I've been talking with several people about Illinipundit.com, and we've been discussing the future of this site. Inevitably, the questions we ask are:
- What should we do with this site?
- How can it better provide information, analysis and opinions to you?
- Are there authors that should be added? Removed?
My "housekeeping" ideas at present are:
- Find a new host to eliminate the "CPU Usage" errors
- Diaries? (still researching to see how this works)
- Forums/message boards
- A new template for faster loading and a cleaner look
- A mobile-friendly template (for handhelds)
I'm only one person, but I think I'd also like to see more discussion of national issues, and more opinion & analysis generally, rather than just straight news.
I'd like to have more local government meetings live-blogged (or post-blogged).
In the future, I'll probably just skip writing about the races on which I'm being paid to consult, rather than bore you to tears by posting press release from my candidates here.
Or, on the other hand, should we just continue with this site as it is?
My goal is to have the major changes completed ASAP, with hiccups eliminated by New Year's.
(Usually, when I post questions like this, I get virtually zero response. Please, if you're a regular reader here, let me know what you like and don't like. If you have criticism, we can handle it. If you think we're doing OK now and don't need to change anything, we'd like to know that, too.)
Rather than have a "streaming off the page" thread look, the frontpage would be more navigable if there was some type of "big news of the day" with several tabs at the top that would take you to different discussion areas, say "local politics" "local social," "federal politics", "Iraq/middle east," etc.
Of course, there would have to be a tab for "Gordy's shameless non-stop campaigning." :) j/k
I don't like the streaming look one iota (because my discussions tend to go on for a week, and stream off the page if there's no response in a few hours). Perhaps each subcatagory "tab" could have a list of of all discussions, listed by most recent first w/ # of comments, and those that have gone off that first page could go to a similarly organized archive page, with a link to the archive page at the bottom of the primary subcatagory tab.
The DI has a really nice archive page, organized by date, then catagory (news, opinion, sports), then item as you click through. That might be a good place to start.
Thanks! Looking forward to the new and improved IP!
Try adding a moderate or liberal writer so that it's not dominated by conservatives and libertarians.
"Try adding a moderate or liberal writer so that it's not dominated by conservatives and libertarians."
We certainly have some moderate writers. They just don't write very much right now.
I think we should have more frequent contributions from your co-bloggers......oh wait, that includes me.
Of course, some readers may be glad that I don't put my right-wing rants out there more. I do enjoy it alot when John B. posts.
Here is my 2 centavos, phinnes, cents:
-Skip all postings of canidate news releases but post issue positions of all canidates
-Definitely need a new host
-Mobile friendly template and more feeds on local meetings.
-Keep the "Friday Funnies", Open Thread and require authors to do a better job of posting "Related Posts".
-How about some postings regarding state legislature activities (committee work, legislative proposed and voted on by our reps. regarding those issues brought up during this last campaign (debt reduction, U of I funding, tax reform, pension raiding)
-How about some postings regarding the activities of the various Boards set up to advise our cities and county government (MTD, Drainage, Planning/Zoning).
-Need to find a U of I author for a prospective from the largest employer and biggest influence in our area. Now I realize that the U of I operates somewhat like a the old German 'Baron/castle' system with the various schools so this might be difficult.
That should eliminate your zero reponse, Gordy
A major problem with the n-G and TV is that they report what HAS happened, instead of what is about to happen. By that I mean, I often see stories about things I wished I could have attended or been involved in. The beauty of blogs is that it is "right now", not just at 6:000 and 10:00.
Posters could post about upcoming things, rallies, eg both con and lib, interesting events/speakers in town, things to do and see. Not car rallies or stamp club meetings (not that there is anything wrong with that) but we have some very interesting things/people coming here to town. If you don't read the DI, or don't carefully read the N-G, you might miss when some policy maker from this side or that, or this company or that, might be here.
Not become a social blog so much as a breaking news/events blog, if you know what I mean.
Transfer control to the Champaign County Democrats on January 3rd, 2007.
Jeez...I was just kidding. But seriously--maybe I'm wrong, but I think the intention of this site is to be for conservative posts. I don't think it's going to be helped by adding liberal/moderate posters. Gordy's extremely generous with the content of the replies on the current site, which gives equal space to rants from both/all sides. As a liberal, I won't be offended if the site stays the same. I hear tell there may be one or two liberal-leaning blogsites that I can visit...
I agree with illinilawstudent - I think this site would become much more interesting and pick up a larger frequent reader base if you had a liberal poster or two. It would make things feel a little less one-sided.
