Two suggestions:

Show the most recent comment first rather than the oldest.

Allow users to rate other contributions and add an option to view contributions ranked by rating. Then I could see the more intelligent (hopefully) contributions without scrolling through Eddie the Aggravator

I don’t know about the ‘geeky’ stuff but I would welcome a satirical news item…where people can have a bit of lighthearted banter…which is also sometimes an effective means of making serious a serious point…
I would also like to see more ‘alternative’ political analysis of current affairs not just the same old party line being toed buy the same old hacks…
There have been a couple of contributors recently whose input has recently brought a lot of the debates to life…
Similarly the recent ‘Things we love to Hate’ music feature was just good fun… I thought I would have a seizure laughing at some of the comments…It’s just a bit of light relief but brought out a lot of humour from otherwise ’serious’ contributors that you don’t see when they are solving the fiscal crisis…
So I guess I’s just like to see more of a mix and more cutting edge stuff from sharper minds….It might also bring in new contributors…
Dunno if that’s what you meant but that’s what I’d like to see….ta!

Let the data tell the story. Pictures and words. The best way to describe this is by providing a link. And here it is…

“Journalism in the age of data”, http://vimeo.com/14777910

Overall it works pretty well, and I’m very happy with the online IT service. I’d probably change three things.
First, more charts, more data, more source documents for each story. The notion that the ‘average person’ won’t read that stuff should be discarded. If it is important to them, or if they can see why it’s important from the text of the story, they’ll make an effort to check it out.
Second, in addition to the usual opinion/analysis piece, there should be a space where what the analyst is talking about gets discussed–and I mean discussed—with data, opinions, guest posters, etc (Think Martin Wolf’s roundtable at the FT rather than politics.ie, in this sense, though I like certain parts of politics.ie).
Third, comments should have a strict-ish 3 paragraph limit. I like Krugman’s comment rule–if the comment doesn’t fit on my screen, I’m not authorizing it. Too many muppets will drive thoughtful commenters away, but of course you need to judge each comment as it comes in, and quickly. That will require trained people to moderate and edit these comments, but to produce a flourishing community within the IT that’s really what you’ll need.

Get bloggers to keep their blog rolls up to date. Some of the blogs linked on the IT politics blog are now defunct or haven’t been updated in years! Well done on the award and the work to date.

Thanks for the good stuff so far. Points taken on board. The data journalism issue is absolutely valid, though slightly separate to the question I asked. However, maybe the question is too narrow and should also cover user created audiovisual content open APIs, etc…

cold mike@10. Glad to prove you wrong. However, I’m now taking off my leather apron, putting down my chisels and flinging myself down on my bed of straw. Therefore this blog will not be updated until early tomorrow, after I’ve fed the pigs.

+1 to the hyperlinks suggestion – please make links in articles proper clickable links

Lots of good ideas listed above. I’d suggest hiring a proofreader/text editor. The typos and grammatical errors are unacceptable in the paper of record. Almost every day, there’s a howler somewhere. If you already have such a person, you should take him out onto Tara Street and throw him under a bus.

Hugh,

Well done on your award!

What about copying the ‘like’ system on facebook….it allows you to get an insight into the Zeitgeist of the other contributors/followers – the posters could then be rated as to their popularity with the ‘webizens’ ….can you search the posters previous posts? This again would be interesting if you felt a certain ‘connection’ with a poster and wanted to know their views on other subjects!

all of the above plus go look at decent sites like NYT, Guardian and UK indo. Do it fast -get Fiachra O’M to help you

please dont add a like/dislike button. its a cop out for not engaging with debate and merely stoking the flames in a debate if a user is easily provoked by someone rating them down but not commenting why. If you disagree/agree with something someone says, engage in it with discourse. as has been pointed out her, its the same users who pop up on the blogs and if you want to get debate going, fast and open debate with restrained moderation can be very successful.

