Big changes are coming to Hornets247, thanks to feedback from all of you
That’s right, readers. It’s a brand new year, and a fresh new start for Hornets247, as we continue to make this site more user-friendly by listening to your recommendations. You have asked for more content and we are more than happy to oblige. As you have undoubtedly noticed, we have added more video to the site, showcasing some pre- and post-game interviews, along with some practice footage. We are also adding some new writers, as James Grayson, Mason Ginsberg, and Jake Madison have all joined the Hornets247.com team to share their unique opinions and analysis of Hornets news both on and off the court.
But what good does it do to add more content if we can’t organize it? Our goal is to group our content in such a way that readers can quickly get to the pieces that they enjoy and stay away from the pieces that they deem superfluous. We have added a Features page that will showcase all of our in-depth pieces that have become a staple of Hornets247 over the years. We will also have a Writers page that will let you quickly jump to the pieces written by your favorite Hornets247 contributors. Enjoy the existential rumblings of Jason Calmes? Perhaps you enjoy the statistical based logic of Ryan Schwan or the pure homerism of Joe Gerrity. If so, you can just spend a Sunday afternoon on their page perusing through all of their articles while ignoring mine.
As I mentioned earlier, Video will be a huge part of the new Hornets247, so it will all be on one page for those of you who are visually stimulated like myself. We plan to fill this page with interviews, film sessions, and unique pieces that celebrate both the team and the city of New Orleans. We have added comedian and future owner Chris Trew to help us out with that last part specifically. Our Podcast page will be the one stop shop for the non-award winning ‘In the NO’ series hosted by myself and Ryan Schwan. Over the next year we plan to feature more guests so that your ears can be saved from my nasally voice and Ryan’s incoherent Dungeons and Dragon’s babble.
Finally, we will have our Game Day page. The most asked for feature, by far, was a live game day chat for all Hornets games- similar to the ones we had during last year’s playoffs. With our growing staff, we now have the manpower to make Game Day a truly informative and interactive experience, with previews, ESPN integration, Live Chats, and real time photos, commentary, and analysis.
To make room for the new, we will have to do away with some of the old, however. For instance, I will be stepping into more of an editorial role while the new voices of Hornets247 will be responsible for game recaps, previews, and weekly features. Also, Journals are being moved over to HornetsReport.com and the News section will slowly be reconfigured. The goal of these changes is to focus on quality over quantity as we continue to evolve this site with the help of all of our readers.
Thank you all for your feedback and support, and I wish you all a Happy New Year.
Michael McNamara
Editor/Hornets247.com
10 responses to “Letter from the Editor”
Sounds great! Alot of that stuff is really going to help improve the legitimacy of the site and you’ve added an Aussie on board so that’s gunna be awesome 😉
One suggestion, if its even possible with the programming, could it be made possible that users can edit their own comments because nothing annoys me more that leaving out a word in a sentence or mispelling something and it makes the sentence unreadable so I have to re-write a second comment. (maybe thats just the grammer freak in me)
I loved journals
One concern with Journals is that things have been posted that are then attributed to us. I’ve been approached a few times about things that “we” have said, only to find that it was actually a journal.
There will be opportunities available for writing posts.
My 2 cents: make the “features” tab the main page. This would include opinion and in-depth pieces not related to a particular game. Put all game-specific posts under “gameday”.
Do away with the “home” tab. Not sure what the difference is between home and features.
I know you said “news” is being modified but I like having a “news” tab. You can automate news, and other blog aspects, to some extent by using wp robot. http://wprobot.net/ Also, news can just be a list of links: no commentary necessary unless it warrants a full writeup. If it does, it can go into the features section.
It would be nice if previously read comments were collapsed after visiting the page, so at each new visit, only unread comments showed up. See http://www.chowhound.com for an example, although you have to have a login to see collapsed comments.
No strong opinion on “journals” section. Some were good, others not so much.
Love feedback. Thanks. It takes time and some guts to give well-thought out comments like this.
Here’s my input, unadulterated:
Home: This will be everything . . . game day, features, etc. . . . if you want to see what went on today, you go to the home tab and you can see it all. The other tabs are just `filtered’ versions of those. They are a convenience that can be used or not.
Journals: The confusion aspect Joe mentioned is a potential bomb waiting to happen. I talked with Jac Sperling about a piece I wrote once. He was pushed to the point of printing it out, bringing it to a meeting, and making discussion of it a meeting. Read that sentence two more times (really). Now, the reaction was good, and I was totally stoked, but imagine if it was bad. Did you (not just usufruct you . . . anyone you) read that sentence with a `bad’ thought in mind? We’d be cut off totally. No press for Joe. No photos and video by Andrew. No scoop for any of us. As a solution to this, we just can’t allow anything to be posted . . . we have to referee it to keep what we (all of us . . . including you readers, though I think of myself as just a reader that tricked these idiots into letting me post) have built. Also, if we can improve the quality, then so be it. I view the journals as a way for readers to express themselves, and a way for us find America’s Next Top Blogger. I think all of us except Silver Spoon Schwan kinda got started in journals. It’s just that the process will have middle men, and it will be rolled out in due time.
News: I did news every day for well over a year. While doing so, it was clear that some people really enjoyed it, but it wasn’t clear that we were spending our time doing the best stuff we could for the site . . . think taking a 15 yd pass instead of a 16 yd pass. Can we do a better job? Everyone gets the basic news, and google, HR, etc. are good places people go to get that news. So do we just assume no one gets the basic news? Do people like the `service’ we provide with our enhancements to the content? So, one way to figure things out is to take it away and see what happens, right? Think, WWHD (House)? He’d take the news away to see if there was a sickness it was curing, right? After a while, we’ll revisit it. This is the season to experiment, right? I’ll also share that what you suggested is on the list, and you guys saying stuff like this does affect us. All of this is driven by traffic analysis and your comments here and in surveys. Everyone should take that stuff seriously.
Comments: As part of the site migration, we are building a development site. Other tasks have me occupied, but we may go to a better comment systems once I can get such things on the development site.
Also, if you guys are really interested, we’ll solicit comments closer to making changes, and maybe even engage some of you in deeper conversations.
I’m not sure about these other guys, but I’m on your side *insert toothy grin*.
Vote for Jason! I’m not a crook!
I think a calendar/schedule of games and other events would be convenient. Also, could yall show the Hornet’s record somewhere, if it’s not already somewhere and I’m just missing it?
Nothing major, just my thoughts.
But I like the changes. And I understand the problem with journals now, after being a little bummed at first about them being moved.
Also, does this mean we can’t go back and look at old journals?
They are, for the moment, still there… just hard to find.
A calendar is on the way.
As far as record, etc… I’m torn… this is easy to get elsewhere, so should we spend time doing this or spend more tome doing what ypu can’t get elsewhere? Let us know how the change helps you. Really.
Understandable. It wasn’t a big deal, just thought I’d mention it.
Ah, I just found them.