Articles vs. Forums

ccrawford

Junior Member
Sorry if this has been addressed elsewhere...I heard a quick mention at the end of one of the podcasts, so know it's not a new item.

How do others feel about the number of articles on the main site that are just flight videos with a one paragraph description? I know I can just skip over them, but my observation is these videos typically get low views and low scores.

Few options seem possible, but no clear cut winners:
- Implement a "reddit" style ability to unsubscribe/filter the different categories of articles on the front page. (I'm looking at you, "Just Fun".)
- Add more info in the "Add new Article" page to direct people who are just posting a picture of their latest plane, a video of the maiden flight, or some FPV video that maybe the Forum is a better place.
- Add a moderation step that places articles that really belong in the Forum over there.

I'm not trying to put down the work of others...some of the onboard footage is well done, and I really enjoy build tips/logs. Just want to see it better organized.
 

RoyBro

Senior Member
Mentor
I'm a self proclaimed obsessive/compulsive, and I agree with you that there are too many articles that are not up to the standard I would expect to see as an article. Articles like "look at my cool plane" with 50 pictures of the plane and nothing else. I also don't like posts that would be welcome on the forums or on social media. As interesting as it is, I don't think the news that Amazon is thinking about doing something with multirotors is worthy of being an article. The forum is an excellent place for such discussion.

You mentioned an ability to filter categories. I would like to filter certain authors as well. FliteTest Argentina for instance. It's not that I'm not interested in what they have to say. I just don't understand what they are saying, and the auto-translate to subtitles on YouTube is worthless so I get absolutely nothing from their articles. There are others for one reason or another, but I won't elaborate.

I agree that there should be a set of criteria that should be met before a submitted article gets published. I just don't think that every maiden flight is article material. On the other hand, a compilation of flights, edited to relevance with music or narration is fine.

I'm going to stop now because I'm starting to sound like a snob. Even to myself.:p
 

earthsciteach

Moderator
Moderator
In my opinion, articles should have some educational or informational value. How-to's, reviews and condensed build logs are appropriate for articles. Flight videos should be posted in the forum.

That's my two cents worth.
 

rockets4kids

Senior Member
I agree that the quality of items posted as articles varies wildly, and I do wish that a bit more editorial authority was exercised here. I would say that a good half of what gets posted as an article really does not belong there.
 

JasonEricAnderson

Senior Member
I support what's been mentioned here. It may be worth it to have some guidelines on the article submission page that could even point out and reiterate the distinction and guidelines for Articles vs. Forum posts. Even just including a list of common types of, I'll call them 'low value' articles, to avoid posting and direct them to the forums.

Personally I think the forums are the best place to develop and share information that could then be edited into a good, 'High value' article. You get feedback and deeper information from the community that all help to create valuable, usable info that can then be highlighted as an article.
 

eagle4

Member
I think the forum is a better place for anything that could start a discussion. The articles should be providing value to people. I remember seeing one article posted which was an unboxing video, it wasn't a review, wasn't a demonstration of the product, just an unboxing. In my opinion that doesn't provide any value. (but to be honest I've never really got the whole idea of unboxing videos)

One thing that does suck with the articles at the moment is the fact that they get released in a massive batch. just the other day there were suddenly about 8 new articles. Plenty of them are great, and I know the feeling of being new into the hobby and you want to show your first flight/crash, but i feel it detracts from the articles page as being a source of fantastic information and inspiration.

I'm not sure on the moderation of the articles, like how many get rejected, I've had a couple rejected(i have no problem with that), but then seen very similar ones get posted months later...
 

rcspaceflight

creator of virtual planes
Honestly I thought about starting a thread called "is it just me, or are the articles bad lately" ... Or something like that. I didn't start the thread because I can't think of a nicer way to put it.

I used to be that guy that read, or at least looked at, every article. But lately I've been not checking. Mostly because I lost good enough internet. I do once in a while go to the library and try to catch up, but I skip a lot of them. Any video over 10 minutes I just skip. I don't have time for that and I'm getting really bored with flight videos.

I know one thing that we can do is to give low ratings to articles that we don't think is worth the time. It's mean, but the ratings are there for a reason.

I liked one guys suggestion (he commented it on an article). Start a new category called "flight videos" or something like that. Nothing wrong with posting an article to show a flight video, but it would be nice to be able to avoid them. I like the idea of being able to do a search that removes categories. And I'm not into quads, so it would be nice to remove any article under that subject.

