CAP Hdqrs Deleting Our History?

Started by etodd, June 14, 2017, 09:28:48 PM

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etodd

http://www.cap.news

Whats up with all the purging of historical CAP stories?

All the Google links to CAP stories of helping with the Horizon Oil Spill and other events like the Aerial Photo missions of the Carolina Floodings, that recently landed on the CAP News website .... now redirect to the home page and the search function gives no results.

Sure the home page needs to be fresh material, but why is our history being deleted? These are important events that are great for recruiting.

Its even filtering down to LOCAL!

We have an SUI coming up and I've been told to delete EVERYTHING on our local website that is over 6 months old. I'll do it for the SUI, but some will go right back up. I mean really. Some things only happen once a year. Like photos of the cadets flying model rockets. GREAT images for recruiting but since its just barley over the 6 month rule, we have to delete them and act like we don't do model rockets. Photos of our Cadets with Air Force pilots around their planes? Delete it they say. Geez.

Does HDQS actually have anyone with marketing experience?

"Don't try to explain it, just bow your head
Breathe in, breathe out, move on ..."

Holding Pattern

Quote from: etodd on June 14, 2017, 09:28:48 PM
http://www.cap.news

Whats up with all the purging of historical CAP stories?

All the Google links to CAP stories of helping with the Horizon Oil Spill and other events like the Aerial Photo missions of the Carolina Floodings, that recently landed on the CAP News website .... now redirect to the home page and the search function gives no results.

Sure the home page needs to be fresh material, but why is our history being deleted? These are important events that are great for recruiting.

Its even filtering down to LOCAL!

We have an SUI coming up and I've been told to delete EVERYTHING on our local website that is over 6 months old. I'll do it for the SUI, but some will go right back up. I mean really. Some things only happen once a year. Like photos of the cadets flying model rockets. GREAT images for recruiting but since its just barley over the 6 month rule, we have to delete them and act like we don't do model rockets. Photos of our Cadets with Air Force pilots around their planes? Delete it they say. Geez.

Does HDQS actually have anyone with marketing experience?

What reg is being cited for this?

etodd

Quote from: Mordecai on June 14, 2017, 09:59:41 PM

What reg is being cited for this?

I haven't seen the paperwork. Our local PIO is just passing the word along that they received from the folks that will be doing the SUI.  I've never been through an SUI, and admit ignorance on it all. All I know is what I've been told to do, and that it came from 'above'.
"Don't try to explain it, just bow your head
Breathe in, breathe out, move on ..."

SarDragon

We got similar word at my unit. Don't recall the source.
Dave Bowles
Maj, CAP
AT1, USN Retired
50 Year Member
Mitchell Award (unnumbered)
C/WO, CAP, Ret

etodd

Quote from: SarDragon on June 14, 2017, 10:26:24 PM
We got similar word at my unit. Don't recall the source.

Needs to be rescinded and the historical stories need to be reinstated on the national website. Someone made a knee jerk decision without thinking it through.
"Don't try to explain it, just bow your head
Breathe in, breathe out, move on ..."

RazorbackPride

Quote from: etodd on June 14, 2017, 09:28:48 PM
Does HDQS actually have anyone with marketing experience?

Does multi-level marketing count?

Anthony@CAP

Looking at CAPR 190-1, it looks like someone slipped in the following SUI question (although I don't see any place in the reg to support it):
CI06 d) Is posted information on the public access wing website accurate and current (less than 3 months old) unless timeless in content?


While it is a good point in spirit, I don't see anything wrong with historical news being archived on a website. It's only a problem if the historical news is FEATURED on the site, or the site itself has outdated information.


etodd

Quote from: Anthony@CAP on June 14, 2017, 11:52:31 PM
Looking at CAPR 190-1, it looks like someone slipped in the following SUI question (although I don't see any place in the reg to support it):
CI06 d) Is posted information on the public access wing website accurate and current (less than 3 months old) unless timeless in content?


While it is a good point in spirit, I don't see anything wrong with historical news being archived on a website. It's only a problem if the historical news is FEATURED on the site, or the site itself has outdated information.

Thanks!!!!!  I'm definitely invoking the "timeless in content" for some of these Cadet photos.

And I would certainly think CAP stories of helping with the Horizon Oil Spill and other events like the Aerial Photo missions of the Carolina Floodings would be timeless and SHOULD have never been deleted from the CAP news website.

"Don't try to explain it, just bow your head
Breathe in, breathe out, move on ..."

PHall

Quote from: etodd on June 15, 2017, 12:17:07 AM
Quote from: Anthony@CAP on June 14, 2017, 11:52:31 PM
Looking at CAPR 190-1, it looks like someone slipped in the following SUI question (although I don't see any place in the reg to support it):
CI06 d) Is posted information on the public access wing website accurate and current (less than 3 months old) unless timeless in content?


