So it's been a while, updating the news. Like some have said it's a fairly thankless process, people are quick to point out when you've made an error on 1 story - even though you posted 15 other A-okay updates on the same day.

I've talked with other people about updating the news page and we share similar concerns. So I'd like to talk you through how I post the news and why things are the way they are. So the next time things appear hinky, please bear all this in mind so I don't have to repeat the same stuff again. Some of this applies to other people who update too, but I'm sure each person has their own process and quirks.

TO START WITH

Okay, so first off I hit gonintendo, they seem to report a lot of stuff and it's in a blog form so it's not easy just reading a list of updates, it takes a while to scroll through everything. This is why the bottom of the column updates are usually Nintendo stories, because I post it earlier in the day to get it out of the way.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE SITES

Then I hit up a couple of useful foreign language sites, because of this please note it when the headlines are not 100% right. I am either giving an educated guess based on things I can sort of read' or babelfish translating it. I only speak english so don't cut my nuts when I get it slightly off. Also note that because I do not speak foreign languages and because we all speak english here, posting a link to a spanish story (for instance) is of benefit to very few people here. So I sometimes have to link to translations done by other people on other forums or sites. This does not invalidate the news, but posting the original link would be of little use to most people here and the translation is much more useful.

MULTIPLATFORM SITES

I usually visit multiplatform sites towards the end of my updating session so you will see more stories on PC, PS3, Xbox stories near the top of the page once I am finished. Then I go onto NeoGaf to pick up the dregs of whatever I may have missed. I tend not to go to platform specific sites, so if you want really in depth coverage of Vita or whatever I cannot service you - I simply do not have the time. I post what I am immediately interested in and what I think will immediately interest others.

I only hit up one Japanese centric site, a lot of the Japanese stuff is in unreadable Kanji.

THERE IS RED ALL OVER THE PAGES

Nintendo stories are red, you may see a lot of red and complain about how it's all Nintendo. Please bear in mind that Nintendo platforms do not get a lot of multiplatform support. So there are many PC or Xbox and PS3 games that get posted with no colour. If you take the time and do the math, add up all the red stories of the day and then add up all the colourless stories and green and blue you will see more of a balance. I cannot paint a story blue because it's on PS3 when it's also coming to PC and 360 too.

I ONLY POST 30% OF WHAT I SEE

There is so much stuff daily and most of it is pointless or really uninteresting. Here, random story of the day I just spotted: League of Legends Varus gameplay trailer

I have no fricking idea what this is. Sure there may be someone who is really into League of Legends, I have no idea what it is, have never seen anyone here talking about it so I do not post the link. I do not have time to do everything.

CVG IS A TABLOID NEWSPAPER

That's their business, they like to stir up shit, they are a tabloid newspaper in gaming news terms. They always try to sensationalise everything but they are current and do update regularly and have the whole of the futurenetwork to draw upon. So they are a good source of gaming news if you can get past the sensationalism.

MAKING THINGS INTERESTING

On that note, sometimes there are quiet days on the news page, or not much interesting going on on the vgpress. We have times where there is not much to talk about. So in some news updates, I do sometimes sensationalise and mix things up, throw in a glib comment here and there to get someone to say something. Bear in mind that I'm not trying to piss you off or denegrate your favourite game or studio, I'm just trying to get some kind of discussion going on and sometimes you have to pluck a hair off someones back to wake them up. Despite some altercations I have had with some people here, I genuinely hold no animosity towards anyone at the moment - not even you, yes you know who you are.

BIG NEWS: BLACK HIGHLIGHTED STORIES

Now this one will annoy people, you see some things listed as big news others not. Usually I use the big story colouring when there is the first review of a game, or first announcement of a game. If a reviews embargo ends and there are more than several reviews on the same day I just highlight the first or the single best or most controversial. Otherwise I just use the big story colour to bring your attention to an interesting article or to get someones attention if there is a time critical sale or deal or news that I know someone will have a particular interest in. It's a way to make sure that for instance (X forumer) doesn't miss out on free download content or so that Canadian forumers know about some great game sale.

I LIKE READING RUMOURS

Some people are weird, they hate rumours, they hate being teased, they hate seeing it labelled as news. I love rumours, I want to know everything I want most rumours to be true  and I like imagining what things could be like. When I post rumours I  usually label them as RUMOR: or I put a question mark after it:

Report: New Xbox being manurfactured at the moment?

