Owlcation homepage

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   Thomas Swanposted 2 years ago

   Is this clickbait "Owlcation news" (see image below) something that should be on the homepage of an educational website? And, right under a quote from Nelson Mandela about how education can change the world?
   
   

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      AliciaCposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      No, it shouldn’t be there. The fact that it’s present on the homepage of an educational website is so sad.

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         greenmindposted 2 years agoin reply to this

         Agree 100%

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      chef-de-jourposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      A TAG employee with a grudge deliberately undermining an educational site? Or some similar scenario?
      
      I must say this further degrades all our hard work. It's ludicrously crass. Google will have fun downgrading Owlcation again.

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   3. 84

      SerenityHaloposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      I’ve brought this up previously. It makes no sense to have toddler stories on a site geared toward academia that’s mostly for high schoolers, college students, and adults looking to broaden their education.

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      Kenna McHughposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      I don't what HP staff plan to do about these inappropriate ads.

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2. 69

   eugbugposted 2 years ago

   Maybe there's no control over what ads appear it's just a lucky dip what turns up.

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   1. 69

      Shesabutterflyposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      These are not ads, they are Owlcation's variation of "news" written by staff.
      
      However, I agree not appropriate for Owlcation and shouldn't appear on the home page (all news sections do though, so I doubt they'd make an exception for one niche site). These titles look like they would be better suited for wehavekids.

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3. 78

   Thomas Swanposted 23 months ago

   Thanks for the responses. I see I'm not the only writer who is concerned. I've seen my Owlcation traffic continue to decline in the past month, despite writing new articles that have temporary bucked the trend, and despite updating and improving all my Owlcation articles in the past year or so.
   
   I'm beginning to think this battle can't be won. The homepage is a disgrace. It's not just the  "news," which Google probably considers spam, but the layout, which highlights only a few articles before the barrage of soulless pap.
   
   How quickly would a casual visitor click away if those few, good articles don't appeal to them? How would someone who's been told that this is "a good educational website" react to that "news"? Earlier this year, I told someone at my university that I write here. I kind of hope that they never visited.
   
   Owlcation covers a broad spectrum of knowledge and the site should reflect that. It should present more articles (e.g., top performing articles, plus new articles), perhaps in a grid formation, and perhaps divided by subject area. Or create a "web of topics" similar to the topic areas you select when writing an article, with all the branches being clickable and taking you to a page with articles in that area. Make this site a "web of knowledge" instead of clickbait central.

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      chef-de-jourposted 23 months agoin reply to this

      For some time now, since TAG took over from HP/Maven and altered the ad placement regime and layout, many of us have seen unprecedented decline in viewing figures and earnings simply through Google downgrading the status of the Owlcation niche. It's frustrating and puzzling - there doesn't appear to be anyone at TAG with a clear ambition for fundamentally increasing quality on any of the niche sites. Editing and new initiatives can only achieve so much. The prognosis is gloomy but not yet doomy.
      As a veteran of 12 years with hundreds of articles published I'm still writing the occasional new one but what needs to happen is a radical shift in TAG's ethos and approach to niche site writers and their content display. I'd write much more if this happened. I'd like more transparency from those in the know too and a say in future developments - this isn't going to happen I know yet something has to change or else we'll reach a point of no return?

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         Thomas Swanposted 23 months agoin reply to this

         Maybe it's my anti-corporate cynicism, but I saw the ad issue in the same way I saw the clickbait news, as short-termism, i.e., they milk the site for all it can generate before it's killed off by the search engines. Then they start again with something else. I hope I'm wrong.
         
         Although maybe it's just their uniform approach to the niche sites. I can see how the layout and clickbait "news" might be slightly more relevant on other niche sites that aren't as serious and don't cover a broad knowledge base.
         
         Owlcation is supposed to be serious and authoritative. They even tell us to be authoritative (cite sources, etc.), so they know that a 300-word spam post about a toddler licking candy in a tiktok video, written by someone who churns out 5 of these posts per day, 25 per week, isn't what search engines think belongs on an educational website.
         
         So maybe they just need a "niche approach" to the niche sites. But, like you say, that would require someone with ambition and a clear vision for what Owlcation should be doing.

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            AliciaCposted 23 months agoin reply to this

            I agree with your third paragraph very much. The only hope is that readers are attracted by our articles via search engines. Going to the home page of Owlcation would likely cause someone looking for information to quickly close the page.

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   eugbugposted 23 months ago

   I think there's a laissez-fair policy, but strangely that conflicts with the ongoing zealousness of the editing.

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5. 83

   Rupert Taylorposted 23 months ago

   Is Owlcation clogged with too many categories? Could Humanities and Social Sciences be split off to form its own network?
   
   The Crime Wire was carved out of Soapboxie and seems to be quite successful.
   
   I'm a rank amateur at webby stuff so maybe I'm just blowing smoke.

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      eugbugposted 23 months agoin reply to this

      Yes. I think they should cut the STEM off and it'll sprout roots elsewhere.

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