http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621 The NewsBiscuit Community en-US Wed, 19 Jun 2013 03:06:48 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 q http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/search.php http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621#post-80648 Thu, 04 Aug 2011 12:41:58 +0000 beau-jolly 80648@http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/ <p>And why not a "Can't be arsed to write anything myself but like to comment on virtually every sub and chat room thread - of the month award"<br /> I think I may be giving Rikkor a run for his money on that one. </p> http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621#post-80596 Thu, 04 Aug 2011 09:36:03 +0000 The Paper Ostrich 80596@http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/ <p>Why just one award anyway? We could keep the Writer of the Month for the most prolific front-pager, and bestow an additional Biscuiteer of the Month for the most read individual story. Think big, people. Why not a monthly red carpet ceremony at an exclusive central London hotel? </p> <p>If not, knowing the figures would be interesting anyway. But it does give an advantage to those who post early in the month. Somehow my cycle never seems to align that way, even with the tablets. </p> http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621#post-80564 Thu, 04 Aug 2011 07:10:52 +0000 Golgo13 80564@http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/ <p>I would tend to say "total hits for up to three pieces" so that consistent writers still stand a chance against runaway one-hit wonders. Three pieces (NiB, FP, LA) isn't too high a barrier, and this might encourage someone with a very strong piece (ahem) to post a couple more to boost his or her chances. It would incentivise repeat submissions, perhaps, while still encouraging unpaid writers to be unpaid publicists online. </p> <p>One article could still win it, but a slogger would also be in with a shout as it will be the total of his/her (best) three. </p> <p>By the way, judging by Facebook likes and twitter traffic, my stuff was never that popular 'out there', so this is a bit self-serving. And you'll still get people moaning that their gem was hidden away on a weekend, thereby starving it of hits. </p> http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621#post-80486 Wed, 03 Aug 2011 13:53:40 +0000 jp1885 80486@http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/ <p>Sounds as good a system as any - might shake things up a bit and add some fresh blood to the WoM gene pool. </p> http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621#post-80427 Tue, 02 Aug 2011 23:29:22 +0000 Quaz 80427@http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/ <p>Poeple can poke holes in any voting system, but this seems as good as any. It'll be interesting to see how it pans out. 21,000 sounds like a pretty good hit rate for a gag. Even given the circulation figures of the Sunday Times, I wonder how many people actually read Daisy Waugh for instance. </p> http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621#post-80414 Tue, 02 Aug 2011 21:33:14 +0000 Ironduke 80414@http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/ <p>I'm busy trying to manufacture a story about a housewife being surprised by a cat whilst feeding the birds and getting distracted from watching porn.</p> <p>Housewife, pussy, tits and porn in my title...mug to Mr Duke please! </p> http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621#post-80302 Tue, 02 Aug 2011 11:32:49 +0000 Qoxiivi 80302@http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/ <p>Good idea Id. </p> http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621#post-80300 Tue, 02 Aug 2011 11:29:14 +0000 Ironduke 80300@http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/ <p>further to this, presumably an 'all time top ten' of total hits for the very most popular newsbiscuit stories could be posted...interesting and enlightening- is it the funny, or the key word, that attracts the hits? </p> http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621#post-80271 Tue, 02 Aug 2011 09:02:23 +0000 Textbook 80271@http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/ <p>I'm quite proud of my new sub about Newsbiscuit baiting search engines. I think not only is it a good piece but it would be genuinely interesting to see if it really got more hits. </p> http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621#post-80259 Tue, 02 Aug 2011 08:25:23 +0000 Dick Everyman 80259@http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/ <p>I'm going to cut and paste 'Google Search' in my next headline... </p> http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621#post-80257 Tue, 02 Aug 2011 07:56:01 +0000 pinxit 80257@http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/ <p>All this for a mug?</p> <p>Sounds good to me. </p> http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621#post-80256 Tue, 02 Aug 2011 07:39:05 +0000 Sinnick 80256@http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/ <p>I'd no idea so many people read these ramblings !</p> <p>All systems have problems, and I didn't think the old one was that bad; neither is the new one. Not sure how changing the system helps.</p> <p>I don't quite see how it's possible to count the number of unique viewers with any accuracy. If I understand the technology correctly, I get assigned a different address (ie 12.34.56.78) each time I connect to the Internet, so I'll be double-counted. </p> http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621#post-80251 Tue, 02 Aug 2011 03:10:20 +0000 Textbook 80251@http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/ <p>Fair point- while the most viewed stories may well be the most viewed because they're funny, it may also be the case that they're the most viewed because they're offensive or sexual or contain key google search words like "gerrymandering". </p> http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621#post-80248 Tue, 02 Aug 2011 02:21:01 +0000 fernandomando 80248@http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/ <p>Mmm... I predict a lot of stories about pornography and associated activities </p> http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621#post-80247 Mon, 01 Aug 2011 23:57:02 +0000 rikkor 80247@http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/ <p>Like Tony Blair did not do religion (until he did), Rikkor does not do sex after a medical "slip-up" he arranged for him when he was young. He is easy if anyone tries to take food from him, viciously unpleasant if a canine gets near his tennis ball. </p> http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621#post-80246 Mon, 01 Aug 2011 23:49:13 +0000 Ironduke 80246@http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/ <p>Rikkor, he said your dog was easy. You gonna let him away with that? </p> http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621#post-80244 Mon, 01 Aug 2011 23:40:52 +0000 rikkor 80244@http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/ <p>Fraser, I can't agree more. </p> http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621#post-80209 Mon, 01 Aug 2011 20:44:33 +0000 FraserWords 80209@http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/ <p>Look, why don't the 5 of us vote for the winner every month? Jeni, I vote for you. Next month, I vote for Rikkor's dog. Easy. </p> http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621#post-80208 Mon, 01 Aug 2011 20:43:35 +0000 FraserWords 80208@http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/ <p>I have absolutely no idea what any of you are talking about. Are badgers involved? </p> http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621#post-80179 Mon, 01 Aug 2011 18:12:35 +0000 waylandsmithy 80179@http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/ <p>It doesn't take much to trigger Google's spider sense either, so if people go mental clicking, the site could find its revenue withdrawn. Just a rumour I heard from another place with similar motivation... </p> http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621#post-80173 Mon, 01 Aug 2011 17:26:07 +0000 thackaray 80173@http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/ <p>Does any one know how much it costs to rent out a computer Botnet to skew the results from 100K+ compromised PCs around the world ?