It may not say rumour but when there is a ? mark at the end please note that it's there to denote that the story is not a sure thing. A lot of rumours turn out to be true, so please don't go nuts when there are rumours posted in the news, it's usually the rumours that get people talking here the most.

THERE IS A CHARACTER LIMIT!

This makes the headlines quite annoying sometimes, things either have to be chopped down, re-worded or paraphrased to get a representative headline. Sometimes you have to bastardise a headline just to get something vaguely coherent up. This is not something I have control of, I do my best but sometimes you are forced to do a hack job just because the headline will not fit! Don't hate me for this.

DON'T SHOOT THE MESSENGER

Just because I post a story or editorial does not mean I agree with it. Remember this. I am here to deliver the news, not to filter and read and judge everything. If you do not like a particular story and have an issue with it, that is fine, but please do not shoot the messenger. Your issue is with the writer of the article or the content in it. Please leave me out of it.

"Shooting the messenger" is a metaphoric phrase used to describe the act of lashing out at the (blameless) bearer of bad news.

I DON'T HAVE TIME TO READ EVERYTHING BEFORE POSTING IT

This relates to shooting the messenger. When people do updates en masse they are trying to get through and post a whole lot of news in not much time. We do not have time to read the content of each and every article we post. There are a whole bunch of sites with a whole lot of links and we are just trying to process them and get them up as links for you to click on. When you have a problem with a story, please note that the updaters have not neccesarily looked behind the one line headline when we post it.

NEOGAF IS A VALID SOURCE

I know it's massive forum and that there can be a lot of trolling and system wars, but it is a gold mine of information. It is the single most important gaming forum on the internet. All the sites you know like Gamespot, IGN, Eurogamer, CVG etc get a lot of their stories from NeoGAF. When someone on GAF trawls up an unseen patent or finds concept art for a secret cancelled game, or translates some japanese business report - other sites take notice and post news based on what is said there. NeoGAF also has celebrity posters as I call them: real developers, real industry people, real analysts. They even have representatives of sites, for instance you know of the aussie website Vooks? There is a forumer there called VOOKS who writes for them and the same goes for other sites too.

I POST NEWS FOR YOU

I want people to stay in the loop, I post things that might interest my friends, I like suprising and entertaining people. I am not paid here, I do this as a kind of free service for people to read here. It's not always fun, it can be labourious, repetitive and woefully thankless. So when you do all this work for soooo long and for so little reward, when someone bites your head off (usually for one of the reasons mentioned above in the news updating process), you can snap. Others have too.

The next time you think I have made some sort of mistake, read this blog again and bring the issue to me in a nice, logical manner and I'll respond in kind. You'd probably be suprised at how fast I would be to alter a headline that was non-reflective or delete a story which is untrue. Bear in mind that everyone here can edit, post or delete stories. If you have a real problem then fix it yourself quietly instead of creating drama where it's not needed - the likelihood is that I haven't even had time to read the content of a story you take issue with! Or that the headline had to be a hack job to fit inside the character limit.

If you snap at me, I'm likely to do the same back, or just disappear.

That is all.

NEW SECTION: I POST LINKS WHEN I SEE THEM

Another day, another accusation because of the news posting process. On one day I posted 4 articles which were editorials from various sites about why the Wii U was a better purchase this Christmas than PS4 and XB1. This "LOL GG is a fanboy" post was then plus-ed by 3 people which means there are 4 people who think this. The reality is that I saw all 4 stories at the same time in one thread. As someone who is constantly reading and constantly looking for things to show you guys, I post what I see when I see it. So imagine you are me, you click a thread whilst reading GAF and the thread is about how Super Mario 3D world is changing peoples opinions on Wii U. In this post are links to 4 articles about the subject. As someone who is constantly updating the news each day I post the stories one after the other.

They are posted one after the other because that is when I see them. Would it make sense to post 1 of them, wait till the next day and post another, wait another day or even a couple of hours then post another? That makes no sense. When I go to Eurogamer I post all the Eurogamer stories I see one after the other, as I am on the site at that time of day. When I am on CVG I post all the stories I see there one after the other as I am on the site.

