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Updates and an announcement from LWNUpdates and an announcement from LWNPosted Jul 5, 2012 14:39 UTC (Thu) by karim (subscriber, #114)Parent article: Updates and an announcement from LWN
A few suggestions:
1. Yes, by all means, the site's look is *severely* outdated. And yes, by all means, do use JavaScript/CSS and all the rest. And for the nostalgic crowd, provide a setting to see the site as it is now, without JavaScript. For a site which monetizes through subscription, there really needs to be something a lot more sexy than this for it to be looking like it's worth spending money on these days. (I mean no offense, I'm just saying it as I think a new visitor would see it.)
2. Provide a way to read through similar content in a more aggregated fashion. LWN often features follow-up articles on the same topic, yet I actually have to follow through the in-article links to the back stories. Surely there's a way to organize-this in a more book-like fashion where I can click through a TOC or something like that.
3. And yes, social media integration is a must these days. This goes with #1; i.e. there are a few things that news/content sites are expected to provide these days.
Karim
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Updates and an announcement from LWN Posted Jul 5, 2012 17:12 UTC (Thu) by jmnovak (subscriber, #48627) [Link]
Note that some of us are willing to pay money to *not* have the JavaScript; not out of nostalgia, but because of concern regarding the security of any dynamic content. Same applies to the 'tweet', '+1' buttons, etc. The minimalist design of the site with lots of useful and interesting information is what keeps me coming back and paying my subscription. In contrast, I've dropped other sites that started substituting glitter for content...
Updates and an announcement from LWN Posted Jul 5, 2012 19:12 UTC (Thu) by karim (subscriber, #114) [Link]
Sure. But the article clearly states the need to expand readership. Those who are already in are great, but a business is going up or down, and right now it looks like LWN isn't going up. Appeal to a broader market is needed.
Updates and an announcement from LWN Posted Jul 6, 2012 10:24 UTC (Fri) by hummassa (subscriber, #307) [Link]
The question the OP asks is: will having social buttons (unless carefully crafted, non-privacy-threatening, possibly two-clicks-needed) gather a wider audience or just empty the current (and really loyal [*]) audience? Can you win readers by having these features FASTER than you'll lose readers? Are new, socialized readers as well prepared to the high-quality content as the old, antisocialized ones?
Mind you, I have a small LWN-prepared audience on twitter and G+ and I would like a simple way to share with them some of the articles and the discussions I have here. And I think some of them could change into subscribers also. But I would only opt in for a simplified sharing (simpler than right-click on [Link] link, copy link, change tabs, middle-click?) if I could do it without pesky track-all-I-read cookies.
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