Sunday, May 20, 2012

New posting platform coming to MLive.com

I'm just betting the "flag" will be the most used part of this new forum. Judging by the comments they get now with moderation, it will be really interesting to see what happens when they completely open the forum.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

The shill comment is dead on.. The first post looks like it was written by a MLame employee:

"Sounds great Jen, & cetainly shows Mlive's commitment to enhancing the experience for your readers & followers. Mlive is making great strides forward in all areas, thank you!!!"

Jeff Talley

Anonymous said...

This site sure has become the "everything mlive does is wrong site." Used to love coming here to get inside info about the goings on there from someone outside the organization. But now it just feels like bitter rantings all the time.

Anonymous said...

I've always found it odd that a small group of commenters is allowed to drive the coverage of the "new media." You'll find that a core group of people (maybe 100) seem to post 80 percent of the comments on mlive.

Anonymous said...

To the person who used to love coming here to get inside info about the goings on there from someone outside the organization. That still happens occasionally, but the truth is the vast majority (slightly more than 90%) of the employees at former Booth newspapers prior to May of 2012 are no longer with the current MLive organization. There definitely are some bitter feelings, particularly for those people with only a few years left before being able to retire who end up in the difficult position of being 45 to 55 years old and in need of a job. But if you put aside the bitterness that seeps through some of the words here, you will realize that many (not all) of the posters really, honestly, truly believe they were part of an incredible organization...Flint, GR, AA, pick a city...that cared about journalism. Those of us (and I'm trying to keep the bitterness out of my words) who believed that find it hard to swallow the lifeless, barely-there coverage that now passes for news. It's not that everything they do is wrong, its just impossible to do much better than they're doing with what they have.
The reporters on staff now are 24/7. They have to get news up as fast as possible to be relevant. I've seen car accidents reporter faster on FB. The problem with all that fast reporting is that leaves little time for in-depth information gathering for which newspapers used to be known. Headline writing was an art. Now it's just: Amid chaos, Democrats call GOP election bill 'a naked assault on that sacred right to vote' or this GUILTY: Flint serial killer Elias Abuelazam convicted of first-degree murder

Reporters are now encouraged to become part of the story. To not only report, but to chat with those commenting on the stories. And to hopefully inspire more commenting. Then there is the tendency to do stories about the comments, how many comments, what folks are saying about the comments.

Mistakes are made, not that they weren't made before, believe me they were. But there's no such thing as copy editing anymore. It's write it, read it, post it mentality. Followed by a "with digital we can fix it later." That doesn't inspire the kind of quality that getting made fun of by half a dozen copy editors who have no problem telling everyone they meet that you don't know the difference between affect and effect.

A former employee told me they never come here anymore to read anything because it just rehashes the same old stuff over and over. It's like going to a high school reunion and talking about what used to be and why it was so great and how nothing will ever be the same.

Stop by any doughnut shop at 7 in the morning and listen to the old men having coffee talking about bygone days and how much better it all was. To them, it was. Who am I to argue? In 40 or 50 years, these may be your good old days.

Anonymous said...

http://www.mlive.com/business/index.ssf/2012/05/mlive_circulation.html#incart_river_default

Anonymous said...

Gotta agree Anonymous 8:21. For so many people who say they don't miss it, are happier than ever and have moved on it sure seems like the do, aren't and haven't.

Anonymous said...

Real-time comments? It'll be a venerable troll fest!

inky said...

It seems the public wants "free" journalism; otherwise there would be greater acceptance of a pay/subscription model.

So, free news looks a lot like Mlive, which has been reduced to a bulletin board of events with no context. It's the journalism equivalent of welfare cheese.

Anonymous said...

that's a low blow and a cheap shot - comparing welfare cheese to mlive. what did welfare cheese ever do to you to be treated so poorly?