i too would also like to see as much of the newspapers content open to comment as possible, the letters page would be good as you could see a more realtime development of an idea raised in the print edition that could lead readers to the online version if they knew a fresh debate could happen in the interim between one days letters on a subject and the next.

a photo and a video blog would be a nice addition. the photo slideshows on the site are excellent but some of the content could be opened up to discussion if a blog were attached. if a picture speaks a thousand words, surely it can encourage a thousand more in response. plus the realtime effectiveness of twitter and indymedias video updates makes for great realtime updates

congratulations on the site and the awards. it really must be a herculean effort to maintain a monster this big while concentrating on the printed issue too. for all the shortcomings that people seem to nitpick so far its a good sign you’re getting it right if people are concerned about a like dislike comment button.

Gongratulations! Well deserved.

Breadth and depth are not an issue, I imagine, but money (both income and expenditure) must be. And in this sphere speed is hugely important but strong reporting values and legal considerations will act as a brake. Within these limitations I reckon the challenge is to bring in new voices, to lose some of the old ones (or re-task them), and to introduce a sort of three-dimensional dialogue to the content. The outcome being closer to how we once defined broadcasting, rather than publishing.

Let people leave a comment on every story. Allow the option to view the most recent comment first rather than the oldest. Allow people to report abuse, but limit your censorship. Allow users to create favourites and to ignore other submitters. Have a look at FARK.com, they know how to get people involved.

More prominence to the Have Your Say and the Blog sections.

More contributers to above sections, preferable with real alternate opinions.

Proper accounts not linked to Google, Digg or any other site.

allow readers to register with you and login, by doing this, you will have a rich data set of ur readers, which allow u to see which articles appeal to which demographic. a system where irishtimes.com suggests articles (or new articles from ur favourite writers)that you would like to read, based on the other articles you have read. a system where u could store articles of interest to you, for college etc would be another feature of the login system. only allow registered users to comment, this will allow u to place bans on users that abuse the system. a rating system for comments, allowing the better ones to be view first would also work well a la youtube or eurosport.yahoo.com

ill do it for ye if ye want!? good price, i swear

I totally agree with the call for more satirical items – something along the lines of the World Cup blog. Clever and funny.

By George!… I think he’s got it…!
You could also cull some of the ‘dead’ blogs to make room for the new…some never get a comment poor divils…!
I don’t know if Mark Malone is a journo but he’s definitely good at debunking the ‘establishment’ political view…get him before someone else does…!
Could we have a rolling irreverence blog so that the material remains fresh…OK goin’ out now…!

COMMENTS FOR EVERY STORY, END PREMODERATION, MORE PROMINENT SOCIAL NETWORK INTEGRATION AND OF COURSE AD-SUPPORTED FREE ARCHIVES!!

And while we’re at it Community Forum where topics can be discussed openly and unrestricted by pre-moderation, the Irish times is an excellent website, but the community discussion is biased by the opinion of the moderators, perhaps it’s time to open the floodgates and let the real discussion start, this directly involves the community in news generation, and the cream of the discussion can rise to the top and become actual stories on the IT site proper.

Take no responsibility for your community’s opinions, providing a comment form / discussion form is not equal to publishing, therefore the responsibility for libellous and offensive comments should fall on the shoulders of the commenter.

BTW, that little tiny ‘Share’ button up at the top, sharing is very very important you know, time to get the social network icons out on every page…

Finally, why are you still charging for the archives, it was always my impression that the newsstand price was to cover the cost of the printing while the advertising covered the cost of the production. (as in: would you not do a little better by making the archives free and then allowing advertisers to target segmented archive categories rather than charging exorbitant end-user costs for access?)

I don’t visit this website as much as I visit other newspaper sites.
Why not?
Because it differs from all other newspaper websites in one crucial feature.
And what’s that feature?
Bizarrely, none of its links allows me the option to open it in a new window.
Why is that annoying?
Because it means I must keep clicking on the back button rather than (a) be able to open several pages (links) simultaneously, and (b) be able to remain on the current page while the link I click on opens in a separate window.

