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[deltaproximus]

I know I'm being a pest about the Conde Nast/Open AI deal, but does that deal let them use emails we send to Ars as training data, like our comments? If you're inviting us to email feedback, I'd like to know that before I potentially send anything.

 

[Ser Simian]

I'd like to see:

Tagging users (privately) as "troll", "bot", "propagandist", "jerk", "inveterate arguer" etc would be useful to me.

Similarly, tagging comments (publicly) as "incorrect", "no citations/sources", "derail attempt", or "logical fallacy: $type"

Footnotes and Biblio citations in comments.

I'm trying to think of features that will weed out the intentional jerks. Does anyone else have any suggestions?

I don't know, this all sounds super tedious to me. The public tags, in particular, sound almost purpose-made to encourage low-effort, drive-by engagement that will do little more than stir the pot, so to speak.

I get that certain posters are annoying, but I don't come here to police the forums, I come here to read some interesting articles and maybe post the odd comment. For the most part, I am content to downvote/ignore and then go about my day. Leave the moderation to the moderators, in short.

 

[42Kodiak42]

I would be interested in articles about 3d printers and other at-home-fabrication equipment. We occasionally get an odd article when someone does something that garners broader interest, but we don't really have specialist coverage on state-of-the-art advancements in this area. And I think we're also at a point where 3d printing is accessible enough to be a somewhat common hobby.

Some coverage of 'maker's' equipment that goes into details such as "This is a good entry level kit", "The advantages of non-planar 3d printing", or "The difficulties and considerations of recycling excess material" would be a great addition to the roster of topics.

 

[ERIFNOMI]

More explainers like the AI pioneers article today

More historic analysis, like the Dreamcast and Amiga series

More explaining US v China tech dynamics

More Beth Mole

More Dealmaster (controversial, I know, but would love to help ARS when I buy kit)

More articles on big tech inputs, like the Arkansas lithium mine, the gigawatt factory labor issues, and how TSMC is having trouble standing up the Arizona fab

A Dealmaster that had actual deals instead of 25 Lenovo laptops that are "on sale" for the same price they're always sold for and the top 5 results off Amazon for "no-name USB cable on sale" would be cool. Products that are actually on sale and Ars has actually vetted as good products. Of course that also means Ars needs to review more tech products so they can make that call.

 

[Abulia]

I shall apologize for my 1,000-word email of feedback and suggestions as it went longer than I intended!

 

[Abulia]

Also the reviewers should try to keep in mind that they’re critiquing a work and not being a fan of the franchise and maybe we don’t need synopses of trailers quite so much

Yea, it's gotten pretty silly.

 

[dumptruckinspace]

I would really really really like more articles on scientific research (any and all categories), and in a zero-sum situation I wouldn't really care what they take place of. It does seem like more than enough automobile articles, though. Also, while I am interested in electric bicycles, the reviews here have been lacking expertise and seem like a waste of space.

 

[dumptruckinspace]

I would be interested in articles about 3d printers and other at-home-fabrication equipment. We occasionally get an odd article when someone does something that garners broader interest, but we don't really have specialist coverage on state-of-the-art advancements in this area. And I think we're also at a point where 3d printing is accessible enough to be a somewhat common hobby.

Some coverage of 'maker's' equipment that goes into details such as "This is a good entry level kit", "The advantages of non-planar 3d printing", or "The difficulties and considerations of recycling excess material" would be a great addition to the roster of topics.

Also this, I like this. All types of home fab equipment.

 

[fnordpojk]

Oh you know. We really really love the articles where you ask all the ars staff what their favourite X is. Love learning about new tech and gadgets and software

Agree - I always find something new from these articles. Had almost forgotten they existed, but +1 from me.

 

[LuNatic_]

Comic sans. We need Comic Sans everywhere!

 

[TheNewShiny]

I'd like to have sort of a timed ignore, for when two people start debating back-and-forth in the comments about some triviality and none of them will give the matter a rest...

I'd like that, I've requested this on another forum I visit, to no avail so far. It doesn't seem to be standard forum functionality, but if anyone can figure this out, it's the Ars Web Duo.

It could be an option "Put in time-out (1 day)", above the 'ignore' option, maybe with "this thread only" or "all threads".

 

[acjca2]

I don't know, this all sounds super tedious to me. The public tags, in particular, sound almost purpose-made to encourage low-effort, drive-by engagement that will do little more than stir the pot, so to speak.

