Lately, I've been seeing many threads based on news articles that provide no information. Just "i thought this was cool, heres a link." Here is how to actually make a good news article thread:
Headline That Says Exactly What The Thread is About:
One to two sentences explaining what happens in the news article, answering any "who, what, when, where" basic questions the headline doesn't cover.
Link to the news article:
http://www.returnofkings.com/9874/title-of-the-post
One to two sentences providing commentary on the article, explaining why you thought it was interesting, and offering any insights or observations you gleamed from it.
That's it. It simple, but I've noticed several recent threads that don't even provide the basics. No link to the article, or no summary and just commentary, or no quote so we have to click the link, etc. You can go shorter than this, but we have to at least know what the thread is about without clicking a link, and know what link or source you're getting info from.
The lack of quote from newbie members often makes me suspect someone is a spammer, because no info means we have to click the link to know what they're talking about and they just want pageviews for the latest RSD video or cosmo for men article their boss told them to promote.
Optional final part: Link to ROK article or other forum member's post showing how we brilliant men totally called this many moons ago.
Headline That Says Exactly What The Thread is About:
One to two sentences explaining what happens in the news article, answering any "who, what, when, where" basic questions the headline doesn't cover.
Link to the news article:
http://www.returnofkings.com/9874/title-of-the-post
Quote:Quote:
Key quote pulled directly from the article. Ideally the first paragraph where the author summarizes what the article is about, or a particularly inflammatory quote from the subject of the article. If the post is about video, embedded the video in the post here.
One to two sentences providing commentary on the article, explaining why you thought it was interesting, and offering any insights or observations you gleamed from it.
That's it. It simple, but I've noticed several recent threads that don't even provide the basics. No link to the article, or no summary and just commentary, or no quote so we have to click the link, etc. You can go shorter than this, but we have to at least know what the thread is about without clicking a link, and know what link or source you're getting info from.
The lack of quote from newbie members often makes me suspect someone is a spammer, because no info means we have to click the link to know what they're talking about and they just want pageviews for the latest RSD video or cosmo for men article their boss told them to promote.
Optional final part: Link to ROK article or other forum member's post showing how we brilliant men totally called this many moons ago.
Read my work on Return of Kings here.