Redesign! BlogWire!
blueoregon admin
As you've noticed by now, we've had a bit of a facelift here at BlueOregon. Along with adjusting things here and there, there's one new, important feature: The BlueOregon BlogWire
The BlogWire is a combined feed of about two dozen progressive Oregon blogs. They're mostly written by progressive Oregonians, and they're mostly about Oregon politics.
You can find the most recent updates to the BlogWire over on the right-hand gray sidebar on the home page, but you can also find much more stuff (usually about 10 days worth) here on the BlogWire page.
We're hoping that BlueOregonians use the BlogWire to discover more great progressive commentary in Oregon. Enjoy!
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More Recent Posts | |
Albert Kaufman |
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Guest Column |
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Kari Chisholm |
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Kari Chisholm |
Final pre-census estimate: Oregon's getting a sixth congressional seat |
Albert Kaufman |
Polluted by Money - How corporate cash corrupted one of the greenest states in America |
Guest Column |
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Albert Kaufman |
Our Democrat Representatives in Action - What's on your wish list? |
Kari Chisholm |
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Guest Column |
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Kari Chisholm |
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connect with blueoregon
Jun 4, '05
but your blog is just a narrow column with 3 other columns of "junk"
Thanks JK
8:45 a.m.
Jun 4, '05
Well, Jim, you can certainly think of it all as "junk" but it's actually:
ads for progressive organizations and causes.
the blogwire, plus google search and a signup for the newsletter.
a list of our contributors.
We've had strong positive feedback so far as we've tested it.
Of course, all redesigns cause a little bit of dislocation (like when you move the furniture in your house) but soon you won't remember what it used to look like...
Jun 4, '05
I use the mouse scroller in combination with CTRL to make the text larger and more readable. The center column extends rightward under the other columns when reading lists like recent comments.
Is a progressive just something you know when you see it? If so, does it suffer the same flaw of the impossibility of crafting a useful definition just as with judicial rulings on obscenity?
Is the rule really that there must be one common voice . . without dissent? I think that both accountability and pro-liberty ideas can be merged with a more holistic view of positive public policy.
Please add a qualifier to your reference to progressive that it represents only your particular view of progressive. From this old fart's perspective your view might be too confining and lack vigor.
You could just call your links a blog roll like every other blogger. It is a bit presumptuous to claim anything beyond that. It might even pigeon hole the folks too whom you link, as if you seek to benefit from name association of them to you, but by your decision not theirs, which they can control via their own linking or through directly contributing to your site.
I dislike cliques, by the way, they are just too stifling. The process of exclusion is a slippery slope, and one of your own making.
www.kinja.com has a good method for a user defined aggregator/lister of a list of blogs.
11:02 a.m.
Jun 4, '05
a list of blogs a blog of lists Kari and Co. you're doing a great job. Thanks for bringing us together.
11:50 a.m.
Jun 4, '05
Ron--
First, a blogroll is just a static list of "favorite blogs". Our BlogWire is a constantly updating RSS feed of the latest headlines from about two dozen blogs.
Second, you ask "Is a progressive just something you know when you see it?"
The answer - posted since Day One right on our About BlueOregon page:
If there are progressive blogs that focus largely on Oregon and are written largely in Oregon, then by all means - let us know. If they're generally compelling and interesting, we'll add them.
Finally, you complain and suggest that we "Please add a qualifier to your reference to progressive that it represents only your particular view of progressive. From this old fart's perspective your view might be too confining and lack vigor."
Fair enough, though I think it's completely self-evident. The very nature of being an editor is about making choices - not printing everything, or linking to everything. We take guest columns, for example, but don't print all of them. The few we don't print are usually rejected because they're poorly written, on duplicate topics, or are on national topics covered in thousands of places on the Net. (Of course, most blogs don't take guest columns - which makes BlueOregon actually less confining and inclusive of more voices.)
Being an editor means making choices for lots of interesting and mundane reasons. If you don't like it, don't read - or start your own blog. (And yes, Ron, I know - you already have. Pretty good stuff too, though I often disagree.)
11:52 a.m.
Jun 4, '05
Oh, and as for your technical glitch - do let me know what you're using to read BlueOregon: browser, browser version, Mac/PC, etc.
12:50 p.m.
Jun 4, '05
I would love it if the content column were scalable, so it would fill up my screen--I've got two inches of wasted space on the right-hand side.
(Mozilla)
1:36 p.m.
Jun 4, '05
Scalable content - working on it...
