Sourcing, Reports and Story Quality/Variety

Alright guys your friendly neighborhood SiteManager here with another blog about the Rules and Regulations here at TechSpy. Please contain the excitement, I know this is the type of stuff you come here for so I will do my best not to ruin the great time.

--Sourcing--

When posting a story, always link to the original source of the story. Many websites recycle news from other websites, so whenever possible try and track down the true source of the story and use that site’s story as the basis for your news post. You can still give credit to the website you first found the story on by putting their address in the "Credit URL" form.

Word to webmasters and staff members: You should always submit using the original source URL where you found the news. You can input your article you wrote on your website in the "Credit URL" box.

If your story links to a website that is not in English, you should link to a translated version of the story using Google Translate.

Internet forums and message boards do not normally qualify as a reliable source. However, linking to screenshots, scans, images, and videos posted on forums is ok. You can also link to forum posts if the post is made by an industry professional. Twitter posts are also an acceptable source of news, but only if they are made by an industry professional.

--A Story within a Story--

Sometimes a site does an interview with an industry professional where newsworthy information is revealed deep inside the interview. Other websites often create separate news stories focusing on specific bits of information that are of special interest to their readers. Even if the original interview is already posted it is ok to also post these side stories if the original post did not focus on this newsworthy information.

So these are ripped right from the News Posting Guidelines, but I will further discuss the reasoning behind them as they do differ a bit from "Other" aggregate type news sites.

TechSpy is about a tech-focused community, a site that users can come to read and talk about the latest in Tech. That means that it is important that the news on TechSpy reflects the most original source. For webmasters, TechSpy can be a valuable tool to build an audience, but that does not supercede the fact that the news and community is the main focus here at TechSpy as opposed to funneling hits to websites.

This leads directly into the "Story within a Story" as well. By no means are we simply trying to "Cater" to the large mainstream sites but the fact of the matter is that they usually get the breaking and exclusive news or interviews over small sites.

A story within a story is a great way for the smaller sites or sometimes even the larger sites to go much more in depth on facts and news brought up in the "Main" stories. These type of stories are perfectly acceptable and usually bring to light things that might have been looked passed in the original article by many people.

However, you can see the difference in a "Story within a Story" and a write up of the exact same story by a different site. Also keep in mind that our editors reserve the right to change the link of your news post if your article is not the original source of the story. If the main url is changed your site will still get credit through a "Via Link". Usually we try to catch things like this in Pending but we will be stepping up our retro active fixing of sourcing from now on.

--Falsely Inflating the Heat of a Story--

For the most part this often isn't a problem, However from time to time there will be a few stories or even a certain site constantly trying to find ways to falsely inflate the temperature of their story while it sits in pending.

While this might seem like a great way to beat the system and get your story noticed, in the end it will actually get your story or possibly even your site reduced from even appearing on the front page at all.

Our editors can also set the temperature of a story. So when it is obvious that a story is using inflation tactics, stories will be set to 0 and locked which means they will never get above 10 degrees. So save yourself the hassle.

--Plagiarism--

Plagiarism in any academic, professional, or journalistic field, is something to be taken seriously. Any sign or even hint of plagiarism is taken seriously here at TechSpy. Restrictions and possibly even full site bans are handed out in cases that can be proven.

--Rating Story Sources--

Another tool that can be used by the members is the source ranking system here at TechSpy. If you see a story of low quality and/or a site of low quality, rate it. This can be done by simply clicking on the site's name under the "Read Full Story" button at the bottom of the description.

This feature unfortunately seems to be underused and is a great tool in maintaining quality here at TechSpy. This gives everyone more of an idea as to the quality of a site, and is something that should be used on a regular basis to push the best sites to the top and the low quality sites completely off the front page.

--Misc.--

Members in the contributing section have many different reasons for posting, whether it be adding content, trying to catch the top prizes and/or doing a bit of self promotion. However, it should be noted that for the whole thing to work, managing is a big piece of the puzzle and an important aspect of our community.

Remember, we are all trying to build TechSpy's user base and popularity. It is a symbiotic relationship between the members and the site. Without effort on both sides neither will thrive.

Also, don't forget to follow the basics like checking for the story's original source, checking for dupes and making sure the content is of worthy cause.

As always thanks to all the loyal members of TechSpy and if you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them in the comment section.