Newsbot Hey Mods how about this....

[GuitarRockets]

Doing away with this now? To continue reading an article the page asks you to answer "a question". I won't continue reading because I do not want to be annoyed with this extra step.....A lot more questions and post could be in it's space.

Just my two cents but...hey I'm with the temp agency.....

[bobkrech]

The mods have nothing to do with how space.com displays their web pages.

It is a change space.com made recently and it is annoying, and totally out of our control.

Bob

[jadebox]

The mods have nothing to do with how space.com displays their web pages.

It is a change space.com made recently and it is annoying, and totally out of our control.

But, you control whether TRF links to them or not.

I've never seen much of a reason for the newsfeed entries to be posted to the forums, anyway. Anyone wanting to follow them can add them to their newsreader or browser.

-- Roger

[GuitarRockets]

So....can't the newbot be deleted? I was not implying anything happening at the space.com site other than questioning doing away with the link itself.

[bobkrech]

We try to please everyone. The newsfeeds are in their own subforum which can be ignored by folks who don't like them.

Bob

[Rocketbuilder]

We try to please everyone. The newsfeeds are in their own subforum which can be ignored by folks who don't like them.

Bob

Very true... If you don't want to read it, then don't.
I occasionally check on that subforum, which has led me to several very interesting articles. If it were a vote, I'd say keep it.

[UncleVanya]

We try to please everyone. The newsfeeds are in their own subforum which can be ignored by folks who don't like them.

Bob

Bob - they show up in the New Posts view - is there a way to change that on a per user basis? Another forum I frequent has two "new posts" links - one is everything - the other is everything minus their off topic areas. It helped keep the peace when people complained about the number of "game" posts that made it into the new posts search.

[Rocketbuilder]

Ah, so that's the problem. It never occurred to me, since I don't use the New Posts link.

[UncleVanya]

Ah, so that's the problem. It never occurred to me, since I don't use the New Posts link.

LOL - I wouldn't go with "problem" per say - they can still be safely ignored. Also if I want to (and I will - I can go to that forum and mark all posts read in that forum first before clicking new posts - it will work for me.

[luke strawwalker]

Doing away with this now? To continue reading an article the page asks you to answer "a question". I won't continue reading because I do not want to be annoyed with this extra step.....A lot more questions and post could be in it's space.

Just my two cents but...hey I'm with the temp agency.....

AGREE WHOLEHEARTEDLY!

I don't *mind* the newsbot stuff, except when the darn thing posts 5 links to the same story, or various variations thereof... and the fact that it doesn't distinguish between the links to VIDEOS rather than the print stories on the specific topic... I've gotten a TON of EXTREMELY cool HST pix off newsbot links to space.com over the years (til my hard drive crashed and consumed them all anyway) that I used as desktop photos... and sometimes the stories are somewhat interesting, though space.com's writing and fact-checking leaves a lot to be desired...

BUT, since this stupid new "answer this question to read the rest of the article" crap started, I have ZERO interest in even looking at their stuff... for one, the questions are incredibly stupid to downright "NOYDB"... (none of yer d*** bizness) and while they "need them to make money" the stupid webpage is SO cluttered with pop-ups and sidebar ads and ads embedded in the text and having to jump around all over the page trying to read between the ads and crap just to read the story, that it's just not worth bothering with anymore...

Nasaspaceflight.com has MUCH better written and researched stories, not the sensationalistic tripe that usually is touted as "news" on space.com, and the presentation is MUCH more readable and enjoyable... plus they have a KICK BUTT forum for reading and discussing spaceflight history, issues, etc... its a terrific resource and populated with a lot of people within the industry, not a bunch of know-nothing bloggers from Facebook and other such rubbish...

I'm done with space.com until they clean up their act, if ever... and I wouldn't miss newsbot if it went away...

Later! OL JR

[luke strawwalker]

Bob - they show up in the New Posts view - is there a way to change that on a per user basis? Another forum I frequent has two "new posts" links - one is everything - the other is everything minus their off topic areas. It helped keep the peace when people complained about the number of "game" posts that made it into the new posts search.

+1 OL JR

[WiK]

BUT, since this stupid new "answer this question to read the rest of the article" crap started, I have ZERO interest in even looking at their stuff... for one, the questions are incredibly stupid to downright "NOYDB"... (none of yer d*** bizness) and while they "need them to make money" the stupid webpage is SO cluttered with pop-ups and sidebar ads and ads embedded in the text and having to jump around all over the page trying to read between the ads and crap just to read the story, that it's just not worth bothering with anymore...

Can someone tell me where exactly they're seeing these questions? A link or two would be great. I just clicked a couple of random Space.com links from Newsbot posts and I didn't see anything like that.

Cheers,
Phil

[luke strawwalker]

Ah, so that's the problem. It never occurred to me, since I don't use the New Posts link.

That's the ONLY link I DO use... Makes it easy to keep up with the forum and sift thru what you want to read and what you don't...

The Newsbot thing doesn't particularly bother me except when it seems to go into 'burst mode' and shoots about fifteen links on two pages of "new posts", most of which are duplicates or slight variations of the same story posted on space.com... that I find annoying... just increases the noise/signal ratio IMHO... and I DON'T like space.com's way of doing video content, so if I DO click on a newsbot link I have no way of knowing if it's a video link until the page pops up, which I just immediately close out... not interested in watching stupid adverts before I can see the content, most of which is a watered down version of the printed stories anyway...

