I too would prefer original articles created specifically for this site and not stuff I've already seen on most major auto news sites.
It's not an either/or situation: we already
have original articles, alongside the stuff that you may see elsewhere. Which is the same sort of setup you'll see at
every website.
The purpose here is to have people stick around, because there's now more content hitting their interests than there was before. Some of it may not appeal to everyone — which was true before too, mind you — but that's how news works. As
@Famine mentioned, some people were bothered by the expanded game coverage, too: in fact, some still complain on our FB page (seemingly under the impression we're the official GT outlet, no less
).
The number of articles went up for sure.
Which goes to show what I've said above.
And? I think there's a decent sample size of articles posted so far and the way they have been presented for many of them goes a decent way towards backing up what I have been saying since the dramatic refocusing of what was a consistently valuable news resource for this community. Much more so than the repeated "this isn't like Jalopnik, guys, seriously" assertions actually do. So I don't think you actually did fix it.
See, you're fixing it too. 👍
It's wonderful that you have your own opinion on what the reason behind our expansion is. There's a forest around the trees you're so focused on, though: this stuff hasn't replaced anything, it's in addition.
Nor do I think "well, we had to post something" is a very good defense either.
Which is probably for the best, since we haven't said as much.
If the GTP Newswire team has the ability to write the articles that are able to stand out from things like "Watch Doug DeMuro buy a Range Rover," and they do because I have seen them, then you are cutting them off at the knees by packaging everything neatly into "Generic Internet 'Automotive Culture' Website" that people on this forum might as well go to Jalopnik to see even if GTP Newswire actually does have some greater plan in store than Jalopnik clone.
As mentioned above, it isn't an either/or situation. The writers can (and do) write articles outside of this type of content — no knees have been harmed, I can assure you.
As the most jarring recent example, a detailed and extensively researched editorial about the triviality of Nurburgring records written by one of the most respected members of the site certainly is deflated a bit when sandwiched between (and even referenced within) 4 or 5 rewritten press releases about a new car setting a good Nurburgring laptime.
There's no reason those two types of articles can't co-exist. In one, we addressed the complete lack of a governing body about 'Ring times, and how, on the face of it, they really don't mean much in terms of comparison. Despite that, some people
do appreciate the lap times, even in isolation, and even if manufacturers stretch the definition of "production" further and further. Horsepower and 0-60 times aren't any more valuable, but people want to know those, too.
To make a comparison to gaming coverage: we could talk about how the focus on realism has negatively impacted the racing genre (and in fact, intend to). We're still going to talk about
X game's realistic features — because that's interesting to a good chunk of our readers.
I can only hope that more focus is achieved so it stops looking so blatant to the extent that actual news articles and written pieces by the writing staff stop being buried and/or undermined by the need to just post whatever press release an auto manufacturer releases at any given time.
I don't really know what the complaint is here. Press releases are also news — are you suggesting they don't get posted because they "bury" other content that you deem more appropriate? That sort of thing will happen no matter what: old articles are pushed down when new ones appear.
It should be readily apparent by a quick glance at the front page, but just in case: not every press release that arrives in our inbox gets talked about.
Are we going to see car reviews of the cars in GTS?
Written by frequenters of the drag and drift sections?
"DiS Toyata iz TITE, not 4 DRIFT N00BS" is our working title.
