To Keep Or Not: Android News by EarlyBird & AF

[Rob]

We've been operating "EarlyBird - News for Android" for a couple years now but with limited traction. At the end of March we made the difficult decision to let employees go who were moderating and submitting these news sources full-time.

Many people have expressed displeasure at EarlyBird's absence and are wondering when the news will come back. It's certainly possible, but would require some combination of the following:

• User submitted news
• Automatically approved news from verified sources (top Android blogs/sites)
• Volunteers to moderate incoming news

I love the insight our Android News section provides along with EarlyBird, especially the ability to dive into specific devices or topics and receive notifications, but it's come down to a lack of resources and finances to continue running the service.

If you feel strongly about this topic please let us know your thoughts in the comments!

 

[El Presidente]

At the time I thought it was a really neat, original idea, but it didn't really take off and tbh, I think having it appear in device channels and top topics annoyed a lot of our regular, long time members unfortunately. I've only seen 2 members ask about it in the general forum, unless more have messaged about it behind the scenes?

I wouldn't be adverse to binning the news section, or at least making it optional/hidden if you didn't want to see it.

As for content, I'd go for automatically approved news from a select few news sites and give staff the ability to delete any duplicate items which would probably appear.

 

[Member243850]

Dang I am really concerned android forums might not be around for much longer.

I would love to help you Rob because I can see you are such a nice guy and it reflects on how amazing android forums is but sadly I am such a busy man I have no time buddy but would definitely help out if I could other wise.

I can maybe help out but I am concerned might not have enough time my friend.

I love android forums I hope it doesn't go under

I really like it here it is very sweet and laid back / hospitable.

I hope you make it because this community is 2nd to none

 

[psionandy]

Just a thought but... instead of anonymous newbots... can we have named (or at least pseudonymously named) news hounds/reporters. With some way they can show some personality, and build some credit/reputation for the added value that they give.

I've been a little snarky in the past, which is easier to do to a bland newsbot, than a reporter who's adding informed commentary.

 

[Rob]

@psionandy if we used/allowed a manual submission process than whoever submitted the news could be shown as the OP... the way we're doing it now won't provide for that but some small changes could likely be made.

I'll see if I can start accepting news from users to test.

 

[psionandy]

Hey.. its just an idea.. I think it might make things more interesting... so if you want to do it that way great.. if not, then thats fine too.

 

[Bg260]

@Fox Mulder