New Sligo site

Gillie

http://www.sligotoday.ie/index.php

Thoughts?

YeatsCounty

Nice layout, interesting stories (especially the Ryanair headline) and some very useful information (the cable TV installation story - if I was staying in town, I'd most certainly take advantage of it!).

I approve.

Basq

First thoughts - layout is nice.. but a bit "busy" (probably due to all the ads).

Haven't read any articles yet though.

DenMan

Nicely done man, well laid out and presented. Hope it gets a lot of hits and will give people a great incentive to come to Sligo.

genie

Good idea but it took an absolute age to load on dial up. The Editorial Video didn't help matters as I can't do video.

This would put me off visiting again unless it can be made more dial up friendly, sorry.

Maybe a text only version, too, for us poor so and so's who have no choice but dial up?

blackiebest

Great to see this, I hope they use the medium to promote some alternative journalisim.

Well done and the best of luck to all involved

AlmightyCushion

It's a nice idea but navigation wise the site is a mess. It's got 4 navigation bars. The one at the top (With the home, entertainment, links in it), the one at the very bottom of the page which is just a carbon copy of the first one. One in the middle of the page (the one with the links to lotto and games) and one to the right which just contains links that are already in the first two nav bars. They should have all the navigation links contained in the one bar.

Also that contact us is absolutely massive and takes up a lot of screen space when a simple link will do which is already in the top navigation bar.

The on the town page also only has a link on the home page. The editorial video and editorial comment should probably be put in an about us page. They definitely shouldn't be appearing on every page as it will just increase load times.

The two banners are images as well.

http://www.sligotoday.ie/images/banner.jpg
http://www.sligotoday.ie/images/banner2.jpg

They both wiegh in at about 110KBs each so are quite big (a 1Mbps connection can download at around 120KB a second so these slow down things even for people on broadband). The images are more or less the same so the first one could be used both times. Even still the images are 90% just blue background with white text that could easily be handled with html, the only part of the banner that should be an image is they sligo today logo.

A couple of small changes to the layout and design could make the site more user friendly, a little nearer, less busy as Basquille likes to put it and would decrease load times.

dingding

Is the site down ???

I cant see, to connect to it.

takola

Yep, looks like it. I can't connect either. Maybe they're doing some work on it?

Hopefully it will be up again tomorrow.

AlmightyCushion

I can connect to it.

takola

Strange. It's back up now.

I agree it's very "busy". Like the video's though! That pictoral video is very nice (they even included Glencar - Take that Leitrim! ).

TequilaMockingBird

Hope it goes well for them. Who is running it? Almighty C, you should send them that info and charge them for it, whatever it means... I just clicked on it and read it. I'm so old skool.

AlmightyCushion

It looks very sligo post-ish so I imagine they have something to do with it.

dingding

Working now for me, must have been down.

Drag00n79

YeatsCounty wrote: »

...and some very useful information (the cable TV installation story - if I was staying in town, I'd most certainly take advantage of it!).

What was that story? I can't find it there.

the_wabbitt

just a question...
who is behind the site ?

Essexboy

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

It looks very sligo post-ish so I imagine they have something to do with it.

Yes, very Sligo Post like.
Contact details are very limited - by form only - and they do not welcome photographs.
No information on website to say who they are which is unusual.

Basq

A whois on the site says the domain is owned by a Ciaran McCarthy but judging by his e-mail address, he's a developer with DmacMedia.ie.

Hope the site does well.. but as a web developer, I've a couple of minor qualms and quibbles with it. But very nice site all the same.

TequilaMockingBird

The editorial today was commenting on the feedback* they had got, and they seem very open to changing any areas that were getting poor reviews. The local news seems almost identical to Ocean FMs, but I guess there's only so much news in one area!




*That word gives me the heebie jeebies...:p

SligoToday

Hi Guys this is Dave from Dmac Media we are the administrators on Sligo Today.ie A friend sent me this thread and I though that we would answer some of your questions.

Who owns SligoToday.ie?
Ciaran McCarthy from Sligo, a former editor of the Sligo Post but this website is 100% independent. Ciaran Hired Dmac to develop the site
so he calls the shots.

Downtime?
Yes we are really sorry we underestimated how popular this thing would be and the bandwidth quota was reached in record time but we have know tripled our quota so downtime should only be scheduled. (fingers crossed).

Suggestions?
YES PLEASE this project is only in its infancy so there is huge room for improvement. you can mail us through the site if you have any we have already taken note of all your suggestions and are working on them.

Text version for Dial up users?
Great Idea it might take us some time but if you pop us a mail we will let you know when its available.

Advertisements?
Yes we have of course if we could fund this any other way we would but
thems the breaks.