Especially with election coverage, I would have appreciated more comprehensive following of the races, rather than Myers electioneering.
Forums or message boards would be great too.
Thanks for opening up to input!
I got pretty tired of reading so much attacking and insulting going on.
How about a rule: everyone has to be civil, except some day (Tuesdays afternoons are reserved for bashing!).
"Let it all hang out day", but otherwise, be nice or be deleted.
And the moderator of the thread has the sole subjective decision of what to delete without any complaining, "Hey, what happened to my post where I trashed so and so?".
You shouldn't post candidate press releases, but you should publish _links_ to those releases. If you went with the main page idea, you could have a sidebar widget with the press release links.
If you're looking for a new host, you could try http://icdsoft.com or http://totalchoicehosting.com, both of which are inexpensive with reasonable service. There are a lot more out there, it shouldn't be hard to get a good one.
What I would love is a mini-weblog with an RSS feed that had voting record posts. No direct commentary, just a link to the bill and how our local representatives voted. Discussion could then happen in the comments.
I like it the way it is.
I also agree that this blog could use some liberal posters. It would liven things up, potentially increase the viewership, and (hopefully) result in substantive, productive deliberation.
Gordy - I also agree with you that we need more national news and analysis. If we dont keep up with it, the site will likely go dead for months until local campaigns start heating up again. You're right that we need more analysis in general - opposed to strictly the news.
This is an almost exclusively political blog (and an interesting one); is that the intention?
There are a lot of non-political issues that might be discussed.
The U of I is a major player in the area, but there is little discussion concerning it (except, alas, the Chief).
I am amazed that there is apparently no blog from within the university, given all the issues.
As the Scarecrow said to Batman: "Take a seat. Have a drink. Lighten up."
I think the site should continue to focus on local issues. There are a million web sites out there already for discussing national issues, but only a few for Champaign/Urbana issues. From my perspective, that's what makes IP worth coming back to.
If you're interested in user diaries and forums, you might want to take a look at Drupal or its offshoot CivicSpace. They provide all the tools that you'd need to make that work. For hosting, I've been using Dreamhost for a few sites and I've been impressed with them so far.
By the way, I've got a good bit of experience with Wordpress and Drupal and I'd be willing to donate some time to help with the migration if you need it. Just send me an e-mail.
Gordy, along the same lines of the person who wants to know more about what is going to happen, I think it would be great to have some bloggers either here or on other sites that would cover more local government. How nice it would be to have someone who we knew would be at most Unit 4 school board meetings to keep us abreast of what is happening there.
As to adding liberals, I really think that is best left to another site. I'm not sure that any blogs exist that have writers from both sides of the political spectrum. That being said, I'd love a blog from Esther Patt.
Would love to have a moble edition. Lately my cell is loading your page a lot slower. I don't mind that you would have separate forums about what is going on in the School boards, City, County, General Assembly and Congress - that would be nice.
Otherwise, I pretty much like it the way it is. Moderators, authors, etc.
Posting candidate press releases seems like a good way to spur discussion of those releases. It also provides an archive of the release, while just linking to the release would allow the campaign to remove or revise it at any time.
I'd like to see Deb Feinen posting about Champaign city council issues.
Thanks, everybody. Keep it coming.
While we're doing this, does anyone have any "behind the curtain" questions to ask about IP or how we run it?
needs more hapless status quo defending
Opportunties for IP:
- more business issue coverage - The Illinois and Champaign County Chamber always seem to have a interesting list of hot topics that would ingnite some quality debate. More coverage could attract a more diverse group of readers. A weekly or monthly post would be cool.
- Encourage a dem blog, but let them create their own blog - even offer assistance because it would be good to see. We learn so much more (for better or worse) than we read in the NG.
- Possibly have a central profile page of all the bloggers that shows their issues of concerns, positions, etc? The postings by author is nice, but could be enhanced. For anonomous bloggers, you dont' know their background, stance, etc...other that they are probably conservative.
- Donation link that could raise money for site enhancements/tools to be created later.
Issues:
- Possibly try to encourage one post per topic per week by each poster so the site is consumed by one person's topic of concern? This might help limit focus on one person/topic without discouraging postings.
- Have a "guidelines" page that helps new bloggers/commentors.
- Try to encourage a minimum of one post per month or remove authors
- Remove authors who only post announcements and do not talk about anything substantive.
Overall I think this is a great site and appreciate the content because it has been a helpful learning tools for me! Thanks Gordy!
redstatewannabe-
John B. as in me?
