SCN: Re: WEB: Re: Thanks for your input

[Rod Clark]

Doug Schuler wrote:
> Taking a loook at our front page it seems obvious that the
> main problem is that the featured site and other information
> (e.g. dial-up is back in service dated August 7) is unappealing.
> Can we use a better font and make the titles bigger -- and
> why is everything centered?
> 
> Thanks though for all the work that everybody is doing -- seriously!

Doug, 

   The front page is immeasurably better since Patrick took it
over and began to be responsive again to what people are
concerned about in the community.

   SCN is a significant media site. To have a front page for 10
months that purposely did not reflect or attempt to show people
any of the ferment of ideas that went on in Seattle around the
many issues that our Information Providers were involved with
during that time, or our former Information Providers, or other
local efforts that our volunteers were involved with, was to
deny that SCN as a media site had any worth. On the contrary -
at any self-respecting media site, the leadership who decided to
do away with featuring the site's content would have been asked
to find a different site to manage the next day.

   One of the basic purposes of any medium is to take
information that few people know about and make it much more
widely known to a larger audience. This is especially true of
media that are indended to reach out to the general public. This
is what all the big TV stations, the big radio chains and cable
chains, the big glossy magazines, the big media Web sites, do
all day and every day. Small grassroots orgs that never or
almost never make it into the big media are comparatively
isolated, lack exposure, and often are overlooked by most
people. SCN was supposed to help change that for the better, to
let the voices of volunteers who are involved in community
efforts be seen and heard more widely and more effectively than
they otherwise would be.

   One of the things that went with last year's redesign was an
attempt to get some graphics, especially photos, on the front
page to accompany the weekly sites. If you look at some of the
early layouts, starting at http://www.scn.org/week/000323.html,
you can see the approximate size of the graphics used on the
front page then.

   Maybe if you could contribute a photo of the candlelight
procession from St. Mark's, or something of the kind, it could
be reduced in size so go on the front page to accompany the link
to the site. There's no reason why the front page has to be all
text, and every reason to use more media there than just text. A
link to a site with sound files of people speaking about this,
for example, might be good too, if anyone has any sound files
like that. But certainly, please ask Patrick to have a look at
some photos if any are available.

Rod Clark

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