Topic: The Gonintendo thread got me thinking: how do you run a good blog?

[Terranigma Freak]

Ok, I noticed that people are actually complaining about Gonintendo linking to reviews, which I honestly found baffling. I mean, they're basically giving you extra traffic. You see, my friend has a blog that the 2 of us dreamed up, but I was the one who convinced him to link to other site's reviews. I honestly didn't think it was any harm or consider it stealing when it's tell you who's reviewing it and not grabbing the entire thing and letting you read it at his blog. And yes, I gave him links to NWR stuff.

Anyway, my point is: what is considered stealing? He does have his own reviews and previews. He's busy playing games to write up and catch up with whatever he can get to build up the site. The news posting is there to make it more lively.

Also, any tips on what you think would make a good blog? My friend's blog is interested in being... CRAZY. The motto is being the most unprofessional gaming news site on the web. Our dream is to do just use it as a place to express our opinions while building up a fanbase for fun.

http://handheldwii.wordpress.com/

Anyway, take a look at his Contra 4 review, or even some of his import reviews to get a feel of what he's trying to do. I wrote the Rune Factory 2 preview (which I was pimping in the handheld section of NWR anyway).

[that Baby guy]

Well, first, there are no advertisements on your blog.  You're not making money off of other's content, are you?

A larger difference is that there is much less content in each posting on your blog, to the degree that you aren't informing others about the news, rather, you're telling people where they can go to read about the news straight from the source.  For instance, you have a posting talking about Detective Conan screens.  You have one picture, then you have a link to all other pictures that takes the user to the original site.  Gonintendo would instead host all the pictures, then link to the original site.  Because Gonintendo included all the pictures of someone else's content on their own site, it is now unnecessary for the user to visit the original site.

It's difficult to say what crosses the line, but I think where Gonintendo goes wrong is that they don't actually recommend content, rather they save you a trip to where you would find the content at, eliminating the traffic the original content providers should have.  Additionally, rather than posting every single bit of information out there about one topic, you only post stories that interests you, right?  Well, Gonintendo links and summarizes just about every piece of Nintendo news it can get its hands on, so there's little personality to the site.  There's no more than artificial opinions to keep up the appearance that the site is a blog, and if there's ever any type of editorial work, it's most definitely chopped up spew based on a recent topic some forum or website just talked about.

[Pale]

There's a fine line, but it has everything to do with whether or not the link to the source ever gets clicked by the readers in my opinion.

That is determined based on how much of the content from the review is actually posted.  GoNintendo usually just posts one paragraph and doesn't even mention the score.  This should always get interested people to click the link and head to the source.

I actually feel that metareviews done on sites like Kotaku are worse.  They are basically downgrading the review so much that the only way any one review is going to get viewed in its original form is if its score is drastically different than other scores.  That's not a very good move.

Overall though, I agree with you.  I don't have a problem with GoNintendo.

[Deguello]

And be sure to at least inform those you link to that you are linking to them.

That's another thing GoNintendo gets horribly wrong.

Also, be accurate with your news and FOLLOW UP on the news you find.  That way you don't embarrass yourself.  GoNintendo also does this horribly wrong, but they don't have any shame anyway.  they post so much any errors are buried on the second page.

Do not have a comments section.  GoNintendo's harbors the worst kind of trolls on the internet.  Some are smarter than GoNintendo writers, but their understandings of any given issue, whether gaming, Super Saiyans, psychology is narrow enough to be painful.  I think they might have three high school diplomas between them.  Replace this with a forums section with the capability of banning.

Give FULL credit to anything you source, including author.  None of this "a portion of" and then post the best part of the review.

Treat your readers like competent adults, even if they are children.  GoNintendo does not do this, treating the readers like they're playing Blue's Clues with swears.

Another Problem GoNintendo has is that its Editor in Chief pretends to be a fan of everything ever, which cheapens his opinion.   And do not force "objectivity" when posting flagrant Nintendo "hit pieces" like that retarded "ruined Mario" article by Game Daily.  HAVE A POSITION.  Say what YOU think and don't just poll your readers.

GoNintendo is a terrible blog.  Popular, but terrible.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

The GoNintendo way of doing things also garnered them ``media perks.``  Most of me says "that's just wrong."

A small part of me says "meh, I suppose they're popular enough to overcome any press relations barrier."  Like Oprah.

[Terranigma Freak]

Thatguy, I'm not the owners of the blog. I just wrote a preview for RF2. Also, I have no idea what you're talking about. Gonintendo never took all the pictures and posted them on the site. They also just post 1 picture and leave the rest to the link. When they do post all the pictures, they actually were given to them by Nintendo.

What do you guys think about the reviews? My friend only received feedback from me, and he's too busy to pimp the place. I just got off of AIM and he's complaining about playing Professor Layton, Professor Layton 2, Barnyard Blast, Ninja Gaiden 3, Harvest Moon Shining Sun, and Advance Wars DOR all at the same time WHILE trying to write reviews and previews for all those games (and VC games Harvest Moon and Kirby 64). He's playing 6 different games at once while trying to write 8 different things. He must be so lucky to play so many games.

Pale - You don't mind that I submit NWR news to my friend's blog, right? If so, I'll continue to show him stuff whenever I see them.

[that Baby guy]

Like when they have a gallery of about twelve pictures up all with an IGN watermark, right?

[Pale]

I don't mind, but you can't really count my opinion as the opinion of NWR.  I would continue doing it and just keep in mind that he should be trying to get the readers to click the link over to NWR.

[NWR_pap64]

Another Problem GoNintendo has is that its Editor in Chief pretends to be a fan of everything ever, which cheapens his opinion.   And do not force "objectivity" when posting flagrant Nintendo "hit pieces" like that retarded "ruined Mario" article by Game Daily.  HAVE A POSITION.  Say what YOU think and don't just poll your readers.

Yeah, I find this annoying as well. Most of these articles are just "troll" articles made to get the fans annoyed and get more hits for their site. Most of the time are just poorly written jambles with no real point, so why bother with them?

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

$$$$$

[Terranigma Freak]

$$$$$

Huh? How do you make money off of the site?

[DAaaMan64]

$$$$$

Huh? How do you make money off of the site?

[vudu]

OH GOD

That's what Go Nintendo looks like without AdBlock?

I wonder what NWR looks like.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[that Baby guy]

NWR's ads have actually recently been targeted.  It used to look worse than that.  However, you're killing the internet by not viewing the passive ads.

[Crimm]

NWR's ads have actually recently been targeted.  It used to look worse than that.  However, you're killing the internet by not viewing the passive ads.

I miss the scantally clad women trying to sell dating sites. 

[ShyGuy]

Speaking on news aggregators, I just found this one: http://www.gamenewshq.com/

[Kairon]

I don't have adblock and I'm just fine. Geez.

[Terranigma Freak]

So, how does one go about advertising a blog to others? I mean, place has it's own material, and certainly more game reviews and previews by the owner than Gonintendo. He doesn't have time to do anything else but play games and write about them. I did have a hand in inspiring this place, so I'd like to see it become somewhat of a success. Randomly posting the blog to tell people to read it is too shameless. You guys mind if I post news here whenever Cow Cow has a new review/preview up?

[vudu]

I don't think the mods would approve of that.  But you're probably more than free to put link in your sig, and update it whenever a new story is posted.