Newsvine sent out the following update on what’s been happening since MSNBC bought the site, and a preview of what features are in the works next year.
Big Speed Gains
This fall, we’ve moved to bigger, beefier hardware to handle increased site activity, and it’s made a huge difference. We’ve also optimized some of the processes that generate dynamic pages as well as improved our caching system, and the changes have resulted in big speed and reliability gains throughout the site. Newsvine is a complex beast and there’s still a lot to do, but we look forward to further performance gains after moving into MSNBC’s data centers in the next couple of months.
Newsviners on National TV
The process of introducing the Newsvine community to MSNBC and vice versa has also gone exceedingly well so far. Two of our most popular contributors, Chris Killfile Thomas and Viki Babbles Gonia, have already made live TV appearances on MSNBC around the democratic debates, and we look forward to more airtime for other thoughtful contributors as opportunities present themselves. Some members of the community have asked why there aren’t MSNBC logos spread throughout Newsvine and Newsvine logos spread throughout msnbc.com, and the answer to this is simple: Newsvine and msnbc.com serve two entirely different purposes and two entirely different audiences. Moving forward, you can continue to expect the independence and unfiltered views of what’s happening in the world from Newsvine and the world-class professionally produced news experience that you expect from msnbc.com.
Original Reporting From Iraq
As far as community highlights go, we’d be remiss if we didn’t also point out the great original reporting coming from Iraq via Newsvine correspondent and U.S. army soldier Rob Ballew. If you’ve ever wanted a view of Iraq from the inside, make sure to check out Rob’s column.
International Users and Tax Considerations
Speaking of international matters, we do have one pesky announcement to make as well: in order to comply with regulations governing foreign payments, beginning January 1st 2008, international users will have to fill out and send us some documentation, and we will have to withhold a portion of their payments which they can later redeem directly from the U.S. government. International contributors can read more about it here.
Working with MSNBC
Casual Newsvine users may sometimes forget that there’s a hardworking crew of people laboring night and day to keep things running smoothly around here as well as working on the latest and greatest improvements that will continue to set Newsvine apart from the me-too world of internet news. In case anyone cares to hear about how things have gone for us personally since the acquisition, so far we’d say “really, really great”. The long hours and aggressive timelines are still there and we continue to run very much like a startup, but the team and resources over at MSNBC have been everything we had hoped for so far. Working with smart people tends to make you smarter in kind, and as anyone in the Newsvine community knows, getting smarter has always been goal number one, in more ways than one.
What’s On Tap for 2008?
Well, we can’t give away all the details just yet, but you can expect the following features and improvements, as well as several pleasant surprises coming your way:
- New customizable and extensible user columns
- Completely new public and private groups
- Journalism Awards
- Vastly extended user profile pages
- Newsvine Assignment Desk
- A new take on message boards
- Video
- New ways of visualizing news stories within your social chain
- Writer outreach programs
- Community moderators
- Discussion clubs
- NCAA Tournament Pick ‘Em
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