Redoing ET's front page | 145 comments (145 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Redoing ET's front page (none / 1)

I want to throw Jerome's comment from the other thread in.

This is a good base to work on. And I understand that your goal is to find a way to make the front page more friendly to the first two categories, and to "hook" them convincingly. and i support that goal, obviously.
One idea I'm throwing here would be to have a box (maybe called "resources") with a small number of items, which would link to specific pages - either a diary if a comprehensive one already exists (like the one on the French economy written with afew), or a series of selected diaries, ideally with a short summary there. I can think of the following headline topics (in bold a shorter selection)
+ on European energy
+ on relations with Russia
+ on Iran
+ on NATO and Atlanticism
+ on the Anglo Disease
+ on "reform"
+ on bubbles Greenspan
+ on Peak Oil
+ on energy technology
+ on inequality
+ on unions
+ on object blogging (train, clock, bridge, wind farms)
+ on the European Union
+ on the media
+ on election coverage
+ on sustainability
(not a preferred list, or a complete one, just things that come to my mind and presumably reflect my interests rather than that of the whole community for now, so to be updated)
A separate box could be the one suggested by linca above, with the same for topics of more interest to the community (photoblogging, etc...)

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

by ATinNM on Sun Dec 30th, 2007 at 03:12:51 PM EST

Re: Redoing ET's front page (4.00 / 2)

Migeru:

Scoop has sections and topics.
Sections include Diaries, News, Indices and Debates. Only Frontpagers can post things other than Diaries (called "Stories"), but that can be changed with a clich of a mouse, so it is open to debate. New sections can be created. They can also be eliminated and all the existing content added to a existing section. Sections can be nested. Right now they are all top-level but they needn't be.
Topics are selected in the story/diary edit form. They include Everything, Diary, Economy, Energy, ET Community, Europe, International, PDB and USA. Topics can be added or eliminated as well. I believe PDB is an old occasional series written by soj back when they were a frontpager.
People could select an appropriate Topic for their diaries or we FPers could do it. This way of classifying content has been superseded by tags in more modern blogging practice, but that's the way SCOOP works.
Boxes can be made to display the latest N stories in any topic/section. A box could also be created with links to the various sections or topics.

We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sun Dec 30th, 2007 at 03:17:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Redoing ET's front page (none / 0)

We could have 'inherited' topics, i.e. a wind farm diary is also automatically tagged as 'energy' so that it's appear in both sections, RSS feeds, etc... and would help solving the big/small topic problem. Can we have a dozen "main" topics, and one or two "good" diaries to showcase under each one ?

The good diaries need not be synthetic and written specifically for the box : the idea is maybe to give a "feel" of the place rather than conclusions that would have to be updated too regularly (and thus wouldn't be done...)

The main topics could be :

Sustainability/Energy (Wind Power, peak oil...)

Economics/Finance (Anglo-Disease, bubble...)

Inequality

Labour relations/Unions

Geopolitics/Wars

Country Specific/EU

Country Specific/World

Society (Religions, etc...)

Object Series

Miscellaneous/Fun

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Sun Dec 30th, 2007 at 03:57:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Redoing ET's front page (none / 0)

Annoyingly, unlike Sections which do support nesting, Topics do not.

I hate SCOOP.

We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sun Dec 30th, 2007 at 04:00:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Redoing ET's front page (none / 0)

So that'll have to wait until ET 2.0...

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Sun Dec 30th, 2007 at 04:09:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Redoing ET's front page (none / 0)

These could also be the basis for a limited set of tags

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Sun Dec 30th, 2007 at 04:00:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Redoing ET's front page (none / 0)

linca:

Country Specific/EU

How about instead - Country Specific/Europe - would allow to include non-EU countries.

by Fran on Sun Dec 30th, 2007 at 04:03:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Redoing ET's front page (none / 0)

So, where do we put Russia and Turkey ? (and yes, obviously)

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Sun Dec 30th, 2007 at 04:09:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Redoing ET's front page (none / 0)

Well, we get diaries about all sorts of places (e.g. recently, Pakistan). We can either go geographical using some offical definition, or "European Neighbours" for the close ones like Russia and Turkey.

by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Sun Dec 30th, 2007 at 04:13:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Redoing ET's front page (none / 0)

Were would you put Norway and Switzerland?

by Fran on Sun Dec 30th, 2007 at 04:17:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Redoing ET's front page (none / 0)

Well, that's the beauty of the ambiguous phrase "European Neighbours" they could fit in there.

However, as a Euro-centric blog it probably would be useful to have an EFTA category?

by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Sun Dec 30th, 2007 at 04:31:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Redoing ET's front page (none / 1)

Hey, but the Swiss are not European neighbours - we are Europeans, as are the Norwegians, though we are EU neighbours and thats different. Actually Switzerland is the heart of Europe if you look on a map.

by Fran on Sun Dec 30th, 2007 at 04:39:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Redoing ET's front page (none / 1)

The joy of English is that you can read a phrase in more than one way.

European Neighbours = Neighbours of Europe (Russia, Turkey)

European Neighbours = Neighbours in Europe (Switzerland, Norway)

by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Sun Dec 30th, 2007 at 05:08:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Redoing ET's front page (none / 1)

Also Fran, I don't have any problem in labeling Switzerland and Norway as just "Europe" but then it might be good to have the "EFTA" label or something for diaries that involve issues specific to their position as not part of the EU. Likewise the UK needs a term to highlight that it's not in Schengen for some diaries.

I get the feeling you're trying to turn my ramblings about possible ways to tag diaries geographically into some statement about what "Europe" consists of, which wasn't ever my intention and feels a bit unfair.

by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Sun Dec 30th, 2007 at 05:16:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Redoing ET's front page (none / 0)

Perhaps we should also avoid having too many tags ; we don't want to go to the point where a tag fits only one diary, do we ?

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Sun Dec 30th, 2007 at 05:27:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Redoing ET's front page (none / 0)

Thanks for explaining these nuances to me. Amazing how to letters can make a difference.

And no, I didn't want to turn your "ramblings" into anything (your comment below). Your explaining the term solved the meaning for me. :-)

by Fran on Mon Dec 31st, 2007 at 12:42:35 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Redoing ET's front page (none / 0)

Amazing how to letters can make a difference.

Oh, come one. In german there isn't even two letters' difference as you use the genitive.

We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Dec 31st, 2007 at 05:42:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Redoing ET's front page (none / 0)

Oh, are we a EU-centric or a Euro-centric blog.

by Fran on Sun Dec 30th, 2007 at 04:40:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]

LOL (none / 0)

You (Switzerland) chose to stay out, you deal with it...

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Sun Dec 30th, 2007 at 04:55:56 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LOL (none / 0)

so is it now EU = Europe?

by Fran on Sun Dec 30th, 2007 at 04:58:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LOL (4.00 / 2)

At this point I have to ask everyone to take a step back, read What is Europe, anyway? and look at the Flag and list of member states of the Council of Europe.

We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sun Dec 30th, 2007 at 05:46:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Redoing ET's front page (none / 0)

Any other remarks/omission/error in that list?

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Sun Dec 30th, 2007 at 05:28:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Redoing ET's front page | 145 comments (145 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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