While it is a good point in spirit, I don't see anything wrong with historical news being archived on a website. It's only a problem if the historical news is FEATURED on the site, or the site itself has outdated information.

Thanks!!!!!  I'm definitely invoking the "timeless in content" for some of these Cadet photos.

And I would certainly think CAP stories of helping with the Horizon Oil Spill and other events like the Aerial Photo missions of the Carolina Floodings would be timeless and SHOULD have never been deleted from the CAP news website.

Yeah, they're deleting them from the CAP NEWS site. Mainly because they're not "news" anymore. They're HISTORY now and belong in the historical part of the site.

etodd

Quote from: PHall on June 15, 2017, 01:16:37 AM
Quote from: etodd on June 15, 2017, 12:17:07 AM
Quote from: Anthony@CAP on June 14, 2017, 11:52:31 PM
Looking at CAPR 190-1, it looks like someone slipped in the following SUI question (although I don't see any place in the reg to support it):
CI06 d) Is posted information on the public access wing website accurate and current (less than 3 months old) unless timeless in content?


While it is a good point in spirit, I don't see anything wrong with historical news being archived on a website. It's only a problem if the historical news is FEATURED on the site, or the site itself has outdated information.

Thanks!!!!!  I'm definitely invoking the "timeless in content" for some of these Cadet photos.

And I would certainly think CAP stories of helping with the Horizon Oil Spill and other events like the Aerial Photo missions of the Carolina Floodings would be timeless and SHOULD have never been deleted from the CAP news website.

Yeah, they're deleting them from the CAP NEWS site. Mainly because they're not "news" anymore. They're HISTORY now and belong in the historical part of the site.

I get that. But once Google picks a page up, its best to leave it there.  When you start deleting pages and Google sees all these bad links they penalize the site.

Folks Googling old CAP stories get these bad links and can't find where Hdqs moved them.

The sub pages can Always remain. The home page can always be the fresh news. Have a page that indexes the old stories, or even just let them be found via the search feature on the main page. No sensible reason for deleting a sub page that still contains valuble and correct info.

Its just not planned properly. Makes it look like our history is disappearing.
"Don't try to explain it, just bow your head
Breathe in, breathe out, move on ..."

etodd

#10
OK. So I went to the History site:

http://history.cap.gov

And at the top of the page searched for "Horizon Oil Spill" as well as "Carolina Flooding".  I gave up looking after the first few pages of very bad results.

I guess we did not partcipate in these disasters.

If I'm having this much trouble, imagine a news reporter trying to write a story, or a school kid trying to look up info.

"Don't try to explain it, just bow your head
Breathe in, breathe out, move on ..."

PHall

Quote from: etodd on June 15, 2017, 02:09:00 AM
OK. So I went to the History site:

http://history.cap.gov

And at the top of the page searched for "Horizon Oil Spill" as well as "Carolina Flooding".  I gave up looking after the first few pages of very bad results.

I guess we did not partcipate in these disasters.

If I'm having this much trouble, imagine a news reporter trying to write a story, or a school kid trying to look up info.

You really think reporters actually do research anymore? From the lack of quality I've seen in the past 10 years or so, I don't think so.

RiverAux

From a public affairs standpoint having those pages still up was a HORRIBLE idea.  it made it look like we haven't done anything special in many years.  Those pages have been a minor pet peeve of mine for a while. 

Those pages were created to serve a specific public information need at the time to consolidate many stories about those events.  Now that the events are long gone it makes perfect sense to delete them from the site. 


etodd

#13
Quote from: RiverAux on June 15, 2017, 03:23:00 AM
From a public affairs standpoint having those pages still up was a HORRIBLE idea.  it made it look like we haven't done anything special in many years.  Those pages have been a minor pet peeve of mine for a while. 

Those pages were created to serve a specific public information need at the time to consolidate many stories about those events.  Now that the events are long gone it makes perfect sense to delete them from the site.

Wow!  So CAPs contributions to those events should just fade away and anyone interested in how CAP has helped should not see the full scope of our capabilites in action?

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one.

Ah ... now I see. You're in Public Affairs. So it makes sense you ony think of today's PR handouts.

Marketing and Recruitment is a different animal altogether, where CAP's accomplishments throughout our history should shine for all to see. NOT discarded in the trash bin.

CAP really does need a marketing officer position. Its wholly different objectives than a PAO. They should never be combined.
"Don't try to explain it, just bow your head
Breathe in, breathe out, move on ..."

kwe1009

This really isn't that complicated.  The stories should stay on a website but not necessarily linked on the main page.  The stories show what CAP is doing and has done.  If we remove the "Horizon Oil Spill" or "Carolina Flooding" stories, then people will see that we didn't do anything to help in those instances.  What good does that serve?  From a PA or marketing perspective I don't see how deleting old stories helps.  A person should be able to do a quick and easy search on cap.news.  Deleting our history or making it difficult to find makes zero sense.

