
Have you ever sat down to watch the 6pm news and seen a segment you absolutely had to discuss with someone? Up until now, you've had essentially three options for this sort of thing: a) talk with whoever happens to be in the same room with you at the time, b) wait until the next day and talk to people at work, hoping they watched the same broadcast you did, or c) post an entry to your personal blog soliciting conversation about it.
Now, there's an easier way.
If you see a segment on the NBC Nightly News you want to discuss, simply head to the new Newsvine-powered NBC Nightly News Discussion Club at nightly.newsvine.com and an inventory of every single video clip from the most recent broadcast will be waiting for you to replay, forward to friends, or start a discussion about. The launch of the Discussion Club coincides with the unveiling of a brand new NBC Nightly News site and embeddable video player, both of which put NBC at the head of the network news class in terms of online video user experience. We're really excited to be a part of this and to have the Newsvine community essentially set the tone for the how discussions evolve.
Since the Discussion Club works a bit differently than groups have in the past on Newsvine, let's go over what's different, and what the thinking has been behind the design and functionality. Keep in mind, of course, that everything below is subject to evolve at the requests and needs of the club members over time.
One of the biggest problems mainstream media companies have with opening up material for public discussion is the incredible amount of dreck that comes through from what we like to call "drive-by commenters". These are individuals who have no interest in discussing issues but use open comment fields as a form of digital graffiti. Obama won the Iowa Caucuses? Let's make racist jokes. Hillary won in New Hampshire? Let's make sexist jokes. It happens in almost every open forum on the internet. Topix argues frequently that the quality of comments has very little to do with whether a user is registered/unregistered/newcomer/established, etc etc etc. We've never agreed with this philosophy at Newsvine and in fact, we've gone even further in our thinking and essentially traded conversation *quantity* for conversation *quality* since day one. That's why we require registration. That's why all new users start out in the Greenhouse (many of which never even get out!). That's why we have the Code of Honor. That's why Newsvine has never sought to be an anarchistic free-for-all community, but rather a place where intelligent people gather to discuss intelligent things. Does this always produce respectful, insightful discourse? No. But the water level here is much higher than it is almost everywhere else on the web.
So, continuing that philosophy, we thought we'd create a members-only group for people to discuss subjects featured on the NBC Nightly News. This group will be linked to heavily from MSNBC and NBC so there will be plenty of people coming over who have never been to Newsvine. There will probably be a decent amount of drive-by attempts, hence, club "membership".
There are two ways to request membership to the Discussion Club. Directly via a link in the "Members" panel, or the way it will happen for most new visitors: simply leaving a comment. When a new user leaves a comment on a video segment, group moderators will be notified, and if they approve the comment, the user is automatically let into the group. This will serve as a first line of defense against malevolent commenters. The second line of defense will be the standard group membership revocation which moderators can already do with current Newsvine groups.
So to sum up, we're not calling this a Discussion Club to be high falootin', but rather to establish up-front that this is a place to discuss news segments in a civil, intelligent fashion. If people want to discuss the news in other ways, there are other places they can go.
About a week ago, we introduced the concept of publicly viewable group discussions and some Newsvine members were wondering what the big picture purpose of them was. Well, this is sort of what they were designed for. The Nightly News Discussion Club is viewable by everyone, but only group members can participate in the discussions. It's a way of advertising group membership to the world without giving everyone keys immediately.
There are essentially two types of moderators for this group: Newsvine community moderators and NBC News employees.
The inimitable Mykola Bilokonsky will serve as the inaugural moderator of this group but other community members will no doubt join him as it becomes necessary and beneficial. Mykola has been a thought-leader for group functionality ever since the Newsvine public beta, producing scores and scores of articles which have shaped the way we've thought about social interaction from the get-go. He is a superuser in almost every sense of the word and we couldn't think of anyone better suited to help kick the tires for something like this. Newsvine community moderators can accept members, boot members, chime in on Code of Honor and other membership issues, and help shape the way the group evolves in the near future. They are obviously not there to impose political philosophies on the group.
