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What happened to Arn?

wordmunger

wordmunger

macrumors 603
Original poster
Sep 3, 2003
5,124
3
North Carolina
I've noticed a distinct slowdown in the number of posts to the MR home page lately. I've also noticed that Arn hasn't made a post since August 18. I did see around that time that he said he's "very busy" outside of Mac Rumors lately.

It'd be a shame to see this incredible MacRumors community slowly die because Arn moved on to other things. Any ideas on how to keep things going, with perhaps more community involvement?
 
I don't think the site will die without him. We have our mods, and Mudbug is an editor (meaning he presumably decides what articles make the front page etc) to keep the reputable rumors coming in.

I’m sure arn is still there for any technical site issues that only he has the access to be able to fix, but as far as the day to day running is concerned I don’t think it’ll die without him.
 
edesignuk said:
I don't think the site will die without him. We have our mods, and Mudbug is an editor (meaning he presumably decides what articles make the front page etc) to keep the reputable rumors coming in.
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I think Mudbug is doing an admirable job in Arn's absence, but face it, the pace of articles on the main page has definitely slowed. There were 40 posts in May, 58 in June, 38 in July, 31 in August, and only 11 so far in September. These main page articles are what draw in new readers, and what inspire the vast numbers of comments and other community participation. Also, there have only been 8 "daily" mac polls since June 8.

I think if we could somehow get more input from the community on what makes the front page, with the goal of posting at least one new article per day, you'd see community interest build right back up again.
 
wordmunger said:
I think if we could somehow get more input from the community on what makes the front page, with the goal of posting at least one new article per day, you'd see community interest build right back up again.
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Personally, I would like to only see rumors and related information on the homepage, not a new article a day. This isn't slashdot or macintouch. This is a rumors site with the added benefit of non-rumor related message board...

The fact that you think the site will slowly die because Arn hasn't posted in over a month shows your lack of faith in other admins and I find that dissappointing.

Now onto the lack of rumors...Well its a slow time of the year. Most companies don't release new computers only 2 months before the holiday season. A revamped iMac was just released (and still barely shipping) and the G5 were bumped up in speed not too long ago. So I really don't see much for rumors at this point in time, with exception of the iPod, and that would only be bigger capacities.

Wait a bit, the rumors will come...
 
I dont' think Wordmunger is trying to rip on MR, he's pointing out some stats. Though, I am inclined to agree. However, I have become much more busy with my semester starting and therefore have only posted a few times in the past month, whereas I usually post *significantly* more. I can appreciate that both the Mods and Arn also are busy. Specifically referencing Arn, I have to agree that there is a stark difference in the "feel" of the site since Arn has decreased his presence. Let this not be confused with a lack of faith or interest in the current Mods (They're doing a GREAT job). Overall, MR is still a great place to be, but Arn's continued presence as well as more frequent rumor updates are a real key to MR's future success.
 
a few points -
First - thanks for the pat on the back - I appreciate that ;)

Second - arn started a new job a month or two ago, and knew well ahead of time that he might completely disappear off the face of the internet for a little while. So I got a few extra keys to the castle to keep things running in his temporary absence.

Third - as for the lack of new posts to the frontpage, the irritating fact of the matter is that there really aren't too many 'rumored' things to discuss at the moment that aren't already out there with a story about them. Tiger updates will come as new builds show, but even then, there's only been one major developer release since the initial rollout at wwdc. The iMac is new, so 'updates' to that line are definitely a LONG time off, iPods are relatively new, so no major news there, the eMac will probably get a speed boost before too long along with the iBooks, but there's not even a good speculation as to what they'll get, so posting about them is kinda a no-no for the time being. There's not even a rumor of a rumor to discuss. As for the Power Macs, they've only just now started shipping the dual 2.5's in any quantity (if that's even right) so updates to that line seem far in the distance as well, and with that, it's anybody's guess (including IBM, apparently) as to the speed of those machines. Then there's the (dare I say it) Powerbook. IF they're working on an honest-to-goodness G5 prototype Powerbook (which we should at least ASSUME they are) it may well be one of the most tight-lipped operations in the company's history. There's product anticipation, and then there's the Powerbook G5.