I'm not a contributor to IP, just an occasional commenter.
Gordy,
Being a conservative, I like things pretty much they way they are, until yesterday, anyway. I actually like the site format, and find most other sites irritating. I like the blue background, I like the caption and I like the posters.
These things are virtually free, if we don't count your slave labor, so if there are local liberal commenters out there who think they can draw traffic, let them do so. You and the civil tone you set are the biggest draw here. If you want to change the color and the graphics, I will probably eventually learn to like it. Wait a couple of months so I have a chance to absorb the other changes first.
John
Bring back Matt Varble.
I like both John B's, and actually had them confused for quite a while.
Bambenek - love your stuff at part-time pundit - keep the comments coming here.
Bramfeld - dittos to your above statement, and keep feeding us some occassional humor. Stuff gets a bit heavy on here sometimes. Making fun of Al Gore has been fun for a long time, Pelosi and Reid should be gold.
I like the site. I like the idea of having tabs categorizing different discussions. I don't like the idea of moving the discussions to national politics. If you do that, maybe just have 1 thread a week devoted to it. Keep up with the Open Threads. I really like the idea of showing how the legislators in our district vote and have discussion on that. That would be a good way of keeping us all informed and up to date on how they are "working for our future." As far as graphics and design of the site go, I have no real preference. I think it looks fine now.
Suggestion:
IP drinking night.
I agree, add some different perspectives (green, dem, independents, etc). Basically, no matter the author, we get the same thing. Also, more info from candidates themselves about issues, positions, etc would be a welcome change.
"As to adding liberals, I really think that is best left to another site. I'm not sure that any blogs exist that have writers from both sides of the political spectrum."
Why not try it? Trying and failing is better than never trying at all. Maybe START something new vs. maintaining the same old deal.
Also, I think you have to fill in the dead space between local elections with some sort of national news/debate/analysis. Unless, you can get enough local school/business/etc coverage as the other commenters have mentioned.
Have your current authors, who hold positions in local government, etc speak more about the issues/workings of their respective positions. I think it would be interesting to learn more about what exactly a CB member does/deals with specifically, a County Clerk, a Party Chairperson, etc. Maybe it's just me, but I'd find that somewhat interesting. Obviously a daily diary of a CB member probably wouldn't have us clinging to our chairs, but it would probably be worth knowing more about it. Especially to those who might be pondering office someday....
Your template is pretty bare-bones already, I'm not sure what else you could do to make it load quicker. Your host is probably the main culprit there. I'd switch hosts first, then see if you still feel the need to modify the template for speed purposes. Mobile friendly is a great idea. More and more folks are using the medium. Depending on how your site works, you could probably add a stylesheet (CSS) to it and it wouldn't require tons of work.
Thanks for requesting input. :)
forums/message boards is also a pretty good idea
more ads! Maybe we could donate some space to "Romney in '08" just to get things started?
"more ads! Maybe we could donate some space to “Romney in ”Ëœ08”³ just to get things started?"
you jest, but some people make a good living hosting a high-traffic blog w/ads!
"you jest"
not totally :-)
"not totally"
I should have thought about it....you're an author, you'd probably get some kickback from those ads! :)
I like the site as is. As for liberal bloggers, I think we hear from them over here regularly.
Mark Sheldon said:
"...As to adding liberals, I really think that is best left to another site. I'm not sure that any blogs exist that have writers from both sides of the political spectrum...:
Gee, Mark, I'm heartbroken! I was expecting a warm embrace and maybe a round of Kum-Bay-Ah”¦ :)
I have been on boards that were “mixed” political philosophies and they were sometimes a cat-fight, and sometimes a great exchange of ideas I have also been on boards that are exclusive to one political view and they turned into an echo chamber after a while. Any board can grow stale after a while, and some kind of change for Pundit does make some sense.
What I'd suggest would be some kind of locally focused board that allowed for sections for the different views with one main board that everyone could participate in if they so chose. I'd suggest maybe individual blogs to comment on with one main board like we have now as an option to consider. I'm willing to bet that there are a few folks who'd love to be able to debate and discuss local politics with the “opposition” within some sort of civilized arena
I do agree with whoever it was that made the point that civility has got to be a fundamental along with maybe some kind of volunteer moderation that allows for deletion of offensive posts. That way nobody gets stuck with all the work forever--yet you have a board with some standards of behavior.
I dunno. Just my two cents.
Regards!
