ABOUT CLICKED

The modern news consumer ignores Weblogs and online citizen journalism at his own peril. But not everyone has the time to keep track of what's going on the Web. With this blog we hope to track the highlights of what's being discussed online so when news breaks from the Web, we're ready.

Will Femia is a Weblog enthusiast who, through good fortune and dumb luck, was introduced to the form as his position as chat producer for MSNBC.com careered into obsolescence. On any given day, Will can be found having already spent an unhealthy amount of time squinting at a computer screen.

Send a message to Will at spotter@msnbc.com



Today's mail

Posted: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 12:01 PM by Will Femia

Since I'm not keeping up with sharing mail as well as I'd like, I'm going to try to make a more frequent habit of posting mail a little at a time instead of trying to save it up for a big post that I never get around to compiling.  And because Vivian in the first letter has raised an issue I'm self conscious about, today's the day it starts.

Hi Will,
I love your blog, but I really don't like your new format.  It's sort of misleading because it makes me think that the permalinked page contains only links related to the headline and intro blurb.  Please change it back!  Is this just a ploy to increase page views?
Vivian

Will replies:  Hi Vivian, thanks for the feedback.  I understand your perception that I'm click whoring, and in fact that's why I resisted using that "read more" feature since moving to this new blogware.  And actually, it was bona fide click whoring that made me make the initial switch because a year-end numbers check showed Clicked doing really poorly.  But now that I've made the switch I've learned two key lessons. The first is that the year-end numbers report was wrong, the stat tool was simply not recording this blog's traffic correctly.  The second is that this blogware works a whole lot better when I use that excerpt.  Not only am I getting more accurate traffic reports, but I'm getting much more accurate referral stats to see where traffic is coming from.  And on top of that, because the entry is already open with comments at the bottom it seems like more people are commenting.  That's a lot of wins.

Your point about giving the impression that the whole post is only related to the headline and tease is completely understandable and I'm not sure how to fix it.  Should I use some kind of code when it's a long multi-itemed entry instead of a single thematic one?  I could put a parenthetical "and more" after those headlines I guess, but since a typical Clicked entry is a mish mosh, regular readers can expect to find more than what the headline indicates.  People who are new to Clicked are just going to have to be confused until they become regular readers.

On a related note, some folks have written in asking why MSNBC.com links replace the page while the others open in new windows.  That's a general MSNBC.com site standard that I agree makes a little more sense when the navigation on the page stays the same.  I'm not sure I'll be able to change it, but at least I can say it's on purpose and not a malfunction.

Other highlights:

Hey Will, I thought you might be interested in a site related to the Hornbeck kidnapping. I was googling around for more info on the kidnapping and I found a site called stopsylviabrowne.com.  I guess she is a well known "psychic." Anyway, apparently Shawn's parents were on the Montel Williams show in February of 2003, and Sylvia Browne offered to help find their son. She proceeded to tell them that he was dead, and probably in the woods somewhere. Whoops. I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere else, I mean, the parents went on national TV and a a famous psychic tells them their son is dead! Some people who might really believe her might stop looking, I am glad that his parents weren't so susceptible to this piece of work.
Thanks Will, keep up the good work.
-Alex

Will replies:  Thanks Alex.  Last time I heard about Sylvia Browne she had made an ass of herself by telling a family member of a firefighting 9/11 victim that their loved one was lost in the water and then tried to explain it by suggesting that he was somehow drowned by his firehose.  I don't understand why anyone pays attention to that woman any more than I understand why the news runs a headline when Pat Robertson claims to talk to God.

Will,
Here's an interesting news article.
My questions is:  If the dealer should win, how will the homeless men come up with the money?
- Aaron S.

Will replies:  It sounds like he's suing for something other than money, like a restraining order.  Regardless, the cops in NYC are pretty strict about drinking in public and stuff like that.  I'm surprised he can't get his local precint to act.

Will - this is interesting.
-Craig

Will expands:  It's a 7 page presentation called "A Corporate Guide to the Global Blogosphere" published as a sort of virtual magazine with pages that turn.

Its like claymation without the clay...
-Yyuuuu

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Comments

I'm with Vivian in not caring for the cut tag format. I'm much more likely to close the entry page and move on than I am to continue down and read what I may have missed. If you make me jump around to get content, I'm much less likely to stick around. And for the first several posts you used it for I just assumed you were making short, placeholder posts with no actual content.

Becky in Lafayette (Sent Wednesday, January 17, 2007 4:16 PM)

As to Vivian's comment about the tease paragraph followed by the read-more link, I have to agree. But, given that you prefer that model, I think the tease paragraph should be more of a TOC. Something like: Will porn determine the HD-DVD winner? Iran continues to be interesting. Google in China. Sealand in the news. WOW has impressive numbers. Movie trailers, and lots more. You could have a set of common item terms (sentences), so it helps people to get the idea of whether this is a themed entry, on a single topic, or miscellaneous. You also can indicate if you have reader's letters. Just my two cents.