NBC News employees can also perform community admin functions, but their main role is to speak to editorial issues within the news segments themselves. For instance, let's say you're watching a video segment of a behind-the-scenes trip inside a candidate's campaign headquarters and you have a question about how multiple news organizations interact with each other when they are all in the same headquarters at the same time. Do they collaborate? Do they just keep their distance? You could theoretically ask this question in the comment thread and an NBC News employee could answer your answer with first hand experience. Often times, there is more to a story than what makes it onto the 6 o'clock news, and the Discussion Club will be a great place to bring more information to the surface.
Yes! It's hard to believe we've managed to run a news site for two years without having a single piece of video on the site. That obviously ends today! Look for more video embedding abilities on Newsvine in the near future as well.
The Nightly News Discussion Club is built on the same architecture that has powered our customizable front page for the last several months. Behind the scenes, we're able to drag and drop modules, add RSS feeds, and do a lot of what you can already do on the Newsvine front page. You can expect this functionality to make its way into all Newsvine groups within the next few months, as well as the ability to customize the sorts of design elements that make the Discussion Club unique; a branded header, custom colors, and a whole lot more.
We're very excited about the prospects for this discussion platform and we're anxious to see how it works in the wild.
So without further ado, it's live!
Newsvine Mark and Newsvine Lance kicked some serious bue-tocks in getting this feature out right quick. Word to both of their moms.
w00t! Word to your YOUR momma!
This is so fantastic. I freakin' love it and your mom.
Ah, so maybe I was right when I thought I heard Brian mention Newsvine last nite during his broadcast while mentioning the Web site being revamped.
Very exiting.
Mykola, I'm sure you'll do a great job but if you or others ever need any help just holler. Well, an email would probably work better than a holler seeing as I can't hear you but... oh you get the idea.
Awesome! This is a really phenomenal... well, what would you call it? Anywho, great work. This is really neat!
BTW, the banner you guys placed on top of the Top News Page is saying some weird things like:
FEATURE ALERT: NBC Nightly News Discussion Club Launches! Read all FEATURE ALERT: NBC Nightly News Discussion Club Launches! Read all about it...
and
FEATURE ALERT: NBC Nightly News Discussion Club Launches! Newsvine Newsvine
-Edit-
Hmm... now it's just disappeared altogether.
Speaking of banners, at the bottom of the nightly news page i'm not sure "fun stuff" is the best choice of words for the links to the greenhouse and other tools. Maybe "resources" would be a better word choice?
Same with "company stuff" for the link to the COH. My guess is that was meant to be changed before it went live and someone missed it.
Kick ass, guys! I'm flattered that you thought of me to help get this going and I'll do my best to help it go well.
I guess the question that popped into my head is, do MSNBC employees have specially-colored comments too? :)
Yes they do! They have the "peacock token" now. Look for the peacock...
Myk - Quit basking & accept my request to join. Now. Right now!
Boy. I was about to break. 15 hours of being held to ultra top-secret secrecy, 8 of those spent sleeping...
Whew...
Heh, I actually totally forgot about it for like 8 hours yesterday and was a bit late to the party.
Look for the peacock...
That's what she said...
Fantastic news vine team, thank you and especially the Moms. Where is the request to join link lauhal? Someone needs to ask the questions no one else will.
Go to the Nightly News page, which is linked several times above. On the right, click on "Show all members" under the avatars. The next page has the "join group" thingie. :)
There are two ways to request membership to the Discussion Club. Directly via a link in the "Members" panel, or the way it will happen for most new visitors: simply leaving a comment. When a new user leaves a comment on a video segment, group moderators will be notified, and if they approve the comment, the user is automatically let into the group.
The "join" process is ... convoluted.
This graph says "members" panel ... I looked up at my navigation members row ... and picked "Groups." Searched. But clicking The Nightly News in that "members section" simply took me back "to the top".
After doing that 2x, I came here to read the comments because I felt like I couldn't be the only person who was blind. :)
Kathy: Yep, it's not totally dialed in yet. In order to meet the launch deadline, a few things are still "unpolished". Working on them as we speak actually.
:)
I was providing tester feedback. Can't you tell? ;-)
Now, if we could get similar integration btwn NYT and About.com ....
This is a great idea. I'm very existed. Live member Video iChat....? just a thought. band width will get cheap enough someday.
Whoops existedExcited. my bad.
Dan, you are so existed.