Laura
Mark, you're wrong about no blogs existing from both sides of the political spectrum. Nationally, we've got Swords Crossed, a site between former DailyKos front-page blogger Armando and Joshua Treviño from RedState. Locally, we've got Urbanagora, from Brian Pierce and Billy Joe Mills.
I think it would be good to add some liberal bloggers to provide some balance to the right-wing talking points and attacks we see here every day.
As to which authors should leave? That one's easy: Gordy and Mark Sheldon.
I would like to see you allow some Democrats and/or liberals start some threads. I started tuning this blog out due to the endless drumbeat for Republicans and brow-beating for Democrats. Why not even things up a bit?
white/light background black/IliiniBlue print please.
I started reading and commenting at this blog *way* back in the day because I wanted to know more about conservatives. The main reason I was interested in because the conservatives were in power and I wanted to see if I was missing something.
It occurs to me that letting some liberals post would be highly educational and fun. It would be a chance for conservatives to learn what their adversaries believe, without the confines of an argument-in-the-comments format.
It's a genius idea, and just the kind of thing that the world needs more. It's a leap of faith for the conservatives, and it's your choice since IP gave you the keys, but I think you could definitely draw in lots of new readers, and expand the site.
Your call, but I think it's a great idea. :)
I like your site and read it frequently. I like the idea of live blogging and getting information that seems to be behind the scenes or lacks coverage in newspapers.
On left or right leanings, this is your site and I respect your influence on the site.
Just keep it simple, accessible, and fresh with news and ideas. This seems to me to be the place to go for political information in Champaign County.
Running it is hard work ”“ thanks for your dedication.
Having a more politically balanced commentary staff probably would make for interesting discussion starters, and force all sides to think harder about their positions (JCMA, Xian, WenalWay, et al: yes, that would include me, I know I'm a little thick-skulled sometimes! :) ).
On the other hand, there is already very definate presence of non-conservative, non-republican (NC/NR)thought here, even without those persons being "official" thread-starters. Aside from back-and-forth commenting (which will always get somewhat hostile at times, no matter what board it's on), it doesn't seem to be a hostile overall environment for NC/NR folks. But since I'm not in their shoes, I can't say how they feel. Perhaps the resident "dissenters" (since they're not the "deciders" :) ) could provide their thoughts about being in the lion's den?
The local FAR left already has a site - UCIMC - which has been commented about ad nauseum here. But perhaps it would be good for dems/libs to start their own blog that actually permits dissent, and therefore, legitimacy of discussion. I like the idea of IP extending a helping hand to that extent, with extensive crossover between the sites.
Bottom line: help out with a parallel site for libs, and allow them to start threads here, and ask them to allow IP folks to start threads there (within reason for both sides, of course - don't want either side being able to crowd the other out).
No wonder the CPU usage problems. Bluehost is notorious for that...but they always apologize. Get a local host so that if there's a problem you can get a tech on the phone without wasting your time in a queque.
Lose the reverse font. White on dark is hard on old eyes.
From the smoking ban discussions, it looks like there is a plethora of liberal posters on this board.
I think that it would be interesting if you guys recruited some cogent and forceful liberal writers. Debate and diversity of thought is always better for ideas.
You need a section dedicated to the finest of C-U's hapless status quo defenders. It could feature such hard-hitting items as:
Keep the Chief! Forever!
Who needs core development?
Gridlock: The Urbana Four-Way Stop
Narcolepsy: The Driver at the Urbana Four-Way Stop
Let Lincoln Hall crumble to the ground
Zook: This time, he'll get it right! (Maybe?)
Assembly Hall 3000
Sarcasm: the last refuge of the intellectually shallow.
Thanks for driving home my point, above, WW.
http://www.illinipundit.com/2006/11/09/ip-open-thread/#comment-86276
Green:
Actually, throughout history, sarcasm and satire have been recognized as pillars of humor.
And you're right with one thing in your earlier post: Very rarely do I even have to try to bring my A game here.
True for humor.
But while wit is a certainly a sign of intelligence, all sarcasm is not necessarily witty, and sarcastic humor is certainly not necessarily a basis for argument.
Bring your A game sometime. I'd like to see more than "HSQD" as a primary argument.
...come to think of it...if we eliminate "HSQD" as an argument (I'd classify it as a rather poor attempt at an insult), you've never brought ANY game here.
So in that sense, you are correct in stating that you don't bring your A game...
Between sarcasm, intelligence, and actual argument, you're batting .333 on IP.