OOC: Reporters Program Update
While I am not the most visible ARK on Rubi-Ka, I am the new Reporters Program Coordinator. Most of you will only know me from my Reporter character posts- I am the Editor in Chief of all the papers. Xnemth, my boss in ARK Community Relations, has charged me with the administration and day to day operation of the program.
The reporters program has been plagued with problems since its inception, and while I am not here to accept or place blame, I do feel the role playing community of AO deserves something better than what you have been getting. I watch these forums, and I see the complaints and requests of those of you that read the official releases and reports.
This is why I am giving this update to keep you, the role player, involved and up to speed on where this program is going. I have noticed a fair bit of outcry on a few topics- Quality of writing, amount of content, and where the content comes from. I intend to address these here.
Quality of writing:
I will admit it, some of the articles posted in the past have not been of the quality that I myself would desire for the program. This is a double edged sword though. The reporter program is volunteer within ARK- no one gets paid to write these articles. As a result, you all have to understand the tax it puts on me to tell a volunteer writer that their content does not meet the par for the course. Still, I have seen some horrible articles posted in the past, and it is my duty to the AO community to only publish the best works.
Within ARK, the application process for being a reporter has changed. No longer is it a simple questionnaire that needs to be completed to join the program. Now, ARK must complete a writing skills based examination to be considered for the positions.
Everyone must understand though- The higher the standard on quality, the lower the amount of content that is published. Expect the bar to be raised.
Amount of Content
This has been a hard one. With the quality vs. quantity subject aside, it is very hard to find qualified writers who can devote a fair amount of time to content creation for the reporters program. This is why CR has done two things to address this issue- new Reporters positions in the Community Relations team and Direct Recruitment.
ARK Community Relations has chartered four full time reporters positions, as well as two Reporter Guardian positions to create and maintain content for the reporters program. The way the program used to work was this: ARK who already had a position and responsibility in ARK volunteered to do reporters on the side. This had its flaws as they were already devoting a large portion of their time to their primary task and not the reporter program. Now, there are ARK being placed in positions where their only primary function is to write articles for the Reporter program with a production quota and advanced training on how to write well. It is our hope that this will create more quality content.
CR is also doing what we are dubbing “Direct Recruitment.” We watch these role play forum areas regularly and we take note of who the exceptional role play writers are. We have selectively attempted to recruit some of these great writers into the ARK program to fill these new Reporter slots in CR. Please let me stress that this is very selective, so don’t be upset if you have not be approached my myself or Xnemth. Time and manpower constraints prevent us from asking everyone due to the amount of work that is required to induct someone into ARK.
If you feel like you would enjoy taking the time to volunteer for ark and write for reporters, feel free to send X or I a PM on these boards. We are always more than willing to speak to someone who is willing to volunteer their time for ARK. Be sure to include a couple links to your writing on these boards on on fan sites for concideration.
Where the Content Comes From
I know that most of you are thinking “This ARK stuff is all well and good, but I miss the VoF and other player submitted news papers.” I know! That is the number one request from players out and about on Rubi-Ka and on these forums. For you that want player submitted news back, I have some good news.
Right now, ARK CR is working in a number of areas to make this possible. We are training more qualified editors, and we are making tool advancements that will allow us to process a much higher amount of content so that in the near future we can once again accept player submitted news.
This is a very, very big goal though. You have to understand the tax that editing, approving, and rejecting a large volume of player submitted news will place on our current infrastructure. Still, it is something we are working toward, and I hope that in the next few weeks I can tell you all that you can start sending your news in. I will say this though- not all player submitted news will be published. It is my intent to publish only the best tenth of news submitted, and I will hold players to the new higher writing standards that I hold my staff to.
In conclusion, you can all use me as the point of contact on Reporters Program related inquiry. I hope that the steps CR is taking to improve the program add to the value of it to all the role playing members of the AO community, and I encourage your feedback in this forum.
Great changes are happening in the program, but as they say Rome was not built in a day. I will keep you all posted.
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