I can’t seem to find anything in a sidebar or sticky thread that talks about the moderation / rules of the news community. I’m very interested in coming to this community to learn about news, but right now it seems whats being posted tends to be relatively low (lower?) quality.

Examples of common rules

  • Use the same titles as the article itself
  • No blog spam, link to the source
  • Political news, should go to the political community
  • No dupes of same topic

As an example, take a look at other news aggregators that focus on news.

My goal here isn’t tell people what to do but its start a conversation on the topic.

  • Prestron ( Prestron@beehaw.org ) English
    2·
    3 years ago

    Sorry about the duplicate comments. Not sure if it was the server or the app I was using, but I didn’t think they posted until it was too late and I re submitted it.

    Anyway, I agree to this idea in theory, but only if there are extremely clear thresholds before the rule is invoked. For example: a limit on authors’ statements of opinion. Ways that are unacceptable for the article to refer to its subjects.

    Basically I think we should debate the rules we want, but once we have consensus I wouldn’t want us also fighting about what does or doesn’t break the rules. Let’s please make the rules clear and measurable.

    • Powderhorn ( Powderhorn@beehaw.org ) English
      2·
      3 years ago

      For example: a limit on authors’ statements of opinion.

      What did The Economist ever do to you?

      Seriously, a hard rule (zero) on that excludes that pub and would exclude almost everything, but would still be far easier to implement than drawing a subjective line for each post that satisfies no one.

      • Prestron ( Prestron@beehaw.org ) English
        2·
        3 years ago

        Personally I’m not opposed to journalists having an opinion and using it to shape their work. I think it’s essential.

        I suggested this hypothetical rule as an example of a rule that is measurable. Also it’s about the discussion on what kind of news community we want here and I’m thinking about newspapers and the distinction between the news and opinion sections. Does that example make more sense?

        • Powderhorn ( Powderhorn@beehaw.org ) English
          2·
          3 years ago

          I’ve written, edited and laid out both news and opinion, starting in the days of paste-up. The distinction is easy with a bit of learning and years of experience and involves very few hard lines.

          The issue is with making rules for people who don’t know what news is. I understand the desire for hard, measurable definitions of news, but you’re going to need one hell of a shoehorn to make that feasible.