Newspaper and Contest?

[Guest]

Here is what i suggest...other than begging people to submit reviews and so on... why not reward those people who submit anything thats fun, intresting and relevent for kapilands?

Give an alternative way to earn coins other than to pay and buy? after all these people will be contributing for kapilands and most players would feel its fair that they get rewarded for their time spent.May be you can even have editorial conpetitons. I truely feel that 5000 steel per week is peanuts. After the first 2 times i tried for it( and did not win) i don even bother to look at that page.

for example if you submit an article and if its selected, you get 10 coins. If it reaches front page of the paper you get 40 coins ( 2 months subscription).

I feel asking people to do something in an online community bears no fruit. Please encourage them.

[Guest]

ajanmax
They do not want give something in return for spent time, because German version works in this way and they do not want make English version different.

One time i won 3th place in newspaper quiz. But i send my solution in 1-2 minutes after it released and still only 3th place. So, you need be very very very quick to win

[Guest]

One time i won 3th place in newspaper quiz. But i send my solution in 1-2 minutes after it released and still only 3th place. So, you need be very very very quick to win

I hope someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe the quiz rewards are based on speed. There is a cutoff, but any answers sent before that are pooled, then the winners are randomly picked.

So you could send in the answer 5 minutes after the newspaper comes out or 5 hours, and have the same chance. I did win a prize once (way way back, like March/April) and I'm sure I was closer to missing the deadline than being the first one in.

As for bribing people to write, I'm not sure that's a good idea. Especially with anything that significant of a payment. I don't have anything to do with the Kapitimes but I do have a long history of working on newsletters and such for various organizations. (Going back to high school when I started an "underground newspaper" with a few friends.)

Being a good contributer takes a special mindset. You have to enjoy educating / entertaining the public. You need the skill & patience to turn a loose idea into a readable piece. And you need to have some emotional detachment from the results so it doesn't kill you if a piece has to get edited, pushed, or cut.

These people tend to enjoy the work for the reward of seeing their stuff make print and knowing they did a good job. Surely none would balk at payment, but that's not what pulls them in. On the other hand, once you start offering lucrative riches, you'll start attracting get-rich-quick schemers from people having none of the above qualities. You'd get more submissions, but likely not more quality ones.

Additionally, giving huge rewards would seriously escalate the politics of being editor. Sometimes when you write something, you really believe in it but it just doesn't make the cut. And then you read an article that did make it that you don't like. This already tempts some people to cry "favoritism." How much worse do you think that would be if there were 40 coins on the line?

Contests are up to the players. Quizes are random (from among correct entries). You can't randomly choose an article though, nor can you say with complete objectivity what the prerequisites are. Picking which articles get published or not is a subjective process for a human, and I don't think there would be any "fair" way to give a significant reward.

So if you'd like to write something, because you want to help people, make a point, reach the masses, that's great. But don't do it for the tangible reward, it will be disappointing. And by the way, the same rules go for publishing a guide here in the forums. If you write something useful, I'll put it in the stickied Guide to Guides so it's there forever.

(Also, the newspaper currently has more of a process issue then a content issue, though more submissions are always appreciated.)

[Guest]

people spend around 100 to 500$ a month on this game!
and we don't get newspaper or things like that!

As I told you earlier: The KapiTimes is a player project and has absolutely nothing to do with the programmers!
So please stop discussing those money-questions as you don't have got facts and numbers that you can refer to.
And again... someone complaining without having ideas...

@ Pixie: Well... we need a team of people that are willing to invest several hours per week for the community and the KapiTimes, that are creative, that can write in a proper English, that know the game a bit... they must be reliable and willing to "work" for their hobby.

Listen there is no use making a fuss now they are trying there best and some of them are not even responsible So EVERYONE JUST BE PAITIENT HE HAS SPOKEN TO THE DEVELOPER AND IF U DON'T LIKE THE GAME PLS LEAVE!

[Guest]

Listen there is no use making a fuss now they are trying there best and some of them are not even responsible So EVERYONE JUST BE PAITIENT HE HAS SPOKEN TO THE DEVELOPER AND IF U DON'T LIKE THE GAME PLS LEAVE!

we are just pondering ideas...i am sure all the big words are making you scared, why don you go crawl under some blanket and let us talk.

