New TCDSU website, new TCDSU paper (The Record is dead!)

Kwekubo

Just noticed that the SU's website has been relaunched. Have to say I'm impressed, it already looks a hell of a lot more useful than the site has ever been in my time in College.

Plus, a link on the front page announces that the official SU organ shall henceforth be know as The University Times. (Not quite as impressive a site yet )

ZWEI_VIER_ZWEI

What's the rationale behind the name change?

Boston

Never mind.

jingx3

What's wrong with tables? If it does the job...

Señor Juárez

Boston wrote: »

The website will fall by the way side yet again. All the content is static. Also, tables, are they serious?

What are you actually talking about tbh.

Boston

jingx3 wrote: »

What's wrong with tables? If it does the job...

Off topic but CSS is easier to maintain and update in my opinion. Tables are grand if a sites content is reasonably static, but one of the complains about previous SU sites was that it was very difficult for non techie people to change content.

Señor Juárez

Boston wrote: »

Off topic but CSS is easier to maintain and update in my opinion. Tables are grand if a sites content is reasonably static, but one of the complains about previous SU sites was that it was very difficult for non techie people to change content.

Did you actually even look at the website?

ZWEI_VIER_ZWEI

How come you left me out of your little PM spree Boston?

Boston

Señor Juárez wrote: »

Did you actually even look at the website?

I heartily apologise I had completely the wrong site open. Nice catch.

jingx3

Boston wrote: »

Off topic but CSS is easier to maintain and update in my opinion. Tables are grand if a sites content is reasonably static, but one of the complains about previous SU sites was that it was very difficult for non techie people to change content.

By "CSS" you mean "<div>", yeah? CSS is something totally different.

Cantab.

"University Times" Pffft. What, are they hoping to go up a brow level or two with that name? Anyway, it's yet another rupture in tradition. No form, no continuity, no respect, just a bunch of know-it-all undergraduates at the reins.

ZWEI_VIER_ZWEI

GOD

ZWEI_VIER_ZWEI

Cantab. wrote: »

Another rupture in tradition. No form, no continuity, no respect, just a bunch of know-it-all undergraduates at the reins.

Oh come on, don't tell me you were a fan of The Record in the first place?

Kwekubo

Cantab. wrote: »

Another rupture in tradition. No form, no continuity, no respect, just a bunch of know-it-all undergraduates at the reins.

In what regard? Do you just mean the name change?

Señor Juárez

I presume the rebrand is to start afresh, and leave old problems/opinions/mistakes behind in doing so.


Sadly, the problem as always is that the Record, and the SU in general, becomes about stoking the egos of those behind the whole thing, instead of being about the college and the student body. This mistake seems to be getting repeated already, as I notice the faces of 5 generic hacks in the banner instead of, I dunno, something more collegey. Like front square, or the Campanile.

Boston

Surely its important that the Sabbaths are recognisable. I find it alarming that in a university with a ~66% female student body, there are no attractive female representatives.

Cantab.

Boston wrote: »

Surely its important that the Sabbaths are recognisable. I find it alarming that in a university with a ~66% female student body, there are no attractive female representatives.

Hardly.

Brian

Looks all right. The banner at the top is way overkill though.

AlanSparrowhawk

I have to admit my first thought was "where is the token hot female welfare officer".

Jammyc

So how about that SU?.......

jingx3

Jammyc wrote: »

So how about that SU?.......

Don't change the subject.

Moved the stuff on abortion from this thread to here: http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055663915

Jammyc

Anyone know when the Ents page'll be up? Or any idea what we can look foreward to Ents-wise for Freshers week?

j1smithy

Kwekubo wrote: »

Just noticed that the SU's website has been relaunched. Have to say I'm impressed, it already looks a hell of a lot more useful than the site has ever been in my time in College.

Plus, a link on the front page announces that the official SU organ shall henceforth be know as The University Times. (Not quite as impressive a site yet )

Yet another redesign of the SU site. Again it wasn't the site that was the real problem before (it was poor though) but the content. It was old and rarely updated. The ents page was static.

As for the Record, like the website, the name wasn't the problem it was the content. And the University Times will have the same problems as it doesn't have good writers. It used to read like a bad secondary school yearbook at times and what more can you expect when the articles are written by the JF engineering class rep.

A student newspaper should be an outlet/sandbox for those with an interest in journalism to hone their trade. It shouldn't be a place for hacks with "political" ambition and poor vocabulary to get themselves known. The paper should be scrapped and replaced with a news section on the website. Important announcements should be also press released to TN and put in the weekly email.

