Frostheim here, with a question for all you early adopter hunters out there who are reading the WoW Hunters Hall regularly now. Hopefully you’re finding the site useful as we continue to ramp up on the content that we provide. Thus far we’re keeping track of all the regularly updated hunter blogs that I’m aware of (and if you know of any that I’m missing, let us know).
More exciting is that we’re collecting more forum recaps of the various hunter forums out there. Tabana is rocking out and setting the standard with her Elitist Jerks Forum Recaps, and we now have Petopia Recaps, Huntsman’s Lodge Recaps, and we even had our first Arena Junkies forum recap with hunter PvP tips. We have a new curator who’s planning to tackle the MMO-Champion hunter forums as well.
However, in the admin forums here on the WHH we’ve been debating a bit over some on the line content, and whether it should be included here on WoW Hunters Hall, and I figured the best way to answer the question would be to bring it to you guys: you tell us what you want to see.
The specific question is what do we do with hunter blogs that post non-hunter content. I’m specifically talking about blogs written by hunters and for hunters, that usually post hunter-related stuff, but on occasion post something WoW-related but not hunter-related. Of course we’ll still cover all their hunter stuff here on the WHH, but should the off-topic WoW posts also appear here?
The question came up when I asked whether the WHU post, Things I Care About as Little as Elves, should be put on the WHH. So far our admin discussions have been that yes the line gets fuzzy at times, and we think it’s okay from time to time to have non-hunter WoW-related stuff from our hunter bloggers… as long as it’s not often. We’re really worried about setting a precedent I suppose. We don’t want the whole front page, or even most of it, filled up with non-hunter articles.
So what do you guys think? Only hunter posts, or is there wiggle room? Would you put that WHU article up here? Would you want, or expect, to see a BRK story about his dog eating his power cable while he was raiding posted here?
Tell us what you want with this site, since that’s what it’s all about in the end.
to be honest, i would like to have some “flavor” articles =), makes things interesting.
perhaps it could be in the form of a recap post, e.g. recap of various flavor posts from various hunter blogs in the week =D
That would work, a recap post would be cool.
Perhaps call it something like ‘Cheap-shots’ ;p
@ Gasket
Sounds too rogue-like: http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1833.
@Harvoc
Good point.
@Tibbelkrunk
I like ‘Through a Hunter’s Scope’. Nice.
I 3rd this suggestion.
I agree that it doesn’t make sense to have a bunch of non-hunter articles on this hunter-article-collection site, but an occasional round-up of off-topic posts by hunter bloggers seems appropriate.
A sort of “View of the Rest of the World through a Hunter’s Scope” could be a refreshing escape.
Definitely keep it to regular hunter bloggers though.
I agree with this suggestion. It might even be handy to include a sidebar or other similar little section on the front page devoted to these types of articles.
Good question!
I had have to say leave it out.
Whilst I love that stuff, (I mean it adds some flavour), it really detracts from what this portal is all about.
Leave that stuff to the sites that publish it.
I think in practice, when people are using this site properly, they’re gonna check the WoW Sites listings anyway.
There are some Hunter sites I never knew existed that I’ve found through this portal now!
I mean, if you really wanted to keep it, you could do a feature called “Junk we like” or something similar, or add it as a category in the bar to the right. :D
I would prefer if you leave it out. I think the WHH is for hunting, not blogging. :)
People will follow their favorite bloggers anyway, so if they want to read the non-hunter stuff too, they can do it that way.
You should include links to rapid fire blog
http://rapidfirewow.wordpress.com/
And the TKA Something forums
http://forums.tkasomething.com/
These are two very valuable hunter resources that are missing here.
On the question I like Zelph’s idea of a weekly recap post as it is a good compromise.
I’d prefer you leave it out. I don’t really like blogs about someone’s personal experiences unless that’s a small part of what their whole site encompasses. Even then, I rarely read those.