This stupid "question campaign" of theirs just takes the cake... it's like a spam site or misdirect site that just bombards you with crap to no end, which might happen to have a tiny bit of content you might actually be interested in, IF you can actually get to it for all the CRAP... no thanks...

Later! OL JR

[troj]

Considering that the posts are actually getting read, there are members who find them useful. So, newsbot will be staying, as will the space.com feed.

If you don't want to see the newsbot feeds, then add newsbot to your blocked users list.

-Kevin

[jadebox]

If you don't want to see the newsbot feeds, then add newsbot to your blocked users list.

That doesn't help. They still show up when you select "New Posts."

-- Roger

[luke strawwalker]

Can someone tell me where exactly they're seeing these questions? A link or two would be great. I just clicked a couple of random Space.com links from Newsbot posts and I didn't see anything like that.

Cheers,
Phil

It might not be on your version, since you're in Europe... I dunno enough about that to know or not...

For the rest of us, 90% of the time we click a space.com newbot link to read a story that actually sounds interesting, we get the first 3-4 lines of the story and the opening pic accompanying it, BUT from there to the bottom of the page, it's "redacted" (covered over with white bars)... there's a huge blue box pop-up that covers about a third of the page (mostly carefully avoiding all the other insurance crap and various junk ads littering the page, BTW) with "Answer the question below to continue reading the article!" prominently displayed. The questions go from rather stupid "I could care less" type stuff to downright invasive "NOYDB" type stuff... most of it is DEFINITELY product/advertising related, and I just don't like being "held hostage" to answer some moronic ad agency crap so they can bombard me with MORE advertising targeted to get me to waste money on stuff I don't need anyway... Unfortunately they never seem to give you as one of the multiple choice answers "I don't care, I hate your product/company and I wouldn't buy anything you sell if it was the last one like it on Earth" or something to that effect... they DO have a "click here for another question if you prefer" link underneath it, which then seems to take another 20 seconds or so to reload the pop up box with something at least as inane if not more so... usually I just click the first thing i come to anyway just to get rid of the d@mn thing, because the LAST thing I want to do is help these stupid advertising vultures AT ALL...

That's why I've quit going to their site, interesting topic or no... I refuse to support this sort of "arm twisting" by FORCING you to answer some stupid question to be able to read the content... to h3ll with them and their silly questions... if their hits drop enough, they'll torpedo that crap RIGHT QUICK!

Later! OL JR

[rocketguy101]

I have hated the newsbot posts ever since they showed up on TRF1.0. And I tried blocking the feeds as suggested, and as jadebox pointed out it does not work. "New Posts" is my preferred way to view this forum too.

[o1d_dude]

exactamundo.

With Forum Runner on my iPhone I can mark the whole subforum "read" without even opening it up.

That is ALWAYS my first action upon visiting TRF.

Used to be that Andy the Rocketeer's script would work but moving to the updated software of TRF broke it. And the new script doesn't work for me.

I really don't care for the newsbot postings in general and space.com specifically.

[Reinhard]

Used to be that Andy the Rocketeer's script would work but moving to the updated software of TRF broke it. And the new script doesn't work for me.

After updating it, it works fine for me. Which version do you use?

Reinhard

[GuitarRockets]

Considering that the posts are actually getting read, there are members who find them useful. So, newsbot will be staying, as will the space.com feed.

If you don't want to see the newsbot feeds, then add newsbot to your blocked users list.

-Kevin

Well....with the annoying answer this question before you go any farther...it will likely cut reader ship. Most people may not read this any longer since you MUST answer a question before continuing.

[GuitarRockets]

AGREE WHOLEHEARTEDLY!

I don't *mind* the newsbot stuff, except when the darn thing posts 5 links to the same story, or various variations thereof... and the fact that it doesn't distinguish between the links to VIDEOS rather than the print stories on the specific topic... I've gotten a TON of EXTREMELY cool HST pix off newsbot links to space.com over the years (til my hard drive crashed and consumed them all anyway) that I used as desktop photos... and sometimes the stories are somewhat interesting, though space.com's writing and fact-checking leaves a lot to be desired...

BUT, since this stupid new "answer this question to read the rest of the article" crap started, I have ZERO interest in even looking at their stuff... for one, the questions are incredibly stupid to downright "NOYDB"... (none of yer d*** bizness) and while they "need them to make money" the stupid webpage is SO cluttered with pop-ups and sidebar ads and ads embedded in the text and having to jump around all over the page trying to read between the ads and crap just to read the story, that it's just not worth bothering with anymore...

Nasaspaceflight.com has MUCH better written and researched stories, not the sensationalistic tripe that usually is touted as "news" on space.com, and the presentation is MUCH more readable and enjoyable... plus they have a KICK BUTT forum for reading and discussing spaceflight history, issues, etc... its a terrific resource and populated with a lot of people within the industry, not a bunch of know-nothing bloggers from Facebook and other such rubbish...

I'm done with space.com until they clean up their act, if ever... and I wouldn't miss newsbot if it went away...

Later! OL JR

I am glad you are very outspoken! I like that! Too many people are afraid to say what's on their mind.

OH! I also prefer nasaspaceflight.com to this cheesy newbot BS! Thanks for also bringing that up. They can keep the newbot but I say the space wasted on the forum should be used for forum member's Q and A and posting of ideas. BUT that's my opinion and don't care what anyone thinks.

[GuitarRockets]

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/


No cheesy questions or annoying pop up!