Newsvine
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| Newsvine | |
|---|---|
| URL | http://newsvine.com/ |
| Commercial? | Yes |
| Type of site | News |
| Registration | Optional |
| Owner | msnbc.com |
| Created by | Newsvine, Inc. |
Newsvine is a community website focused on news stories and opinions. Users can write articles, post links to external content, and chat about article pages created by both users and by professional journalists.
Seattle-based "Newsvine, Inc." was incorporated in March of 2005 by Calvin Tang. Mike Davidson, Lance Anderson and Mark Budos subsequently left The Walt Disney Internet Group and together began development of Newsvine during the summer of 2005, as the four co-founders of the company. Josh Yockey joined the company shortly after development began, with Tom Laramee following in the spring of 2006. Eric Glomstad joined as an intern over the summer of 2006 and has stayed on with the company since. The development team consists of several veterans from the Disney Internet Group and ESPN. Mike Davidson, CEO of Newsvine Inc. was interviewed in episode 8 of Leo Laporte and Amber MacArthur's weekly Inside the Net podcast.
On October 7, 2007, Newsvine announced its acquisition by the news website MSNBC.com on October 5, 2007, after talks beginning in May.
Contents |
[edit] Community
Newsvine is a community-driven news site similar to sites such as Slashdot, reddit and Digg. It launched as a private beta in December of 2005 and was officially opened to the public on March 1, 2006. Newsvine features items from the Associated Press as posted by users and provides each user with a blog-style "column" for writing their own 'articles'.
[edit] Features
[edit] Seeding
Newsvine allows users to "seed," or post links for others to view. Seeds usually contain a short description or direct quotation from the linked article. With the "Newsvine Button," users can select "Seed Newsvine" from their bookmarks and a seeding dialog will appear. Seeds allow for all of the same options as articles except the ability to insert photographs and/or polls.
[edit] Articles
One of the most defining features of Newsvine is the ability for users to write their own articles. Commonly known as citizen journalism, this allows for users to express their opinions for public discussion or even report in a journalistic manner. The most popular articles for top tags appear in the "Featured Writers" section, where article writers can receive extra publicity.
While writing articles, users are also given the ability to upload their own photographs or choose from a list of Flickr photos registered under a Creative Commons license for addition to the post. Captions can be written as well to clarify the meaning of the photograph.
[edit] Voting
Another common feature among social bookmarking websites is the ability to vote for content. Users who enjoy reading an article/seed or agree with its content are encouraged to vote for the content. Articles and seeds with the most votes appear in the "Top Wire," "Top Seeds," or "Top of the Vine" sections of the site.
Newsvine also allows for users to vote for comments that they enjoyed reading. This aspect of commenting encourages better content and friendly discussions. When a comment receives at least five votes, a green star is placed in the upper right-hand corner, signifying that many users enjoyed or agreed with the comment. Clicking the star will lead viewers to the next highly rated comment.
Negative votes are also registered, and a comment that receives too many negative votes will often be collapsed, so that it can only be viewed by deliberately opening it. This limits discussion under that comment, since new comments under it will not be seen automatically.
[edit] Commenting
The ability to comment on seeds and articles allows for extra discussions regarding the content to take place. While debates are welcome, useless, insulting, and self-promoting comments are not. If a comment receives enough reports, that comment will be collapsed and its contents can only be shown by choosing to expand it. The Newsvine comment system also allows for semi-threaded comments, easing the confusion of comment direction. While users do not yet have the ability to edit or delete their own comments, writers are allowed to delete comments on their own content. Unregistered users are also allowed to have their say, but comments by unregistered users are not made public until that user creates a registered account.
[edit] User Columns
Newsvine user columns give users the ability to manage and share their articles, seeds, friends, recommendations, and other statistical information. Every user has one, and each is given their own subdomain to access it (<user>.newsvine.com). User columns are customizable: aspects of the layouts can be moved or hidden, a user photo and biography can be added, a header (such as a welcome message) can be added, friends can be invited to Newsvine or added to your friends list, recommendations (such as favorite books, bands, blogs, etc.) can be shown, and comments and feedback from other users can be managed. Also, through user columns, members have the ability to add others to their watchlist and friend list or to send another a chat invitation.
[edit] Earnings
Newsvine tells users that they will receive 90% of ad revenue from ads on their personal Newsvine pages. These earnings are "based on traffic to your articles and seeds," but it is unclear exactly how Newsvine calculate earnings. The remaining 10% go to whoever referred the user to Newsvine, or for site maintenance if there was no referrer. Newsvine does not publish the amount of revenue that has so far gone to users.
[edit] Chat Lobby
The Chat Lobby was a section of Newsvine that manages the various chat rooms available or open. Every article or seed on Newsvine had the ability to have a chat room created for it, where users can discuss the subject matter real-time rather than posting a comment. While this feature was not often used, it was used very heavily during the first annual Newsvine Drinking Contest which caused it to crash several times in the course of one night. This feature has since been removed.
[edit] Watchlist
If a user finds a particular writer or tag that he/she enjoys to read content from, it can be added to the Watchlist. Watchlists are lists of members and tags that a user can compile to easily find interesting news. Items on a user's watchlist appear on the left column and, if there is content that the user has not read by a watchlisted author or tag, a number will appear next to the item name signifying how many articles or seeds have not been read.
[edit] Conversation Tracker
Much like the Watchlist, the Conversation Tracker allows users to track other members. However, the Conversation Tracker is a notifier of new comments. There are three sections to the Conversation Tracker: new comments from a user's Newsvine column, new comments from articles that a user has commented on, and new comments from an article a user's friend has commented on. If a user has added members to the friend list that share a common interest in content, the Conversation Tracker can act as a list of recommended articles.
[edit] Friends List
The Friends List gives users the ability to meet new people and find others with common interests, but there are no requirements in doing so. Creating a populated friends list gives users the ability to find interesting new articles through the Conversation Tracker. Once a user adds a friend to the list, the added friend receives a notification and is given the ability to accept or decline the offer.
[edit] Vineacity
Vineacity is a measure of six different elements that contribute to a Newsvine user's overall rating as a positive influence to the Newsvine community. Earned as 'branches' on a Newsvine logo icon displayed next to the user's name, the six areas of excellence include:
- Courtesy - Earned when a user's positive feedback outweighs any abuse reports they may have received.
- Longevity - Earned when the users has been active for at least two months after registering.
- Fruitfulness - Earned when the user has submitted a substantial amount of content or comments that have received votes.
- Connectedness - Earned when the user appears on a substantial number of watchlists and/or friendlists.
- Random Act of Vineness - Earned for an exceptional moment of greatness on Newsvine.
- Lifetime achievement - Earned when a user has received a combined number of votes on all articles, links and comments around Newsvine.
