We're beginning the 2009 strategic planning process. I have a serious question:

What could we offer to our online users that we're not offering now?

I'm not just talking about the forum. I'm talking about the entire H-M web site. I'm looking for input to help decide what our priorities should be and in which what direction we should be moving.

You guys are regular web users. Who better to ask?

Thanks

Since I am a web-user and a subscriber, I would like, without any additional costs, access to archives. I don't believe I have that at this time.

Yes, you do. We opened those about three months ago. They're free online.

Oh, and thanks for the response and for getting the paper.

Thanks.

I'd like to see the on-line Opinion Page go BACK to the way it was.

I'm all for progress, but the "new" format sucks.

I'd also like the HM to actually find a proof-reader that proof-reads. When the "Mail Call" is transcribed from telephone calls into print, it makes the poor caller sound like they're speaking hick-ease. If the caller IS, in fact, speaking hick-ease, please, PLEASE clean it up.

Oh God why can't Americans learn their native tongue!!!!!!!

I'd also like to see a feature about all the hawt young men who are graduating from local colleges this year. With pictures. Nude pictures.

Mail call would be cool with the actual telephone recordings!

I'm so glad you're back!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I disagree. I think they should be translated true to form. That's almost like misquoting someone because you think it would sound better if they said it a different way. No?

Besides, mail call wouldn't be nearly as entertaining if everyone sounded educated.

Good point, and now that I think about it, I agree, besides, what would "Kelly's Cuts" be without hick-ease.

Can we still have the nude college grad pix, please?

IMO, and I know others here share the same, but how about reporting the whole story, and not just enough to get everyone stirred up. Or for that matter how about reporting the news when it happens. Case in point, unless I missed it, there was no article about the fire on Linwood Road Tuesday night. Now I'm sorry, but a fire that requires units from Halfway, Williamsport, Maugansville, Funkstown, the City of Hagerstown, and the Air and Rehab Units (I may have missed others) over four hours to bring under control and extinguish is very newsworthy. Again, unless I missed it, there was no mention until today when a little blurb appeared about a teen being arrested for setting the fire.

And just a little pet peeve of mine, is it Hagers-town or Hagerstown? I was always taught the latter, but I constantly see it in your paper printed both ways.

Hey Jels, I guess enough people were offended by 'Kelly's Cuts' and complained about it; at least on the opinion page it's now 'Kelly's Comment'. It's a column, and not 'a wry look at Mail Call' anymore.

If you're talking about the vacant house that burned Tuesday night, we had a brief on that in the next day's paper. Then today, we had a brief about the kid who was charged with arson in that case.

And yet on the long list of local news articles on the website I have yet to see the original story.

:shrugs:

It's on the Web site. It was a brief and it ran with our police news the next day and was placed on the web either the night of the fire or the next morning.

For clarification, am I to assume a 'brief' is different than an 'article'? Silly me, I never thought to look for a story about a fire under the police briefs. Oh wait, here it is, no wonder I didn't see it. Good to see this one could be so watered down.


Vacant house burns to the ground


A vacant house in the 1100 block of Linwood Road burned to the ground Tuesday night, Washington County emergency dispatchers said.


The fire was reported at about 8:13 p.m., dispatchers said.

I think the overall look and usability of the site could use a big improvement but I think this is something they're already working on.

After that is done, then you might want to look at things like RSS feeds (with a web-based aggregator), site and news personalization, etc.

Lots of fire and other emergency "briefs" run under our cop log with police items. They always have. So, as one of your suggestions, would you like it better if they were separated?

Seperating them would make sense to me. And as I said before, as an example, for this fire, this was all the Herald could come up with? I know it has nothing to do with the website, but just better reporting.

i think it has more to do with resources than reporting. On a Tuesday the city council meets, the county commission meets and, usually, the board of education meets. That takes three reporters out of the mix. Since I'm not in the newsroom anymore, I can't speak to what else they were dealing with on Tuesday.

I can tell you from my experience when I was in the newsroom that just about every day there are at least a half dozen more stories that you want to cover than you have people to cover them.

Fair enough.

Another thing I've noticed about the website. While I agree I like the old format of the Opinion Page better, there are times even before it was changed that a day of letters to the editor or mail call wouldn't make it to the website. Is this something that can be kept up with better? Or are there days your server just doesn't cooporate?

I think we can keep up better. We're in a transition stage with lots of people doing new jobs. This is a good point and I'll add it to the list.

Sounds like someone wants to read the paper without having to pay for it.

Lots of paper's on-line personas don't match what's in print.

