Prelude
About a year ago, I launched this news site. Originally it was meant to keep people who supported the Aurora Arcology project informed about the refugees & rescuees they sent our way.
In these humble beginnings, I had no idea to what it would grow to be. From a small local site with a handful of capsuleer readers to one where people anticipate it's latest publication on a recent event by the hundreds.
It's thanks to all of you who read it & spread the word about Aurora News that I took the effort to keep it pushing forward. As more people read it, I put in more effort, culminating into attracting even more readers!
From doing my best to eliminate my numerous typo's to adding links & images to reports, it all helped in bringing about a more clear news site, reporting on what you as capsuleers are doing in Empire space & beyond!
So lets have a trip through memory lane, from the early days of the Aurora News to today's state!
Early days
The first articles about a year ago showed alot of amateurism & typo's (which have been cleaned out now), but as some said, it showed great promise.
These early articles all involved the refugees & rescuees in one form or another, from the immigration reports to more detailed info about their rescue. It also contained background information on the Aurora Arcology Project itself. At this time, readership was only a handful, mainly the capsuleers that contributed to the Aurora Arcology Project.
An example of an early report: Molden Heath refugees detailing the origin of a group of refugees the Aurora Arcology received
During these early days, the announcement that the Aurora Arcology was going to back up a colonisation effort; 'Outcome of the Colony Survey Report' was the first article that drawed in new readers, paving the road to a growing success....
Growth & success
As more people found their way to the Aurora News, there was also a growing demand to report on events beyond the scope of the Arcology & it's projects.
Among these first non-Arcology related articles was the report on the capsuleer gathering at the Elokur trial: Minmatar/Gallente protests in Synchelle for Elokur's Trial!
This article opened us to a wider crowd, attracting dozens of new readers! Back then a big influx but little did I know it was just the first step of a major growth!
Only a month later, another news article, reporting on anarchistic capsuleers would draw in close to a hundred readers! People enjoyed reading about dumb capsuleers getting a good pounding from Concord officials. Capsuleers fail to organize a gank on Concord proved to be a new milestone that was a gateway to the first success-story that opened Aurora News to the general Capsuleer audience...
And so we arrived at the first major success of Aurora News... The report on the Ghost event: Capsuleers respond en masse to the Call for arms, the Navies fail to assist! The moment I published this, you readers & supporters did the rest! The article spread like wildfire among the capsuleer community, thousands read it, commented on it across various threads on the capsuleer message boards.
Part of the success can be explained due to it's different viewpoint, while most news-sites reported on the troubles the fleets faced, I reported on the objectives themselves, an aspect many were interested in, but was practically not reported on.
This article would turn out to be a turning point on how I approached Aurora News. No longer would I focus on local news, directly tied to the Arcology. From then I began focusing more on Capsuleer events & reporting on those.
This turn of focus was greatly appreciated by you, as more people stuck around, reading the various news articles. From a handful of readers at start, there were now a few dozen following the Aurora News, with spikes to hundreds when major news or background information was released like : The Fedo, a strange animal
Steady State News
Over the course of the next few months, readership would remain stable as I wrote about various capsuleer events, from I-RED Flagship inauguration to capsuleer celebrations like the Caldari Prime Battle Memorial. they were interwoven with smaller articles like Wormholes, shattered dreams & lost hopes.
During this period, readership showed a slow but steady growth, as I reported on various events across the cluster. The variety of news subjects was apparently appreciated by you, the readers.
The only anomaly during this steady period was the Jovian article: Shrouded in mystery, the Jovian race as it was shared & read by hundreds, showing you people enjoyed my articles & spread them when they thought their friends would enjoy a good informative read.
But it all changed when the State announced a manhunt on the Provists...
Hunting for news & professionalism of reporting
When the Provist manhunt was announced, I decided to take a big chance & devote alot of time to this upcoming event. The goal was to report on the various Provist engagements as detailed as possible, making Aurora News the prime source for valid & checked information.
Considering I had a core of a few dozen readers by now, this was an ambitious goal. Previous reports had shown that good articles were often shared to a large community, but I had no idea how readers would react on seeing only one news subject for a week on end, with nearly daily reportings...
