A Guide On Submitting News
"Where can I find news?"
"How do I know what news to post?"
"How can I sort good news from bad?"
"Why do people get mad when I post news threads?"
This thread will answer your questions.
- Table Of Contents -- Definition of "News".
- How to find news.
- How to report correct news.
- "News" is new and noteworthy information.
- New
One of the first important parts is that the information should be new. Just because you're seeing it posted somewhere in the past few days doesn't mean it's new. Look into the event or update and see when it actually happened, don't just go off the timestamp on the post or page or whatever.
Not news: "Nintendo released the Gameboy Advance!" - Yeah, back in 2001.
News: "This morning Sony announced a new line of homosexual-friendly consoles." - THAT's new information!
Not news: "A new hack for the Wii has been released, the first hack for it ever!" - No, the Wii was hacked ages ago.
News: "A new hack for the Wii was released today that's quicker and easier than all the others." - This is likely useful information for me, thank you.
- Noteworthy
The second (and arguably more important) point is that the information should be noteworthy. There's a little leeway here as some people will value a certain piece of information more than others, but use a little common sense. Good news is news that people enjoy hearing, it contains information relevant to them, something they can learn or gain from.
Not news: "NES Emulator X updated from 1.0 to 1.0.0.1 today, with a 0.0005% speed increase." - Nobody cares.
News: "NES Emulator X updated from 1.0.0.1 to 2.0 today, with a 50% speed increase, support for FDS games, bluetooth controllers, and it'll iron your shirt too." - Wow, that's a good update, I want to know about that!
Not news: "Iwata blogged that he likes eating bananas." - Okay I'm sure rule34 will love this, but we don't care.
News: "Iwata blogged today that he's trying to convince Itoi to make Mother 4." - Wow, some Nintendo people are talking about making a new entry in a popular game series? This is interesting information, thank you.
- New
- Look all around for news.
- Don't just look at gaming news sites.
The purpose of user-submitted news is to post NEW information and to be a unique input for the front page. If all the news is re-reports of stuff from Gamespot, it's not unique. General science and technology news and politics as it relates to those and games is often overlooked by gaming news sites and such things are the source of some of the most popular user-submitted news threads.
- Find where developers hang out or post information.
When talking homebrew development, people often keep blogs about their progress. These are great places to find new information people would be interested in knowing, such as news about an upcoming release or a more detailed changelog for a recent revision of a program. The same can be said (to some extent) for non-homebrew devs as well. Many companies or individual developers keep blogs or twitter accounts where they might post teasers of new information, or updates that haven't come through yet.
- Don't discount GBAtemp itself as a new source.
There's developers who hang out here and post their own updates and progress reports as well as releases! Look through the hacking and homebrew sections to find new information as it comes out.
- Don't just look at gaming news sites.
- Report news correctly.
- Go to the source.
This is an important one. If you see some news posted elsewhere, go to the source to get the original information. When reporting news people will often rephrase things, and sometimes they do it in such a way that the meaning is changed. This is incorrect and you shouldn't be relying on that for information. Always go back to the source to grab your information.
Not news: "Apple said its computers can't get any viruses." - No, that's not what Apple said, it's what somebody else thought they meant.
News: "Apple said its computers can't be infected with Windows viruses." - This is what Apple actually said, this is proper news.
Not news: "Nintendo said they'd never ever make a 3DS XL." - This is false, that's not actually what they said. This was somebody's interpretation of it.
News: "Nintendo said they have no current plans for a full revision of the 3DS." - This is actual news, this is what Nintendo stated.
- Be careful of rumors.
A rumor is not confirmation. Just because somebody else is repeating the rumor or it's coming from an invisible "inside source" doesn't mean it's true.
Not news: "There's a rumor that Microsoft will release the XBOX 720 tomorrow, and Gamespot mentioned it so it's CONFIRMED!!!" - No, a rumor is still a rumor no matter how many sites repeat it.
News: "Microsoft announced the XBOX 720, known as the ArcheBOX." - This is actual news from Microsoft itself, which confirms it.
- Go to the source.