I welcome anyone with rumors or dirt to submit what they can to us, and I assure you that even if arn is currently out of the loop, what you give us will be taken care of with everything we've got, and if it's worth getting the hopes of members up about, it'll get posted. If you don't want to use the submission form, just IM me, or PM me (or any of the mods - we're all willing to listen).

It's nice to see site members taking an interest in the direction of the site, and I hope before too long that we'll have more meat and juice to serve up. But for now, the grill doesn't have much cookin'.
 
I can certainly understand the "there aren't any rumors right now" point, and the idea that "macrumors is a rumors site," but it's still a little depressing to visit the site every day and see the same security update -- nothing new, nothing's changed. I know if MR publishes "news" items instead of rumors, there will be the inevitable "where are the rumors" complaints, but at the same time, when you've got a regular readership, you need to give them something... anything, on a regular basis. It just opens up the conversation, even if a lot of it ends up being "why aren't there any rumors?"

That's just my opinion, but I suspect there are many others who feel the same way.

Dave

P.S. Great to hear Arn's coming back, Mudbug. Any "rumors" on when? ;)
 
wordmunger said:
I know if MR publishes "news" items instead of rumors, there will be the inevitable "where are the rumors" complaints, but at the same time, when you've got a regular readership, you need to give them something... anything, on a regular basis. It just opens up the conversation, even if a lot of it ends up being "why aren't there any rumors?"
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Again - even that well is a bit dry - a quick rundown of what's been submitted to us just in the past 24 hours:
Office 2004 Update? - a question, not a rumor
New ATI display utility 4.4
Microsoft AutoUpdate 1.1.1
VPC 7 with SP2 XP - another question, which I'm looking for the answer to
free ipods - will this EVER end?
Gateway Profile 5.5 a.k. iMac G5 in black - fluff story on a news site
ESPN Motion Now Available for Mac - barely (not really) even worthy of putting on MacBytes
Apple Click Wheel mouse in near future - crock.
Z2 for OSX - pixologic Z2 coming to mac Sept. 30 - are you excited? I know I am... :rolleyes:
Leading german business magazine announced Apple Tablet Mac. Hmmmmm.
Keynote 2 - and this is the clencher - This will probably make the front page in a few days, when there's more to talk about. At the moment, the submission leads to a MacOSRumors page about the software, so that right there kinda eliminates the possibility that it's correct.

wordmunger said:
P.S. Great to hear Arn's coming back, Mudbug. Any "rumors" on when? ;)
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heh - I'd be willing to bet even HE wishes he knew...
 
when i first came on, blakespot seemed to run things here

then i saw arn more as the site grew into huge proportions...without arn, it seems lonely but with hundreds of members posting here daily or weekly, a squad of active moderators, and thousands of more casual members who post at least once or twice a year, this site will live on no matter what

arn and blakespot did a great job building this site
 
jefhatfield said:
when i first came on, blakespot seemed to run things here

then i saw arn more as the site grew into huge proportions...without arn, it seems lonely but with hundreds of members posting here daily or weekly, a squad of active moderators, and thousands of more casual members who post at least once or twice a year, this site will live on no matter what

arn and blakespot did a great job building this site
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Exactly. It can't, and won't die, as long as WE are here.

But I do agree about the frontpage slowdown...As of late I just jump right to the forums and skip the frontpage. But oh well...There isn't that much to report.
 
jet3004 said:
Exactly. It can't, and won't die, as long as WE are here.

But I do agree about the frontpage slowdown...As of late I just jump right to the forums and skip the frontpage. But oh well...There isn't that much to report.
Click to expand...

i remember when ten users kept this thing alive and at most, 500 people were registered here worldwide...and most were lurkers...like me back then

i am user three hundred and something i think who signed up...that was back in july 2000...kainjow here, signed up in june 2000 in the first month of operation on the internet
 
I've notied Arn's not been about lately. But Mudbug and others are still doing a top-notch job. This is my favourite Mac site and I visit it any time I go on the internet. I must say though that that Security Update is starting to get stale now ;)
 
*note* After typing this and reading it, it looks like a rant, but it's not.