The only other option for me is to constantly go to the “Tools” menu and keep opening new papes (tedius). Either way the process is user-unfriendly. I tend to move on to another newspaper site after reading only 1-2 headings in the Irish Times website because of the tedium attached to constantly “back-buttoning”.

It’s such a simple flaw which requires very little tweaking by your Web Developer. (I’m a Web Developer and this would take 30 seconds to tweak!!!)

Btw I comment on other newspaper sites, but have not commented on the irish Times website until now – your invitation for suggestions to improve means this might be taken on board!!!

I recommend you take a look at the Belfast Telegraph website. In my opinion it is the most user-friendly of all the newspaper sites – also the most user interactive (people like to rate others’ opinions on current issues!!).

Hope you’ll allow us open links in a new window. Everyone else is doin’ it why can’t we? :0)

@Helena – on most browsers, if you hold down ctrl while clicking a link, it will open in a new tab or window

Can you put a menu bar or a ‘return to top’ at the bottom of the page? Then I don’t have to scroll all the way back up to go to the next section.

Comment by Redking @ Helena:
“on most browsers, if you hold down ctrl while clicking a link, it will open in a new tab or window”

Reply from Helena:
Hi Redking. Exactly – that is my point! The Irish Times website requires that I use TWO hands simultaneously to browse (if more than one page open) while all other newspaper websites require just one hand. If the Irish Times wants its readers to remain on the site long enough to comment then it needs to join the rest of the media world in recognizing the importance of having “user-friendliness” as an inherent feature of its website.

Content and reputation generate Irish Times visitors. Only efficiency of use will keep them on site long enough to comment. And the quality? Busy people are productive people, productive people make quality comments, quality comments generate more quality comments. In other words, look after the user-friendliness of your website and the quality of comments will follow.

Tweak just this one feature and you make the experience smooth and speedy for us. I’m busy so I want my relationship with the Irish Times to be a series of one-handed quickies… not a tedius two-handed affair !!

Which leaves just one thing left to say. “Sorry Irish Times, it’s not me – it’s you”.

:0)

In their defence, one of the guidelines for ensuring a11y compliancy is that links shouldn’t open in new windows in that fashion, their opening is instead delegated to the browser and the discretion of the user. I know in practice this is rarely followed, but its still technically the case.

Redking,

I’m afraid that is not true in the case of the Irish Times site, since, bizarrely, the user is NOT allowed such discretion.

I am not requesting that every linked page should open in a new window. I am requesting merely that I be GIVEN the usual discretion to do so or not (the same discretion you refer to). In other words, if I right-click on the main links in the Irish Times site I cannot then follow through by clicking on the “open in new window” option. This feature is blocked by the site’s developers. As a developer myself, I have never encountered this feature being disabled in any newspaper website – nor indeed in any other website for that matter (for obvious reasons!!). It amazes me that the site owners have allowed this flaw to prevail.

There is no doubt in my mind that the unnecessary tedium created for the user by blocking this feature dilutes the time s/he would otherwise spend browsing the website further and, by consequence, the time they might spend commenting. It’s a bizarre and self-destructive oversight. I reckon the developer must work for a rival publication. )

hi Hugh, I have tried again and have also tried the sub-headings this time. The main headings are as I stated above, i.e. opening only in the same window, with no right-click option to open in separate tab/window. This is not determined by which browser I decide to use.
For example, when I right-click on the main headings in today’s Home Page, say for example “Taoiseach says budget will focus on cuts not taxes” or I right-click on “France Passes Pension Reform” then I am not allowed the usual option to open in new tab/window. I now see that instead I need to right-click on SUB-headings and not on the MAIN headings – this way I WILL have the option of opening in new tab/window. (but why confuse by attaching more interactivity to sub-headings than to main headings??)

