engifineer

The risk from a malicious browser extension is "very low" ? May want to think that through a bit more :P They are a HUGE risk and can access anything YOU access when on the net (passwords, keystrokes, etc). And even for the folks that read the code and understand it, the common practice is to release one that is very mundane and then put the malicious code into the next update, which people most times do not even pay attention to. I run almost zero extensions for this reason. The more I have learned about them, the less I will use them, even from a somewhat reputable source. Even if not meant to be malicious they can sometimes open up exploits that others can capitalize on.

Car Analogy

I think a big reason no one is stepping forward to be a curated content writer is its not actually writing. Its this silly 5 reasons why...format that seems to cater to low attention span syndrome.

I liked the old sites 'curated content' because it told interesting stories, writen in engaging, interesting ways. They were articles, good ones.

BTW, on the old site those stories were always on the 'front page', so they were sequestered from the regular sub forums, the effect being similar to what was proposed by rpg in this thread of separate sub forum for curated content.

Curated Content Editor

Yes, we are trying to get away from the dreaded "5 Reasons Why" slideshows and focus more on stories, like Top Mistakes People Make at the Race Track, Honda Sportscars Before the S2000, and 5 Sensible Arguments for Purchasing an S2000. We encourage our writers to mine the forum for popular and controversial content. Our slideshows appear on the home page as well, but we also provide a link to it within the forum so that readers have a resource for commenting and discussing. As it turns out, forum members usually access the slideshows, not from the homepage, but from the forum link, because it shows up as a "new" thread. We didn't used to create a link from the article to a forum thread. We used comment boxes under the articles. But we've found that people rarely use those comment boxes so we cut them out. At any rate, thanks for the feedback. I appreciate it!

engifineer

The main reason I dont read a lot of them is not the format, just the content. Some of them are interesting, some of them seem more like regurgitated info that everyone already knows or have seen in many other places, so it feels like space filler sometimes.

But, it is not like I am going to go out of my way to avoid it. I personally do not understand why I would want to create or install some tool just so my eyes are not "hurt" by seeing a link I can just not click on :P I can simply just not read it ... way easier!

But something like the "ways you use tools the wrong way" one with a bit deeper content would be interesting and more useful. Try to focus on things that have not been beaten to death already or are common sense. I can see people wanting to read that more, if they feel they are really learning something. That is just me though.

Curated Content Editor

Thanks engiifineer. I appreciate the feedback. We'll get some fresh interesting content in here. Feel free to call us out on old news or content that's useless to the community and we'll avoid it.

cosmomiller