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Separate News Articles into their Own Section

3GGG

Done :)

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kittyflumpin
 Luna Skylar:
I'd say 90% of the news articles are mostly about new Korean shoes or Korean actors/actresses being casted and not all of us are interested in the Korean entertainment industry. If we are going to have an onslaught of news articles I feel like it'd be better if there was variety of news coming different countries.

Amen! This place has always been pretty Kdrama-centric but it's kinda ridiculous lately.

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betun

The number of news stories is still way, way too many. This makes MDL just like any other KDrama website out there. The editorials give MDL its its unique character. Looking at the homepage now is just annoying. Sigh.

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JulyMoon VIP
 betun:

The number of news stories is still way, way too many. This makes MDL just like any other KDrama website out there. The editorials give MDL its its unique character. Looking at the homepage now is just annoying. Sigh.

That's because they just adjusted the site but not the attitude of said writer. Someone from the admins should maybe talk to them directly and address the issue. 

I'm not disliking the new homepage entirely but I think we don't need this load of news articles that are about "Actor X is in talk for this role" or "Actor X is now confirmed for the role" who all come from ONE user who also copy + paste stuff from other news site. This is not writing an article, it's plagiarism and should not be supported by giving them a platform. 

Not to mention that we will see the cast once we go to the drama page anyway so why write about rumors? I consider them spam articles no one really needs if I may directly address it. Also why should we need such nonsense on MDL? There are news sites for such things, MDL is a database and a place where you can keep track of what you're watching. So I don't see any relevance in such articles here, while editorials are actually introducing me to new dramas daily. After reading one of those "in talks for role" articles I'm as informed as before. The actor might take the role, but just as well not. So pointless. xD

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lucy_lu
 moonchild:
This is not writing an article, it's plagiarism and should not be supported by giving them a platform.

completely agree on this point! and some of the latest articles don't even state the source

 the article feature of MDL is losing its purpose and now even more users want to start writing this kind of "news". (see the forum "article ideas & discussion"...)

moreover, the articles are spreading through the site in places they were not before (e.g under the cast credits of dramas, actor's pictures were reduced in size and a huge list of articles appeared on the bottom... really annoying!), so that everyone is forced to see them

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JulyMoon VIP
 lucy_lu:
 the article feature of MDL is losing its purpose and now even more users want to start writing this kind of "news". (see the forum "article ideas & discussion"...)

I had to bite my tongue and leave the thread before I would actually comment on it and say "no thank you, we already have one who thinks they're doing us a favor by spamming  news stuff like a maniac". I pray we won't get someone who will follow this example and do the same. As you said, there's no escaping those articles so ultimately I would have to question if MDL is still a place I feel comfortable on anymore. Right now I find it hardly bearable but this would definitely change for the worse if more people do this. 

That being said, I beg to differ when it comes to news articles because recently I've read this article: https://mydramalist.com/article/preview/6725

It's well researched, does not include unnecessary information like the actor's bio (who wants to read it just needs to visit his profile) and does in short sentences gives a lot of information. That's what I call reliable and informative news articles. 

That's why I think the spam writers attitude is the problem here. They think it's cool and "so easy" to write articles when all they do is copying from other sources. They have no idea nor respect for how much time it takes to research for certain topics, how much effort is poured in any word you write from your own mind, how long you search for the perfect picture to accompany the paragraph or the work of making your own images/animated gifs. With what this user does he/she's mocking the true writers.  

No wonder MDL is filled to the brim with those news since the user "produces" 2-5 articles per day. 

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lucy_lu
 moonchild:
That being said, I beg to differ when it comes to news articles because recently I've read this article: https://mydramalist.com/article/preview/6725

agree, i wasn't talking about all news articles and of course not about this ^^ 

information about latest deaths, marriages or important news in the entertainment world, these are the type of news articles that can actually be interesting. Well- researched articles with proper links if anyone wants to get more information on the topic, just as the one you posted with twitter links and the official site or this one https://mydramalist.com/article/preview/6629

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JulyMoon VIP
 lucy_lu:

agree, i wasn't talking about all news articles and of course not about this ^^ 

information about latest deaths, marriages or important news in the entertainment world, these are the type of news articles that can actually be interesting. Well- researched articles with proper links if anyone wants to get more information on the topic, just as the one you posted with twitter links and the official site or this one https://mydramalist.com/article/preview/6629

I just thought it's important to say it for everyone who might read these posts. The problem is really just one user and not news articles in general. 

I agree. These are the things I consider interesting/important to mention. But I certainly don't need one article per marriage. Collecting such news and making one bigger article per week or month is more than enough for marriages. 

That's a good example. Here's a mediocre version of it that does not give enough respect to the actress in my opinion (battling with cancer for 11 years yet the whole article is 6 lines short...leaves me speechless): https://mydramalist.com/article/actress-kim-bo-kyung-has-passed-away 

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betun

Well, yes, as I have written earlier on this thread, news articles themselves are not the problem. It is the fact that we are not really getting 'news' in these articles but more of speculative gossip. OAL's news article cited above is a class apart and is the kind of quality we are used to on MDL. Lucy's example of the poor quality article expressing Kim Bo Kyung's passing away is a case in point. I know that fellow writers really put in effort on putting together a good obituary article and don't just announce it in six lines as was done here. With this happening, I wonder whether those obituary articles will appear anymore. 

