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June 8th Topics

If anyone needs NEWS topics...feel free to email me. Everyone should keep in mind that news articles are going to bring you the most traffic in the short term.

Keith Griffin    June 8, 2011 - 3:32PM

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Mercedes M class was reserved yesterday around noon and not published for 27 hours. Seems like there should be some kind of window for a reservation to expire, especially because it takes away a news making topic from the rest of us. Having said that, I think I may have been guilty of the same thing a couple weeks back but it was not for a newsworthy topic.

Don Bain    June 8, 2011 - 3:42PM

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But four to six hours seems reasonable. I sometimes see something at night I plan to write about the next day but don't reserve it until the next morning or afternoon.

Still google lists things in searches by both media venue and time placement... So it's not as simple as it looks at first glance...

If you intend to post it at a later time, perhaps that should be in the topic reservation.

Keith Griffin    June 8, 2011 - 3:52PM

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I can see somebody posting a reservation at night and not writing about it until the next morning, but noon is primetime for posting. Every auto site like LeftLane and AutoBlog will tell you their traffic spikes at lunchtime.
Fout to six hours seems reasonable, though. However, I'm not sure about being able to reserve a popular topic for later posting. That doesn't seem fair.
Maybe if a topic hasn't been posted for six hours it would be fair to question if the person is going to write something.
BTW, I think Google likes older articles as in first up usually does better in search, especially if you can add new info.

Don Bain    June 8, 2011 - 6:04PM

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Do you really want to waste your time on a story that may be up before you can finish it? Or do you just claim it, and really aggravate someone who simply had to deal with a child, family, or one sort of crisis or another?

Not exactly a team building move in my eyes.

Patrick Rall    June 8, 2011 - 6:50PM

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Like I said, there are exceptions but there have been several times where I came in to reserve a hot topic and someone else had reserved it. Every other major site had the topc covered within an hour or so but it was over a day before the person who reserved it published something. That is called squatting on a topic and when a full day has come and gone without a reserved topic being covered on the site, im not worried about hurting anyones feelings. Yes, things come up but with instances like that they shouls be once in a great while.

In this case, I will stick up for thw writer who reserved this topic because he is new but from here on out, it should never take more than a couple hours from when a topic is reserved to when the article goes live. Its one thing if it takes you two and a half or three hours but I've noticed several times where someone took 12+ hours to get a piece live...if you reserve a topic and its going to take more than a couple hours to get the article up, its time to come back to the forum and remove your reservation.

I think that we can agree that we are here to build the site and make money...if someone is doing something that isn't conducive to making money or gowing the site, then we are going to say something. We are all adults here and following simple guidelines that improve things for everyone shoulsnt be a problem.

That being said, we will be sending out written guidelines covering everything by the end of the week.

Keith Griffin    June 8, 2011 - 6:56PM

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Not all stories are going to be in demand, but some are. Don, for example, works on some interesting stories but they're not always hot topics like the Quaker Lane piece you just posted. If a story just breaks, you claim it, and don't do anything with it for a couple hours, maybe you don't deserve to keep it. But, if you're two hours into it, and somebody questions you about it, I think it's fair you keep it if you reply in a timely fashion that you're still wrapping it up. As Armen points out, we get the most PVs from news stories.
Plus, maybe if it's been two hours, it's a good idea to post what you have. Google does like it when stories are updated, which is what you could be doing to finish the story.

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