Somerville News web site becomes nearly useless

[ron_newman]

The Somerville News has made a big deal about converting from Typepad to their own custom website, but .... geez:

- There is no obvious way to find articles older than four days ago
- There is no indication of which articles have recent comments
- Clicking on "Contact Us" results in "There are currently no articles in the section"
- Clicking on "Write Letter to Editor" results in "There are currently no articles in the section"
- Clicking on "Submit Calendar Item" results in "There are currently no articles in the section"
- Clicking on "Advertise" results in "There are currently no articles in the section"
- Clicking on "Legal Ads" results in "No Display Ads Found"
- If you submit a comment, they now require your e-mail address and phone number

I gotta wonder who approved this change, and why.

Comments

[jamesnorton.livejournal.com]

i did ron - and its a work in progress - my how easy it is for you to criticize. why don't you come down and give us a hand?

you're a real snot sometimes ron.

[firepail.livejournal.com]

When a website that is often visited changes format, many people want to try out all the new features/buttons right away. If they don't work it is discouraging and annoying. If the site is a work in progress, you may want to have a disclaimer somewhere saying so to avoid getting frustrated user comments like Ron's.

Also, no matter what you say about phone numbers remaining private, most people will either not comment, or will not use a real number. It's silly to require it for commenting.

[ellf.livejournal.com]

Ron's comments seem to be reasonable. This is a launched, live site from the perspective of anyone who loads the page and hasn't read your disclaimer that it's a work in progress.

[tfarrell.livejournal.com]

There's a reason why web professionals don't publish web sites until they're done.

The criticisms are legitimate. You could have replied something like "Thanks for looking at our web site, we're working on those features, please check back later." But no, you had to childishly insult your customers instead. You have created a seriously nasty appearance for The Somerville News by doing so.

[derekp.livejournal.com]

James,

In the web development world we have these things called quality assurance and user testing. They're kind of like proofreading and editing in the journalism world. I'm sure you're familiar with those. If I were running a website that garnered as many visits as you claim yours does, I sure wouldn't push the go live button on any overhaul that wasn't properly tested and functional -- disclaimer or not. If I did, I certainly wouldn't respond like you have when called out on it.

I'm not sure if Ron has helped you yet, but I'm perfectly willing to assist the Somerville News with these issues if they persist. My contracting rate is $125/hour.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Under "Contact Us" I see "There are no articles in this section."

Ditto under "Advertise."

That really just kinda says it all, I guess.

[mderidder.livejournal.com]

You found the previous site "useful"?

[ron_newman]

The previous site had its problems, but yes, many of the straight news articles have been 'useful'. The biased opinion columns, less so.

[jamesnorton.livejournal.com]

so what's it going to be ron? you coming down to help out? instead of going on this site and being a nerdy little nitpicker - why not give a buzz or send an email with your observations? 1. there are plenty of articles in their sections older than 4 days 2. the dead links arent there on the side anymore (temporarily) 3. the company that is hosting the site is working on the advertise, classified ads and legal ads section as i type this 4. could care less about recent comments - that was nice under typepad, not so much important today like we did when we shot out of the box with the original typepad site, it was trial and error. nobody is perfect. you don't have to be proactive in bashing us though ron - that's just crappy of you - and foolish. any other observations? any other comments?

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Yeah, if you're really involved with the paper, you're doing an A+ awesome job.

Of convincing me to never pick it up.

[anomie666.livejournal.com]

Are you really with Somerville News and does the paper know its employees are such assholes to their customers?

[ron_newman]

As a matter of fact, I did stop into your office around lunchtime and politely point out the links that did not work (after trying and failing to figure out how to submit a calendar entry).

I would have preferred to send e-mail or use the contact form, but as noted above, the contact form wasn't there, and the page no longer displays an e-mail address.

[firepail.livejournal.com]

It is foolish of you to try to take Ron in his own dojo.

[ifotismeni]

BAD IDEA.

[kpht.livejournal.com]

the waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaambulance: it's on its way. don't panic.

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

I have no polite response for you, and so I deleted my previous comment.

[visage.livejournal.com]

so what's it going to be ron? you coming down to help out?

Sorry, being willing to fix someone's problems is not a prerequisite for pointing out that they exist.

If you're soliciting comments. . .

[shana-lyons.livejournal.com]

Hopefully, you'll take this as a constructive comment. Enabling RSS would dramatically improve the situation. I used to read your Typepad site via Google Reader. It doesn't look like that's possible with the new site. Frankly, if it's not, I can tell you my readership will go way down. I do hope you'll consider it soon.

Also, the phone number for commenting is a bit over the top. No one is going to give you a real number. If the New York Times doesn't need my phone number to post my comment, neither does the Somerville News.

[jamesnorton.livejournal.com]

Short fuse + severe frustration = irrational and stupid attack against Ron. Sorry Ron.

[ron_newman]

Apology accepted.

[marylu.livejournal.com]

I do miss being able to see which articles had recent comments.

[jamesnorton.livejournal.com]

i am working on it - hopefully they will have answers in the morning. of everything i have heard - that is the prevailing concern

[pearlythebunny.livejournal.com]

One thing I find a little disconcerting about the new News site is that articles keep disappearing. For example, on Monday there was a column written by the mayor. But then the column disappeared. Eventually I figured out that it had just been moved to a different tab (Opinions), but I find that I hardly ever click on tabs. If the material isn’t on the first page, I don’t spend a lot of time searching for it. I’m much more likely to scroll down a long column looking at the articles than I am to start clicking on tabs to find articles.

So my personal opinion is that you should keep all of the articles on the home page for at least a week. Then you can start moving them around if you want. But I really don’t mind having everything in one long column, so that you can scroll down and see everything that has been posted for the past month or more.

[jamesnorton.livejournal.com]

looking back, i should have paid more attention to the stuff i was going to have to personally do to get the site right - because if i had, instead of the pingpong i went through today, i would have seen the flaws that i couldnt have had anything to do with.

a learning process for certain - now i remember why i didnt stick with a computer industry related job 15 or so years ago...

[firepail.livejournal.com]

well, it looks like some good came out of this...

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

1996 called, it wants its website back.

RSS syndicated to LJ?

[hiddenbear.livejournal.com]

I set up an LJ syndication onto my Friends page for the previous Somerville News RSS feed. If someone is going to do this for the new address, can they tell us the syndicated LJ so that we can all use it?