I get that certain posters are annoying, but I don't come here to police the forums, I come here to read some interesting articles and maybe post the odd comment. For the most part, I am content to downvote/ignore and then go about my day. Leave the moderation to the moderators, in short.

Yeah, you're correct, the public tags aren't a great idea. I just feel like I should be able to do something other than downvote an intentional derail attempt. There's been so many times I wish I could have tagged a derail.

I guess it might be easier to manage a derail or other items if we had nested or trees of comments.

It annoys me that the jerks and assholes get to disrupt and demoralize people, and our tools to defend ourselves are severely lacking.

 

[mklein]

I feel that the political propaganda bias has disappeared and it's more interesting and widespread tech content now. That's a great thing.

 

[acjca2]

I'd like to have sort of a timed ignore, for when two people start debating back-and-forth in the comments about some triviality and none of them will give the matter a rest... It's not like I want to permanently ignore those people, because they normally bring value to the discussion, but I'd like not to see their posts until they've finished derailing the thread, please.

This is a fantastic idea! Seconded

 

[ScruffyDad]

I'll fire off an email later using smarter words tonight, but I think it'd be fun to have a biweekly or monthly "this is just some neat stuff we found around the web" article. Kind of a collector for stuff that's interesting but not necessarily big enough to fill a whole article by itself, you know?

 

[acjca2]

I'll fire off an email later using smarter words tonight, but I think it'd be fun to have a biweekly or monthly "this is just some neat stuff we found around the web" article. Kind of a collector for stuff that's interesting but not necessarily big enough to fill a whole article by itself, you know?

The Kagi "Small Web" feature is pretty good for discovering mostly unknown stuff. https://blog.kagi.com/small-web

Also, Ars subscribers should get a couple free Kagi searches

 

[Aurich]

We wish there were fewer ai articles.

We get that it is a really big deal in tech nowadays. It is news. But we're just drained of seeing them. There's days where it feels at least half the news. On the topic of being drained, we're so tired of hearing about Musk constantly.

We're much less likely to read them because we struggle engaging wif longer reads, but love the technical articles and deepdives. We like when topics are very thoroughly explored, and. Appreciate having such exploration posted to the internet, easily accessible to all.

Oh you know. We really really love the articles where you ask all the ars staff what their favourite X is. Love learning about new tech and gadgets and software

When we last ran a big survey one of the most requested subscriber features was the ability to hide categories. So we added that on the redesign. Since AI now has its own dedicated category it would be trivial to not see most of the AI pieces we do with a subscription.

Same goes for anyone else any [insert category we cover]. It won't be 100% perfect, an AI-related piece might be in Policy sometimes or something, but it should catch 95% of it all.

 

[Aurich]

I would be interested in articles about 3d printers and other at-home-fabrication equipment. We occasionally get an odd article when someone does something that garners broader interest, but we don't really have specialist coverage on state-of-the-art advancements in this area. And I think we're also at a point where 3d printing is accessible enough to be a somewhat common hobby.

Some coverage of 'maker's' equipment that goes into details such as "This is a good entry level kit", "The advantages of non-planar 3d printing", or "The difficulties and considerations of recycling excess material" would be a great addition to the roster of topics.

I would personally adore more coverage like this, I have no idea how popular it would be.

I think I'm the only person on staff these days who's really serious about 3D printing.

 

[ScruffyDad]

The Kagi "Small Web" feature is pretty good for discovering mostly unknown stuff. https://blog.kagi.com/small-web

Also, Ars subscribers should get a couple free Kagi searches

Heeey... this looks right up my alley. Thanks for the recommendation!

 

[Ser Simian]

Yeah, you're correct, the public tags aren't a great idea. I just feel like I should be able to do something other than downvote an intentional derail attempt. There's been so many times I wish I could have tagged a derail.

I guess it might be easier to manage a derail or other items if we had nested or trees of comments.

It annoys me that the jerks and assholes get to disrupt and demoralize people, and our tools to defend ourselves are severely lacking.

I feel you, I really do. I just know that I tend to be happier when I decline to engage with such posts beyond a quick downvote and the occasional tap on the 'ignore' button.

I'm not suggesting that my approach should necessarily be your (or anyone else's) approach. There are good arguments for why a "don't feed the trolls" policy is insufficient, for example, it's just not how I want to spend my time (even when my first impulse is to indignantly object to the offending nonsense – I have definitely deleted my fair share of comments before actually posting them ).

 

[ranphi]

I'll add to the others that have already said they'd like to see some kind of revamp to the comment system. I don't know what the best solution would be, but I definitely find myself not reading the comments nearly as much as I did in years past. Things just get so heated, so quickly over seemingly anything, and I just can't take anymore of that kind of negativity in my life.

