Comments on: Make PressDemocrat.com Better, Pt 1: Internet Friendly

By: Austin Storage

Austin Storage — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 11:23:02 +0000

I agree with you, they really had to renovate their website to make it more user friendly, I visited their website before and was disappointed with it, poor loading time, scattered images and also bad navigation, I guess they really need to work with their website.

By: Giuseppe Napolitano

Giuseppe Napolitano — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 04:32:14 +0000

nice article! nice site. you're in my rss feed now ;-)
keep it up

By: Busby SEO Test Contest

Busby SEO Test Contest — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 11:27:13 +0000

"The homepage is a mess. PD.com mixes national and local news. It has too much white space, too many font changes, and too many photos with different shapes and sizes." I agree in this part . I think they should change it

By: Excellent Reader Comment On “Make Press Democrat.com Better, Pt 2″ » BUZZYEAH by @andrwmyr

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 01:09:59 +0000

[...] posted as a comment by Nathan Halverson on BUZZYEAH using [...]

By: Make PressDemocrat.com Better, Pt 2: Improve Comments, Improve Conversations » BUZZYEAH by @andrwmyr

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:38:41 +0000

[...] you read Pt 1, you’ll know that I’m a lifelong Press Democrat reader and interested in making PressDemocrat.com [...]

By: Andrew Meyer

Andrew Meyer — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:16:55 +0000

Sara, thanks for providing your input all the way from Austin. I'll definitely be touching on the “local news” part of your comment in Pt 3. You guys keep jumping ahead of me. :)

By: Andrew Meyer

Andrew Meyer — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:01:57 +0000

I was saving comments/forum suggestions for Pt 2, which can be found here: http://buzzyeah.com/2008/09/17/make-pressdemocr...

As for what I mean by “real blogs”, I don't have a deep, philosophical Web 2.0 babble definition. The blogs just seem clunky like the main site. I guess they both have comments, blogrolls, and recent posts lists; and John Beck's links out of his posts. So, they meet the basics there. I'm just used to the feel and look of excellent blogging platforms like Wordpress. Blogs don't seem Internet friendly to me unless they're using a “real” blogging platform like Wordpress, etc. What platform do you guys use?

Do the PD blogs use the same site structure as the main site? Because if they do they aren't Google search friendly. You could probably get way better traffic flow for the blogs using the Wordpress platform.

By: Sara Mariani

Sara Mariani — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:16:45 +0000

I couldn't agree more. I grew up in Santa Rosa and used to read the PD every day. I moved to LA a few years ago and now live Austin, and I try to read online. But, to your points above, it's a chore. Navigation is horrible, the RSS feeds are just as bad, and when my family members in Windsor mention a current article, I have to do the same search. I also agree with Nathan's comment below; I've stopped viewing or participating in any aspect of the community/forums/comments because I'm appalled at the level of racism and nastiness some people post on the site. It's especially disappointing to me because I'd love to be able to feel connected to Sonoma County and read about the local news every day. I hope they'll make some changes.

By: Andrew Meyer

Andrew Meyer — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:48:12 +0000

Comments/community conversation is part 2. :)

By: Nathan Halverson

Nathan Halverson — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:29:34 +0000

You make some strong points. The Press Democrat has a long ways to go. And I'm not just saying that because you advocate for me to have a bigger presence in the publication. ;)
The one thing you left out was the need to improve our forums and comments. Right now the comments are often vile attacks against victims, professionals, and way too often minority groups. Very few tools have been given to online readers to help police the forums — and they don't appear to be effective. In my opinion, our comment section in its current iteration drops the overall value of the online publication.
I'd also be interested in hearing you expand on your definition of “real blogs.” Because while I don't have a blog, both Beck and Maiocco do. And Maiocco's blog drives HUGE traffic to the Web site. I don't have the exact numbers, but I think it's fair to say his blog contributes a double-digit percentage of traffic. That said, the blogs are fairly basic, text-oriented pages, with few options for us to expand on. What more would you like to see on the blogs?