Its an incredible waste of money.

ilovemybrick

j1smithy wrote: »

Its an incredible waste of money.

Eh, it made a profit.

Mark200

j1smithy wrote: »

A student newspaper should be an outlet/sandbox for those with an interest in journalism to hone their trade. It shouldn't be a place for hacks with "political" ambition and poor vocabulary to get themselves known. The paper should be scrapped and replaced with a news section on the website. Important announcements should be also press released to TN and put in the weekly email.

I'm fairly confident the majority of people who wanted to write for the newspaper had some sort of interest in journalism. Just because they aren't doing a journalism/arts course doesn't mean they have no interest.

johnl

Boston wrote: »

Surely its important that the Sabbaths are recognisable. I find it alarming that in a university with a ~66% female student body, there are no attractive female representatives.

The "Sabbaths" here is driving me nuts
I keep thinking it's an amazing Black Sabbath tribute band composed entirely of SU hacks!

shay_562

ilovemybrick wrote:

Eh, it made a profit.

Really? Cool! I assume there's somewhere that the average student can see a breakdown of the accounts of the SU and the Record, right...since we do fund it and all...?

johnl

shay_562 wrote: »

Really? Cool! I assume there's somewhere that the average student can see a breakdown of the accounts of the SU and the Record, right...since we do fund it and all...?

AFAIK, accounts are published every year...

j1smithy

Mark200 wrote: »

I'm fairly confident the majority of people who wanted to write for the newspaper had some sort of interest in journalism. Just because they aren't doing a journalism/arts course doesn't mean they have no interest.

That maybe so, but it doesn't mean they are able to write. A lot of the articles were so poorly written they would give you a headache reading them. Articles were often incoherent and lacking any sort of consistent style.

The record turned a profit? Wow that almost never happens.

shay_562

shay_562 wrote: »

Really? Cool! I assume there's somewhere that the average student can see a breakdown of the accounts of the SU and the Record, right...since we do fund it and all...?

Accounts are (were?) meant to be published or at least given to Council each year. I note though that UCDSU have their budgets for the last few years on their website. Perhaps nudge the SU sabbats towards this, since they have a new-fangled website?

Awayindahils

*nudge nudge*

This went rather off topic...so you know stay on topic.

I don't thik the Record had any brand in particular, but a rebranding of the paper, or renaming as it has rebranded twice in the last three years (size of the paper) may be used to compensate for a lack of content, or it might be an attempt to move away from the Record debate of last year.

shay_562

D&#243 wrote: »

Accounts are (were?) meant to be published or at least given to Council each year. I note though that UCDSU have their budgets for the last few years on their website. Perhaps nudge the SU sabbats towards this, since they have a new-fangled website?

Went looking for old council minutes and all I could find was this. Methinks they may need to do a little bit of updating.

Mark200 wrote:

I'm fairly confident the majority of people who wanted to write for the newspaper had some sort of interest in journalism. Just because they aren't doing a journalism/arts course doesn't mean they have no interest.

No, but the fact that they aren't writing for Trinity News suggests quite strongly that they have no interest in journalism. I'm no fan of TN (I think it's a bit of a rag), but it's unquestionably the better of the college papers and has won quite a few Smedias over the past few years. If you're writing for a college paper because you're interested in journalism, 99% of the time you're writing for TN. (Unless, of course, they've rejected you because you're crap. Then you might be interested in journalism and writing for the SU paper.)

Oh, and in a vague effort to stay completely 100% on-topic, maybe they changed the name because they wanted one that didn't convert so easily into "Retard"?

Mark200

shay_562 wrote: »

No, but the fact that they aren't writing for Trinity News suggests quite strongly that they have no interest in journalism. I'm no fan of TN (I think it's a bit of a rag), but it's unquestionably the better of the college papers and has won quite a few Smedias over the past few years. If you're writing for a college paper because you're interested in journalism, 99% of the time you're writing for TN. (Unless, of course, they've rejected you because you're crap. Then you might be interested in journalism and writing for the SU paper.)

Oh, and in a vague effort to stay completely 100% on-topic, maybe they changed the name because they wanted one that didn't convert so easily into "Retard"?

Well to be fair when first years come in during Freshers' week, they don't know which newspaper is better. They just walk around front square and are approached by two newspapers asking if they would like to write for them. There's no doubt that Trinity News was by far the better paper though.

To stay on topic.... maybe they just got it wrong, and thought TN was always called University Times. Someone should let them know.

johnl

Does anyone know how much it costs it to take out an ad in either of the Trinity papers?

Oh, sorry, hope this isn't straying too far off-topic.