I could go on for days. I think it might be best if we brain storm here for good improvement ideas and then present them to Chad. He's a busy man and I know he won't read this entire thread if we made him aware of it. But a few great suggestions to him and he might do them. So far I think the search that can remove categories is a great idea. Adding a few categories like "flight video" is a great idea. ... Any others?
 

RCrazy

Member
typo

O.K., so I was looking for a good place for help on some trouble publishing an "article" I was working on. Now I'm a bit gun shy as to where to put it, if at all. As I agree with what you above are trying to say, I still feel compelled to want to show (show off) my project and maybe some of my twists on it in the process.

I am building a Viggen like Dave did and have been taking pictures along the way. In building my article I see there are two others who have beat me to it, so I'm a bit behind.

Where would I put what I've done besides in an article? I'm kinda new to the whole forum/YouTube/internet sharing thing so advice (constructive please) would be appreciated.

BTW, the trouble I'm having is uploading pictures to my article. When I click on the upload button it brings up a new Flash page and I can't do anything from it. I'm using an Android tablet as I have gotten so used to just going to it instead of the desktop. This may be the problem, but can't figure out how. Thanks for any help, I have asked for it from Flightest and so far no response.
 
Last edited:

Craftydan

Hostage Taker of Quads
Staff member
Moderator
Mentor
RCrazy,

The Flitetest guys are (understandably) shorthanded and incredibly busy. I don't think they'll ignore you, as much as you might get lost in the noise. Beyond that, I can't really help either with the articles -- never wrote one myself and very little understanding of the process . . . but . . .

Feel free to open a new build thread here! (in the mad builders folder) There are plenty of cases where both a thread and article have been done, and frankly, I've seen far better interaction, and the project's activity lasts longer in the forum, since others can contribute to the thread with the same depth -- I can't post pictures/video or do more than a quick blurb in your article, but I can in your thread.

Come on! Hang out with us! Show off your work and how you got there! I think you'll be more pleased with what you find here than the 2-3 days on the front page, *maybe* a feature for a week, and a dozen or so "I like this" twitter-like comments.
 
Last edited:

JasonEricAnderson

Senior Member
What I'll do usually is create a thread for my project and that becomes the build log. Once I've finished the project (HA! I said "Finish The Project." Like THAT always happens! :p ) I'll put together an article that has all the most important details and with some time spent polishing the presentation and such. I've seen a few others do this as well. One of the great benefits of this is that I get all kinds of community help and feedback as I'm going along. All of this just helps grow the quality of my projects. I think of the Articles section as "Here is how you can do XYZ". Even the obligatory flight video can offer some value if the article gives a detailed breakdown of all the gear and techniques used.

I think the Android tablet is the likely source of your issues. I've never tried to upload an article from that platform but I know I've had issues with trying to stuff up to the web from Android in the past.
 

RCrazy

Member
Hey Dan and Jason, thanks for the feedback. After posting here I THEN went to the forum 101 posts and saw some of what you're talking about (build logs/posts. Wrong place I think putting them in the 101 area) and see the benefits you're talking about and remember now on stuff I've seen on UltimateRC. Will get one going soon with what I have done so far. Thanks for the help and stay tuned. I'll probably put it in the appropriate forum (Mad Builders?), not here.
 

Craftydan

Hostage Taker of Quads
Staff member
Moderator
Mentor
Sounds great RCrazy -- we're not folder Natzis around here (or really good at staying On-Topic at times) but when it drops in the wrong place the interested folks may never wander by to take a look.

"Mad Builders" is the perfect place for it.

Looking forward to seeing it!
 

rcspaceflight

creator of virtual planes
We get off topic?
---
I too sometimes will start a thread on an on going project and then when I'm all done I'll make it an article.

Sometimes I'll start a thread just to force myself to remember a project and force myself to actually work on it. lol. Come this spring I'll probably go through all of the threads I've started and continue any of the projects I've started. (Some of them require multiple "test" planes and I have no current versions of.)

But mostly I do the thread first to get input. Like with the FT planes I'm making for RCDP. I'd hate to publish an article with one of the planes a little off, fix it, and then have to say "I was just kidding guys, here is the REAL version." It's a lot easier to do that on the forum. (Mostly because, sadly, the audience for threads is about a fifth of the audience for the articles.)
 

apnewton

Junior Member
A simple solution would be to have articles published in either the Article section or a new Video section.
Maybe a trusted moderator or two could do the sorting to take the heat off the FT crew.

Joe Public uploads an article/video and the moderator decides which section it's published in.

There definitely needs to be better quality control anyway.