Less strict article rules lately?

thenated0g

Drinker of coffee, Maker of things
Mentor
This is in no way a critique or attack on the way things are done. I just noticed lately a dramatic change in the ...lets say length of time put into articles. Not saying that is bad im saying this in comparison to how it seems to be in the past. I remember the last time i did an article submission it got turned back to me for several revisions. I had made a nice talky video about something but they wanted an full fleshed article with pictures and text reduoing everything i put into the video. Basically a printed version of my video. But now i keep seeing these "articles" that have almost no content at all.

Im not saying this is bad, its more a question as to what are the requirements now? The main reason i haven't done any lately is the amount of work that was going to be required to even get it accepted. If almost anything is going to be accepted maybe i will try doing some more often.
 

DamoRC

Elite member
Mentor
Agree - I think it may have changed. For the Red Bull Challenge entry it was approved without any revisions and I am not a great writer. For a lot of the content I think it makes sense that it is presented as an article. But for a lot of the design / build stuff I am not sure what the difference is in writing an article versus just doing a thread on the forum.

DamoRC
 

fliteadmin

Administrator
Staff member
Admin
Moderator
I believe this is in reference to the Wombat Wing article - which seems to have slipped through in a very early stage. We put the article back in the hands of the author to give him time to finalize the project and the video, and to include documented steps, conclusions and other details. Thank you!
 

JamesWhom

Project Air on YouTube
Hi!

Just to follow up on this (as it's my area haha!), yep, unfortunately the Wombat article was published prematurely. We are absolutely still looking to push through quality content whilst helping users share their projects, reviews and challenges with the community in the best way possible!

Let us know if you have any questions about the articles. :)

- James.
 

Willowbrook Curmudgeon

Curmudgeon Air
Hi!

Just to follow up on this (as it's my area haha!), yep, unfortunately the Wombat article was published prematurely. We are absolutely still looking to push through quality content whilst helping users share their projects, reviews and challenges with the community in the best way possible!

Let us know if you have any questions about the articles. :)

- James.
And another question I would ask is: Are you getting too few articles by members now as opposed to the past? I see that majority of articles are by you.
 

fliteadmin

Administrator
Staff member
Admin
Moderator
That's definitely due the amazing job James is doing, as we are creating a lot more written content, pretty much every day! :)

That said, we encourage everyone to write, and every article gets out attention. We are planning several upgrades to the editor, maybe introduce some templates and other elements to help with the process, and are fully committed to keep this space a platform for everyone to share their work and experiments.

Robert
 

HilldaFlyer

Well-known member
I haven't written and article in a long time... mainly due to the being distracted by the forum... dang it!

I believe that an article should be more formal and creative than that which is found in, lets say, a forum thread. I'm not trying to say that forums are garbage, but forums are designed as a back and forth exchange of ideas whereas an article is a formal presentation. I applaud the effort to encourage authors to devote a bit of time, energy and creativity to making articles a worthwhile endeavor. Coming from a science background, I am overly familiar with the process of devoting 100's of hours of work into a process including writing an article only to have editors ask for a little bit more, or even all out rejecting it.

When writing an article, it is always in good form to know your target audience and what is expected by the editors. As always, it is a good idea to get a second or third set of eyes on your writing, and believe it or not, suggestions will always make your writing better. However, this is a hobby (at least for some of us), so the performance bar should not be so high that it will discourage authors from trying. All authors should know that editors will help and guide you along the path to publication. The intent is not to defeat the author, but to help him/her to achieve a higher level of readership and acceptance. I find the process of writing an article refreshing and very stimulating since it does take effort, planning and rekindles the creative process of putting words on paper to convey the enthusiasm that I feel when trying to instruct others on the way to replicate my work.

Regarding the plethora of articles produced by FliteTest... well, that is "their" job. If I could request one thing, I'd request that FT articles and Contributor articles are placed separately on the home page. It seems that as soon as a contributor's article is published, it gets shoved off the front page so fast that the limelight is missed. I'd make the home page with a contributing authors section. At the time I write this, the format of the home page only highlights 3 articles, one from a contributing author and two from FT. The next page only holds 16 titles, all published within 9 days and two were contributing authors.

As long as good authorship is encouraged, FT will have a good foundation base for readers as well as authors.

-David
 

JamesWhom

Project Air on YouTube
If I could request one thing, I'd request that FT articles and Contributor articles are placed separately on the home page. It seems that as soon as a contributor's article is published, it gets shoved off the front page so fast that the limelight is missed. I'd make the home page with a contributing authors section. At the time I write this, the format of the home page only highlights 3 articles, one from a contributing author and two from FT. The next page only holds 16 titles, all published within 9 days and two were contributing authors.

Thanks for your feedback David, that's really great information to act upon. We'll look into this and see what we can do. We're always looking to improve things here at FT and make sure that the community is encouraged to create awesome content.

Watch this space!
James
 

Vimana89

Legendary member
The idea for separate spaces for official articles and contributor articles is a good idea, I'm all for that. I agree with the sentiment about articles that are just a vid and a couple sentences or paragraphs, or ones that omit a lot of information that would be good to know, or otherwise cut corners. That being said, the length and depth and what's required to present an idea varies. Some subjects have a lot more ground to cover while others are more straight forward.

There's also the line between encouraging good effort, good form and self-editing and making sure an article is coherent and informative, VS setting ridiculous and elitist standards that exclude large portions of the community from having a voice or feeling they have something to contribute. I'm glad FT errs on the side of letting a little slop slip through the cracks now and then, rather than the other extreme. I'm also glad that this thread was made and the issue was brought up, because It does need to be addressed and we should be encouraged to give our best effort when contributing something like an article.
 
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