For me personally it’s good to know that from now on I need to right-click on the sub-headings and not on the main headings if I want efficient browsing (thanx for that . But for first time visitors it’s a bit too removed from the norm and, like me, they won’t assume that for user-friendliness they should target the sub-headings and not the main headings.

Helena – we’re starting to go down the rabbithole on this one – and my email is a matter of public record if we need to take it further – but I am able to right-click on headlines, summaries, latest and everything else and I’m given the full range of opening options.

Two suggestions for blog comments:

1 – when you return to a blog post you should have the option to start reading at the latest new comment – most message boards have this

2 – the ability to quote a previous post you are responding to, so that other readers know whom you are addressing.

Is it time for the Irish Times to prepare guidelines for those who want to post comments on IT Blogs? Word count, spellings and so on. And keeping to the point. Many people have remarked that they are tired of long-winded comments. Could we see the pithier 50 words or less comments in one view and 50+ words comments in another viewing option?

There are some interestingly varied views on the ranking and ordering of comments, filtering for quality etc. I wonder might part of the solution here involve providing tools which allow users to view, participate, etc in the way which suits them best? For example, you might choose to be part of a certain community/discussion forum and only members of that forum’s posts would be visible to you. I had a brief exchange of views on Twitter last night and someone said (I’m paraphrasing) they used to comment on blogs and websites, but they now found Twitter much more satisfactory, because of its instantaneous nature. It strikes me that Twitter has a couple of other attractive features as well: in the vast majority of cases you know who you’re taking to; and if someone’s being objectionable you can just block them. Would it be possible to introduce some of those features here?

@ Redking,
Phew, that’s a relief coz was just beginning to doubt my own sanity, lol

@ Hugh,
Thanks for inviting our suggestions on this topic. Good call.

I think the like/twitter buttons would be a great idea. My college paper has a recommendation function so you can post a story to your profile.

I know Gawker media has a sort of commentator league table with ways for you to star the best.

Also I’d like a European section separate from world news.

Hugh (and congrats on the award)
Just a little thing but wonder if it would be possible to have the main Irish Times front-page photo featured also in the online “Have your say” comments section every day so that people could comment on this. The front-page photos are generally excellent and often quite amazing and could invite very interesting comment imo.

Apart from that I wouldn’t change much else. The Guardian CiF has its fair share of problems re moderation and I don’t think their system is that great. At least 50% of the comments on any topic are rubbish and sometimes downright disgusting but I do think it’s a good idea to have to register with just one identity + password, whether that be an avatar or real identity. As it is, in the IT a commenter can post using multiple identities even with the same email address and so anybody posting on the opinion/analysis sections or the blogs, for example, can post any amount of comments using different pseudonyms to back up support for their position with regard to a particular topic, etc. – I’m surprised more politicians or their spin doctors don’t do this!

Definitely should be no “delete” button. Grammar mistakes, syntax, typos, etc., give the reader an insight into the cerebral level at which the commenter is operating. Having said that, Einstein couldn’t spell for nuts. But people should take the time to correct their own obvious mistakes, at least, in M/soft Word, for example and not press “submit” in a hurry or especially in anger………..although that can be fun when you get the attention-seeking, egotistical blogalomaniac* to the point of spewing inanity.

*Blog-megalomaniac – you know, the commenter who thinks s/he owns the blog and takes ‘their self’ way too seriously..!

The homepage could be tidied up if the articles on the right that have a picture contained only a heading (and sub-heading if needed). Use rollover text to display the short explanation so it only appears when you mouseover the picture. Guardian.co.uk is a good example. It makes the page more interactive for the reader.

Hugh, I see comments have been deleted and commenting is no longer possible on Vincent Browne’s opinion piece on Mary Harney. In light of your blog here and the comments on commenting it might be interesting to know why the door was shut on Vincent’s piece.