</p> <p>Just thinking aloud! </p> http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621#post-80170 Mon, 01 Aug 2011 16:43:49 +0000 Des Custard 80170@http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/ <p>Very brave and entrepreneurial, and I hope this will result in some stunningly good pieces. </p> <p>Just one question, not that I will stand a chance however it works: if for example Story A published in mid August registers 15,000 hits in each of August and September before falling from favour, while Stories B and C published at the beginning of August and September get 20,000 in the month of publication and 5,000 the following month, which one gets the WoM? It looks like B would win in August with 20,000, but would A carry its votes forward to win in September with 30,000 or would C win with 20,000? And then (still part of the one question really) if hit rates were low for all October postings, would C (or A) take the prize in October or be lost forever? In other words, does a high cumulative score get carried forward from month to month to get a chance of winning? I'm sure it's all in the detailed Memorandum Document but I haven't time to read 134 pages right now. </p> http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621#post-80115 Mon, 01 Aug 2011 12:37:59 +0000 be reasonable 80115@http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/ <p>No. </p> http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621#post-80111 Mon, 01 Aug 2011 12:25:41 +0000 rikkor 80111@http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/ <p>Well, do all 5 of us agree to the changes? </p> http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621#post-80110 Mon, 01 Aug 2011 12:21:24 +0000 The All New Jeni B 80110@http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/ <p>I'm disappointed to see there's still no prize for being the 'Gobbiest Shite Who Never Posts A Sub'.</p> <p>I feel that I'm being discriminated against.</p> <p>*Sniff* </p> http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621#post-80108 Mon, 01 Aug 2011 12:16:16 +0000 The Paper Ostrich 80108@http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/ <p>I think if Wayland really had written "Horny wins contract for high-speed rail link" then he'd be way on top. </p> <p>Also, has any modelling been done to show what happens if you reallocate second-preference page views from candidates eliminated in the earlier rounds of counting? I have absolutely no doubt that my End of the News of the World piece would have been a clear and entirely uncontroversial winner, perhaps even more popular than Nick Clegg at a church fete. Still, well done Oxbridge. </p> http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621#post-80105 Mon, 01 Aug 2011 12:08:06 +0000 Vertically Challenged Giant 80105@http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/ <p>I like the new criteria, and from now on will only be clicking on an FP story if I've written it. In which case I'll be visiting it from as many different PCs as possible. </p> http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621#post-80099 Mon, 01 Aug 2011 11:53:53 +0000 Oxbridge 80099@http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/ <p>21,000? Oddly enough that's exactly the online circulation of my magazine. Admittedly they may not ALL read it... </p> http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/topic.php?id=28621#post-80094 Mon, 01 Aug 2011 11:28:54 +0000 editor 80094@http://newsbiscuit.com/forum/ <p>We mentioned last month that we would be changing the criteria by which we choose the Writer of the Month. The current first-past-the-post system has served the nation well, but with it now being five years since NewsBiscuit was launched, we feel the time is right to move to a proportional representation model. From now on the Writer of the Month award will go to the author of the month's most popular story, as measured by unique page views - ie the number of different readers who visit the page carrying the story.</p> <p>This will ensure that the story - whether a front page, news in brief or left alert - that has attracted the most readers to the site gets recognition, and it also provides an incentive for you promote your own stories by forwarding the daily emails, begging friends and relatives to visit the site and employing a marketing agency on your behalf.</p> <p>To give you an idea of how it would work, had we used this system for July Oxbridge would still have won because his story 'Hot summer could wipe out Goth population, warn experts' attracted the most unique page views in the month - just over 21,000. In fact that story was some distance ahead of the second-placed story, The Paper Ostrich's 'US preacher insists 'I only ever predicted the end of the News of the World'', which was in turn only a nose in front of the third-placed piece, waylandsmithy's 'Hornby wins contract for high-speed rail link'.</p> <p>Before everyone starts pointing out all the flaws in the system - like that a story published on the last day of the month has only one day to attract hits while a story published at the beginning of the month has 30 days - a few qualifications and pointers:</p> <p><ol type="1">- The story doesn't have to be published that month to win - it could have been published previously;<br /> - The most popular story could be a left alert or a news in brief rather than an FP; (A while ago the NIB 'Scientists discover snowflake identical to one which fell in 1963' attracted enormous hits - more than FPs published that month.)<br /> - That said, more recent stories do tend to attract more hits than older pieces because they are more prominent on the homepage. For the same reason FPs tend to attract more hits than NIBs and left alerts, not least because they also come with the added advantage of being illustrated by red; and<br /> - A story can only win once, so a phenomenally popular story that kept attracting the most hits each month wouldn't keep winning. </ol></p> <p>We will see how it goes for a few months, but reserve the right to introduce a premium rate telephone voting system when it all goes wrong and we end up with a coalition no one wants. Unmarked brown envelopes should continue to be sent to the usual address. </p>