Eclipse

"I've been told"..."from above"...etc., etc. holds as much water as the words in this thread.

None. However if the people "being told" are also inexperienced or lack knowledge about their CAP roles, then
the circle of life continues.

CAP.news is less then three months old, and was presented as a news aggregator, not an archive so I don't know what sort of "history" you'd expect to be there.
The links you're discussing from Google point to a section of the NHQ site that was retired in favor of CAP.news, which again has a different mission. The article formats
would not have matched, and just because Google has something cached from 10 years ago doesn't mean it even existed on the site to transfer.

I Google sites from CAP 10 years ago and the links are there but the sites 404 - sometimes the Wayback machine still has them.

The SUI question is not intended as a "great purge", it's intended to remove old stories from "news" - there are hundreds of
dead CAP websites all over the place whose last story is about a cadet getting his Curry 4 years ago, or about an open house that occurred
last decade, etc., etc.

Nothing says websites can't include unit and organizational history, but not as frontage "news" if it isn't.

Also, anyone thinking that "Little yellow airplanes", the Olympics, Katrina, Challenger, Horizon, or even Sandy have any value in
recruiting at the local unit level, unless your unit was personally involved, doesn't understand the question.  These missions
are unicorns and involve such a small number of members as to be inconsequential in the reality of CAP life.

No one is saying they can't be mentioned in passing or should be "purged" (which they aren't) but they fall into
the same category as the leased Hummer POV with mag signs on the doors, or the aircraft from upstate
selling a unit that has no pilots - zero relevance, and they actually risk retention more then the help recruiting.

If anything, they show how little CAP learns from it's successes, since after every one of them there was talk about
"...this really showed what CAP can do and fixed the relationship with blah, blah..", and "   we'd better watch out because there's
going to be sooo much more work inthe coming year..."

And then crickets.

Rinse. Repeat.

"That Others May Zoom"

RiverAux

Quote from: etodd on June 15, 2017, 03:52:46 AM
Quote from: RiverAux on June 15, 2017, 03:23:00 AM
From a public affairs standpoint having those pages still up was a HORRIBLE idea.  it made it look like we haven't done anything special in many years.  Those pages have been a minor pet peeve of mine for a while. 

Those pages were created to serve a specific public information need at the time to consolidate many stories about those events.  Now that the events are long gone it makes perfect sense to delete them from the site.

Wow!  So CAPs contributions to those events should just fade away and anyone interested in how CAP has helped should not see the full scope of our capabilites in action?

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one.

Ah ... now I see. You're in Public Affairs. So it makes sense you ony think of today's PR handouts.


The web site does not equal our history.  We have a CAP history website and if they want to put those press releases there, I'd be fine with that -- although I would prefer a summary article or paper rather than just copies of daily releases. 

FYI, I've been in both public affairs and history at the wing level at some time or other in my past. 

etodd

Agree with most all of that Eclipse. Yes, there is a difference in News and History. Our local website has them in different areas. Keeping the home page fresh, but a history page so that potential members can see the broad range of missions the Squadron has been involved with over the years. All good.

I'm invoking the 'timeless in content' phrase for a few things of interest especially to Cadets. We'll adjust our local site to be 'within regs' yet still serve our local purpose.

As for the national sites and how they are handling it, I don't agree with it all but not my circus, not my monkeys. It does seem funny that on the History site, its full of 1940's, '50s, etc. But then we have the huge gap from there to current news. Strange, all the way aound.

But I'm repeating myself now, so I'll stop. Enough said. We have a local game plan. All is good.  Out. :)
"Don't try to explain it, just bow your head
Breathe in, breathe out, move on ..."

RiverAux

Quote from: etodd on June 15, 2017, 06:32:56 PM
As for the national sites and how they are handling it, I don't agree with it all but not my circus, not my monkeys. It does seem funny that on the History site, its full of 1940's, '50s, etc. But then we have the huge gap from there to current news. Strange, all the way aound.
Didn't you know that CAP history ended in 1945?

THRAWN

Quote from: RiverAux on June 15, 2017, 08:06:20 PM
Quote from: etodd on June 15, 2017, 06:32:56 PM
As for the national sites and how they are handling it, I don't agree with it all but not my circus, not my monkeys. It does seem funny that on the History site, its full of 1940's, '50s, etc. But then we have the huge gap from there to current news. Strange, all the way aound.
Didn't you know that CAP history ended in 1945?

Behave.  8)
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