I like the idea of possibly posting them under a different heading, but not having them show up on the front page (if that’s possible). If this is going to be a Hunter portal, it should really be just about Hunter related stuff. The last thing you want for new hunters is to show up and see someone complaining about non-hunter issues. So if it can’t be excluded from the front page, don’t bother posting it.
I’m for having those posts in as long as they are WoW related. If a subject is on a hunter’s mind, it’s hunter related.
Since you have the front page set up kind of like a newspaper / news site, with pics and the first few lines of the post, would it be possible to create a box for these posts at the bottom, under the Latest Hunter News?
It could be titled something like “Off-Topic Hunter Thoughts” or something to that affect. I’m not sure if the formatting would be too much work or even feasible, but I would be interested in the content, even if, as Laeleiweyn said, I usually go to the sites linked anyway because I enjoy the writers.
Obviously, I agree with you Frost. You don’t want a front page filled with non-hunter posts. This might be a more inclusive, non-intrusive solution.
I would say to leave them out. I read the WHU for that. The hall should be for more ‘serious’ stuff
I love and read all the random subject articles, but yes, it would clutter up WHH. The author’s blog is the proper place, and posting them here become too redundant. Why read WHU when I can just follow WHH?
I want to be able to visit here, or point other people here just for Hunter related articles.
I would include them somewhere but not run them through the main display on the front page. While giving fluff pieces some exposure is fine, I don’t think they should end up burying helpful, substantive pieces.
Heh, I don’t think I actually answered the question that was asked. I think that a hunter blogger’s piece should be included so long as it is genuinely helpful to hunters, regardless of whether it is exclusive to hunters or not.
It’s the fluff pieces (like the elf piece, no offense) that should be displayed somewhere else, in my opinion.
Go not to the elves for advice, for they will say both no and yes.
WoW Insider has a feature “Reader UI of the Week”. With 10 classes, 10% of those UIs should be of hunters, but still: Worth linking here. And I can imagine other blogs have similar subjects.
A bit off time is just fine with me. I don’t think, though, that it’s possible to make a hard and fast rule, this always has to be a case by case decision.
My only problem right now is that I am following WHU and WHH and WowInsider Hunter RSS feeds. Between the 3 feeds, I tend to get triplicate entries. Should I really just follow WHH?
Well, popular opinion thus far is to leave the non-hunter specific posts out of the WHH. In that case you’d still need to following the WHU or whichever other blog if you enjoy those posts from that author.
If it contains some inside humor, like the eternal Dwarf v Night Elf battle for hunterdom, then I think it’s acceptable content for this site. However, I would say don’t clutter the frontpage too much with irrelevant info on support classes, or the things that make visiting THOSE sites unique (Grandpappy Frostheim, for example) =D
Personally, I come here to read hunter related articles. I know what is in store for me when I come here. My daily dose of my favorite class. I don’t much care for anything not hunter related. That’s not why I’m here.
Well that’s a difficult question.
I’d say, only post the hunter-related stuff here. Basically, people come here to read stuff about hunters, so they might expect only stuff about hunters… :) If they like a specific blog, they’ll follow the link there to see what else has been posted and will eventually find the non-huntery posts too.
It might make sense to differentiate a bit:
- If a hunter-blogger decides to do a “fun” or totally non-hunter-related post, it shouldn’t appear on the front page with a big title and everything.
- However, useful non-related posts about stuff like interesting and important tools (say, a good reforging site like wowreforge.com) or addons (power auras anyone?) should make it, because they are useful for us as well.
Maybe it would help if there were “small” news for the not-so-important stuff (non-hunter-stuff, pet taming guides, fun posts…) and “big” (forum recaps, “scientific” and featured articles, community events and podcasts…) for those postings that clearly belong here? This would resolve issues with overview, as even more stuff is coming.
This is “Hunters Hall”, not “Whatever Hall”.
Sincere fans of particular source material will already be checking those individual sites.
If there must be something non hunters, then link to a separate section – not on the main page (with content to scroll past, to get to hunter info).
I would like to see off topic posts remain on their individual sites (and also gives reason to continue to go to those sites) with summary, recap and news being primarily on hunter topic here.