It’s been bugging the heck out of me with the way the comments can now just disappear without a trace, and even the whole comment sections of certain articles will just vanish.

For me, the lively and irreverent comment debates were really the only reason to visit this site repeatedly throughout the day. There’s not really any other forum that I know of where such a wide cross section of Fairbanksans can engage each other in such a free-form manner. Now there’s some faceless Orwellian entiy deciding which comments are ok for the masses to consume, and any critical thoughts are banished with a keystroke.

I did notice, however, that whenever an entire comment thread goes away, it can easily be brought back by editing the section of the URL in the address bar that says “/full_story_no_comments/” to just say “/full_story/”. This seems to enable comments anywhere, even in the police report section.

I’m sure that this post will be gone shortly, but I thought I’d throw it out there in case anyone happens to stumble across it first.

Speaking Truth to Bower

slideshow

Yep. It’s time. After 25 years, I will not be renewing my subscription to the News Miner. Content is lousy, website truly sucks, and paper is obsolete.

Well DNM is in for a surprise!

Netizens are cheap! I can read the news papers from all over the world FREE!

The same fool that changed the comments format; shirly is the same one to thinks you sell a subscription  for something that is free.

after fighting with the system three times trying to post a comment, I think I am about done with this new format too :(

I wont be paying to see the news-miner website when that happens. I think the comments are lower now because it is harder to log in. I had to recreate my profile because I couldnt log in under my old name and password. I havent made a comment in weeks because of that. Its harder to scroll and harder to read comments now. I am still confused. Its not as fun anymore. I do not like the picture/image feature. It seems commenters are posting stupid and irrelevant things.

Unfortunately Julie, much as I do want to support the local paper I cannot justify paying for the online access. It will kill the comments section debates entirely, which is half the reason I check the site thru the day. I know it was hard back when I was there to even sell the online ads and paper ad revenue is dropping because the average nobody is not buying hardcopy anymore, but I doubt many people will pay for the website. A lot of out-of-state purviewers will quit in droves, and the online clientele we built up during the election season will be lost forever.

The only place I have heard of that does online subscription sucessfully is the WSJ, and you have to admit they are a special case.

I may start buying a hardcopy again (if I can find a job) but I doubt it will be more than a once-or-twice a month thing, and we both know that 75 cents or $1.50 doesn’t even cover production costs. I saw the numbers when I was there, and I dont imagine the reams of paper delivered by train are going to get cheaper. Is this the start of the FDNM folding back into a once-weekly paper? I hope not, but it may be so.

Regards,

cheryl

Several on line media outfits have tried to charge and they have ended up backing off.

One of my favorite magazines, The Atlantic, attempted this and apparently it was a failure because now you can read the articles without a subscription.

The NYTimes tried to charge $50/year for access to their columinists and in the 2nd year of doing so, they halted the subscription process and refunded the remaining amount to their customers. They stated trying to charge was costing them money due to loss of hits which translated into loss of advertising revenue.

People are not going to pay money to read idiotic comments yet they would click into the FDNM if it was free. If they eliminate the silly posts, what do they have to offer? State news has always been covered much better by the ADN. The Newsminer is going to need more than luck to pull this off.

This is a well-diggers approach to their financial problems. They are just digging themselves in deeper. I’m going to predict that if they do attempt the subscription process, they’ll revert back to free access within 6 months, if not sooner. 

Incidentally, the amount wanted for the E-edition is way,way out of line.

Pinhead is correct about the changes coming to the Web site. We are planning to move to a subscription model on the site, but it likely won’t happen until after the holidays, and after we’ve gotten the bugs worked out of the new computer system.

I appreciate your feedback about the site and any suggestions you may have.

Thanks,

Julie

Here is my take: Julie was over-worked and under paid and doing her best to manage this site before all the changes a little over a year ago. But there was a lot of controversy about the site that arose over the last year, especially once the option of making comments was offered and then, worse still, Palin entered the race for VP. Suddenly, the site was overwhelmed with Outsiders, computerized comments, trollers, whatever. So the DNM decided to clean things up, get things under control. They called in some professionals and here is the result. As Julie told me in an email, they soon will charge for content as well in order to also help their bottom line, and I am betting, also to keep out the riffraff (my words, not hers).

Mean time, she is in no position to call on her superiors and say “look, people are complaining.” The site is now doing what the DNM needs, even if we, its users, are unhappy. Comments are down, we can’t negotiate the site well, etc., etc., but they felt that they had to do this (or so Julie told me). They also feel they have no choice but to charge, which I fully understand. I just hope that they don’t start charging until the site is back to the quality that it was before, which would have been well worth our dollars. As it now stands, I am not so sure…

hey now give em time to work out the kinks and refine the system. It’s a newspaper after all, chronically short of people to do things so more falls on the online people’s heads.
I do like that you can link stories to facebook

just take it in the a** like everyone else around here is…

Look under “Opinion.” Some letters may be missing. We had to take the section down today and I haven’t gotten all of the letters re-tagged.

- Julie Stricker