I also don't like how "brigades" seem to quickly form here anymore, and some people just get mercilessly downvoted. Life is not a popularity contest, so I don't think that kind of mindset should be enabled in the comments system.

I think maybe I would be okay with seeing downvoting just completely removed from Ars, and just leave upvoting enabled. But in conjunction with that, give us a way to hide comments ourselves, and definitely leave the ability to ignore select users. I think something along these lines would work for me... but I have no idea how appealing something like this would be for others.

At any rate, I hope you guys can find something that will work well for at least the majority of Ars users. I miss being able to read informative, meaningful user comments here, like I used to be able to do in the past. (It's not impossible these days, mind you, but it's definitely a lot harder IMHO).

 

[42Kodiak42]

I would personally adore more coverage like this, I have no idea how popular it would be.

I think I'm the only person on staff these days who's really serious about 3D printing.

Interest in 3D printing and home-fab technology might grow surprisingly quickly once people learn what's on the market and how far the tech has come in terms of both usability and quality.

 

[Aurich]

Interest in 3D printing and home-fab technology might grow surprisingly quickly once people learn what's on the market and how far the tech has come in terms of both usability and quality.

It's hard for me to find time to really concentrate on writing stuff for the front page, but I have a "Everyone should own a 3D printer" piece in my head that I'd like to get out some time.

 

[Zoc]

I think maybe I would be okay with seeing downvoting just completely removed from Ars, and just leave upvoting enabled.

I completely understand this point of view, but there are too many people that come on here to deliberately provoke others, especially when the article is one of a certain set of topics. Hiding downvoted posts works really well to prevent people from going around and around in pointless arguments with the provocateurs. The hiding of legitimate but unpopular posts is an unfortunate side effect. Ars used to have a system where you could choose your reason for downvoting, and I'll like to see a return to that. Posts should only be hidden or removed if the poster is acting in bad faith, not when they're just honestly being annoying.

 

[Aurich]

So, we have the privilege of an option to not see an article, and all we have to do is pay for that privilege?
Thanks.

We polled our readers to ask them what features would make subscribing feel attractive? We had nearly 20,000 responses. After no ads and no trackers the number three request was the ability to hide categories. So we added it.

 

[BruceLGL]

I have send an email, and am including it here in case anyone else is interested:

Hi Ars Technica People,

I am a subscriber and appreciate your work. There is one issue that grates on my and it is the US focused writing and lack of consideration of other readers. I am Australian and used to read Ars UK when this was an option as that helped.

I'm not asking for everything to be in British English, but even the article that I'm responding to discussed Ars staff being all over the US and gathering in the US in a way that it wasn't clear at first if this was open to foreigners or if this was another example of come to our event, everyone welcome (if you are in the US).

Some specific examples include:

• Providing alternatives when US units are used (mpg or Miles per Gallon is a frequent issue).
• Using 'here', 'in this country' or similar when referring to the US (for example "There are no current plans to release this product here").
• Using two letter codes without explaining that this refers to a specific state in the US.

I understand it is very hard to put yourself in the shoes of someone else to notice all these small things, so there may be value in foreign editing labour to identify some of these issues, however I understand this would incur costs.

I'm sure you have data on how many of your readers are from other countries, and catering to them, or better yet expanding external readership buy some of these simple measures would help Ars grow and be healthy.

Keep up the good work.

 

[Aurich]

For anyone interested in the future of comment voting at Ars there is a long thread in our feedback forum where I lay out the thinking and ask for input on it:

Community input: bringing back 'reasons' after voting on front page comments

tl;dr - We want to add more options after "up and down", and try and add more nuance to downvoting to prevent dogpiling and punishing comments that are fine content just not popular.

 

[original_mds]

I understand the sentiment but I have to push back on this (I know this won't be popular). I don't think stories on SpaceX should be Musk-free spaces reserved for "apolitical" (such a thing doesn't exist) discussions about rockets. If you're annoyed by people complaining about Musk, blame him, not Ars or Ars commenters. The fact that the future of space is being shaped by functionally sociopathic capitalist oligarchs is among the worst parts of our present moment, and trying to have discussions about delta-V or types of fuel while the leaders of these companies are trying to destroy democracy isn't something that I, and many others, think needs to be privileged.

Revisit this thought after Thanksgiving. "No politics at the dinner table" has let a lot of families continue to enjoy each other's company over the years, even as their individual politics grow and continue to evolve.