Would you only read a few, skipping reports as it all was just 'capsuleers fighting Provists' or maybe my writing wouldn't be sufficient to keep you people interested for a week on end about the same subject of Provist hunting? I had no idea, but I hoped I was good enough to keep at least a core of readers happy.
Turns out my fears were unfounded, as you lot jumped on it & eated it all up! From the first report 'Caldari Navy organizes a manhunt on Provist Raiders!' to the final conclusion 'The Provist Manhunt Summary' they all were a smashing success, every report drawing in more readers! The popularity of this story went beyond all my expectations, thanks to all the people who supported me with this, from giving inside info on certain attacks to sharing the articles with your fellow capsuleers. It all contributed to make it such a widespread article, enjoyed by thousands, making me realize how far I've grown from a humble news-site to this fore-front news agency!
To this day, the Provist Manhunt news series remains the most successful story I ever ran. The fact all the effort I put in was so greatly rewarded was a great boon to me, keeping me motivated to run all these detailed articles in short succession. I still have trouble grasping that thousands of capsuleers have read all these articles.
Once more a big thanks to everyone who supported me in one way or another during this, from sharing info & criticism to reading the articles & showing it to others.
A rising summer, spreading the News
Since the Provist Manhunt news series, Aurora News readership jumped up from a few dozen to a solid core of roughly a hundred readers, with spikes to many hundreds of readers on major articles like 'Major tradehubs under attack! Operation 'Burn Jita!' is in effect!', 'When nightmares turn reality: The Sansha invasion' and 'Ushra'Khan liberates slaves in Amarr!'
While no record-setting articles were published over the summer period, I did receive alot of compliments on the quality of writing & reporting (and some criticism on where I could improve). Thanks to this, it keeps me going to write about the various shenanigans capsuleers get themselves involved in, majorly in empire space.
The decision to stick with reporting on events in Empire space is due to the fact that nullsec already has a group of quality news sites that keep their nullsec dwellers informed on what happens out there
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This line of thinking was what caused my biggest missed opportunity... Not reporting on the Alliance Tournaments... I believed that the Nullsec groups would do their best to keep their audience informed on how the various teams would perform. In the end I was proven wrong & people asked why I didn't cover the AT as they wanted to see my take on it & hoped I would do summaries of the various team-battles.
While it was too late for me to correct this fault, I do promise I will cover the next year Alliance Tournament! These requests made me realize I had found my own niche in covering news, one people enjoyed reading about.
Despite this mishap, readership kept growing as I reported on various capsuleer events & lore articles during the Alliance Tournaments, offering people something else to read than AT coverages.
Today & the future
And so we arrive to this article that follows my biggest success to date; 'Revenant Carrier destroyed as promotional stunt by Eve-Bet!' While the Provist Manhunt news series is still the most read, this Revenant article beaten it by a mile on per-article readership as thousands read it!
No idea what lasting effects the Revenant report will carry, but I still thank everyone who took out their time for reading the (sometimes lengthy!) articles I published.
I like to thank you readers & supporters for your continued trust in my ability to write decent articles. The fact that Aurora News now has a sponsor in the form of EOH Poker (Eve Online Hold'Em; Play real poker for isk!) & features in Pandora News as one of the main sources of capsuleer related news shows how far Aurora News has come since it's early days.
If you enjoy a different style of reporting from my hand, you can visit the Coffee Rocks news site where I'm part of the writer staff since the end of this summer. I thank the owner, Coffee Rocks, for his confidence in my ability to write decent articles.
This growth & popularity I never envisioned when I started on this journey of reporting the news, but became reality thanks you you all! Your comments, criticism, praises & compliments is what kept me going, motivating me to improve on how I reported on various events & such.
Hopefully this trip through the history of Aurora News gave you a deeper insight on how I work & what you might expect from future articles.
I always appreciate tips for improvements. Also hints at upcoming events are always appreciated!
Where we will be a year from now, I don't know, but as long as I have got you readers on my side, it will be an enjoyable journey through all the chaos & celebrations capsuleers will cause in the Eden cluster!
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