[jennys]

Postin' Newz 101
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Scene news for the most part started on two separate websites back in the 1990's. Zophar's Domain and EMUNEWS both kept tabs on the latest developments in the underground "emulator" scene. While I think Brad did a better job he also set an example on how modern scene news is reported.

There are four distinct News posts that we see on scene sites those being "Normal News", "Editorials", "Advertisements" and "Personal" Posts. Editorials are based on a subject matter and are full of opinions and make for a good read, but are in no way, shape or form news. An Advertisement is a given and a Personal Post may be something from a site moderator saying the site will go down for X amount of time for an upgraded on X date.

If you follow syndicated news you will see for the most part on how a post should read. Let's look at one.

"A 41-year-old man drowned Saturday while at the Walt River. The County Sheriff’s Office said they were called just before 12 p.m. when the man got stuck in the water. The man was said to have been part of a group that was walking along the river and jumping in and out of the water. At some point, the man jumped in and was unable to get out. Divers recovered his body several minutes after he went under."

Now, let's see if it passes a simple criteria check that most of you learned in early grade-school - Who, What, Where, When & Why.

Who? 41-year-old man
What? drowned
When? Saturday just before 12 p.m.
Where? Salt River
Why? Stuck in River after Jumping into it

You'll notice the writer of the article did not include any personal views (aka opinions) that is because opinions do not exist in a real news article. While he does not state any personal opinions he does state the "The man was said to have been part of a group that was walking along the river and jumping in and out of the water." which can be construed as an opinion, but not by the author. Including personal opinions in your news for the most part degrades the quality and invalidates the entire article.

Let's look at a fictional "scene" post.

EXCLUSIVE: multiMAN 04.05.00 DEX Released Posted by Jennys, on 28/08/2012, @ 03:14am Popular PS3 scene sellout deank has added another update for his well known bloat-ware Backup Manager for PS3, this update being for those of you who have converted to DEX machines: What’s included: ================================================================== * multiMAN ver 04.05.00 DEX (20120827).pkg - Stereo Player (DEX) - Web Browser + FTP (DEX) - Showtime for multiMAN (DEX) ! There is no need to install/uninstall previous versions of multiMAN – this is a DEX BASE package * Added support for PSVita Remote Play: PS Vita: MPEG-4 (852×480) (Reset TV Overscan in Settings to “None”) * Stereo Player can play SBS/TB movies in DivX/XviD movies in .avi3d format on DEX * Standalone browser + FTP work on DEX and returns properly to mM * mM restart function works * Showtime for multiMAN works on DEX (can’t return to multiMAN yet) * Showtime Standalone (in TV/Video) column works from XMB on DEX * RetroArch cores/emulators work fine * Separate online update for DEX multiMAN version is now supported * Default game backup folder on DEX 03.60-04.20 is changed to: —–> /dev_hdd0/game/BLES80608/USRDIR/GAMES ! For better folder access permissions: Use 3.55CFW to create folders under /dev_hdd0 ============================================================== Showtime ver 03.99.041 (Standalone).pkg - This is the official CEX/CFW version - You have to install it on DEX PS3 BEFORE starting multiMAN for the first time ========================================================= What to do: 1) Install [Showtime ver 03.99.041 (Standalone).pkg] 2) Install [multiMAN ver 04.05.00 DEX (20120827).pkg] IMPORTANT: 3) Start multiMAN from XMB so it can update your Showtime to DEX compatible version 4) You can now use mM’s Showtime or the standalone Showtime from XMB (TV/Video) on DEX FW Source Download

Okay, here's out post and it's not half bad. The spelling is good with correct capatilization.

Who = deank
What = MISSING
When = MISSING
Where = In Source
Why = Use with DEX machines

So what's wrong? To start the term "Backup Manager" is used incorrectly as the software that is being referred to is called "mmCM" and "Backup Manager" could be used to describe it. It may seem a bit dumb at first, but you need to include the "what" and "when" in the article itself and not rely on the headline. While this headline does indeed include the "What" the "When" is missing from it along with the article. The use of the personal opinions "sellout" and "bloat-ware" should be removed.

The quote is also too long. Fair Use Rights allow for two or three short sentances to be included in the quote otherwise you're using copyrighted material, per the copyright from the source. If none is given it is still "proper" to only quote some of the material leaving the user to have to go to the source to get the rest. It's also a matter of respect.

The Exclusive tag is also misleading as this article links to a source so only in rare cases could it be an exclusive (see Exclusives for more info).