So if you'd like to write something, because you want to help people, make a point, reach the masses, that's great. But don't do it for the tangible reward, it will be disappointing. And by the way, the same rules go for publishing a guide here in the forums. If you write something useful, I'll put it in the stickied Guide to Guides so it's there forever.

Knoll i respect your opinion. But then the last time i actually bothered to read the newspaper and not just the contest was a few months back.
Dont get me wrong, i love to read.

Maybe to get people intrested, you can publish the selected ariticles from players on the paper, and kapi players of lets say assets more than 20m can vote on the articles and reward the top 3 articles voted.

- this would get the whole community involved
- get more quality articles published
- we get a thicker newspaper
- eleminate most forms of cheating
- and will be encouraging all the forum article experts to properly structure what they are trying to say, make it a little funnier a little more intresting.
- Please do reward effort, dont let cheaters hinder progress and encourage debate!

[Guest]

Knoll i respect your opinion. But then the last time i actually bothered to read the newspaper and not just the contest was a few months back.
Dont get me wrong, i love to read.

While I don't share the same disinterest in the newspaper, (I always read it) maybe it might be appropriate for the English version of the game to have contests separate from the newspaper?

I'm guessing that is the hardest part of the newspaper, because it takes coordination between the English speaking and the German Servers.

Contests could be turned on weekly without newspapers, we could all get a private message informing us of the contest good and continue our quest for score. The newspaper could then be published as often as possible. It would still have good information and quizzes, so hopefully should still get a good following.

[Guest]

I'm guessing that is the hardest part of the newspaper, because it takes coordination between the English speaking and the German Servers.

The hardest part of the newspaper is to have a reliable team of editors. They must want to work for the KapiTimes, to invest their free time for this player project. It's not the task of the programmers, the support or the moderators to work out the newspaper... it's task of the editors. But it cannot be done by two editors - there need to be more. And there must be someone who can work with HTML and knows a little bit about layout things and so on.

There is only one thing that I can tell you: Someday there will be contests again... and maybe even a KapiTimes, too?!
Noone can tell you when that will be... but I can tell that it will be.

[Guest]

I really appreciate the reply, especially because you've had to say that a couple of times now. I was just thinking maybe it would be appropriate for this version of the game to have contests separated from the newspaper. All we really need is someone to pick a product and turn the script on.

I really appreciate the work the editors have been doing. I certainly know what it is like to work for free.

[Guest]

I like to measure profit/returns in terms of fun. I don't recommend working for free to anyone unless you get enjoyment out of it. Everything you do has a cost in terms of food,lodging and time so if you work for free you should enjoy your food, sleep and time,,, otherwise you won't perform properly.

Writing for the paper is the big job. Editing is a complex job in terms of formatting etc. The paper really needs a lot more input from the readers which is why we started the "Poll of the Week".

Would anyone want to read a few of the German articles? It would be our hope that more of you will submit articles for the English version. It's not hard to write and the more you write the easier it becomes. So get going on your articles and send them to GE. They don't have to be masterpieces and don't need to be very long either.

Does anyone want me to translate some German articles into English?

[Guest]

Do I have to know German?

[Guest]

No. I will translate it into Cherokee. Then you have to translate it into English yourself. Editing is so much fun

[Guest]

Sorry to go so completely off topic, but i really like the Cherokee. Their world view is very similar to the Irish and other Celts. If you've never read 'The Education of Little Tree' you should pick it up at a used book store. It's a quick read and very enlightening.

[Guest]

I thought about asking you this privately GoldenEye but I see no problem being open about it:

Specifically, the contest part of the newspaper - those steps are held up right now in a way that one or a hundred editors and writers couldn't push past. Am I correct? Not to say that you guys couldn't use more assistance, but from my (external) viewpoint, the specific roadblock at the moment doesn't seem to be lack of volunteers.

[Guest]

I really appreciate the reply, especially because you've had to say that a couple of times now. I was just thinking maybe it would be appropriate for this version of the game to have contests separated from the newspaper. All we really need is someone to pick a product and turn the script on.

I really appreciate the work the editors have been doing. I certainly know what it is like to work for free.

If this is possible then the new contest could be turned on and a fax put into to check contest stat page that would show the product and q needed. The newspaper is nice but it's not what powers the game. By not having contest it takes a HUGE element out of game.. fun for big players and small and again boosts those smaller companies. Or is it like knolls last comment and it doesn't matter?

[Guest]

Any chance of a contest tomorrow then?