TMD: “Will SCOTUS Can College Affirmative Action?”
By Declan Garvey and Esther Eaton
MG: Any further suggestions for The Dispatch homepage, newsletters, and comment section? I have a feeling I should kludge one together for tomorrow, before the team become swept up in the Chicago meetup leading into the election coverage next week.
On the homepage, I still don’t find the menu options all that intuitive, because the categories don’t match the previous organization by newsletter. Also, without date stamps on all the article titles, I can’t tell which are the latest, much less which ones I’ve read. I don’t always remember the article titles I’ve clicked on, and with news I tend to think generally in terms of days and dates: yesterday, two days ago, late last week, and so on. To that end, headlines that were already clicked on could change color to let users know they’ve already visited the article—long ago considered a fabulous new technology offered by the internet!
For the comments, having to scroll forever to find previous comments is the most time consuming, frustrating action. The “Like” feature is still bug-ridden. And having to reload the page to see new comments takes up band-width as well as time—especially irritating for users on portables with cell system data caps. Aylene also tells us the reporting feature makes little sense and doesn’t provide a receipt. In fact, that’s a weakness of the “Like” button: It doesn’t change color like on Substack, indicating you’ve clicked it and that the “Like” registered. Finally, user bio pages are still sorely missed, wherein we could tell others a bit about ourselves, enhancing the sense of community The Dispatch founders have said is a main objective.
Trying to think of things they’re doing right, or that are in the right direction. This isn’t so much for the sake of finding positives to balance out the negatives, but to let them know the one or other feature is one we’ve wanted and that they’re on the right track. As they fix things, they shouldn’t axe wanted features in the process.
What am I missing?
Ahhh. Feel like I've gone from the desert to an oasis! Thanks Marque et al for creating and maintaining this space.
I'll be at the in person Chicago gathering tonight. Would love to hear suggested talking points (3 - 5) and recipients (Sarah, Steve and Declan will be there).
Even better, if any of you will be there, let's have a beverage.
Well, the mother ship received 342 comments to 226 here as of this writing.
I commented on Nick's column tonight about his note that he reads his comments and (perhaps unwisely) said that I thought the powers that be would soon disabuse him of that practice. I got one response thus far asking why the Dispatch would do that since they talk glowingly about their commenters and hype us as a reason to support the Dispatch. I said that based on TMD, they only talk a good game.
Perhaps its time to join Cynthia on her hiatus.