Fuwazette Blog: Why articles disappear into oblivion after 2 weeks

[sanahtlig]

Take a look at the front page: http://blog.fuwanovel.net/

 

I challenge you to find the second most recent in-depth discussion of a single visual novel on Fuwazette (not an argumentative or opinion article).  You have exactly 20s to do so (12s more than the attention span of your average Internet browser).

 

...

 

Did you succeed?  I bet you didn't.  It's

spoiler.

[Zalor]

Did you succeed?  I bet you didn't.  It's

spoiler.

[Bolverk]

I agree perhaps something should be done about having the weekly TL posts being in the recent list. It's really wasteful of space and potential. From some quick checking all comments on those posts happens within the week it's released as well. Might as well limit TL update post to one in the recent updates part, have it constantly on the top somewhat or something else.

Also note that the recent updates section is already on the side, so there is not major con against changing this. Only overreaching pro's.

[firecat]

there should be like a developer VN update, or a 10 ten recent VN, or a weekly section on a VN that are free and easy to download, anything other than VN translate articles.

[sanahtlig]

According to Tay, the VN translation updates drive a lot of traffic.  That should be leveraged... within reason.  Apparently there's an audience that wants weekly updates of translation progress.  God knows why, but the demand appears to be there.  And actually, if people want that sort of content we can expand on it--intelligently, without crowding out all the other content on the blog.

 

Fuwanovel should consider a partnership with Hau Omachikaeri.  Their blog has a monthly feature that gives synopses and impressions of professional eroge being released in Japan each month.  An English resource for Japanese releases can guide fans to make more educated requests for titles that interest them, both to fan translators and official licensing companies.  That's highly relevant to making visual novels popular in the West.  This could be paired with a section featuring reviews of Japanese titles by Fuwanovel users like Clephas and others from FuwaReviews.  I think it's very important however that we clearly distinguish reviews of Japanese-language and translated titles, which FuwaReviews currently does not.  In any case, we should consider reblogging Hau Omachikaeri's monthly Japanese release feature on Fuwazette and see how it's received.

[Darklord Rooke]

 

And yes, /index.php?/topic/9772-fuwazette-blog-you-may-also-like-bizarreness/">once again part of the problem is the redundant VN translation status updates that consume 3/5 spots on the front page.  Something really needs to be done about that.  Can't the old translation update pages be deleted when a new one gets made?  Or at least not be indexed on Fuwazette so they don't crowd out other articles?

[sanahtlig]

An article once a month or 6 is about as active as I want to get right now.  These articles take hours and hours to write, and then many more hours to curate / market to the audience I want to reach.  My general stance is that I write an article when there's a compelling need for a subject to be addressed (and it won't get done if I don't do it).  By limiting the number of articles I write, I'm able to devote more effort to the ones I do write.  The sort of brand I'd like to have is that when readers see I've written something new, they'll think "An article by sahnthilg?  This is a must-read," and "Wow, I really liked this article.  I'm going to read the 5 other articles he's written too."  Quality over quantity.

 

This is why I'm particularly concerned about proper indexing and discoverability.  My concerns are selfishly motivated.  When I spend a lot of time writing an article on a topic I consider very important, I'd rather it not disappear from public notice soon after it's written--especially when it's just getting covered up by redundant translation updates.  But right now, the only way to achieve visibility is to have a spot on the front page or to be in the "You May Also Like..." recommendations.  And guess which posts are currently holding most of those spots...

[Eclipsed]

I want to help Zaka out but I became really busy the last week, and also just re-injured my back because (once again) I over-estimated my manliness.

Stick to ranting about childrens' essays, Rooke (get well soon!)

~~

Ok so there IS a demand for weekly VNTL updates, but their quanitity is greatly outpacing and thus overcrowding the visibility areas for regular articles.

Options are to decrease VNTL updates to delay the crowding out, to pump out more regular articles to combat the crowding out, or to revamp how the visibility features work. <- I vote this

[Nosebleed]

It's not so much the quantity as it is where they are placed.

 

The blog shows too few articles in the "recent posts" and the VNTL ones take up most of the spots because of it which is quite unfortunate.

 

But more importantly I really don't know why there isn't a page selector or a loading on scroll function because I know wordpress themes usually have one, so this is quite an annoying layout if you just want to see older posts (I never even noticed that until today).

 

Why not put them on a side box like the rest of the stuff, or just like sanahtlig said, have a way to view older posts directly from the recent posts page.

 

And I really think it should show at least 10 posts and not just 5.

[Darklord Rooke]

 (get well soon!)

 

 

Thanks. I’ll be fine, I’m just stiff, sore, and really grumpy right now. Usually I’d say I need a cushier job, but this time I did it helping out a mate. He owes me now and I’ll accept burgers, I’ll accept sausages, I’ll accept donuts…

[Mr Poltroon]

He owes me now and I’ll accept burgers, I’ll accept sausages, I’ll accept donuts…

So that instead of stiff you'll become bouncy?

[Tay]

Zaka and I spent "15 minutes" on the blog today and addressed some points sanah and others have raised lately. It's not perfect, but feedback is always appreciated!

[sanahtlig]

I see positive changes.

 

• Every post on the front page has the author listed (sadly several of the articles were ghostwritten by someone other than the author listed).  This is important because Zakamutt probably doesn't want to be known as the lolicon who promotes censorship, NTR, and School Days.
• The VNTS posts are finally not dominating the front page and recommendations.
• It's a little easier to find content by type.

I still think there should be a complete list of tags either somewhere on the front page, or a clearly labeled link that leads to such a page.

 

The category headers (opinion, new releases, etc.) should be clickable, bringing up a full list of all posts in that category.

[Tay]

We've now got a lot of empty real estate in the homepage sidebar, so... I guess Zaka has some planning to do : P

Edit: posted early on accident (on mobile). Was just going to thank you for the feedback, sanah.