It's an existentialist thing. :)
Maybe this'll keep me from throwing a shoe at the tv.
Are monitors less expensive?
My Mac is sacred. I won't tell it what you said.
But if you break that one Lauhal, rumor is your Mom has a nice new :-)
Whoa nice site ! very professional looking.
Maybe this'll keep me from throwing a shoe at the tv.
No kidding, if I had a dime for every time I wanted to. Will this be more feedback than they are looking for?
Great idea!
All right! Now I'll actually need to watch NBC ;-)
I just heard this mentioned on NBC news. The new Newsvine NBC....
This looks great.
Out of curiosity are you going to create an special avatar for the group? I go to my group page and have this pic for 5 different groups.
Hey Mike, you just accepted me to the group, but I can't post comments and I'm not recognized as a member. Any idea why?
I have the same problem.
I have the same problem.
I also noticed I'm not listed on the members page of the group.
Also I selected the tracker option on the bottom, and when I go back to the story it still says "track"
Fixed - thanks :-)
It definitely takes awhile -- but your membership shows up. Patience.
:)
Ah, there we go.
I am still waiting at the door also...
Better than me who still hasn't figured out how to send the request. I think every other group invited me so far. Where are my help angels? Jim Dent, helloooo??
The request to join is just in a different spot than you're used to seeing. Look on the right-hand side.
Thank you, that was easy and it is very nice all the rest of it looks the same. I love you guys for all the sameness, bless your techie hearts that it has so much of a homey feel from the start. Big hugs for that!
Thank you for designing a visually/functionally pleasant video interface!
I think credit for belongs with MSNBC.
The video interface is incredible.
I wonder what we are allowed to upload, this could be amazing if we can add film footage and comments too.
Tom:
I already got a report that the comment box is not open to even attempt to post a comment for approval.
can you clarify? i'm not sure that you mean ... a report from where/who? on what thread? i take it you're not a member of the group yet - yeah? thanks
Tom:
I am a member. Somebody contacted me to say there was no comment box. As in "No Box." As in, right below the last comment on the "Hell? No!" segment where there should have been a comment box there was only a tracker button.
I saw a box, my correspondent saw a tracker button.
The person who contacted me did so because I contacted them after the Club went live because I wanted a Church-going Catholic to watch that segment and tell me if my criticism of it was valid.
They probably just weren't a member yet. Speaking oh, so, unofficially. Think about the public group thread thing we just encountered. They couldn't post a comment because their membership hadn't made it through the servers.
I'm guessing. And slightly inebriated.
Viki:
Did you read the article? It said non-members should also see a comment window, through comment-approval of which their group membership would also be approved.
In any event, I suspect it occured literally while they were going live, so it was probably transient.
Yeah, Jack. I guess I should have been more clear.
Pretty cool seeing the discussion thread on there. Nice to see no ones attitude has been altered by the National platform. *smirk*
Will we have our same comment edit function and the timer on there as well or do we need to try to get things right the first time? No pressure, but if we're supposed to sound smart the edit counts about 50% for me.
Tell me about it, I was writing my comments in a text editor before pasting them in....
Bless your heart for that. My style was to post and pray not to look too much like an illiterate contributor.
woot!!
Very cool. Congrats Myk.
Yes congratulations Myk, glad to see you get the spot, even if it launches a bit of sibling rivalry.
Ha. I was sitting here watching NBC Nightly News and browsing Newsvine when I noticed this announcement. I have been watching NBC Nightly News religiously for years. Sounds good.
Amazing! Wonderful! Fantastic! Thank you Newsvine. Thank you MSNBC.com. Thank you MSNBC-TV. Thank you NBC.
Don't pay any attention to me. I am just flabbergasted and proud and so appreciative of all of Newsvine. We are definitely on our way. Thank you all for being here.
Very nice. I am especially hopeful about the possibility of being able to interact with NBC staff who may have more background information on some stories. That would be simply grand.
Thanks, as always, for all you guys do.
Cool stuff. I can't wait for Brian Williams to start quoting Newsvine users...
"Next, we have a comment from a Mykola Bilo.. bliolk.... biolokonksky... biologokys... ah, hell, how do you pronounce this guy's name?"
;)
About a week ago, we introduced the concept of publicly viewable group discussions and some Newsvine members were wondering what the big picture purpose of them was.
