Mac — Story published March 1 at 6:04 am EST
MacRumors — Story published March 01 at 11:38 am EST
(difference of almost 6 hours)


Now, I know this is all nitpicky stuff (it's not going to kill me to wait several hours to hear the news), but sometimes I want to know the latest stuff right away, you know? I absolutely would take the MR community over 9to5Mac's any day, but until MR can get on the ball, I'm going to be checking my news over there first. Anyone else see a similar trend, or it it just me?
 
Macrumors has always just collected information from other sites. So I think it's about the same as it's always been.
 
mrkramer said:
Macrumors has always just collected information from other sites. So I think it's about the same as it's always been.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I appreciate that it must be frustrating for you as a reader but I think MR just aggregates all the latest rumours that are appearing on other sites; therefore the posts are likely to be coming soon after the other sites as they report on the various stories.
 
Obviously your examples are just that, but I can at least offer specific explanations as to why each of those three were or were not posted at given times:

1. It was late evening where I am when that story came out, and while I do sometimes post late evening articles, it's not a frequent occurrence...I need sleep and family time too. :) In addition, arn typically covers more of the late shift and he was in San Francisco last week for Game Developers Conference, so his posting availability wasn't what it usually is.

2. We don't usually post simple "Store is Down" articles. Instead, we waited to gather several items of interest into a roundup post ahead of the event.

3. We held off on posting this one because of the sketchy nature with very little in the way of sourcing. We eventually decided to put it on Page 2 simply due to the publicity it was getting, still questioning the legitimacy. (In fact, we still question whether it was real info or simply a guess/bet.) Only when All Things Digital weighed in did the rumor really gain weight, and that's when we moved it to the front page.

Unlike some other sites (not necessarily pointing at 9 to 5 Mac), we don't post everything that comes across our radar. Yes, we aggregate (you basically have to given the size and breadth of the Apple rumor/news ecosystem at this point), but we also do quite a bit of filtering and analysis. That sometimes leads us to be more conservative than other sites in our story selection and posting rate.
 
ziggyonice said:
Seriously.

I know this sounds like a ridiculous argument, but it's true. Like many, I've followed the Apple rumor-mill for years. MacRumors had always been my first choice for finding out the latest info. They were at the top of their game, THE place to go for anything Apple-related. But in the past year or so, I've noticed that MR isn't publishing stories as quickly as they used to. I know that MR is less of a rumor site nowadays and now more of a summary of news from multiple sources — and that'd be fine with me — if they just didn't take so long to spread the word.

Lately, when I want to hear the latest news, I've been going over to 9to5Mac. Just a few years ago, 9to5Mac was the 'new kid' of rumor sites, but they're always on the ball. They always have the latest info, and several hours later MR picks it up. I'm not trying to bash MR, I just am a little disappointed in the timing of their delivery of information.

Examples:

Apple Negotiating for Unlimited Music Redownloads
9to5Mac — Story published March 3 at 10:35 pm EST
MacRumors — Story published March 04 at 09:21 am EST
(difference of almost 12 hours)

Apple Online Store Down Ahead of iPad Media Event
9to5Mac — Story published March 2 at at 6:58 am EST
MacRumors — Story published March 02 at 10:34 am EST
(difference of almost 4 hours)

Steve Jobs to attend iPad 2 launch?
9to5Mac — Story published March 1 at 6:04 am EST
MacRumors — Story published March 01 at 11:38 am EST
(difference of almost 6 hours)


Now, I know this is all nitpicky stuff (it's not going to kill me to wait several hours to hear the news), but sometimes I want to know the latest stuff right away, you know? I absolutely would take the MR community over 9to5Mac's any day, but until MR can get on the ball, I'm going to be checking my news over there first. Anyone else see a similar trend, or it it just me?
Click to expand...

9to5mac's times are Pacific. Not eastern.

Maybe we could change our timeszone to Hawaiian. :)

That said, I understand what you're saying. Some of it is staffing. Some of it is we tend to be more selective with our first page stories than other sites. For a number of reasons, I think the redesign may help with some of this.

arn
 
Last edited:
To keep uptodate with all apple related news I now just use "reeder" and subscribe to the RSS Feeds of numerous sites such as MR, cultofmac, 9-5mac, macstories, modmyi etc etc.....

That way you get to hear most stories as soon as their up, even if it does sound a little obsessive ha!
 
Frankydan100 said:
To keep uptodate with all apple related news I now just use "reeder" and subscribe to the RSS Feeds of numerous sites such as MR, cultofmac, 9-5mac, macstories, modmyi etc etc.....

That way you get to hear most stories as soon as their up, even if it does sound a little obsessive ha!
Click to expand...

If you are truly looking to be informed "first" this is the only way to do it
No one site will have everything first
 
arn said:
9to5mac's times are Pacific. Not eastern.

Maybe we could change our timeszone to Hawaiian. :)

That said, I understand what you're saying. Some of it is staffing. Some of it is we tend to be more selective with our first page stories than other sites. For a number of reasons, I think the redesign may help with some of this.

arn
Click to expand...

When is the redesign coming?
 
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