I have very fruitful discussions at work with colleagues I know vote differently than I do. But because we don't talk about some things at work, we can still be productive and even have water cooler discussions about family, hobbies, and other things of common interest.

I'm not sure how to implement that in an honor system. In a moderated system, maybe some way to gently remind posters about forum decorum and banning them for a while from posting on topics that trigger posts outside of productive discussions if they become rule breakers? I'm trying to figure out if that is doable in a way that still allows discussion between a vocal majority group and a minority opinion polite dissenter while facilitating sanctioning voices of those just being obnoxious for entertainment or to sabotage a thread.

 

[poenn]

Bring back John Siracusa.

 

[doceddi]

I'd love to get back what in my head is the Megan Geuss beat, Environment & renewables

I'd really love if we could have her back, but I guess she's busy


Cheers!
eddi

 

[Ploroxide]

It's hard for me to find time to really concentrate on writing stuff for the front page, but I have a "Everyone should own a 3D printer" piece in my head that I'd like to get out some time.

Please write this.

We polled our readers to ask them what features would make subscribing feel attractive? We had nearly 20,000 responses. After no ads and no trackers the number three request was the ability to hide categories. So we added it.

Maybe what those commenters really meant was “don’t just let me hide it. stop covering it and use those resources on x.”

 

[original_mds]

I have send an email, and am including it here in case anyone else is interested:

Hi Ars Technica People,

I am a subscriber and appreciate your work. There is one issue that grates on my and it is the US focused writing and lack of consideration of other readers. I am Australian and used to read Ars UK when this was an option as that helped.

I'm not asking for everything to be in British English, but even the article that I'm responding to discussed Ars staff being all over the US and gathering in the US in a way that it wasn't clear at first if this was open to foreigners or if this was another example of come to our event, everyone welcome (if you are in the US).

Some specific examples include:

• Providing alternatives when US units are used (mpg or Miles per Gallon is a frequent issue).
• Using 'here', 'in this country' or similar when referring to the US (for example "There are no current plans to release this product here").
• Using two letter codes without explaining that this refers to a specific state in the US.

I understand it is very hard to put yourself in the shoes of someone else to notice all these small things, so there may be value in foreign editing labour to identify some of these issues, however I understand this would incur costs.

I'm sure you have data on how many of your readers are from other countries, and catering to them, or better yet expanding external readership buy some of these simple measures would help Ars grow and be healthy.

Keep up the good work.

This sounds like a legitimate use of AI, i.e. recognizing international-ignoring statements and proposing more accessible mods. E.g. scrubbing for the cases mentioned above and suggesting minor tweaks like adding international units in parentheses.

 

[Aurich]

Maybe what those commenters really meant was “don’t just let me hide it. stop covering it and use those resources on x.”

No, it was extremely specific.

The feature exists now, subs can use it. That's where we are, people can use that as they see fit. The truth is subs support us, and we're always trying to find ways to make the value feel more worth it.

 

[AdrianS]

I'd like to have sort of a timed ignore, for when two people start debating back-and-forth in the comments about some triviality and none of them will give the matter a rest... It's not like I want to permanently ignore those people, because they normally bring value to the discussion, but I'd like not to see their posts until they've finished derailing the thread, please.

Maybe ignore for this thread only?

 

[sporkinum]

Do away with any references to Twitter/X. Any tech articles that reference Musk change to calling him some random word.

 

[SGJ]

I have send an email, and am including it here in case anyone else is interested:

Hi Ars Technica People,

I am a subscriber and appreciate your work. There is one issue that grates on my and it is the US focused writing and lack of consideration of other readers. I am Australian and used to read Ars UK when this was an option as that helped.
.

I too am a non US subscriber and second BruceLGL's comments. I would also love to see the Ars approach applied to tech issues and policies in other parts of the world. The opportunities and problems created by modern technology are (mostly) the same the world over but the policy and legal responses can differ significantly and it would be great to get occasional articles describing these.

 

[Architect_of_Insanity]

Hope you all enjoy your time in NYC, face time is good time.

Your feedback on the site redesigns seems to have resonated really well - I love the new site now.

Gitlan needs a bigger budget to go to SEMA - just because it sounds like it would annoy the heck out of him to have to go to Vegas and report on aftermarket kit.

Then again, he could dip out and go race super cars at the Vegas raceway... just sayin'.

 

[alancharlesworth]

I am a logged in subscriber. Why to I get the Subscribe Now pop-up every time I access Are