Ha! I was so right.
Bilokonsky ?
Billow-Cow-On-Sky
Mykola ?
Myk or Mic-Cola
Or at least my best guess
Or just The Empire
Billow-Cow-On-Sky
Really?
bill-o-CON-skee
my dad tells people to pretend it's an irish name - Bill O'Konsky. Then it's easy.
And myk is pronounced like "mick" so I guess it's pseudo-irish all over.
Congrats on the position, Myk. You've got the power, the girl... what comes next? The fame or the fortune?
Working on the fortune right now, Noah, and the power and the girl are gonna help. As for fame, I want the kind of fortune and power that makes it a good idea to avoid fame... ;)
Myk:
You should be getting paid for this. And I don't mean that as a compliment, it's a simple declarative: You should be getting paid for this.
I want the kind of fortune and power that makes it a good idea to avoid fame.
So you plan to be a Defense contractor, do you.
You should be getting paid for this. And I don't mean that as a compliment, it's a simple declarative: You should be getting paid for this.
We'll see exactly what's involved in the position. So far it's been all "sit back and let people congratulate you for the exposure." Once I start having to be diplomatic and responsible we can start talking compensation. ;)
It is amazing. This is the future of Newsvine as none of us truly were able to envision it. I watched the news last night, and commented on it when it became available at nightly.newsvine.com. And it was like my whole world suddenly came full circle.
Beautiful interface, fantastic job to all involved, most especially Myk because he's the voice of the Newsvine people (and you know you staffers are my beloved, and you know I know how much work you've put into this).
To all who questioned what the buy-out of Newsvine by msnbc.com would mean--THIS is what it means. This, Entertainment Gateway, and all the good things to come.
Live up to the opportunities that are being handed us--live up to the opportunity to speak your piece. Speak the @!$%# up. Now.
Speak the @!$%# up. Now.
Shhh, Viki. They are probably listening. They don't like your dirty mouth.
They like my dirty mouth just fine, Noah.
;)
Well, maybe, but they really don't like your dirty mind.
;)
Oh, Noah. So young.
If there's anything they like more than a dirty mouth, it's a dirty mind.
If you were a man, and also very old, I would totally be calling you a Dirty Old Man.
But as it is she's just one hot momma!!
the future of Newsvine as none of us truly were able to envision it
Typical Woman. Thinks she speaks for everyone. Viki you ain't seen nothing yet.
Typical Woman.
Aren't you old enough to know there ain't no such thing! To quote a favorite, "You ain't seen nothing yet."
Pamela Drew, aka, the quissential iconicity of feminine pulpitude... or so I have been told... I'm too young to understand what that means anyway.
Come to NYC baby, there won't be anything we can't show you or teach you before you leave! :~)
Look forward to it!
Rose
Looks good to me, though the video down load keeps on freezing, but thats expected, I am living on a tropical Island in the Philippines. I am waiting for video and music opions on my column page, well done admin, we are getting there.
So I posted a comment before I was a member and obviously it said that it needed to go through a moderator first. Then I requested membership in the group separately. My membership was confirmed, and I was able to post an unmoderated comment on a different video, but my first comment is still pending moderation. Shouldn't comments like my first comment automatically be approved if my membership is approved?
How long did it take to get approved? Mine's been pending since yesterday, any chance of being denied? :~)
I got in...FINALLY...after waiting so freaking long. It was about 1/2 an hour. ;)
Being better behaved and funnier must pay off. I've clearly got time in some Purgatory first.
You should make a pilgrimage to Lourdes. I hear you get to skip to the head of the line.
My comment's visible now, but I have no idea if that's because a moderator approved it or if it happened automatically (albeit delayed) because I'm now a member.
I approved it.
I approved it.
my name is Mykola and i approve this message.
Alright, then my comment still stands. Shouldn't comments written by newly approved members all be approved. Sounds like it would make the moderators' job a lot easier.
Great work guys n gals.
The only way is up /
This is awesome but after American Idol starts we're gona need another discussion club. ;)
some people are never satisfied. they want more:-)
Hetep and Respect NV team and the good spirits of the vine, Video WoW! I love it.
Very nicely done, as my son would say smoove
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