Why cant I see that story?
The pages currently show only the most recent stories however keep your eye out this week for our archives section .

If anyone has any other questions observations or comments about life in general pop us a mail or of course post a comment as we will be listening

Bye for now

Dave

magnumlady

I like the site, they used one of my pics.
Just a shame about some of the spelling.

TequilaMockingBird

Well Dave, no better people to point out mistakes than us! Good luck with the venture, its something I'm sure all here would like to see become successful and be a good local source of information.

Xiney

I'd love it if they could PLEASE fix the grammatical error in the heading:


Todays news Today should be Today's news Today. It's possessive therefore it needs an apostrophe.

*head explodes*



...does SligoToday.ie require a copy editor? Because it turns out I might know a grammar nazi who could use a few bob. Friend of mine, you understand. :cool:

TequilaMockingBird

Xiney wrote: »

I'd love it if they could PLEASE fix the grammatical error in the heading:


Todays news Today should be Today's news Today. It's possessive therefore it needs an apostrophe.

*head explodes*



...does SligoToday.ie require a copy editor? Because it turns out I might know a grammar nazi who could use a few bob. Friend of mine, you understand. :cool:

I thought an apostrophe was to shorten it from "Today is" so they were correct.

Go on, blind me with science now...

Xiney

you can use it like that too, but it still gets an apostrophe for possessive.

Todays is simply a plural form of Today, which is an impossibility.

dakar

Xiney's right

(note that this can indicate either 'Xiney is right' (contraction) or a that the right(n) belongs to Xiney (possessive) or in fact the right hand side of Xiney)

Ah the joys of grammar (and pedantry)!

Xiney

Ah, pedantry. How I love thee.

I'm going to go remove moss spores from my flower bed now.

SligoToday

quote=Xiney;56734916]I'd love it if they could PLEASE fix the grammatical error in the heading:
Today’s news Today should be Today's news Today. It's possessive therefore it needs an apostrophe.

*head explodes*
[/quote]

Hi Dave here again yeah we can add an apostrophe. check it out tomorrow I should find time before lunch. In regards to copy editing the site is populated & proofed by the editor so drop him a line via the site and he'll let you know although I don’t think he is hiring just yet.

On another note how can we improve?

would you like some crosswords / soduko?
what areas are we not covering ?
if we had a newsletter would you sign up?

We really appreciate the feedback so keep it coming its great to hear what people really think rather than guessing.
We are considering asking you guys for feedback on other sites we've done let me know if you’re up for it and we might set up another thread

P.S. I hope you all noticed my conscientious use of the apostrophe in the above

Big_Mac

SligoToday wrote: »

Hi Dave here again yeah we can add an apostrophe. check it out tomorrow I should find time before lunch. In regards to copy editing the site is populated & proofed by the editor so drop him a line via the site and he'll let you know although I don’t think he is hiring just yet.

On another note how can we improve?

would you like some crosswords / soduko?
what areas are we not covering ?
if we had a newsletter would you sign up?

We really appreciate the feedback so keep it coming its great to hear what people really think rather than guessing.
We are considering asking you guys for feedback on other sites we've done let me know if you’re up for it and we might set up another thread

P.S. I hope you all noticed my conscientious use of the apostrophe in the above

Other websites you say..... Critique them you say........... *Runs off to get big red marker*

Bring it on we say......

Xiney

email - holy god no. I get enough spam as it is.

RSS is the way to go. I suppose if you had the option for both types of people, the unenlightened (email) and those with google reader hooked up via IV that would be fine. Although I think for a site with as many real time updates as SligoToday seems to be aiming for, a newsletter would either be madness (too many) or defeat the purpose (a week's worth of news... today! so why not buy a print version that's more readable?!)

The formatting could use some cleaning up - seems to jump from size to size, font to font in a few of the articles. That's bound to get sorted as the site progresses of course. Also could use a bit of a larger text size than what seems to be average on the site - most of it seems to be in "caption" size, not in "article for actual reading of large swathes of text" size. Flashbacks to the early emo pages of 2001 and their teeny tiny font.

Crosswords & sudoku are not necessary. If you're already on the internet you'll go somewhere else for that.

And no disrespect intended towards Ciaran, he's a legend of a man in person, but the Sligo Post was never the most grammatically upstanding of papers when he was editing it either. I would HIGHLY suggest hiring someone to proofread the website if you plan on people taking it seriously.

magnumlady

Also just to let them know Coolaney is spelt Coolaney and not Collaney.:D and a thanks for the photo would have been nice:rolleyes:

SligoToday

Hi Guys,
Thanks for the feedback notes taken. In response to the editing unfortunately Dmac are the tech guys we dont publish any of the material. At the minute Ciaran is a one man band in regards to the journo side of things I'm sure you guys can cut him some slack.