Jun 4, '05
Kari,
It would be great if listings on the 'comments' page were in reverse chronological order. It seems that they are random now.
3:42 p.m.
Jun 4, '05
Tom -- Nope, they're the same as they've always been. The comments are listed in reverse chronological order. The date that sits to the left of them is the date of the original post - not the date of the comment itself.
5:06 p.m.
Jun 4, '05
Actually comments are in chronological order.
Choice of reverse or direct chronological order seems to be much of a muchness.
5:14 p.m.
Jun 4, '05
Scaleable would be good, especially if you could make the actual middle blog column be the only part that scales.
Or could you put that part, or that part plus ads, into a different frame, so a thread could be opened in a separate browser window without the BlogWire & contributors list?
I can see reasons to have those features on the front page, though it wouldn't be my own design choice.
But I don't really need to have them on every page . . . a good example for intro econ of declining marginal utility ;->.
7:46 p.m.
Jun 4, '05
Kari,
The center column - the meat and tofu of BlueOregon - does seem lost or minimal in the face of the noise of the other columns.
Why not just a well placed button to get you to the page of the blog wire?
Chuck
Jun 4, '05
Kari, In the 11 months since you started Blueoregon I have seen countless improvements to the site. Like others have said, while I love the BlogWire, this redesign a step in the wrong direction. The screen real estate for the original content is getting smaller and smaller. You may want to look at EVERYTHING that is on the page and see if it can be moved to a less prominent space or to another part of the page, to make more room for the BlueOregon blog itself. For example: can we move the list of contributors below the BlogWire? Can we move the Google search text box and button elsewhere (perhaps on the right side of the toolbar)? Can we combine the three mentions "advertise on BlueOregon" into one, larger, more visible link above the blogads? Do we still need the "What is BlueOregon" and the subscription signup in such prominent places at the top of their columns? Do we still need the Guest Column blurb at the top of the column now that you have a Wanna Write link on the toolbar? Could we do without the Google text ads now that there are 5 paying blogads?
I can go on and on. You have done some great work in the past year, and if you need to do a redesign for the first anniversary of BlueOregon, there is still plenty of room for improvement.
11:38 p.m.
Jun 4, '05
Chuck & Marcello... Great thoughts. Thanks. We're continually working on improving things, and your feedback is useful.
Some thoughts: * Yes, the real estate for the main content has shrunk a bit. I'm troubled by that too. Working on some solutions.
BlogWire on a separate page? Maybe. Or maybe just on the home page. Those are good thoughts. I'll work on that. I am more inclined to surface that content on the home page than I am to bury it under a button - I suspect it'll become a major reason that people come by here (perhaps on a par with our original content.)
Do we will need the "What is?" and Signup boxes? Absolutely. We're still picking up new readers at an alarming pace - about 17% a month growth right now. It may feel like BlueOregon is 'big' but we've only just started to reach out potential.
Ads. Yeah, I'm concerned too about the real estate for ads. But, you'll note that (unlike some of our mainstream media counterparts) all the ads are more-or-less relevant. No furniture shop ads here. Publishers of the BlogAds have deliberately chosen to have their ads here and the Google ads are contextual ones distributed by Google's search technology. We actually believe the ads (blogads, especially) are actually a reader service - pointing Oregon progressives to organizations, events, and causes that they wouldn't otherwise know about. They are a highly affordable way to get the word out for great folks.
12:36 a.m.
Jun 5, '05
OK, I've heard y'all loud and clear.
We've just now redesigned all of the interior pages so that the content area now extends all the way to the right edge - covering up the BlogWire and the contributor list.
That stuff will remain available on the (crammed) home page - but this should be a pretty good compromise.
Jun 5, '05
Kari,
I can't agree with anyone on anything, it is not my nature. But you have me stumped.
I cannot complain about your creativity in the design nor your responsiveness to the requests of mere nonpaying visitors.
9:01 a.m.
Jun 5, '05
I love redesign threads. Especially when they aren't mine. Heh.
Jun 5, '05
Uhm ..... does the homepage have to be sooooooo crammed? I kinda agree with Chuck on the separate page thingy for the Blog Wire...(ducking).
Sincerely, she who could compromise if she absolutely had to....
12:41 p.m.
Jun 5, '05
Modified redesign works pretty well I think -- your enhancement to the effect of the middle column appearing to be a little in front of the blue side columns on the front page is a nice move that seems to keep all desirable balls in the air while mitigating problems substantially. IMO.
