Community Q&A: Hey Current.com, where are you going? [current.com blog]

First, let me affirm current. I think it is fantastic. I have devoted much time and energy on this site because participating brings me great pleasure. The community is way cool, and I consider this space home.

Nevertheless, ClipsFC made a good point about making a space for commentary/opinion from the community. Right now there is no prominent category that meets that need.

Web 2.0 citizen journalists (that's us!) are not old school journalists pretending to present some "objective" truth. I often post stuff to the News section that contains News and commentary mixed - this tends to generate the best discussion - and that tends to be how much stuff on the web is already being packaged.

(It should go without saying I miss my sister Vicky, and hope that current brings her back soon)

Even though I come on here just to mess around usually, I did enjoy I guess an "older" current set up. But from the look and sound of things, current is in the state G4 was in before it got Mark Cuban'd. Everything is cooruptable, even something as simple as current. Real bummer, but money is power.

The contributory articles need to be edited. There are to many smart asses who want to screw around with our minds. Also many important articles from the past are worthy of reinserting. Too many young people are not getting involved in the future of this nation. The one freedom that still exist is entertainment because anyone in power can subvert the purpose of America for their own evil means as the youth continue to entertainthemselves, hence select reruns may help to bring some of these people around to recognize the necessity of their attention to reassert our influence in government. Otherwise we are a nation of losers like many of the worlds despotic regimes.

I'm gonna keep it simple.
I miss the news on the hour on T.V. (gave all us average joe users something to get hyped about)
I miss robot voice who read the news.
I DO NOT like twitterbot.
I don't feel the need for everyone to have their own groups. I understand breaking things into topics, but the group we are all part of is CURRENT.
I like how current has made new show's (rotten&supernews) But I would like to see more Viewer created pods
And personally, the simpler the better. (firm believer in K.I.S.S.)
I was enticed by the idea of an internet site combining it's self with a television station, very web 2.0. and unique.
Stay true to your roots current, don't grow too big too fast.

Ah, Delia, you just made the entire point for me :) Look at your response. It's a commentary on an issue that's presented. That is what I would like to see more of. 'News' by itself is a 'dime-a-dozen' there are over 450,000 news releases today alone, who will read them all, who will make them stand out to BE interesting? Yesterday, for instance, a PETA wire release was posted on our News Wire. Plain, boring and straight forward. 'Unimatrix0' caught it, dressed it up with a fresh graphic, edited it a bit, and made it into a debatable item link on current: http://current.com/items/90278963_peta-advocate-gets-nearly-naked-for-circus-pro...
That's what I'm talking about girl ; )

@Num
not all the stories on the homepage were picked by staff, just the "featured ones" (I have to admit I barely go on the homepage at all! I hover around the news channel anyway, it's kind of like the old Current!) Plus, I like the idea of user curated groups (the fact that I'm curating Science doesn't hurt that- but the plan is that all users will soon be able to curate a channel of their choice!)

@ all
While there are many things about "the old" Current I liked, there are many things about this new Current that I like too. It's pretty much the first place I go for news. Because of the wide variety of topics and user posted/generated content, I get pretty much everything I need!

Here are some reasons I still like and feel hopeful for Current:

1.There is rarely a time a family member or friend comes to tell me about a news bit that I don't say "Yeah, I heard about that on Current!"

2.The community is kickass. I've made real friends here (who I'm about to meet on Sunday! So excited! Join us in NYC!) and even the people that drive me crazy, well, I love 'em anyway for the sake of stirring up the convo!

3. Despite some comments here, I think Current does a pretty good job listening to the community and integrating them into the site and TV. Leah (green) has been kicking ass getting OUR questions for people she is interviewing and Mario always comes through to answer our questions and they all really do care about our feedback.

4. Where else can you get debate like this? While there are some people who are ridiculous there is a solid group of folks who are wonderful conversationalists. I've learned so much about how to talk to people and how to argue here, how to have a civil conversation, how to point out when a conversation is getting...uncivil and how to balance my passionate feelings with having respect for others.

Yes I hate the evil Twitterbot and miss Current News (on TV) as much as the next guy but overall I'm a pretty happy camper. Having said all that, Current.com staff should ponder how to make the community feel like their vote counts again, since apparently many of you feel like it doesn't!

My biggest problem with some content on Current is that it lacks uniqueness. Granted, 'Contributing' a story is great, and I myself do so from the wire service, but - here is the biggie - with all the talent, and I mean TALENT on Current I would expect to see more original content written. I can name 50+ people off the bat that I follow and read on a daily basis that could potentially write editorials or smaller commentary about daily news items. That would be fresh and relevant content for 'Current.com' Right now the Twitter bot kills me, chirping repeats from Twitter.
Clarification: I mean members of Current to write editorials or comments, not the editors.

Every story on the front page right now was put there with editor intervention.

Current was great when I first got here, but it's gotten progressively worse ever since. Every decision Current makes seems only to alienate the community, so why do they do it? People don't like editor's picks monopolizing the front page, and everyone seems to detest the Twitterbot. And constant additions of different 'channels' and things is very off-putting as well. I can't speak for everyone on that point, but the initial simplicity of this site was what made it so appealing. I just wish the entire site could be rebooted to its former glory.

All I know is that I am becoming less interested with Current.com, with the amount of redundancy on the first page and with pods being pushed forward by the editors.It's just not the same as when the members interests were server rather then those that may have reasons to put forward.

If you're looking to get the stories that matter to you on television, tag your post to 'Current Tonight' or send us a tweet @CurrentTonight. Our entire show is focused on featuring the top stories that you help us pick every weeknight at 11e/10c!

Check out our page:

http://www.current.com/current-tonight
http://www.twitter.com/CurrentTonight

And feel free to message me directly if you have any questions!