In regards to the photo (and spelling of town lands) Magnumlady Ihave let Ciaran know that he left out a credit but Im not sure where your photo is on the site. Any chance you can pop us a mail and we will get that sorted.

In terms of other sites can you guys check out Koolkidz.ie we did this site over a year ago and our guy is looking for ways to increase traffic

The site (like sligo today) is managed updated by the client so any feedback on content or what the site could do with would be great.

Bring on the red markers!

Big_Mac

SligoToday wrote: »

Hi Guys,
Thanks for the feedback notes taken. In response to the editing unfortunately Dmac are the tech guys we dont publish any of the material. At the minute Ciaran is a one man band in regards to the journo side of things I'm sure you guys can cut him some slack.

In regards to the photo (and spelling of town lands) Magnumlady Ihave let Ciaran know that he left out a credit but Im not sure where your photo is on the site. Any chance you can pop us a mail and we will get that sorted.

In terms of other sites can you guys check out Koolkidz.ie we did this site over a year ago and our guy is looking for ways to increase traffic

The site (like sligo today) is managed updated by the client so any feedback on content or what the site could do with would be great.

Bring on the red markers!

You asked for it.....

In the new Dad Page Here When the website is talking about sex with your partner, the word sex is in smaller font than the rest of the text in the paragraph. Its a hyperlink but its not obvious unless you hover the mouse over the word and looks out of place. Same goes with 'quick and easy meals' under 'Shop until you drop'

It also asks 'If you have any advice that you would like to share with other new mums and dads on how to survive those early days of parenthood, then please post your comments in the box below.' - There is no box below

On the Left most menu, the section 'Helpful Info' does not have a hyperlink, and the text is larger than the rest of the categories and looks like you are in this sub menu instead of the main page or whatever section you are in.

The New Mom Page here looks ill formatted. Headings look too small by comparison with the new dad section, and there are three paragraphs that look like sub-paragraphs in this page for no apparent reason (that I can see)

The Growbags page Here is split into two pages of products. However there are only two products on the second page, and it looks like they should fit on the first page, as there is a lot of blank space below the four items already listed.

Perhaps the logo's at the bottom of the page should link to the manufacturers websites, in case someone wants additional information on one of their products?

Howzat?

Xiney

To be perfectly honest the kool kidz page looks like a rather generic template. Then again I'm morally opposed to stock photography.

Kool kidz have a really distinct logo painted on their building in town - this site really does not "fit" imo. However, I don't know what the owner was willing to pay - possibly this is all you could do for him in his budget.


As for how to increase traffic: It depends on why he wants to increase the traffic. If he wants to increase online shopping at kool kidz, his first step should be to promote the website - have "koolkidz.ie" painted under the logo on the building and do sales on things (advertised via signage or leaflets instore) only available online. Or a competition to win a full nursery by purchasing X amount of Euros worth of stuff online. People have to know the site exists in order to visit it.


Something that you could incorporate that I've seen on other sites is a "wishlist". It's where you put the stuff you wish you could buy but can't, or wish to buy when the little one is old enough for it and this way you can remember what it was that you so desperately wanted for that screaming infant a few months ago. And as you've now created this wishlist you can send the link to your mother and she might buy the wee sprog a 300 yoyo carseat. This would require creating accounts - database, etc. But on the plus side, if you wanted to keep track of what single accounts were buying, what is popular if not selling well (maybe due to price?) it's much easier to do with this system in place.

SligoToday

Hi guys thanks for the feedback all good stuff!
We are due to update and tweak the site at the end of august so stay tuned I will ask again after we've got that far.

In regard to the promotion his shop front signage and vans, jeeps, etc all carry the "shop online at Koolkidz.ie" tag so he is putting an effort into the marketing.

Their is already a products database and adding to that to acommodate users/wishlists wont be to difficult so I hope he goes for it.

I'll let ye know in sepptember!

Mrs.T

SligoToday wrote: »

Hi guys thanks for the feedback all good stuff!
We are due to update and tweak the site at the end of august so stay tuned I will ask again after we've got that far.

In regard to the promotion his shop front signage and vans, jeeps, etc all carry the "shop online at Koolkidz.ie" tag so he is putting an effort into the marketing.

Their is already a products database and adding to that to acommodate users/wishlists wont be to difficult so I hope he goes for it.

I'll let ye know in sepptember!

Are you just testing us with those mistakes up there? (wish I could make an arrow):D

SligoToday

Mrs.T wrote: »

Are you just testing us with those mistakes up there? (wish I could make an arrow):D

Ha! nope no test. I employ guerrilla tactics when it comes to spelling and grammar. it strikes when you least expect it and then fades back into the jungle!;)