Assuming most people navigate past the front page using the posts or comments links, you're no longer placing the main content in conflict with other good stuff on the right column, but that stuff stays easy to get to because it's on the top level. Ads stay on the left, so advertisers are not shortchanged on page views.
In fact the modification enhances the visibility of the ads on the inside, where they no longer compete with similar-shaped & positioned items in the right column.
I'd let the BlogWire ride as is for a while. If it gets use & thus is an attracting aspect of BlueOregon, leave it be. If it isn't used much, revisit the button question in light of that.
Kudos for responsiveness & for creative & effective synthesis of disparate suggestions.
2:23 p.m.
Jun 5, '05
I would like it better if it came with a pony.
3:45 p.m.
Jun 5, '05
Bix... I'll work on that pony thing.
Jun 5, '05
No, no -- not a pony ... a mustang.
Jun 6, '05
Ah, So,
You have opened my eyes, Kari. Thanks for all your work to make the site work.
Jun 6, '05
scalable?
i'm using IE 6+ on XP Prof. and i don't see the content area getting any bigger...as a matter of fact, i can barely find it amid the mass of ads.
i know, you've heard it, but please make the content area larger...like most, i also come here to read the site content, not the site ads and links.
1:14 p.m.
Jun 6, '05
Iggi-- the home page content hole didn't get bigger; but on all other pages it did. If you're not seeing it, hold down SHIFT and hit reload/refresh.
Jun 8, '05
My view is in Mozilla 5.0 (rel.1.0.1) under Linux i686, and it mostly works. Non-responsive field entries in 'Post a comment' is the only consistent glitch I (still) see, and my workaround is merely to 'Tab' thru to the 'Preview' button, hit Carriage Return (if anyone remembers that nomenclature), and get to the Preview/Edit page where keystrokes then appear in the fields in regular fashion. Intermittently, going to read Comments, if there are more than a couple dozen (but it is character-count dependent), then I see dropout (white space) splotches as I scroll down; and to read the invisible text I mouse-highlight over the area, hit Copy, and paste it in the html editor where I can work with it.
The re-design looks fine to me. (And, seconding b!X's motion, "as long as I'm not the one having to do it.") I didn't have trouble navigating around and finding features before, and it is still no trouble.
The Progressive Blog Wire is another example of too much information, which pretty much describes the whole damn internet. The trend toward separation, into everyone in the world having their individual blog where each of us stays isolated all the time talking to oneself, just seems unproductive. I keep mulling over and looking for constructions that organize and associate and pull together blogs of a feather. In some way where one comment gets seen by all and all comments get seen by one. Some way to a blog or website (topic) hierarchy. One idea was a sort of umbrella funding arrangement, maybe imitating the United Way charity-donation model. I don't know how to set up the mechanics but I know how I imagine it working, thusly: I send one 'contribution' check to a 'central' or 'brand' account somehow, and then when I go browsing on 'affiliated' or 'franchise' or 'branded' websites, at my option I can click on a 'Brand' icon there and the elapsed time I am at the site earns the site a share from my deposit in the main 'Brand' account. Real cash money. What I want it to be a change from is the current situation where I send one contribution check to Buzzflash, and another to MediaMatters, and another check to CommonDreams and so on and so on, twenty different checks a month, or whatever. And I don't want to send them all the same amount when I visit them in different proportions depending on what's in the news some month or changes in the subject matter of information I am compiling. And I don't want it to be PayPal, because that's too monopolistic and because I don't want to use credit card accounting, I'll just send a check or cash in an envelope.
Maybe I haven't explained it clearly and down pat, but any entrepreneuring visionary who can see the germ of the idea in there somewhere, between the lines or something, I swear could bring into being a revenue flow for their site and all their affiliated brand franchise sites. The entire feature would be a side-addition and optional for the person browsing to participate in, just like donating contributions now is optional. And low-key, like, at a penny a minute, if I'm at a site for five minutes a day or I check in for thirty minutes on Monday or something, it's only a nickel or a quarter out of my account so I don't 'hurry' my visit counting my pennies, but if there are 10,000 visitors a day trekking across a site and each leaving a nickel, that might matter in the Proxmire manner -- a million nickels here, a million nickels there, pretty soon you're talking about real money.