So logically when I am on GAF and see 4 articles in the same post, as a NEWS UPDATER it only makes sense for me to post them all as I see them, one after the other. It makes no sense NOT to. I explained why they were posted that way and posted a link to the thread where I saw them but no one replied or plus-ed my post. So I really don't appreciate the LULZ GG is a fanbody +1 treatment. Maybe you think this is an overeaction, but try updating the news everyday for years - LOOKING FOR INFORMATION FOR YOU GUYS TO KEEP YOU ENTERTAINED AND INFORMED and then getting shit for it.

And on the other hand, really do not ignore the dozens upon dozens upon dozens of stories I have posted about how the Wii U is weak, horrible, flatlining in sales or missing publisher support. And that's been posted continuously by me for about 2 years now. No one here has posted as much negative Nintendo news as me and I never seem to get recognition for that. Whether I agree with it or not, I post it.

I'm the one who posts that news irregardless of whether it's negative or not. In fact the day before the 4 "Wii U is good" editorials I posted an analyst saying that it would sell like the Gamecube and just today I posted: Xbox One UK sales about to overtake Wii U total

So next time before jumping on the LULZ GG is a fanboy +1 train, stop and think about how the updating process is done and please stop being so silently glib. If you have something to say then say it.

GG you shouldn't feel the need to explain yourself.  Most people here understand the work and the time that is involved in going through this whole process on a day to day basis and we are all thankful, grateful and appreciative.  I hope you know that even if it goes unsaid much of the time.

... anyone who doesn't understand, you shouldn't bother

I want me some of that manlove

Other things to note:

Some stories are posted as a joke to make you laugh or attempt too for instance todays story:

Tokyo Jungle should be a Z rated game for sexual content

Wait...... isn't this a game about animals?

CONTENT AT THE LINK

"Kobayashi jokes that Tokyo Jungle should be a Z rated game because of the violence and sexual content."

IF YOU SEE A LOT OF REVIEWS OR UPDATES FOR A PARTICULAR GAME POSTED IT'S USUALLY FOR A REASON

For instance when I was posting Red Steel 2 reviews I was actually doing the review thread at NeoGAF and so doing double duty here; I thought I might as well post the same reviews I found for the benefit of both sites. It was fairly ardous so when I got criticised for it I snapped again. I also did the thread for the Crystal Bearers here and on GAF so I had to collect a lot of reviews and I did the news hype thread on GAF for Go Vacation so I had to have lots of stuff to post to keep the thread updated.

The other reason you might see lot of reviews posted is because a reviews embargo ends and all the reviews come out at once, or it's a big game that a lot of people are interested in, Mario this, Halo that. Or and yes I am guilty of this: I like to shout about little odd games because the big games get enough attention as it is. Maybe it gets on your nerves, but I feel like you have to shout about some games because otherwise they get stepped on and passed by like cracked leaves on the pavement.

Also, I like to annoy you guys.

Dvader said:

"Bear in mind"


I see what you did there!

Unintended, most likely. But I'm shocked that it took you this long to figure it out.

Sorry I'm not reading or replying to comments yet, I just want to round up everything I can think of first so people can understand why stories are posted the way they are.

ON REVIEWS

The quotes are grabbed really quickly, usually by scrolling right down to the last paragraph and grabbing whatever is there. If you're lucky there is some one liner at the top of a review to crib. Reviews are rarely actually read before posting - bear that in mind. You click the link, smash and grab then leave.

Usually I'm pretty lazy and grab just the score.

WEEKEND UPDATING

Only a few blogs actually update with news at the weekend so most of it is barren and cleaning up the dregs from the weekdays , or picking up on rumours on GAF. About the only site I see update at the weekend is Gonintendo so don't be suprised when you see Nintendo news on Sundays or whatever.

_Bear said:

I get it, I get  it. I won't ever do it again.

Just as Geek shouldn't take it personally (though it is understandable why), you shouldn't either Bear, you have every right to criticize a story. In fact it shows you are engaged and actually reading the news, which I am sure most users don't.  The tone the both of you exhibited was unfortunate, but your sentiments* were valid.

EDIT: *And by sentiments I am not making any judgment values about the content of the statements made, just the motivation in making them.

Nope. Seriously, the content of the dispute did not interest me as much as the relational dynamics.