correspondent articles --- fact checking

damian7

please, whomever at mmorpg.com is approving all these correspondent articles --- get someone to do some fact checking.

 

more and more, these articles are filled with erroneous information that anyone who's played the game for a month, will know to be wrong.

i'm only really keeping up with coh/eve on here lately, so i'm speaking to those correspondents' articles.  but if the other games' correspondents are as horrible as these, then yes, to save mmorpg.com's reputation as anything higher than some bad noob joke -- please start doing some fact checking.

 

repost some of these articles on the official sites and watch as hordes flock to criticize and mock the articles as garbage written by idiot savants (minus the savant).

 

i'm sorry if there's not a lot of people forthcoming to do these articles and you guys have to take whoever volunteers... BUT, there is a lot of good information on the forums themselves, and i'm sure if the authors of threads where you see a lot of people agreeing with, or even expounding upon GOOD information -- if those threads had a staff member ask about turning the thread into an article; then, you could get some GREAT informational articles posted on mmorpg.com as opposed to the insanity i'm reading time and again.

 

nothing against the editors, since i doubt they play every mmo out there constantly.  but, some of your expert correspondents, DESPITE their claims otherwise, have no clue what the heck they're talking about.

 

and i'm tired of being the ones arguing that it's not personal playstyle, and it's not 'imo' -- that information being given is just plain wrong and worthless to the reading audience (whether it's directed to new players or vets).

 

 

Taram

Have to agree...
Many of the articles, especially for EVE, have been downright horrendous... And EVE is one game where you absolutely DON'T want to get it wrong. Getting bad information from a gaming site could easily take the wind out of people's sails quite quickly.

It's not just EVE though, I've seen some pretty shoddy stuff go up for a lot of games. At the very least the correspondents should touch base with the communities of the games they're writing about that are here on MMORPG and check to see if their information is accurate before posting it as a 'news' article. 99% of the problems I've seen with the articles go up would have been caught within minutes by the various gaming forumites here.

damian7

soooo, can we get some fact checking on correspondent articles PRE publishing them?

 

pretty please?

tvalentine

the only articles that i have noticed people criticising for its inaccuracy are the Eve articles. Other then those Eve articles i havent seen anybody complain. Care to give some links to "inaccurate articles"?

damian7

Originally posted by tvalentine


the only articles that i have noticed people criticising for its inaccuracy are the Eve articles. Other then those Eve articles i havent seen anybody complain. Care to give some links to "inaccurate articles"?

 

COH, if you're an experienced player, you know what i'm talking about.  if you don't know anything about COH, then it's like any other game "hey, this is written decently enough, it must be right."  COH forum here just doesn't have the traffic that the EVE forum has.

damian7

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/218717/page/1

 

 

there's another example.  i can understand that she's new and she wants to make her own posts about announcements already made elsewhere... that's fine.

 

but then she makes two caveats and as you read the thread she defends points that, when we asked ex libris, were wrong.

i can understand articles that someone claims "playstyle" and uses that excuse to pawn off bad bad bad advice given in articles.  i can understand someone just making whatever 'imo' or 'playstyle' excuses to explain off a lack of understanding of basic game mechanics.

i don't understand why there aren't any fact checkers in place, or correspondents with ingame knowledge and experience that can give beneficial advice and not pawn bad information off as "imo" or "playstyle", however.

 

 

and if someone is going to be a "correspondent", should their "caveats" to copy/pastings from COH, at least be accurate?

 

 

tvalentine

Originally posted by damian7


http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/218717/page/1
 
 
there's another example.  i can understand that she's new and she wants to make her own posts about announcements already made elsewhere... that's fine.
 
but then she makes two caveats and as you read the thread she defends points that, when we asked ex libris, were wrong.
i can understand articles that someone claims "playstyle" and uses that excuse to pawn off bad bad bad advice given in articles.  i can understand someone just making whatever 'imo' or 'playstyle' excuses to explain off a lack of understanding of basic game mechanics.
i don't understand why there aren't any fact checkers in place, or correspondents with ingame knowledge and experience that can give beneficial advice and not pawn bad information off as "imo" or "playstyle", however.
 
 
and if someone is going to be a "correspondent", should their "caveats" to copy/pastings from COH, at least be accurate?
 
 

 

what you linked isnt a coresspondant article. And any post made in any forum is of their own opinion. If somebody has a different opinion then you, doesnt make them inaccurate or wrong.

really now, are you complaining about just 1 corespondant or news discussion corespondant threads?

also, corespondants are VOLUNTEERS, they aren't being paid to do what they do.

WolfClaws

The OP is correct.  There are a large number of articles that are out there that are totally wrong.

I remember going off on a Ranger guide for Age of Conan... talking about things like height actually increases range and a lot of other wrong information.