Paul, Alamo, CA (Sent Wednesday, January 17, 2007 4:27 PM)

Paul, that's a darn good idea. I'll try it with tonight's entry (my wife had to stay late at work so I had to come home early, hence I'm running behind today). The bigger challenge in all of this is how to fit Clicked into the traditional headline/story format. I need a headline to send to the cover and to put in the various navigation spots on the site. I tried giving each item its own headline, but that was way too messy. The prevailing advice on what to put before the "read more" link is something like a TV tease, but I can try to put together some highlight points instead. Thanks.

Will Femia (Sent Wednesday, January 17, 2007 6:46 PM)

Will, don't let this issue get you too worked up. What's one small click between friends? (p.s. I like the new format. Keep up the great clicks!)

Celia in UT (Sent Wednesday, January 17, 2007 7:22 PM)

I agree with above, the new format is not so good. Who cares about the numbers? You know we are here reading your stuff and clicking along with you. Go back to the old way and stopping "whoring."

Michael, Baltimore, MD (Sent Wednesday, January 17, 2007 8:16 PM)

Doh! I missed the last 7? pages because of this! Of course I am from Mississippi! :)

Dummy, Hattiesburg, mississippi (Sent Wednesday, January 17, 2007 10:34 PM)

I didn't start reading your blog until recently, and you had already changed formats. I don't have a problem with it. Maybe the other format was better, but I quite honestly don't have a problem with the new format. Maybe ignorance is bliss. You introduce a subject and provide the external reference for it. What else would one want?

Charles Allen, Wilmington, DE (Sent Thursday, January 18, 2007 8:29 AM)

Your answer to Vivian was good. As a regular reader I know that most the the time the content is going to be varied and not related to the headline. Also, the "virtual magazine" format is used by my local junior college for its catalog and it is really annoying. It is very hard to search for anything and you have to constanly magnify the page to read it. Love your blog!

Cliford Craig, McHenry IL (Sent Thursday, January 18, 2007 9:17 AM)

I don't get why the new format is such a problem. Is there really that much effort involved in clicking the button on a mouse a few extra times?

Lyn, Douglasville, Ga. (Sent Thursday, January 18, 2007 10:45 AM)

Generally I don't like when sites make me keep clicking, but 1) this is just one extra click and 2) I know I'm going to be doing a lot of clicking from your page anyway. Companies like numbers, and if your job security is increased by using that "read more" cutaway, I'll click it. I like Paul's idea too. A couple of sentences about some of the subjects you're covering is a nice little teaser.

LV (Sent Thursday, January 18, 2007 12:25 PM)

I second Paul from Alamo, CA's suggestion. They don't even need to be "headlines" or cover everything in the post. But a few teasers would work well, IMHO. For some of us, it doesn't really matter -- we're clicking through to get to the post -- but for others it may help them decide whether or not to click through....

Michael, Charlotte, NC (Sent Thursday, January 18, 2007 4:02 PM)

I appreciate the effort you are putting into the redesign, but I must come down squarely against the "Read More" click through. First, the blogging norm for that tool has been established to imply it is more on the same topic -- which several of the posts above confirm. Your readers are missing out on additional content because the initial summary is misleading and doesn't summarize the actual post. Second, and something not yet mentioned, is that this new format makes it MUCH harder to go back and find a topic/link for a second viewing later. I used to be able to scroll through one page that was days and days of posts, to find again on the weekend what had interested me, but was unable to read when it was first posted. Now, I have to click and hunt through individual pages to review the history of the site. Great for your click-count, but far from great for me, your reader.

Ranger Anderson, Washington, DC (Sent Thursday, January 18, 2007 4:06 PM)

Will, I look forward to reading your posts every day. Sure, I liked the old format better, but I'm already getting used to this one. Like others have mentioned, it is just one extra click.

Evie J., Reno, NV (Sent Thursday, January 18, 2007 7:48 PM)

I believe the Daily Nightly Blog is in the same format - but they have a "next article" button at the bottom (in addition to "main page") that takes you to the next full length post (not the teaser page). Can you add that so I don't have to go back to the main page and read the tease and then make the jump?

Karen, Rising Sun MD (Sent Thursday, January 18, 2007 8:42 PM)

Ranger, that's a good point. I've had that problem as well. I was accustomed to finding things with ctrl F. Karen, as crazy as this is going to sound, Daily Nightly is on different software. But I'll see if that's a feature that can be added to Clicked.

Will Femia (Sent Thursday, January 18, 2007 10:52 PM)

Will, first off I would like to thank-you for Clicked. I have spent many enjoyable hours perusing your fascinating and entertaining entries. As for the format change, I really dont care just keep up the fantastic work.

Michael Hurst, Vernal, Utah (Sent Monday, January 22, 2007 3:55 PM)



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