I subscribe to the print version also. With the upcoming elections, how about a regular feature once a week for the presidential race and once a week for the local BOE race. It could summarize what has happened with the major candidates for the week or add the more insignificant happenings which do not make it to the main news. For the BOE perhaps the candidates would be willing to each answer a question formulated specifically for that candidate. I realize this would only last until the election.

Yes, and your point?

I'd like to be able to just edit my posts.

In one person's eyes perhaps, but in my eyes why cut a tree down when I can read it on-line? In all honesty the news and articles I get on-line are pretty much all I would read in the print edition anyway, so yes, it is more cost effective for our household to read it on-line for free.

Something else I've noticed about the website, duplication. Many days I've gone to the Washington County tab under local news, and have seen many of the same articles posted, just with different 'titles'. It can get kind of confusing, and leads the reader to believe they are different articles or follow-ups to the first one on the list.

I understand your point Smokechaser, I hope you know I was just kidding with you.

I personally find it important to subscribe to at least one "local" paper and read many others on-line.

It's all good, I've been called worse by better people.

The archive section has been a pain for me in the past. Hard to find, poor search. Have not used it lately.

I'd like to edit about 800 hundred of my posts.

We're locked in, girl. Commit.

I would like to see WV police briefs in the WV section. Not, Pa, not Md, just WV. Thats all I see wrong with the main news site. I don't use a number of the other sections. Just scan the headlines, and the WV section, read the Obits, and see if anything good is in the Lifestyle sect.


also, I think I would trying subscribing again if I could put the paper box at the end of my driveway and not down on the main road where people could steal it. But I doubt if that would happen( moving the paper box).

I agree it would be helpful to see a good balance on the tri-state area. I imagine it is a hard call, pin pointing the target audience. Decidong what to include and not to go with.
It would be cool if the Martinsburg Journal had a more extensive online setup and forums community, it would keep it fresh for both, a little healthy competition or back and forth.

The Journal has it set up that you can comment on the articals. You have to register but it's not a hard thing to do. It's one step forward towards a forum over there IMO. give them time.

Ditto for the Jelsey Household. CHEAP, CHEAP!

I'm a news junkie, I read these papers on-line every day, in this order (yeah, I'm anal - but I'm well-informed):

1 - Frederick News Post
2 - Guam Daily (checkin' up on family)
3 - Herald Mail
4 - Newsday - New York
5 - Public Opinion Chambersburg
6 - Washington Post
7 - Waynesboro - The Record Herald
8 - MSNBC (ok, not a paper, but it IS news)
9 - Newsday - National
10 - The NY Times
11 - People Magazine Daily (I like the celebrity gossisp and the pretty dresses, ok?)
12 - Los Angeles Time
13 - NBC4
14 - The Daily Mail (from the U.K. - those Brits are so damn funny - I love their view of us!)

...and about once a week I read the Afghan News online to see how f'd up THEIR world is, it makes me feel a tad better about mine.

Honestly, if I had to PAY for all these, I wouldn't read them, and I'd be just that much more UN-informed.

Here is another suggestion. ENOUGH with the server maintenance in the middle of the day, SHEEESH. Do it after hours just like every other good website. And provide us with a little heads-up too, or is all this asking too much?

Thanks Jels, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one. I'm sure though that there are more than two of us who read the on-line editions for the same reasons.

Yep, I'm cruisin' the Information Highway, I just ain't paying any tolls.

ModSquad, you should be ashamed, especially if you are a HM employee. Why does the HM have a website with the paper (or much of it) printed on-line? Is it done solely as a charitable contribution to the community?

No, it is for the same reason you sell a print edition – to make $$$$$! The readers, of either edition, are your customers, and for you to insult them by calling them cheap isn’t too smart from a business sense. JMO.

Oh, come now Snoop, didn't you see the . That makes it all ok.

For those of you with reading comprehension problems and also for those of you who overuse the smiley. Oh, and for those of you who are trying to bait the mod:











Mods have feelings too, ya know?

Amazing, I try to defend you and get put down. See if I try to be a good guy again. Where's my damn ignore button? You never answered that.

I like the combination of the morning paper and the website. I usually pick up the paper as the birds are waking up. Then later cruise the net for merriment. And like Jelsy, try a little of this and little of that. Gettiing a little news, humor, and whatever wakes me up. Coma had some applicable suggestions but that is his area.

I just wander or bump around.

I would never buy an actual newspaper, unless I needed something to line a bird cage or litter box. The old media is long dead.

The "old" media is far from dead B. The "old" media has learned to use a lot of different tools to deliver the news that's all.

I get the paper on weekends only. I truly enjoy my weekend mornings turning pages. As for everyday reading. If I get to read the paper copy during the weekdays, (ie: while waiting for a sub to be made or Dr. appt.) and log on later to the website and look at headlines it pretty much covers info I need/want to know. Im happy.