This holds true with a number of other "guides" and "reviews" from correspondents.  Spell check errors, ok I get that, but saying something that was never true, or treating rumor as fact.... Not cool.

I like the correspondent program, but there needs to be someone to actually review the completness and truth of the information published, because... I am sorry but even though they aren't on the staff of MMORPG... it still represents them.

tvalentine

Originally posted by WolfClaws


The OP is correct.  There are a large number of articles that are out there that are totally wrong.
I remember going off on a Ranger guide for Age of Conan... talking about things like height actually increases range and a lot of other wrong information.
This holds true with a number of other "guides" and "reviews" from correspondents.  Spell check errors, ok I get that, but saying something that was never true, or treating rumor as fact.... Not cool.
I like the correspondent program, but there needs to be someone to actually review the completness and truth of the information published, because... I am sorry but even though they aren't on the staff of MMORPG... it still represents them.

 

in normal posts no ... it doesnt. They are regular people makeing posts, like i said they aren't paid to restrain from posting their opinions. And i dont understand how 1 person's views and opinions can represent a whole site .......

In corespondant articles, not so much. Like i said, they are correspondants, volunteers. they aren't professionals.

WolfClaws

If someone wrote a freelance article in the New York Times newspaper and a little disclaimer says that the author doesn't represent the paper.... then writes some untrue crap... legally yeah the newspaper would be ok.... but the image of the newspaper would be comprimised, because the public would see the trash that was being printed.

 

Sorry, but I gotta disagree.  Anything that is announced by MMORPG.com and labled MMORPG Correspondent... then that tells me that MMORPG is backing them.  It isn't "Normal" posts... the normal posts are for the discussion... the actual guides, or overviews are in fact saved on a webpage, and not a forum post.

damian7

Originally posted by tvalentine

Originally posted by damian7


http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/218717/page/1
 
 
there's another example.  i can understand that she's new and she wants to make her own posts about announcements already made elsewhere... that's fine.
 
but then she makes two caveats and as you read the thread she defends points that, when we asked ex libris, were wrong.
i can understand articles that someone claims "playstyle" and uses that excuse to pawn off bad bad bad advice given in articles.  i can understand someone just making whatever 'imo' or 'playstyle' excuses to explain off a lack of understanding of basic game mechanics.
i don't understand why there aren't any fact checkers in place, or correspondents with ingame knowledge and experience that can give beneficial advice and not pawn bad information off as "imo" or "playstyle", however.
 
 
and if someone is going to be a "correspondent", should their "caveats" to copy/pastings from COH, at least be accurate?
 
 

 

what you linked isnt a coresspondant article. And any post made in any forum is of their own opinion. If somebody has a different opinion then you, doesnt make them inaccurate or wrong.

really now, are you complaining about just 1 corespondant or news discussion corespondant threads?

also, corespondants are VOLUNTEERS, they aren't being paid to do what they do.

 

 

feel free to look at any of her articles, or most any article by eve correspondents (aside from one that is about building a corp or something... that one, by definition, would be dictated a lot by style.)

and i'm sorry, but if her argument defending her erroneous posts, is (REPEATEDLY) a combination of "i've played this game for 4 1/2 years, i'm right" AND "mmorpg.com picked me to be a correspondent; they wouldn't have done that if i wasn't an expert" (both slightly paraphrased because i don't recall the exact verbage and it normally varies), then, YES, every thread she quoted the "imma correspondent", then yes, that emphasized that she was representing.

so if anyone wants to provide erroneous information (such as the caveats on that coh/mac pack thread, where we had information from Ex Libris to clarify the correct information); then that's fine -- but don't back up your arguments by saying you're an mmorpg.com correspondent and that means you're right.

 

at the point, you are taking it upon yourself that you are representing the site.

 

aside from all that -- if it's an article posted on this site (like others have stated i this thread), then, yes, you're representing the site because they're putting their name on your article.

plus, the requirements for a correspondent seem to be putting the burden on the author to ensure the information is correct; which is why i AM requesting a fact checker... or even for those articles to be posted on that particular game's forum before being published.   lord knows some of these articles would've never been published after experienced players pointed out blatant ignorance of BASIC game mechanics in various games.

 

none of this is done out of hate, or love, for the individuals... they very well MAY have good intentions -- but bad information is bad information, intentions do NOT change that one whit.

perhaps some of them could volunteer their skills as some type of editor in making the articles themselves more enjoyable... but that does not negate that the information presented should be accurate and correct.

sorry, it doesn't.

 

 

 

 

damian7

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/219036

 

 

there's a post on these forums, talking about an article on ten ton hammer.   notice how ten ton hammer is given the blame for bad information and not being bothered to fact check before this went to press.

no one in that thread, from this site, is blaming the author for the bad information... or if they ARE, they are laying a lot more blame on TTH and talking about how unreliable they are, etc.