What I'm a bit surprised by is how these article stubs are making it to publishing at this speed. Earlier, I do know that editorial articles that were just stubs used to be rejected by the editors on grounds of quality.

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JulyMoon VIP
 betun:
What I'm a bit surprised by is how these article stubs are making it to publishing at this speed. Earlier, I do know that editorial articles that were just stubs used to be rejected by the editors on grounds of quality.

I'm a writer but I don't know about quality control so thanks for the insight. 

I found another one by accident that is even worse than the passing away article. It's literally about a teaser poster from a drama. https://mydramalist.com/article/ji-soo-and-kim-so-hyun-reveal-new-teaser-poster-for-river-where-the-moon-rises-011016175

I'm stopping here before I say things I might regret later but this is 100% nonsense and makes me wonder what sort of article quality we're talking about here if they publish such a thing... 

I hope an admin reads this because I think it's going too far with the spamming. 

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3GGG

Just dropping by to say that, if this was the intended solution (just dropping the banner of the landing page in favor of a list of articles) then I am unimpressed. I echo what has been said, which is that the problem wasn't addressed at all. Editorials and news are still mixed together, with quick "news" bites taking the most room. 

I'll also echo that news articles in and of themselves aren't a problem. But articles which are little more than tweets are unimpressive and create clutter. You can make an interesting article out of the news by doing research, giving it a creative angle, and putting work into it. Copy-pasting isn't it, though. 

For example, the news regarding what happened to the drama "River Where the Moon Rises" could've been compiled into one big article detailing everything that happened with a time-line. Additionally, the hypothesis could've been added by drawing attention to how many people dropped the drama or put it on hold according to the MDL database after the controversy started and was "resolved". They could've also gone into other similar cases, where actors were dropped from a drama and how those were resolved in comparison. A little effort would've turned what is basically a comment into a real article.

At the very least, I've made the decision to no longer write for this website since editorials seem to no longer matter to those running things. I've also found that I care less and less about checking this site except for using the watch-list for organizational purposes. It is what it is.

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JulyMoon VIP
 3GGG:
Just dropping by to say that, if this was the intended solution (just dropping the banner of the landing page in favor of a list of articles) then I am unimpressed.

You're right. It's not a solution, only moving the problem to a different location but not having any effect on the one who actually causes it. 

Also 100% agree with you saying that the tons of short articles about the drama River Where The Moon Rises could be gathered in one article. It's insane how we get a new short one about it each day. 

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3GGG
 moonchild:
Also 100% agree with you saying that the tons of short articles about the drama River Where The Moon Rises could be gathered in one article. It's insane how we get a new short one about it each day.

And even then, those articles aren't even properly researched. They are, like I mentioned, little more than comments. There is no insight or creativeness towards the delivery of the news, at the very least. But I guess the new direction/objective of the website when it comes to articles is supporting quantity over quality.

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JulyMoon VIP
 3GGG:

And even then, those articles aren't even properly researched. They are, like I mentioned, little more than comments. There is no insight or creativeness towards the delivery of the news, at the very least. But I guess the new direction/objective of the website when it comes to articles is supporting quantity over quality. 

True. :(

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betun
 moonchild:

You're right. It's not a solution, only moving the problem to a different location but not having any effect on the one who actually causes it. 

Also 100% agree with you saying that the tons of short articles about the drama River Where The Moon Rises could be gathered in one article. It's insane how we get a new short one about it each day. 


 3GGG:

And even then, those articles aren't even properly researched. They are, like I mentioned, little more than comments. There is no insight or creativeness towards the delivery of the news, at the very least. But I guess the new direction/objective of the website when it comes to articles is supporting quantity over quality. 

Exactly. I'd add that the solution is wholly inadequate as the problem is exactly the same. Currently, 11/15 articles on the homepage are 'news' articles and only 4 are editorials.  All three of the ones featured on the banner are 'news'. Even when this idea was suggested on this thread of separation of news from editorials it was assumed that representation would be proportionate, if not more in favour of editorials.  We see exactly the opposite. 

For some reason, as you said, quantity is being promoted over quality. I do know from my friends who are editors that there was no shortage of conventional articles pouring in. So, this policy of allowing tweet-like news articles seems more deliberate and seemingly the direction MDL wants to take. Perhaps it helps the Google search engine optimization and gets fresh viewers. Perhaps, there is a vast army of people salivating over even the whiffs of upcoming  dramas and of stars who are merely in talks about them. This is speculative on my part but I have a good feeling i am right.

I will give it a few months as I don't have the time to write an MDL article again before then, but if I see this continuing to happen I will accept that an era has come to an end in MDL and it is a now a place for people mostly sharing different interests from mine, and I daresay anyone who has posted in this thread.   

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