Hi comoms, good discussion.

As for spam concerns, there's really no need for anonymous reporting. NP has a "no flaming" policy and, unlike other sites, personal attacks, etc. aren't tolerated. No fear here!

If you see something that you believe is spam, you have a few options. You can leave a comment with your concern; tell the poster.  You can email a staff member (AKA "Super Editor"). They have the orange crowns. You can email a Guest Editor. We have the blue crowns. Or mix and match the options!    ;}

If you have concerns about a post, speak up. We like being transparent here; it's part of the process.

And, about how long things roll on--I've noticed that, too. The same things on the marquee keep going round and round. Kinda like the never-ending hot dogs on the carousel at the highway stores! But staff tells us that the devs are working on ways to speed things up in general.

As for the "news wanted" flag, good reminder. The person who places a flag like that has the responsibility for checking up on their flags, whether it be a wrench, or a "news wanted." Sometimes we may let a flag stay if there's a possibility that further photos, video, or information may yet be forthcoming. If you have concerns about that, feel free to email the person who placed the flag to remind them.

Thanks for the discussion and for sharing your concerns. I think you'll find that at NP, discussions may be passionate, but we (thankfully) have built a "culture" (as well as firm standards and guidelines) that elevates things above the retaliations or personal attacks you may find in other places on the web. Editors here actually do review material and comments, and are always available via on-site email.

I hope you enjoy NP. Everyone's input is part of the building process.

comoms,

you raise some important points - PEP has provided some great background to most issues so I won't  ramble on.

Regarding your point about the old stories in the 'news wanted' block you are correct there should be an expiry date just like there is for the front page. I'm going to make that suggestion to our designer right now. 

in terms of confidentially reporting spam feel free to email one of the Staffers we're happy to handle it.  

other than noticing recent actions there is no indicator as to whether or not someone is online.

I do have to agree with you about the sense of community here. It does seem much more personable. But I will touch on community building aspects later.

If they could get the performance and UI pieces straight, the community aspect would push nowPublic past NewsVine. I have limited bandwidth to post content and the design of NowPublic forces my original content to get lost in the noise of all the "highlighted" content. Couple this with how long it takes me to publish a story here vs NewsVine, it can be very frustrating. For example, take a look at this piece I put on NewsVine yesterday:

For Former NFL Quarterback, College Football Is About Passion

The key differentiators are that:

1. It took me less than half the time to write and publish the story there as it would have here, with less formatting hassles;

2. I could include the images I wanted, with captions, as part of the story, not as thumbnails I would then have to click on to see. I did not have to muck with HTML code to do it;

3. I could save the story as an unpublished draft until I was ready to post. In the case of the story linked above, I had the content written but did not want it published until I had received the photograph from the Atlanta Falcons.

It all comes down to ease of use and functionality.

Even worse for me is when content I have written has disappeared off of my profile here, and the only way to find it is to do a search of words I might remember are in the article. Not a good thing.

I am not saying NewsVine does not have its warts. I have had pictures, keywords, and category selection disappear from the story hours after publication and I would have to resave the document to get them back in.

Back to the community building aspects. 

1. Here, I have no interface to send out invites to people to join this community. On NewsVine, there is a tool to do it. Unfortunately, you have to manually input addresses and you cannot format or edit the email that goes out.

2. If I want to track threads I have commented on here, I have to click to my profile, and then click "track". On NewsVine I have a nice Web 2.0 interface that gets me the information without having to leave a page.

3. NewsVine allows people to build communities of interest through groups. This is very powerful and should not be underestimated.

Again, it all comes down to ease of use and functionality.

I could go on more, but I think this is a good place to start. 

Although I agree that UI is important, I think we all have components that we have concerns about.

I'm sure that the devs will continue to improve UI. But what *really* has me concerned: contributors who publish material as though it were their original writing when it's not theirs at all. I have tracked some examples and have them  saved.

When the original source (or, in some cases, sources) are put beside the material presented by the author as their original work, it's very easy to see the outright copying and pasting of someone else's work.

This ethics question is, I think, something that can sink NP if it isn't dealt with. 

Hi Rene,

You will need to be an Editor to use this tool. 

Editors and Super Editors have other cool tools not just the Good Stuff. But Editor status have to be earned for these. For more details see the Member Guide.

Hi Rene,

Here are the explinations of the different member abilities.

http://www.nowpublic.com/newsroom/tips/member_guide 

We'd hoped that you'll like it. And it should be faster and more convinient too. And maybe somewhat cleaner to eyes. Thanks for the comment.