We have chosen Karen to replace Lostintime as the News Administrator. She will be taking over an excellent team and working with them to improve and expand the news area and staff.
There were three candidates being considered for the position. I asked each of them a question.
Quote from: Susan on January 06, 2008, 10:47:08 PMSend me, Dennis, Debbee, LynnER, and Steph a short message discussing what you would do as news administrator, What you would change about the site if you could, and anything else you wish to include.
Here is Karen's response.
Quote from: Karen on January 07, 2008, 12:06:12 AM
That is a very hard question...
The news forum is important to me for two reasons;
-It is a purifier and concentrator of news. I depend on it as a source of TG-topical news items.
-It's also a place to discuss these events. I've learned a lot about how other members of Susans' community view these events.
There are things I might personally want changed, but I think the news forum might become less welcoming to other members who wish to 'bird-dog' and post news items (as I've been doing.)
There are a couple of things I'd like to see, though;
-Pruning or combining of identical news articles. The tough thing here is to not take credit away from someone who has independently found the same article that was previously posted. They made the effort to post for others to read. Maybe deleting the later of the two topics and add a note to the initial posting that it was also independently submitted by [the second submitter]. And if the second submitter came by the same story at a different website, their link should also be appended to the original topic and credit given.
-I'd like to see some sort of rating system for the stories. I'd like to know if the story is from friend or foe, or what country it's from, or if it's serious or frivolous. I don't know how to implement such a system, especially in a way that encourages non-news-staff submitters to use it. It would even be better to allow members to supply their own ratings, that way it wouldn't be just my or some other news-staff idea of what the story was.
Whatever system implemented should be easy to police.
That is my personal take on what I like about the news forum. There's one more thing though. What do other users want to get out of the News forum?
My apology, I seem to have shredded 'short message' 
Karen
I think you will all agree she shows a clear vision for the news area and sounds like the right person for the job! Lets all give her our congratulations!
Perhaps some of you would like to answer her question:
Quote from: Karen on January 07, 2008, 12:06:12 AMWhat do other users want to get out of the News forum?
