The Self-destruction of Newsvine
Newsvine was one of the leaders of the blog arena for at least a half a decade from about 2006 to 2011 and then management decided , apparently, to fix something that was not broken. From 2011 to to now I was simply there, wrote a few articles, wrote a few comments on articles of interest, but something had happened, and I lost interest. In fact I lost interest in the whole blogging scene.
What happened? From my perspective I felt researching, editing, and publishing pieces became a waste of time. Maybe, some of my 500 word skits, I will call them, were poorly written, or uninteresting, but readership disappeared, whereas preciously I had 10-20 loyal readers lauded my creations.
What did seem to happen was a complete polarization of the Newsvine membership: For Obama, and against Obama, which seemed to propagate a whole new cadre of unruly trolls, along with a superabundance of rude, crude, unintelligible people who seemed to gather together for the single purpose of disrupting the normal course of the conversations. Add to that the observance and monitoring of the Code of Conduct at the Vine went by the wayside which is one of the reasons blogging lost its shine for me. And probably many others bit by bit, where now there is hardly even a remnant of what was once a pretty nice atmosphere.
The introduction of the Beta System which I did not participate in, but have read what others that I knew said about it, has now been activated in full force. The whole network is in total chaos, the friends system has been eliminated, a system called, The Nations, has been introduced and each member is to decide how to get down to about 20 nations or groups. If you publish something you can't follow it, keep up with it, and nobody at Newsvine appears care one iota about one and other, nor does the management interface at all with the bedlam that has been created. It seems the loyal membership is fleeing in droves. It I were a betting man, and I'm not, I predict the imminent failure of Newsvine as it was. Someone will have to buy them out, and it's doubtful if there is enough value to have anything left to sell. The advertising people will probably try to create a something-for-nothing deal to sell to a sucker! Just like P. T. Barnum said, There is a sucker born every minute.
Do you have any horror stories to share about the Vine?
I was a beta tester from July of last year until it came on line. The problems you are describing are exactly what my complaints were from the very beginning. Despite numerous emails, screen shots, etc., all the NV staff was willing to work with were the technicalities of the design-- not the functionality.
I found it to be based along the lines of a design that was promulgated by a select group of viners that campaigned to have it 'their way'-- a news commenting group, not a social/news website. It seems that they followed the advice, and, look what they've got.
I don't think it will end-- it will just evolve in a different direction to one which I did not prefer. I was there because of my friends. I'm not going over there, and have no desire to even try to follow this through. I am very glad that my friends are coming here-- because this is a good site! And all the people that are here are wonderful, intelligent, and articulate.
Things just get stranger and stranger over there... It is much more pleasant here, and I have my friends where I can find them again!
Hi Dowser,
I don't think it will end-- it will just evolve in a different direction to one which I did not prefer.
My biz instincts, say it will fail, because poor management equals failure. And, that is what is going on over there in my opinion, and it's not too humble. Thanks for your input.
cc
I'm inclined to think it will ultimately fail. Since Wednesday morning, upwards of 70 Viners fled there to come here... and all of them gave the same reasons for fleeing. While some deleted their accounts, others left nothing more than a user-name. In addition to NewsTalkers, there are at least three other sites that are avidly seeking wandering Viners. I joined one of them, but really don't think any of the others meet the standards of NewsTalkers. They are okay... and in some cases are better supported for mobile platforms, which is what some people prefer. But I'm pretty certain that the majority of refugees have come and are still coming here.
There is also a Vine-Out currently in progress (a boycott of the Vine) - and I do know that a lot of folks are in on that (including me). It will last untilmidnightTuesday, at which time I will see if anything has changed for the better. If it hasn't, I will start deleting content from my column so that, by Thursday, all that will remain is a screen name.
The sheer stubbornness of TPTB over there is amazing. I honestly do not comprehend it. If I owned a business, or worked in a customer-service capacity somewhere, and I saw the reaction of loyal customers that Newsvine is seeing, I'd be scrambling like crazy to remedy the mistake and make all those folks as happy as I could. What is happening there is counter-intuitive. It makes no sense whatsoever.
For what it is worth, I have been boycotting NBC and MSNBC since August, and will never, ever have anything more to do with either of them: TV, or web sites. I am anxiously awaiting an opportunity to dump Comcast (but right now it is the only game in my town) so I'm hostage to something I hate with a royal passion. For now, anyway. But, I'm sticking to my guns on NBC, MSNBC, Newsvine, and any other arm of that massive monopolistic conglomerate.
I wish they would all collapse. I really do. And take their egotistical, self-destructive, anti-social bigwigs with them.
No, Dowser... If you had seen my complaints (and we know that I'm an avid political junkie), they had more to do with the social interaction... the Nations concept and the lack of threading in the public discussion area. Truth is... I think that I may have lost a friend over it.
I have a hard time with being patronized when I say that there is a problem. I don't say that lightly. I try to work around it first, before I will speak up. But now that the change is a done deal, those that "love it", have been treating those of us who don't like we are completely stupid and haven't a clue as to what we are talking about.
It's a sad thing to something like the Vine die the way that it is... Right now... the only thing that keeps me there is the little bit of revenue that I make from AdSense... until I find a place to keep blogging from and make sure that I have an audience... I have to stay... but I have a hard time keeping up with all the Nations BS.
Darling Brite, I do understand... I think I've lost several friends over it, which saddens me, but that is the way it is... nothing to do about it.
I hear you about how everyone is treating everyone else. In fact, I called out several of them over it. Pffftt!
But, it does no good, and just gets me upset. I don't need that. I'm awfully tired these days, and think maybe I just need to avoid stress! LOL!