Why my news has been archived ? Thread

Hello,

I posted a news yesterday, it contains pictures with a good amount of text summarizing my progress but it has been archived ! Indiedb.com

Can I know what is the reason for ?

Thanks

You need to contact the news manager for support regarding archived news, you can contact him here.
Indiedb.com

Or await his reply to this thread.

Okay thank you, so I will wait a bit before directly contacting him.

Some text and 4 images may be never enough. You should embed as much as possible of your fresh content - a new video (somebody else's let's play's / walkthroughs are excluded), or at least 6-8+ images, and any other extras - audio files, additional videos, short demonstration videos (for example a new anim in action), etc.

Also to note, media takes precedent over text but describing your recent progress in detail is also very important (which you did).

8+ images a "requirement"? 4 images are "never" enough? Since when is that? I've seen few news on the front page which contained 4+ images. As an example some current news posts on the front page have these properties:

• 2 images, 1 video, lots of text
• 0 images, 1 video, lots of text
• 1 image, 1 video, medium amount of text
• 0 images, 2 video, little amount of text
• 1 image, 1 video, medium amount of text
• 4 image, 0 video, medium amount of text (what you claimed is not enough but here it has been?)
• 4+ images, 0 videos, medium amount of text
• 0 images, 0 videos, medium amount of text

And so forth. The last time it has been claimed only few images (video if reasonable) and short news size in general. I'm getting the feeling news post authorization became throwing dice. Maybe it's about time to write down criterias in public which both news creators can follow and news authers consistenly apply. What you think?

Edited by: Dragonlord

Okay, so I have added a lot of images and text and I think the news may now fulfil the requirements. Can you please review it again and see if it's now allright?

Thanks

Dragonlord wrote:

8+ images a "requirement"? 4 images are "never" enough? Since when is that? I've seen few news on the front page which contained 4+ images. As an example some current news posts on the front page have these properties:

• 2 images, 1 video, lots of text
• 0 images, 1 video, lots of text
• 1 image, 1 video, medium amount of text
• 0 images, 2 video, little amount of text
• 1 image, 1 video, medium amount of text
• 4 image, 0 video, medium amount of text (what you claimed is not enough but here it has been?)
• 4+ images, 0 videos, medium amount of text
• 0 images, 0 videos, medium amount of text

And so forth. The last time it has been claimed only few images (video if reasonable) and short news size in general. I'm getting the feeling news post authorization became throwing dice. Maybe it's about time to write down criterias in public which both news creators can follow and news authers consistenly apply. What you think?

Well you got a point here, although I guess most news may be authed because they contain videos which show enough content. But I'm quite surprised about the other authed news, especially the one with no images or videos... Can you provide links ?

Thanks for opening up this discussion. Our aim is to be 100% open and to enable developers to reach the community without having to hope an editor picks up their story.

Problem with this approach is some people put a ton of effort into their posts while others dont. I agree that our requirements are perhaps a little strict. I will discuss it with out team, I believe something like:

• 1 ~ 4 images OR
• 1 video

Is enough provided it is well presented and written. After all the majority of my posts follow this formula: Moddb.com

Dragonlord wrote:

8+ images a "requirement"? 4 images are "never" enough? Since when is that? I've seen few news on the front page which contained 4+ images. As an example some current news posts on the front page have these properties:

• 2 images, 1 video, lots of text
• 0 images, 1 video, lots of text
• 1 image, 1 video, medium amount of text
• 0 images, 2 video, little amount of text
• 1 image, 1 video, medium amount of text
• 4 image, 0 video, medium amount of text (what you claimed is not enough but here it has been?)
• 4+ images, 0 videos, medium amount of text
• 0 images, 0 videos, medium amount of text

And so forth. The last time it has been claimed only few images (video if reasonable) and short news size in general. I'm getting the feeling news post authorization became throwing dice. Maybe it's about time to write down criterias in public which both news creators can follow and news authers consistenly apply. What you think?

Where did you see it?

Some news has staff-added media (either images or videos) that the developer did not embed, obligatory media that were removed by the developer himself. If you see news like that, you should report it.

6+ images not 8+ minimally OR 1 video, to be 100% sure your article lands on the front page. Also some important release news were exceptionally let through (priority is releases > progress updates > everything else > reposted/someone else's interviews/reviews/tutorials).

Also4 images - depends on the type of the news. (Indie or mod or app news.)

Slide DB and Mod DB has no such requirements like Indie DB does. Mod news with 4 images is still okay. App (Slide DB) news with 1 picture is often enough as Slide DB has lower priority (less visits and less exposure) there, and there is not much app news either.

You should report news without any images - it will be taken down. Developers probably removed staff-added (required/obligatory) media.

There are many factors considered when it comes to the news authorisation. Can write all those factors, reasons, and exceptions right here if you wish. (It will be a long, long list however.)

INtense! wrote:

Thanks for opening up this discussion. Our aim is to be 100% open and to enable developers to reach the community without having to hope an editor picks up their story.

