Topic: Ideas for the site.

Cheers @Octane I will take a look at it.

@get2sammyb @shogunRok Right it's been mentioned in the comments on one article and I think it needs to be said here. There's far too many guide articles on the site now.
Since the start of 2018 we've had by my count 100 guide articles in under four months, for comparison you have to go back to January 2017 for the number of guides to reach triple figures (32 alone were dedicated to Monster Hunter World) plus did we really need the main page cluttered up by the old Bloodborne articles just because it was on plus a few weeks ago? A simple page with links to all of them would have solved that.
It is far too excessive now and I'd be amazed if I'm not the only one with this issue because many come here for the latest PlayStation news and/or features that invite good discussions but instead are met with tons of guides for games that they might not want. It's simply quantity over quality right now.

To be fair quite a bit of effort probably goes into them and I may be wrong but I guess they help generate hits over a longer period as people buy the game and google solutions?

I don't really mind them myself but I agree 10 articles on a game I'm not interested in makes me roll my eyes a bit. But if it benefits the site long term I don't mind really.

I'm still waiting for my Dark Mode

@kyleforrester87 Tbh I don't see much use in them anyway, most of these guides could be found on YouTube quite easily and I find more useful cos your actually seeing the game instead of reading what you have to do. While I don't doubt that a lot of work has gone into them, I feel it needs heavily reeling in and/or made more efficient by putting all of them in one article instead . It may well generate hits (only the staff know of course) but going by the amount of comments on them very few exceed 10 comments. It just all feels like filler in place of a couple of stories they could have posted such as a recent rumour that new details of the Medievil Remaster could be announced at PAX East along with the funny story that Randy Pitchford embarrassed himself by pleading for cross platform play to CEO Kaz Hirai's twitter, not knowing it's a parody account. Both stories could have generated just as many hits and discussions then nearly ten Far Cry 5 guides.

@adf86 I agree - but like @kyleforrester87 says, they may well be worthwhile for generating hits - although I would still go elsewhere for any guides myself - inc Youtube as well as sites that are dedicated to walkthroughs, guides, hints and tips etc. I think it would make more sense to have just one main article with a link to these all stored in a 'new' section - 'Guides'. I don't know who would search for guides though, more likely to search for solutions to get certain trophy/achievements or puzzles. If PushSquare are intending to do more, I think the site ought to have a guides section and keep all those in there with maybe just one 'news' article with links to all those rather than clutter up the thread with multiple 'guides' for the same game...

@BAMozzy I certainly don't dispute that they need to do what they need too to keep the site going (at least it isn't clickbait) I just feel things have gotten too excessive now and I certainly wouldn't call myself a fan of the site if I wasn't able to reasonably point things I didn't like.

Put on some sunglasses then, problem solved. 😎

Definitely hear your concerns with regards to the guides. One thing we've been doing is back dating some of them so they're pushed down the timeline away from the latest news. I also agree that on the game pages in particular it might be nice to have a 'Guides' tab to separate them out.

The reason for the guides is simple: they're growing the site. I don't want to get too heavy into the statistics, but doing them is enabling us to get Push Square where we want it to be. Updating/republishing content also maintains our rank on Google for certain search terms, but obviously we're trying add value when we do this. Take for example Rob's RPG guide, which he re-ordered and added 10 games to before republishing today.

I do understand the criticism because I don't want the homepage to be cluttered either, but I also think the guides do add value because people clearly are using them. Thus, as with anything, it's about us finding a way of delivering this stuff without it being too obtrusive, which is maybe something we need to work harder on.

The guides don't really bother me, if I don't need or have a use for them I just don't read them. Simple enough.

Discussion? Possibly yes. But unfortunately I can guarantee that traffic-wise this couldn't be further from the truth.

However I would add that we've actually expanded the team; Glen Fox is focused mainly on guides, while we've added Stephen Tailby on "traditional" editorial. Effectively this means that we can cover more than we ever have in the past, although we still need to pick our battles.

To be fair the sites gone loads busy over the last year. Great stuff. I checked on Alexa the website traffic website and its in the top 29000 websites in the whole world. I dont know how accurate that is though.

In a few months Push will be that popular you can lobby Sony to get the games want on psplus!

I can see peoples points about the guides and they do clutter a bit but I don't think that us, as the core community, are the target. If these bring in the views, bring new readers and support the team then all for it. I would prefer it then click bait articles, like you'll never believe what Hideo Kojima said now...

If I remember correctly, I think I first came to the site while looking at The Last of Us remastered articles.

@Rudy_Manchego WHAT DID HE SAY?! I HAVE TO KNOW!!

@kyleforrester87 Something complimentary/creepy about Mads Mikkelsen. Then an image of the two of them together in Japan with a heart shape border.

@Rudy_Manchego bloody click bait.

@kyleforrester87 I know right?

@Kidfried I bet Kojima is insufferable in person.

@Kidfried Ha I didn't know it was an article, I just know that Kojimo posted loads of photos of Mads Mikkelsen. That said, clearly click bait works I'm more than happy to write click bait for Push Square. You'll never believe what what Sammy said to Rudy... click here.

See, easy!

@get2sammyb Thanks Sammy for taking my concerns onboard while explaining why certain decisions are made.