And there are probably considerations related to the dot-extension. I talked with Josh Karden on Wyden's staff about this at one time. Wyden seems itchy to find a way to tax the internet, and I told Josh he needs to distinguish between dot-com (maybe taxable), and dot-org, dot-edu, dot-gov, dot-mil, (and the new ones I don't even know -- .net, .biz, .fm, .tv, .xxx, whatever), extensions. I mean, they didn't call the speculation bubble that burst the 'dot-org bubble.'
Back to live action, the redesign looks fine. The choppy will smooth out, no doubt. Kari has learned a lot and experience shows, and it's saleable. (I see it in the quality of writing in the comments -- I think they are a tad more erudite; even Jack Peek misspells fewer words as time goes along, over at b!X's I see him.) The start-up for Oregon House Democrats that Mandate Media did, hit the ground running. Very smooth, very professional. (BTW, Kari, maybe do a thread 'retracting' the mention of Ore.House.Repub's quote-unquote Satire site. It is such a total flame-out. Like, toast.)
It's kind of exciting to be coming up on the first anniversary. And I think Bl.Or. blog was a trendsetter and a bellwether. Someplace today, (maybe AlterNet blog of blogs, or Buzzflash), I read that Connecticut state is on the verge of enacting public financing of campaigns -- they were set to put $50 million in it -- and associated with the topic somehow there was mention that an emerging informal qualification in standing for election there was (is) going to be the keeping of a blog. All I know is dipshit Bush is not going to say "internets" again.
My one complaint: Threads scroll off the bottom of the front page too fast. I'd like to see about a 50-deep buffer, which is, what, two weeks of inventory? My thoughts on a given topic may take a week to gel, and I can have second- and third-thoughts days or weeks later. I have little problem keeping mental track of say a hundred simultaneous topics where my reading might find 'clippings' that are relevant, and I'd drag them home to Bl.Or. blog and add them and share them if it wasn't such a hassle. Relatedly, the thread archives could be easier to access and manipulate and it would be all right by me. 20, 40, 100 comments in a thread seems a tad shallow for a good treatment of a deserving topic. Especially when about ninety percent of the comments are drivel fluff or drek. Okay, okay, my two-cents of crap isn't necessarily any better, but I've been trying to pace it a bit and show some reserve. Spend time at humility dot 12-step, or something. But, damn, there are some shackled brains who aren't keeping up, and the future is going to find them in the past. Slurping prozacs in the Star Wars milk bar or something; the kind who wouldn't notice if they didn't get a vote by mail ballot sometime.
Whatever. Blog on. It's righteous here.
<h1></h1>10:12 a.m.
Jun 11, '05
O.k., I found a different kind of issue. Basically there seems to be no way to get info on how the site works or how to fix a problem you created, and no way to contact anyone about that. The only links for contacting BlueOregon are for submitting pieces for consideration or for advertising.
I screwed up on a comment on Jeff Alworthy's June 10 piece on Tim Hibbetts. and didn't close an italic bracket properly, so it carries on in subsequent comments. Someone else did this on at least one other recent thread. I don't know how to fix it.
There is no link connecting or explanation of how to get more info on how typepad works, and no FAQ on fixing glitches, as well as no link to contact an administrator or leave a message for one. There is no way to initiate an inquiry except as a comment on some other message.
It occurred to me that mysterious trackback feature offered in the comment box might be what you use to fix something or maybe enter a new link. Nut I don't really know and I can't get the trackback link to do anything except give me a number -- but what do I do with the number? And trackback might be something else entirely.
Jun 19, '05
Firefox and Mozilla, the menubar displays an inch and a half down from where it's supposed to be, obscures the first paragraph of all the articles.
1:36 p.m.
Jun 19, '05
Martinelli -- The menubar works just fine in Mozilla, unless you have an adblocker that causes the rest of the page to move up. If you've got some kind of aftermarket software that alters the HTML of a page, you've got to expect some problems. (A good adblocker would block the ads, but retain the size and shape of the ads in place so as to not screw up the design.)
1:40 p.m.
Jun 19, '05
Tensk wrote: Okay, okay, my two-cents of crap isn't necessarily any better, but I've been trying to pace it a bit and show some reserve
And we thank you for that.
1:44 p.m.
Jun 19, '05
Chris - Sorry I've made it difficult for you to get in touch with me. Others apparently have figured it out. On the left side, under Legal Stuff, click on my name. From there, you can send me a personal note.
We have made it a little hidden, mostly because I was getting people sending me lots of comments on editorial content - when those comments should be posted on the blog.
<h2>As for trackback, well, do the usual.</h2>