Problem with this approach is some people put a ton of effort into their posts while others dont. I agree that our requirements are perhaps a little strict. I will discuss it with out team, I believe something like:

• 1 ~ 4 images OR
• 1 video

Is enough provided it is well presented and written. After all the majority of my posts follow this formula: Moddb.com

Well, was telling all indie developers that PMed me that 6-8 fresh images or 1 fresh video (somebody else's videos - such as let's play's - are excluded) and 3-4 long passages of text (or 5-6 of medium length) is enough to be 100% sure their news lands on the frontpage. This guideline applies only to indie news on IndieDB. Mod news on ModDB and app news on SlideDB has lower requirements while indie news on ModDB (double-featured - so something that should be done only rarely) has even higher standards than indie articles for IndieDB.

Edited by: feillyne

Why exactly has IndieDB become so ridig compared to ModDB? I don't think the mount of projects can be the reason since I've got the impression that there are more news posts for mods than there are for indie projects. Feel free to correct me if you've got other numbers there.

What goes for the number examples I posted I pulled them straight from the top news entries on ModDB the day I posted it. I didn't look at IndieDB since I had not been aware of different rule sets applied to each of the sites.

No, there are more indie posts than mod news - featured, archived or private - and many (if not most) of them are not displayed on ModDB. That is why it is more rigid than ModDB. There are tons of indie posts coming in, just like there are tens of indies added to the database.

So yeah, there are at least a few times more indies than mod profiles added daily as of now. And yes, there are even more mobile apps added than mods. New content on ModDB is not doing that well lately, but with recently implemented self-auth and Setup Steps, ModDB is doing a lot better than past five years (ModDB was doing worse pretty much since the launch of IndieDB and the steady rise of the indie market, Nexus and Steam Workshop).

Also 1 video is not a such big requirement. If someone embedded a vid, that is definitely enough. 4 images or 6-8 images is nowhere close to the amount of "content" videos can convey. (Yes, images are easier to make and they may present some ideas better than videos, but... you know what videos are. Videos are worth thousands of pictures.) So when someone posts a video, there is no need to count how many images he included.

Those are not really "requirements" either; including 1 fresh video or 6 fresh images + 3-4 long passages of text (or 5-6 ones of medium length) is simply 100% guaranteed place on the front page. This is merely a tip how to have your post featured every time. Otherwise it may turn out to be what you said - throwing dice. 4 images, no text (the articles section used as media dump), etc etc all of those things can lead to someone's post being archived. And there are many factors (both big and small) that determine whether post is featured or not.

PS Audio files (SFX, OST pieces, etc) embedded in a post are counted as well.

I have a question about the images. Do those count only for screenshots or do promo or even images made specifically for the news article count? Such as decorative borders and such.

Toolkitz wrote:

I have a question about the images. Do those count only for screenshots or do promo or even images made specifically for the news article count? Such as decorative borders and such.

Ideally screenshots of the development, borders and textual images don't really count, there's generally nothing better than a good chunk of related development media.

Aye, those images do not really count as you have to present some gameplay footage. It would be simply best to put it in a video form rather than just some static images. One video is usually thousands times better than any amount of images.

Still, if someone embedded e.g. 4 static images + 1 animated GIF + 1 logo + underlying div with a background image, his indie article could be still featured. Depends on how well post would be written and made. 5 images + well-written lengthy post is still good to feature for IndieDB - one image less does not change anything. You still may have to embed as many images/videos/sounds/Sketchfab previews etc as you can, to show your latest progress. (Two progress update posts can be merged together if you need to make your article bulkier.)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this can also be accompanied by a major development process warranting news, correct? Such as the release of the game or a major bug fix. In those cases, it becomes advantageous to not archive it as the actual message provides much more than the underlying appearance. For instance, telling the community a major bug has been patched is probably more important than seeing new art? Especially if the game is finished.

Actually, bugfix news is neither interesting or important - that is, it is only important for developers and their fanbase (active players). It is hardly relevant for the rest of the community, especially random visitors or passersby. Same goes for most engine/dev-targeted articles which are not made for general gamer/player audience. (If you ask about IndieDB; ModDB and SlideDB have lower requirements and therefore even bugfix news can be let through there.)

Articles such as announcements of a new expansion pack, new features, new content for already finished game, or the final or major content-packed release, development/progress updates of any unfinished game, are always welcome and important however.

To note: having your article archived is nothing bad. It only means that your news is shown locally, on all linked pages, instead of being featured on the front page. You can actually get more visitors if you link your to-be-archived news to big community groups such as Unity Devs or Indie Devs (or e.g. Linux Gamers) that have a great deal of members and watchers there. You have to be smart about marketing, not pushy. ;-) Finding your perfect audience is a part of this process, so the front page may be not the best place for it.

Of course. I was referring to bigger games with the bug fix stuff. Like if something major happened in the top 20.

Nah, not really. Even the bigger games would need a solid progress update or some new content to show.

Those less important (text-only etc.) articles done by big boys can be even more safely archived - page watchers are notified about the new bugfix release regardless. Archiving is mostly bad for newcomers whose pages are not that popular, so those in need of finding some watchers / initial fanbase to cater to.

I have one question, if I release a demo version of my game and I announce it with a news, do I still need to add a lot of media or the demo itself is enough ?

Yes but you can embed an old trailer or an old trailer and some new screenshots. Still, embedding old media is totally okay for final releases and first demo releases. (Your article may not be double-featured on Mod DB and Indie DB however, just single-featured on Indie DB.)