Here is a much better looking version.

multiMAN 04.05.00 DEX Released Posted by Jennys, on 28/08/2012, @ 03:14am deank has added another update for his well known backup manager mmCM for the PS3. This update being for those of you who have converted to DEX machines: What's New? What’s included: =============================================================== * multiMAN ver 04.05.00 DEX (20120827).pkg - Stereo Player (DEX) - Web Browser + FTP (DEX) - Showtime for multiMAN (DEX) Source Download

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Okay, so let's take a look at each individual guideline that makes up a good news post.

5 W's

The body of your article needs to be able to answer these five simple facts; who, what, when, where and why.

Spelling & Grammar

Before posting make sure to run a Spelling and Grammar check and look for capitalization errors. Refraining from expletives also will make for a much better post.

Quotes

Allowed by the Fair Use Law your are able to quote up to three short sentences from your source. If you are the source then discretion should be used as 100 lines of text makes for clutter and you will receive more hits if you only quote a few lines as it makes the user "read more" of the article to see the entire quote.

Personal Opinions

Personal opinions from you do not belong in a news post. One opinion and it's no longer news. However, you can insert opinions of other entities, but if doing so it's best to quote "both sides" of the issue. Keep in mind what you state others have said should be directly related to the article and should not be used in a "personal" sense to further your own agendas.

Example PS3 MajorNelson claims this new development is more of a hindrance while GhostRally01 says it should further the scene in a more positive direction.

Sourcing

When you find content for a news article on another site it is customary to leave a link to their site called "Source" at the bottom of your post. You will want to link to the source you found and not the originating source unless that is where you acquired your material. Also source any other site(s) you used while writing your article. You also want to avoid back sourcing or leaving out your source for the original.

Say you're on BigTittas.com and find an article you like, but their source is EvenBiggerTittas.com. Here are two ways to source this.

Source: BigTittas.com
Source: EvenBiggerTittas.com by BigTittas.com

However, the 2nd way of sourcing is disrespectful to the your source as users can completely skip it and go to the source. You should refrain from posting in such a manner.

You should always link to the source unless the source happens to be your own site (see Exclusives).

Exclusives

Exclusives are news articles posted either by yourself or the content provider of the material that originated from your site be it a post in the forum or something someone has sent you to release. If the content did not originate from your site then it is not yours therefor is not your exclusive. Just because you find news first from another site then post about it then it is in no way an exclusive. Exclusives belong to you and your site - no more, no less.

Some examples of exclusives could be pictures a company sent you of a modchip, a tutorial someone wrote in your forums (and only in your forums), file(s) posted in your forums, .... you get my drift...

Conclusion

What you've just read is based on a course I took in College along with a couple of Books I've read based on Journalism plus my 20+ experience in the "scenes ". It's just for reference and I am not judging the way any particular site posts news nor am implying that anyone should follow this post or that the news posted by anyone is "no good". Take it as it is; if you can learn something good.

[FYC999]

go away please

[GregoryRasputin]

lol how about i teach you how not to break the forums layout @jennys

EDIT:
BTW its the ===== that are breaking the layout

[donglehater]

Not sure why, but your post formatting runs your words off of the right side and I have no way of reading them.

To be honest, your post, although well written and informative was a bit lengthy for my taste anyway so the words that ran off the side that I am unable to see are welcome.

[LoboGuara]

Thankfully ps3hax have no pretension of being a news site only. It would be incredibly boring and impersonal.

[jennys]

The words that "ran off" the right side must be in quotes? The two "example" mmCM aren't that important to read - it's just release notes.

[GregoryRasputin]

Originally Posted by donglehater Not sure why, but your post formatting runs your words off of the right side and I have no way of reading them. To be honest, your post, although well written and informative was a bit lengthy for my taste anyway so the words that ran off the side that I am unable to see are welcome.

I just fixed it, it was all the =======

[jennys]

Originally Posted by LoboGuara Thankfully ps3hax have no pretension of being a news site only. It would be incredibly boring and impersonal.

I am in no way implying the news posters take head to anything I've written. I actually wrote it due to the "sourcing" issues going on in the scene now. It just happened to grow a bit.

@FYC999

Piss off troll.

************* [ - Post Merged - ] *************

I don't do IRC (no proxy), but if anyone wants to Skype about this post I can do my best to further explain it.

[LoboGuara]

Originally Posted by jennys I am in no way implying the news posters take head to anything I've written. I actually wrote it due to the "sourcing" issues going on in the scene now. It just happened to grow a bit. @FYC999 Piss off troll. ************* [ - Post Merged - ] ************* I don't do IRC (no proxy), but if anyone wants to Skype about this post I can do my best to further explain it.

Was not a criticism. I prefer a more personal way, but it is a matter of opinion

[jennys]

Originally Posted by LoboGuara Was not a criticism. I prefer a more personal way, but it is a matter of opinion

Personal = Blog .... I hate blogs. Although, a little opinionated news now and then never hurt anyone. All of the time would just hurt the site rep.