1. If I'm not mistaken, Arn's new job and my wife's new job are closely related. And my wife has time to do two things: Work 80 :mad: hours and sleep. So, I understand.

2. Personally, I like the high signal-to-noise ratio of the site. I would likely skip the site entirely if it became a story-a-day kind of thing.

3. If you want to know every baseless rumor, donate, become a Demigod and view the private submissions. Good times. :)

4. I always wondered if Arn was doing digging and finding out stuff, or if it was all submitted. Mudbug... any answers?

5. Mudbug - great job.
 
FlamDrag said:
*note* After typing this and reading it, it looks like a rant, but it's not.

1. If I'm not mistaken, Arn's new job and my wife's new job are closely related. And my wife has time to do two things: Work 80 :mad: hours and sleep. So, I understand.
Click to expand...

so she's an intern?

does she work 80 hours? most people who work 60 call it 80 and people who work 80 call it 100 hours, but if it's really 80, not counting commute time, then i feel for you

i think doctors, lawyers, store owners, and restaurant owners can actually come up with 80 hours of work any week , any month, and every year they are in business

some people are built for the double time work week and cannot enjoy even a single day of leisure time, like jay leno who has not taken a vacation in 20 years...my dad, a store owner wore a tie for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and only took it off minutes before hitting bed...that's certainly not me otherwise my post count would be under 30 after 4+ years here ;)

when he decided to relax, he took his work home on sunday and let me and my bro run the shop
 
Thanks for the feedback, folks. Like Mudbug has already said, we're aware of the community's restlessness and we hope you all understand the lack of news/rumors lately. :)
 
Yep, she's an intern. She works over 80 hours (not inc. commute) most weeks, but 'officially' she works 80 since that's the law. The hospital does everything they can to get their staff out the door at 80, but sometimes, it just can't happen.

Right now she's on "owl" shift (nights) and it sucks big time.
 
i definately miss arn... he had a great skill for writing and commenting on the submissions and news/rumors. Every news article doesn't have to be about a new hardware product with pictures and unheard of specs, but it is lame when the same security updates is on the front page of a rumors site for 3-4 days...

No offense to mudbug, but the he maybe should consider getting his articles "edited" :eek: What kind of sentence is this?

Apple has extended its "Add more life to your Mac" promotion--which offers a US$50 mail-in rebate with the purchase Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) and iLife '04 - until January 10, 2005, according to MacMinute.
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1. learn how to use "--" HA and "-". I mean, which is it? One or Two? THERE NOT EVEN NEEDED!
2. missing some words in there...
3. way too wordy, why don't we make the whole post 1 big sentence?

yeah... i miss arn... :(
 
And come on... I KNOW you have spellcheck somewhere... and again with the sentence structure. Yeah this is a web board and in the forums it isn't that important to write correctly, but on the front page.. come on.. let's at least try to appear smart to the rest of the world!
The promo was originially scheduled to end September 25, 2004, but the extension suggests that either a new version of the iLife suite, or the full public release of Tiger could be expected at the show.
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:rolleyes:
 
We are all allowed to make typos every once in a while. I think you're being a bit harsh, and I also think that Mudbug is doing an excellent job.
 
Porshuh-
Some of us other mods are also trying to pitch in and post stories when we can - we'll try to do a better job with the copy editing. :)

PS. "definately", "same security updates is" :p
 
Jeez. Guess I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue. ;)

For the record, the spell checker doesn't work in the submission form for the frontpage, and sometimes I'm in a hurry. Usually we come back over the story and make corrections as needed. Typos happen. If you see one, let me know and I'll fix it.
 
That's one of my main reasons for switching to OmniWeb 5. It does the spell checking in the submission boxes and it's quite nice. That way I can avoid the english teachers on the forums and when I write in my blog it is legible and nice looking.

iJon
 
and on further review, my 'check spelling as you type' option was turned off - my bad. I wondered how those were getting through.

Anyway it's on now.

/tucks tail between legs and backs out of the room.
 
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