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

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.

Re: If you're soliciting comments. . .

[ron_newman]

And I agree with Shana -- why does the News want a phone number from commenters? I can't think of any other news site with such a requirement. If you want to prevent forgeries (a big problem at the old site), perhaps you should implement a registration system.

Re: If you're soliciting comments. . .

[jamesnorton.livejournal.com]

yes i am soliciting all commentary at this point.

yes i agree the rss thing says its enabled on my screen, but it doesnt seem that way on the public side

the phone number thing is stupid - i have multiple emails into the designers

thank you - very good points

Re: If you're soliciting comments. . .

[glen-highland.livejournal.com]

Seconding the RSS feed request. There are plenty of local news web sites, and many, including me, will just ignore the ones without RSS feeding the articles directly into our brains. :-)

Re: If you're soliciting comments. . .

[jamesnorton.livejournal.com]

it will actually be done within the hour...

thanks much for the input

jn