We are where we are
We've been in a technology stall for the last several weeks. We're trying to fix things on the site and continue to move pages with the old sytem to the new one. Lots of pages, limited programmers and designers. So we've not introduced many new features, additional citizen journalism efforts or extensions of our journalism. Mucho frustration on our end.
But we're making progress. We're going to introduce limited site registration soon. By limited I mean that if you want to interact with the site -- post comments, enter contests, manage your newspaper account -- you'll need to register. You'll only need to do it once and the system will remember you. Reading stories and surfing the site will remain open.
Soon after that, we're going to enable comments on some local stories.
Based on other posts, I know what some of you think of registration. I share some of the concerns. As a result, registration won't be onerous, half a dozen questions or so. We want information about who uses the site so that we can sell advertising more effectively. No spam. We also want working e-mail addresses for those people who comment on the site so that we can raise the bar on comment accountability.
After that, we're going to build the town square more aggressively, with more blogs, more audio, more video and more citizen journalism.
Comments (6)
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"We want information about who uses the site so that we can sell advertising more effectively. No spam."
Do you promise that you won't sell my email address or phone number to anyone or any group that will send email "invitations" or telephone "offers" to me?
Posted on November 4, 2005 5:18 PM
Sue, that hurts me. You should know I wouldn't do such a mean thing to you. No, we won't sell your address or phone number -- we're not requiring phone numbers -- or any of the information. We want to keep you as a commenter!
Posted on November 4, 2005 5:41 PM
John,
Many of the newspapers I read each day require a registration and I have found nothing wrong with that at all. My e-mail address has not been sold to any spammers that I know of however on one newspaper evidently they have harvested my e-mail address and send me loads of crap on how to will a million, I won the EU lotto and I need to get a gazillion dollars out of Africa. Unfortunately that mess came from these blogs here, at least they didn't start until I registered to participate in the blogs.
I certainly hope that you find a registration system better than the Typekey that you now have since it's memory is about as long as mine some days. I have found that I have to reenter my password several times a day, rather than the promised "remember me for 2 weeks".
I will be looking forward to the new system.
Posted on November 5, 2005 11:19 AM
"Sue, that hurts me. You should know I wouldn't do such a mean thing to you"
Please to don your Kevlar suit, John, and view this as Sue asking the business to commit not to share her info. Editors and publishers change, and different leadership can create enormous shifts in focus and values. Can the N&R as an institution guarantee that registration info will be used for the stated purposes only? (a government of laws, not of men...)
and - as usual - I have to say I'm impressed with your honest and straightforward approach in delivering this somewhat bitter pill. memo to genetic engineers: clone John Robinson.
Posted on November 5, 2005 3:42 PM
Only re-engineer the DNA to do something about that mustache ....
Posted on November 6, 2005 11:26 AM
Anna, I'd never say never for precisely the reasons you state, although for the record I hope that neither the editor nor publisher change for another 10 years or so. However, the vendor we're using for the registration prohibits the sale of collected e-mail so even if you didn't have our commitment not to do it, you'd have theirs.
Posted on November 6, 2005 7:53 PM